On Wed, 28 Jan 2015 02:00:57 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Wed, 28 Jan 2015 00:17:51 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 1/27/2015 11:43 PM, micky wrote:


Are you somehow giving the measured efficiency or the rated one?
Anyone know if there is an innate difference in the efficiency of hot
air furnace vs. a hot water furnace?

What is a hot water furnace?

In this thread, an oil-fueled device that heats water as does the " 2001
Burnham V8(oil burner hot water)" that thekmanrocks says he has

Most houses using hydronic heating have
boilers.

Sorry, I don't know what hydronic means and it's not a word the poster I
was replying to used. .


Doesn't confuse me. Most "boilers" in residential heating don't come
very close to boiling.
But to answer the question, since they are producing 95% "efficient"
boilers for residential use, I'd say they're probably more efficient
since a circ pump probably uses less electricity than a blower.
It's not a choice for most people if they like central A/C , because
it's generally forced air heat that provides the vents for it.
As far as I know new houses are overwhelming equipped with force air
heat.
My house was built in '59 or '60 and came with forced air.
It was simple for me to add central A/C when I replaced the furnace.

Of course. I was just trying to figure out if there was a reason other
than the choice of fuel, oil vs. gas, and the device used to burn it,
that might account for his getting only 80% now. I didn't want to
emphasize the 80% that my oil furnace is supposed to get heating air if
a more recent oil burner would get higher than 82% efficiency when
heating water. Although now I'm no longer sure the
ratings include heating either air or water. They may ?? just include
any heat that doesn't go up the chimney or other vent, and if there is
some lack of efficiency transferring that heat either to the air or the
water, that would be a) another problem, and b) one that manrocks can do
nothing about unless he plans to remove the radiators and replace them
with air ducts. (And that's only if hot air is more efficient than
water, and not the other way around.)

Of course, both setups sort of lose heat in transmission to the rooms,
but the heat is lost within the house, inside the walls or the utility
shaft and isn't really lost at all, afaik. The warm walls or air
outside the living space slow the cooling of the living space warm when
the furnace is not running. .

What might be a good idea is to put heat reflectors behind the
radiators. ??? When I slept right next to a steam radiator, either we
had enough heat or no heat, so it wouldn't have helped.