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My wife and I bought a 40x60 steel building with a 5/12 pitch roof that we are converting into a home. Construction had to be put on hold due to "life" events and is now back on track but we have recently became interested in new ways to be more energy efficient. We live in East Texas and have hot hot humid summers but not usually very cold winters although the last 2 have had some pretty good freezes and snow. We dont really want to be dependent on a central heat/air setup that is the most common option for our area. Since our foundation hasnt been poured yet (we have redesigned our floor plan and are still tweaking it) we were thinking of the option of having radiant heating but since normally the winters arent that bad which would win in the cost between radiant heating vs. central forced air heating. We have read alot of articles on window shading and tinting techniques combined with whole house fans for cooling. A PEX manifold system is also weighing in over pvc plumbing. The use of skylights to offset daytime lighting are also going to be used. We will have plenty of insulation with having 8" external walls and although the longest sides of the house face the west/east but the west side will have a 40' length covered porch that extends 15' from the house. If anyone has any ideas or comments on what we are looking at please feel free. Although the heating/cooling is our main concern at the moment we welcome any input. We arent on a set time schedule for starting or completion since we are taking on most of the construction ourselves. We just want to have everything weighed out in the pros/cons dept. before we do something that costs too much to undo. Thanks.
I can't imagine you ever getting a house in East Texas cool just with fans and tinting- especially with the absurd humidity you get there. Central AC conditions the air by dropping the temperature, but also removes moisture from the air to make the room more comfortable. If all you're doing is moving the air around with fans, you might make the room environment tolerable, but I'd say you'll have moisture problems.
Regarding the radiant heat, that's not a cheap install- especially when it won't be used very often because it doesn't get that cold there.
Concerns go well beyond an A/C system. What are you going to do about plumbing? interior partitions? Will normal windows and doors work in the sidewalls?
I am not saying these things have never been done, but I do not think they are "commonly used" as such and whenever you deviate from the standards costs can be much harder to manage...
Concerns go well beyond an A/C system. What are you going to do about plumbing? interior partitions? Will normal windows and doors work in the sidewalls?
I am not saying these things have never been done, but I do not think they are "commonly used" as such and whenever you deviate from the standards costs can be much harder to manage...
Check out the Morton Building web site. many folks have built these to live in around the country. We have a couple who retired up here in the Northwoods , and really like their " pole barn". Morton is the best, air tight , and very enegery effecient. I have built several shops ( Morton) over the years and they always were easer to heat than my home.... A lot of people like th open design , lot look. There is little need for full interior walls, just extra expence.
It's not a pole barn setup like some I've seen, it is framed like a house with straight beams for support and all of the locations for doors and windows are pre-framed. Regarding cooling we will not be limited to just tinted windows and a whole house fan but dont want to rely mainly on central forced air cooling if it can be avoided, just looking for substitute options. Plumbing would most likely be PEX but we are still weighing out the pros and cons. Thanks for the input.
Sounds a lot like Piece en piece construction, which is a take off on Log home/barn type build. I have always been fasinated by this kinda building. There are people that specilize in going around the country doing this. A very specialized,simple , but time consuming building practice, if you have to cut and fit as you go ...without a ready crane in place.
PEX is the only way to go, in the North, , but , I would think in the south , a heat pump would be cheaper , especially when you need AC. There is no way to get arounf the need for AC if you live where humidity is so high , as in Texas.
The building is pre-drilled for bolt together construction and the sheet metal siding is to size. The original building base price was $12500 but by adding a pitched roof and framed openings for doors and windows along with changing the beams from typical shop type construction to residential straight beam construction changed it to almost $16000 with total including tax ending at $18500. We choose that route due to being cheaper than normal construction with the benefits of a stronger construction. As far as the heating and cooling issues go, we know we will have to have some sort of A/C whether by several smaller window type units or a Central A/C unit but we want alternatives in place to where we dont have to rely so heavily on just this type of cooling. The questions about the heat between forced air heat and radiant, we were just curious as to whether radiant heat would be overkill cost wise since our winters arent typically that bad although the last 2 were unusually cold for our area. We are mainly looking for alternatives that can be implemented to offset our heating and cooling costs.
If you are just trying to figure the best way to go about providing heat in a part of the country that does not typically have very much cold weather I suspect you could consider either electric radiant heating in the slab or hydronic . The costs of either of those are much greater than reliance on a traditional forced air system. Hydronic costs more to put in that the mat type electrical systems, but if you use a ground water sourced heat pump the hydronic is far cheaper to run thwn the electric. You also have to be careful choosing finish floor options to keep the electric system safe. With hydronic embeded in the slab you have a wide range of options. Frankly i just do see how the extra costs of a radiant system going to make sense. You seem to be in a fairly budget constrained situation...
The pay back time for things like upgraded insulation is often in the ten plus year range, but at least with that there is little chance of technology changing. If you spend big money for what is today start of the art HVAC ther is a high probability that in just a few years more efficient units will be cheaper.
If you are serious about window units you ought to know that although they can be cheap to buy upfront they are far less effective at cooling and more costly to operate.
Asuming that this building you have contracted to buy is of a fairly standard interior configuration I would suspect that there is utility space and some provision to run ducts above the rooms. Firms that have some expience in more efficient solutions might be able to build in some ways to use standard ducts / plenum to also capture cooler night time air via an active ventilation system / air-to-air heat exchanger, but again these are usually do for indoor air quality issues and not for money savings...
The building is pre-drilled for bolt together construction and the sheet metal siding is to size. The original building base price was $12500 but by adding a pitched roof and framed openings for doors and windows along with changing the beams from typical shop type construction to residential straight beam construction changed it to almost $16000 with total including tax ending at $18500. We choose that route due to being cheaper than normal construction with the benefits of a stronger construction. As far as the heating and cooling issues go, we know we will have to have some sort of A/C whether by several smaller window type units or a Central A/C unit but we want alternatives in place to where we dont have to rely so heavily on just this type of cooling. The questions about the heat between forced air heat and radiant, we were just curious as to whether radiant heat would be overkill cost wise since our winters arent typically that bad although the last 2 were unusually cold for our area. We are mainly looking for alternatives that can be implemented to offset our heating and cooling costs.
Sounds like you just bought a prefab metal building. Nothing new there, very popular in the south , many commerical structures are put up this way , probly most. They can be hard to heat and AC...its all about the finish work and the insulation.
It's not a pole barn setup like some I've seen, it is framed like a house with straight beams for support and all of the locations for doors and windows are pre-framed. Regarding cooling we will not be limited to just tinted windows and a whole house fan but dont want to rely mainly on central forced air cooling if it can be avoided, just looking for substitute options. Plumbing would most likely be PEX but we are still weighing out the pros and cons. Thanks for the input.
You might want to look at a mini-split system for A/C or even some heating if you get a heat pump version. Since you can directly cool/heat each room individually. A zoned system is similar and probably better looking, but will cost quite a bit.
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I'm having a hard time envisioning how this will work...
