New construction! Help with heating system!

Hello. I have a question: We want to build a 1.5-story house with a gable roof in timber frame construction. Now I am looking for the right heating system! We have decided to use a condensing boiler with storage tank and 2 solar collectors in combination with a water-guided fireplace! In the ground floor, a complete underfloor heating system will be installed, and in the upper floor, radiators will be installed in the two children's rooms as well as in the bedroom, and in the bathroom I was thinking of a radiator return loop.

Now my question! Has anyone had experience with something like this? If yes, which company/system is recommended and what should I pay attention to, or does anyone have improvements.

Thanks in advance for the help! Best regards, Artur

Hello,
Why radiators – that is, a high-temperature system? Are floor coverings planned that are not suitable for underfloor heating? The underfloor heating should be designed for low temperatures (<=35°C), and the system can only benefit energetically if the entire system is implemented as a low-temperature system. This then leads to the odd effect that it may be (also energetically) sensible to install an electric supplementary heater (typical towel radiator) in the bathroom, but this depends on the individual requirements.
Company / system recommendations – the heating engineer can do this better if he knows what the heating load is.

Hi. Well, it was more or less a price and user decision since we haven't even used the underfloor heating in the children's rooms and bedroom of our current apartment after two years! Hence the thought, why pay more for it then! No, all floor coverings are also suitable for underfloor heating!

I might also need to mention that it is my intention not only to heat the domestic hot water with the solar system and the water-operated fireplace but also simultaneously the heating water!

A underfloor heating system should actually be cost-neutral because the materials are inexpensive, and it is also installed faster than radiators. Additionally, you save yourself the somewhat more complex control system because then only one flow temperature is needed for the entire house, and not two different ones because of radiators.

Talk again with your builder and if he resists, then he either has no idea or just wants to make more profit... then I would distance myself from the whole thing...

You also don’t really use an underfloor heating system... ideally, it heats in the background, and you don’t have to adjust anything.

The water-guided fireplace is a highly complex control engineering matter... I would think thrice about whether it’s worth it to me... as soon as something is wrong there, there are big problems... and that can also come after the warranty period... The hoped-for savings from such a system are close to zero...

2 solar collectors, ergo minimum requirement of about 5 sqm, that is barely enough to heat water for 2 people... The amortization of such a system is about 30 years (also called a token system... just search for it).

How you want to use that to heat water, I don’t know... in summer you don’t need it, and in winter the sun is usually not strong enough in our latitudes and your collector surface is just too small...

The whole thing would be way too complex and complicated for me. Two heating circuits with different temperatures, plus a water-bearing fireplace and solar and and .. Condensing boiler, complete. Underfloor heating and everything is fine. The rest will never pay off, just causes work and creates problems.

Hello,

We want to build a 1.5-storey house with a gable roof in timber frame construction. Now I am looking for the right heating system! We have decided to use a condensing boiler with a storage tank and 2 solar collectors in combination with a water-guided fireplace! In the ground floor, a complete underfloor heating system is to be installed and in the upper floor, radiators are to be installed in the two children's rooms as well as in the bedroom, and in the bathroom I thought of a radiator return loop.

Now my question! Has anyone had experience with something like this? If yes, which company/system is recommended and what should I pay attention to or does anyone have improvements.

Apart from the fact that your question cannot really be answered without addressing the heat demand of the building, I wonder why you came up with the idea to mix underfloor heating (underfloor heating) and radiators (rads)? You certainly will not save money with this, if that was the basic idea.

Hi. Well, it was more or less a price and user decision since in our current apartment we have not even used the underfloor heating in the children's rooms and bedroom after two years! Hence the thought, why pay more for it! No, all floor coverings are also suitable for underfloor heating!

Aside from the fact that I consider it unhealthy to sleep in cold – often also year-round ventilated bedrooms – you currently live in an apartment. In such a place, especially in a multi-family house, it never gets as cold as in a detached building; that means your neighbors heat quite a bit for you.

The additional costs you fear arise – in the construction of the system – only from the mix of underfloor heating and radiators, and later in the ongoing operation through the – naively caused – switching on and off of the respective heat source and/or frequent adjustment of the thermostats in the underfloor heating.

Rhenish regards