We need to replace our gas heating system
About five months about our ducted gas heating system broke down. This was not the first time it has done so as the unit is now 30 years old. We called a technician to look at it, and he determined one of two components had failed. The problem was, that the manufacturer no longer supplies parts for this system and we need to replace the gas heater.
No going back
We had been considering saying Goodbye gas and had been looking at what would be involved both price and renovation. The only way to repair the heating system was to replace it with a newer model. This was the push which got us to start the journey to electrification.
We have gone in steps, first installing installing solar and a battery and then determining what heating to install. We have a single story home, which has around 200m2 of floorspace. This gas heating ducts run under the floor, and our first consideration was to re-use the ducting, or at least continue to heat with ducts running under the floor.
Underfloor ducting ruled out
We discussed our options with a few installers. Because electric ducted heating needs larger ducts, we would have to replace all the underfloor ducts. There is not easy access to our underfloor space, which is quite tight and this would have been a lot of work.
We have a large roof space, and there is plenty of room for the HVAC unit to go there and run heating/cooling ducts to all the rooms. We have vents in the ceiling and ducts from the evaporative cooling at the moment. Unfortunately, the vents are in the wrong places in the ceiling for heating so, and we will also need to use different ducting.
Placement of heating ducts
The current evaporative cooling vents are away from the windows, towards the centre of the home. Evaporative cooling blows moist air through the home, and we open the windows to allow the air to escape. With heating, we want to place the vents near the walls and windows. The return air is in the middle of the house, so the warm air is drawn to the return.
We will use an 18kW Panasonic HVAC system and have 4 zones in the home with dampers in the ducts to allow the zoning. We will place temperature sensors in each of the zones, and the overall control will be run by an Airtouch 5 controller.
Time to replace gas, preparation and arrival of winter
We will install the HVAC system next week. In advance of the installation, we removed much of the old insulation and cleaned the roof space. The reduction of the insulation and the lack of any heating means the house is very cold this week while we are waiting for the installation next week.
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