On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:58:45 -0800 (PST), harry
wrote:

On Feb 26, 1:27?pm, TimR wrote:
On Feb 23, 2:11?pm, harry wrote:
It's important that the thermostat

is correctly sited. ?In Europe every room is independently controlled
in new buildings.- Hide quoted text -

That may be an exaggeration. ?I recently lived in Europe several
years.

The heating I encountered was all hot water radiator (or hydronic - it
is SO nice to step on a heated tile bathroom floor on a cold
morning).

Every radiator had its own thermostat, mounted on the radiator.
That's really not an ideal location. ?The furnace did have an outdoor
sensor with reset and a time schedule.

Energy was expensive so houses were very well insulated and very
tight.

Yes nearly all heating over here is by means of hot water circulation,
even in very large buildings.The boiler(furnace in your parlance) can
be far more efficient, exceeding 100% in some cases.. Also water is
far easier to mix and control than air. The hot water pipes can be
much smaller diameter than air ducts & therefor can be better
insulated. Domestic hot water can be produced from the same boiler,
as and when required. (No need to store it hence reduced losses.)
Things are expremely primitive in the USA compared with Europe.


It has nothing to do with the USA being "primitive". There are plenty
of hydronic heating systems in the US, particularly in the Northeast
(fueled by oil, natural gas, or propane), and they do give a nice heat
(though they do take up wall space for radiators or baseboard
convectors). However, you don't get air conditioning with that
distribution system, so forced air is more common anywhere AC is
desirable, now or in the future. Some houses (like the one I grew up
in) do have both, but that's usually the result of retrofitting AC; a
new home is likely to have only one HVAC system.

Josh