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Buyer's Remorse

Our builders recently showed up to run gas lines in the house. They did this so we could put a Rinnai vented propane heater in each study. "This is going to work great for you," one said. I thought so too, which is why we went this route. Both Chum and I work at home, but he likes things warmer than I do, and we work somewhat different schedules. The studies are on the bottom floor, separate from everything else. So with the Rinnais, I figured we'd get an efficient way to heat each room while we're working, and can turn the heaters down when we're not using them.

It's a version of what Bill Hulstrunk referred to it recently as "task heating." I heard Hulstrunk, who's technical manager at the cellulose insulation company National Fiber, at the Building Energy conference in Boston, and I liked his approach. Essentially--and I'm paraphrasing here--he said that in order to increase energy efficiency, we need to think about heating the way we do about lighting; (i.e. if you're working in the study you might need it to be 68 degrees, but you don't need every other spot in the house to be 68 at that same moment).

So, I thought, we're good. We've finally worked out this heating thing for the "reasonable" sum of just under $12,000, including the Rinnais, the new Energy Star-rated Bryant furnace (which requires propane forced air), as well as all the ductwork for the rest of the house.

But at 3 a.m., I woke up with buyer's remorse, thinking we did it all wrong. We should have gone with a hot water boiler system, with radiant on the bottom floor and baseboard heat upstairs. Yeah, it would have cost about $6,000 more. Yeah, I was determined not to build a house with passive solar and great insulation--and then spend a fortune on a heating system. Yeah, the bottom floor faces south, has low ceilings and in various other ways is probably the wrong place for radiant. Radiant floors heat up and cool off very slowly. This means that on a sunny day the room could get too hot and on a cloudy day you'd be too cold.

But a Rinnai would blow fewer particulates blowing through the air. Because of my middle-of-the-night congested sinuses, this suddenly seemed crucial. A hot-water-based system would have also included an efficient water heater, which we don't currently have. Plus, I only now realized, the Rinnais aren't hardwired--they actually plug into the wall. Do I feel safe going to sleep with one running all night? I wouldn't do that with any other space heater. And if I don't keep it on all night, will my study be 40 degrees when I get up?

Chum said, "Go back to sleep--it's done and you just can't worry about it now." Now that I'm up, it's a beautiful sunny spring day. But it is amazing. Even with plenty of careful research, conversations and considerations, you can still feel you've messed up

© The Green Guide, 2008

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