Friend of mine tells me he used to live in a place with baseboard heaters (probably circulating hot water) and another place with fan forced hot air. Says the fan forced heat is very dry, but the place with the radiators didn't feel dry.
Does this make any sense? Is there a difference?
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
I've heard that claim before too. IDK, it doesn't make sense from a humidity standpoint. You have to apply the same amount of heat to raise the temp of the house. And it's adding the heat, that causes air to expand. Outside air is at 50% humidity, but inside it's brought up in temp, humidity goes down to 30%, etc. The claimed difference may be due to the effect of feeling some radiated heat from the radiators, as opposed to force air, where there is no radiated heat. That could explain the feeling, but not the humidity, IMO.
yep. some folks have humidifiers in their furnaces for that reason. if the air gets too dry it makes it tougher on the sinuses and can make it easier to catch colds.
i've lived in both kinds of places. we put pans of water on the radiators too for putting more moisture into the air (especially during the winter).
of course. one uses more recycled indoor air that already has some humidity (breathing, plants, from showers, cooking, doing dishes, drying clothes, etc.) the other uses some air from outdoors and in the winter can have very low humidity.
one sign of low humidity in the air is more static electricity in clothes or when you touch things that are grounded. *zap!*
songbird
As I was reading your text, it makes me wonder if the air flow is the diff? I mean, fan forced has a fan, rads do not. Maybe the blowing air evaporates more?
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
CY: Why is radiator different than fan forced?
CY: Ah, so radiator heat is dry, also?
CY: All the places I've seen with fan forced hot air use 100% indoor air to heat, and blow back into the home.
CY: You didn't answer my question.
.
I've owned several and seen many more homes with forced air heat. They used 100% indoor air, unless you're counting the combustion air that generally comes via the basement. And even if you are, then a boiler has exactly the same issue. I have seen one home that has a heat recovery ventilator added, which allows you to selectively bring in outside air, when and if you want to, but that is an exception, a very small percentage of furnace installs. So, IDK what you're talking about here.
trader_4 wrote: ...
our setup has a mix of outdoor and reused indoor air. no humidifier. gets really dry in the winter months.
in some places there aren't basements so the furnaces are in the garage, or a utility room or even in the attic space or outside.
around here there is more basement or crawlspaces and these can have radon issues. so mixing fresh air with indoor air is a way to mitigate the radon problem.
songbird
speed of air flow. one will be less drafty than the other.
winter cold air will be drier no matter how it gets in the house. in the houses i have been in that had baseboard radiators or even the older stand up tall radiators they were also older houses that had more air infiltration and poorer insulation. so they all felt cold and that means the heat was turned up a lot more.
last year i caulked around the perimeter of this house and we noticed a large change in how drafty it felt this year, we also could turn the thermostat down a few degrees further and felt the same amount of comfort.
not ours, but that could be an issue of location as there are radon gas problems in some areas where you won't want to use 100% recycled air if your furnace is in the basement or crawlspace.
there are many reasons for "feelings", perhaps in one you've felt more of a draft than the other? however, there can be more than one answer.
what's wrong with having a conversation?
songbird
I have heard contractors refer to forced hot air heat as "scorched air heat". One time that I heard it was in the context of a project where we were removing the old baseboard heat system and replacing it with a gas-fired central HVAC system.
This was just in general conversation with one or two of the general contractors who were giving estimates on that project and the other work that was also included in that major renovation job (new roof, new baths, a fire alarm system, etc). They were saying that one option would be to leave the existing baseboard heat and just add a central A/C system for the A/C part.
I took that to mean that gas-fired forced hot air heat systems heat up and dry out the air before circulating it throughout the house. That seemed to make sense to me, and I thought that may be one reason why people add a humidifier to forced hot air heating systems.
How do they heat it up and dry it out? Forced air moves the air past an air to air heat exchanger. The same amount of water that was in the air coming in is also in the air going out, it's just warmer. With hot water baseboard heat, you have a water to air heat exchanger. Air moves moves past the heat exchanger via convection. Whatever water is in the air coming to the radiator is still in the air leaving the radiator. In neither case is any moisture added or removed.
In my old house it was very dry from the hot air heat. There was a fairly large flame that used heated air to burn and then it went up the flue. Of course, it relied on make up air infiltration for makeup from combustion, thus it brought in a lot of dry air. That heater was made in
1949. I have no idea how it compares to more modern units in
I don't know which theory or belief is scientifically correct. I do know that I have heard the term "scorched air heat" before, and it was always used as a way of saying that forced hot air heating systems supposedly "scorched" and dried out the air. So, I just did a quick Google search for "scorched air heat". I was surprised to see that the results showed that it is a topic that generates opinions on both sides. However, after just doing a quick look at the Google search results, it does appear that most of the more scientifically-based responses indicate what you are saying -- that neither type of system is any better or worse than the other as far as drying out the ambient air in the space that is being heated.
drywall homes can be painted inside with a vapor barrier paint. might be able to seal the walls with vapor barrier coating like outdoor polyurethane.
probally far easier to add a humidifier
That's my train of thought. The both systems heat without adding or removing water. Why would they feel different?
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Drawing in air from the outside would dry a lot, as the out door winter air holds little water. Now days, the units often use outdoor air for combustion.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
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