On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:55:36 -0700, keith wrote:
How about the big old cast iron ones in homes?

Never seen them, myself. I'm sure they exist (I'd love to find some of
them, too - had them at the last place I worked for. Terrible to paint,
but they look nice :-)

You'll find them in a lot of older homes, often with steam heat rather
than a hydronic system. Some have been converted to hydronic, though.
They're expensive as well as taking a lot of prime floor space.

Yes, they are big, but I don't mind them so much because they usually
look quite ornamental.

The latter don't seem
much good for anything really (and lack bleed screws).

Nope. Â*They have them. Â*You just didn't pay close enough attention.

Ours* certainly don't - there's one by my feet right now. Just pipes
and fins beneath a cover (I took the cover off to take a look).

They were installed by a moron, then.

Yes, I can't rule that out :-) Ours are just a length of 3/4" pipe all
the way through the case with aluminum fins around it. Next to useless in
terms of heat output, but they still take up space which means you can't
put something in front of them - in which case I'd much rather panel-
style radiators which produce more heat and get it to where it's needed
faster.

I'm not a fan of forced air systems either - they don't seem
particularly efficient or per-zone controllable, and there's all that
bulky duct-work to mess around with (I can sort of see the attraction
if you're living in an area that also benefits from AC, I suppose)

It's cheap (installation), too. Baseboard electric is even cheaper. We
use AC more days than heat, so yes, there is an advantage to heat pumps
here. It's crappy heat, though.

I could handle a ground-source heat pump here (too cold in winters for
air-source to work) - I've got the land space for the coils. Problem at
the moment is the costs, but that'll come down as more people have them.

Our baseboard electric's on a load-control setup (with the propane forced-
air setup there to pick up the slack), which means it's something like 6c/
kWh to run - it works out slightly cheaper than propane, I think.

Heard lots of good things about radiant floors, but I don't think I've
ever experienced one in use, so can't comment on how accurate the
reports are.

It's very nice in tiled bathrooms. ;-) Radiant ceiling heat is
useless, though.

Yes, heat rises, so a heated ceiling's probably only useful if you're a
gecko :-)

I don't recall ever seeing a 240V plug in the US that was the same size
as a 120V one - I'll have to take a better look around! (particularly
as I have a few low-power 240V things to ship over from the UK some
day)

240V plugs are very similar to the 120V-20A plug, with the opposite pin,
or both, rotated. Clothes dryers and ranges have larger plugs (30A or
50A). The smaller ones are often found on window or through- the-wall
air conditioners. Places were 120V 15A isn't enough.

Thanks for posting those links - I'll have to look into fitting some of
those outlets when I get around to rewiring our basement.

cheers

Jules