Switch to electricity for radiant heating and DHW
MatthewSeattle
| Posted in Mechanicals on
Hi,
I have an old home in Seattle, WA. It has old style radiators for heating. We have a gas system in the basement that heats both the radiators and our hot water. It is efficient, but I want off fossil fuel. I was thinking about going to a system with a heavy use heat pump hot water tank that will do DHW and maybe heat the loop up to 120F or so via a heat exchanger for the mild heating months. When it gets colder, I thought a small electric water heater could do the peaking. Is this worth a shot or should I go straight to the new heat pumps that are made to do this, but are more expensive.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
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Replies
Before anything else, focus on efficiency first - insulating and air sealing.
Then consider your options for switching to electric. You'll likely not use the much of the existing system.
Trying to adapt new heat pumps to old distribution systems doesn't tend to go very well.
Thank you! Yes, we are doing efficiency work first. Appreciate the other guidance as well.