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I would like to build a large two story main house area with a kitchen-dining area-and two story fire place living room. the dimensions would be 50x50by 30ft high would like to have this an open area. then i would like to build 4 bedroom suites of each side. these would have 1/2 baths in each room with 1 full bath on each side.......each bedroom would be about 400-500 sq. ft.....my ? is what do you think is the best way to heat all the different areas . the house probably wouldn't be used during the week much and if it was probably only 1 or 2 bedrooms would be used, so i don't want to heat a hole house. should i put little units in each bedroom and if so what type and what about the bathroom pipes how do i protect them from freezing. and the main house when i don't have the fire place on what type of system should i use for that and the other common areas............thanks for any ideas.....
Been there, done that. I built a 6300 sq. ft. open floor plan cabin with 33 ft. ceiling. It was impossible to heat. The fireplace worked well until it cooled at night, then all the heat went out the chimney. Replaced it with propane vent-free insert. Ceiling fans are a must! Otherwise, the peak will be like an oven. Separate rooms need zoned, preferably with separate heaters. Upstairs can't be air-conditioned easily as cool air falls. Again, zoning. If in freeze area, try to keep pipes indoors or well under frost level undergroung.
If you want to be as efficient as possble- forget two story rooms.
I'd go with radiant floor heating. That can be backed up with fireplace, wood stove, and/or forced air heat. You can also control the radiant heat with the central manifold.
As far as plumbing, make your design with a central pathway for all plumbing (a chase, or wall within the interior of the house).
I agree on the high ceilings. If you have a 2 story great room with 2nd level bedrooms overlooking the larger room, or an A-frame loft situation, you usually end up with suffocating heat in the upper level if you don't want a nice chill down below.
We built a retreat some years back with electric baseboard heat so each room was separately zoned and could be shut down to nearly no heat as needed. Put kitchen and bathroom plumbing back to back in the same wall, zone those 2 area with electric heat, and install an auto-start backup generator for those zones, alone.
Have also seen hotwater heating used effectively - an LP [propane] fired boiler. But, you will either need (1) a backup generator to assure the ignition and control circuits and circulating pumps run in a power failure or, and it's harder and harder to find a hot-water contractor who knows how to do this, (2) an open to the atmosphere "gravity" system using a millivolt contol system and thermocouple - you don't need any electricity as there are no circulators [uses convection - hot water rises, cold water falls] and the controls run off the thermocouple.
With such a large interior volume, you may want to look into building an "envelope" style energy efficient house.
Essentially, interior walls are built inside an exterior "shell" which functions as a greenhouse. By the use of small fans and natural draft inside, you can get by with little supplemental heat if you've got a site with good exposure to the sun during the winter months. You will need to have some amount of energy storage, perhaps rock walls or water filled barrels, etc., depending upon your site situation. A lot of the controls can be automated, and the house could be comfortable full time at minimal heating cost.
Properly designed, even the small amount of heat from appliances, lighting, and a decorative woodstove can be the incremental difference for real comfort.
Many years ago, I knew a builder in Colorado who was specializing in these energy efficient homes. PSCo of CO came out to interview him as part of their promotion for energy efficiency, at his house in Arvada ... when they asked how much his heating (natural gas) bill was for the code required supplemental heating system in his house, he proudly showed them zero billing for the previous several winters. The interview was abruptly ended ... they wanted to showcase "energy efficiency", not freedom from the energy use.
There were two other envelope houses that I got to spend some time in ... one in Fort Morgan, where the 2-story house was partially set into a hillside's natural swale. The entire south facing area was of heat absorbing materials ... stone, rocks, concrete, and water pipes circulating to a basement level water tank (which had a heat exchanger for the domestic hot water). There were "roof" mounted solar panels for more supplemental heating. At night, curtains and thermal blankets covered the south facing portion of the house to help retain the heat. The house was very bright and cheerful with the intense sun exposure.
The second house was built in the mountains above Buena Vista, CO. Similar to the Arvada house, it was a true "envelope" structure which essentially created greenhouses around the main living area. I've been there in the winter months when it only needed one of the three supplemental propane fired radiant heaters (zero clearance, outside combustion air and exhaust) to be turned on as the sun went down each day. There was a "heatilator" style fireplace which also had a sealed firebox with heavy cast iron doors ... thermostatically controlled outside air intake and a damper on the exhaust flue to the stack ... the heat gently radiated throughout a large high ceiling great room and dining area. This house, too, was built partially into a hillside with a major southern exposure. They didn't have a lot of automation to the blowers, so it was a daily chore to turn them on as needed to create the air circulation as needed from the warmer areas to the cooler. I recall sitting out on the enclosed "front porch" for breakfast on winter mornings where the air temp there was already over 70F and the wall fans were being turned on to circulate air into the kitchen and dining areas of the main house.
FWIW, they told me that in most places of the USA, you only need to dig down about 5' and the ground temperature is about 50F. So, if you set the house into a hillside, you got an insulated area that didn't have the extreme cold to overcome compared to exposed sides of a house. Cheap to build and install, too, if a roof structure covered with a couple of feet of soil ... which is a lot of insulation, if you have the right climate and soil with drainage for that type of construction.
I understand that they used "insulform" concrete forms for much of the structure. These forms are left in place after pouring the concrete, and become additional insulation as part of the constuction.
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