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Cooling an old house
We are trying to cool our brick, 1886 house. We currently have hot water radiators- no vents of any kind. We are not interested in cooling the whole house, just key rooms. To that end, we have picked out a quad zone system whereby there is one unit and then four cooler things that come off of that. We think that we can put it on our roof and have the four units cool our finished attic and a few bedrooms. (We are not really interested in cooling the downstairs as it's not so necessary and even more impractical due to layout, etc.)
The problem is how to mount and drain the cooler things in each room.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to do this? I really don't want to go crazy, but I need cool air in certain rooms in our hot, northeast summers.
Any suggestions or experience greatly appreciated.
Tks.
Views: 17
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Susan on -
I'm not sure what a quad system is. I cooled my house with seven window air units for many years, and the price to run the things was sky high. I had central air installed along with new furnaces in September, 2009. I did not have the luxury of hot water radiators. They were long gone by the time I bought my house. There were two furnaces in my house when I bought it. One in the basement with ductwork that went to the first floor rooms and one in the attic with ductwork to the ceilings of the second floor rooms. Both furnaces were 17 years old by the time I replaced them. When I got estimates for the whole job, the contractor that was listed with my local Home Depot turned out to be the best price, best guarantee, and he put all the details in writing up front with no surprises. I went with a Trane system and bought the Trane Clean Effects air cleaning system for both furnaces/air units. It is wonderful and I am very very pleased. I suffered from severe allergies and my house was loaded with animal droppings in the attic, and piles of dust. I have not taken sinus medication on a daily basis since the new systems were installed.
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Permalink Reply by PStewart on -
You both mention hot water radiators system (or lack thereof) in your posts? Is there something you can do with a hot water radiator system that involves...cooling???
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Permalink Reply by Susan on
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No, there is nothing you can do with a hot water radiator system for cooling. My house had radiator heat and the family that owned it in the 1980's had an air handler and central air unit installed. If you want to cool a house with a radiator system, you can pick from window a/c units, adding central air conditioning along with all the necessary ductwork, or go with the unico system.
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Permalink Reply by Foxglove on -
We've spoken with several HVAC folks and they've given us a lot to think about. One guy suggested that we put central a/c on our second floor: put the machine in an old dumbwaiter, sacrifice six inches of ceiling in the hallway and put vents into the bedrooms. Also have a vent going to attic office. This would be costly and messy and would permanently alter part of the house, although I don't think it would look bad since the ceiling in hallway is so tall and having true central a/c would be worth it. It would not cool the first floor, but this does not get nearly as hot and I feel we can manage this area better and some cool air would sink down there. The problem with this option is that to cool the office we would be cooling the second floor on days that we would not otherwise. The days the second floor needs cooling are far fewer than the days the attic office needs cooling.
This issue make the mini-split a lot more attractive. Here is more info on it: http://www.minisplitsystems.com/
this site has pics you can see what it looks like. Chances are you've seen this in restaurants and in other places where a window unit is not practical. It is not central a/c and would only cool certain areas of our house, but we are thinking this is the best bet for us.
Thanks for the comments and suggestions.
I think unico/spacepak is out of the question in terms of cost and I don't need/want to cool my entire house all summer, just certain rooms when it gets unbearable and the attic office most of the time.
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