Page 44 - Green Builder Homeowner's Handbook 2016

The Homeowner’s Handbook SEVENTH EDITION

Heating & Cooling07
Critical to a home’s overall energy performance.

The energy savings and High-Efficiency Boiler

increased comfort far outweigh Hot water Flue
Boiler gases
the upfront cost of an energy- Cold
water
Aefficient HVAC system.T THE HEART OF MOST HOME heating systems
is a furnace, a boiler or a heat pump. A furnace Burner
burns fossil fuel to heat air that’s forced by a
blower fan through a series of ducts to the living Virtues Caveats
spaces; a boiler heats water that’s then pumped to a
hydronic, or water-based, distribution system. Most ¦¦ Quiet operation—no air blowing ¦¦ Up to 50 percent more expensive
heat pumps run on electricity. They don’t create heat, but rather than a conventional boiler
extract it from the air or the ground. Heat pumps are available for ¦¦ Relatively easy to zone
use with forced-air and hydronic distribution systems. If you want ¦¦ There are fewer high-efficiency
to minimize your fuel bill, an Energy Star rating is a minimum ¦¦ Lack of fan means lower electric boilers to choose from than
standard for these appliances. use than a forced-air system there are high-efficiency
furnaces
GAS FURNACE ¦¦ Distribution system takes up
Super Efficiency much less space than ductwork

A modulating gas furnace is the most technologically advanced motors. The ability to vary airflow and flame intensity also allows
fossil fuel-burning furnace you can get, with efficiencies as high for nearly constant room temperatures and better air circulation.
as 97 percent (that’s the percentage of the fuel’s potential energy
delivered as heat). It achieves this feat with a series of technical
innovations. Gas is not as clean as we once believed, however, now
that dirty methods of “fracking” are used in some extraction. The
pollution may simply be happening at the front end of the process.
No fossil fuel gets an environmental free ride. It’s a finite resource,
not a renewable one.

One way that new technology squeezes more heating power from
gas is with an exhaust heat exchanger. This exchanger steals back
heat from the furnace’s waste byproducts. Another feature, flame
modulation, adjusts the flame size, based on demand. These furnaces
include variable-speed blower fans with high-efficiency electric

VISION HOUSE® AT MARIPOSA MEADOWS SPONSOR Sensi Wi-Fi Programmable Thermostat

Uponor Ecoflex Pre-insulated Pipe System Sensi Wi-Fi programmable thermostat is a smart
thermostat from Emerson that helps lower
This versatile pipe provides proven, reliable energy use. It can be programmed with custom
performance for underground distribution of schedules for each day of the week, and users can
hydronic heating, cooling and potable-water adjust the temperature with a smartphone, using
systems. Ecoflex features flexible, durable the free Sensi mobile app. Flexible programming
cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) or high-density and the ability to control the thermostat remotely ensure that heating and
polyethylene (HDPE) carrier pipe surrounded cooling only occur when needed. The thermostat offers precise temperature
by multiple layers of PEX-foam insulation, which is then covered by a control (it is accurate to within one degree Fahrenheit) and is one of the only
watertight HDPE jacket. http://bit.ly/1OZy4aN Wi-Fi thermostats to be Energy Aware certified. https://sensicomfort.com

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