wall mounted gas heat systems experiences

[SparklyUnicorn]

Does anyone have these?  Can these possibly replace other heating systems? 

[Laura Corin]

Do you mean something like this? 

 

https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boilers/directory/greenstar-i

 

Depending on the requirements of the house, that could.  

 

We have a big bruiser of the same type (combi, no tank) but it sits on the floor:

 

https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boilers/directory/greenstar-cdi-highflow

 

It provides all the heating for the house (cosy except for the kitchen which we should have put more radiators into because it's impossible to insulate well) and good, high water flow showers.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Do you mean something like this? 

 

https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boilers/directory/greenstar-i

 

Depending on the requirements of the house, that could.  

 

We have a big bruiser of the same type (combi, no tank) but it sits on the floor:

 

https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boilers/directory/greenstar-cdi-highflow

 

It provides all the heating for the house (cosy except for the kitchen which we should have put more radiators into because it's impossible to insulate well) and good, high water flow showers.

 

No I'm talking about just heating rooms not heating water. 

 

Ok..edited, I honestly don't know how that compares to what I've been looking at.  I'll post some links in a minute.

 

 

Edited December 26, 2017 by SparklyUnicorn

[SparklyUnicorn]

https://libertywholesalegroup.com/rinnai-ex11cn-11-000-btu-direct-vent-81-efficiency-natural-gas-wall-furnace.html?m=Abstract&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7KCf7tao2AIVko2zCh0PPAsOEAQYAiABEgKmBPD_BwE

 

Like that.  It seems it isn't intended for whole house use or is intended as a sort of supplement/addition to already existing heating systems, but I wondered if it COULD be used to replace heating if you had enough units. 

[Laura Corin]

https://libertywholesalegroup.com/rinnai-ex11cn-11-000-btu-direct-vent-81-efficiency-natural-gas-wall-furnace.html?m=Abstract&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7KCf7tao2AIVko2zCh0PPAsOEAQYAiABEgKmBPD_BwE

 

Like that.  It seems it isn't intended for whole house use or is intended as a sort of supplement/addition to already existing heating systems, but I wondered if it COULD be used to replace heating if you had enough units. 

 

I've not seen anything like that here.  It gives the efficiency, so you'd have to compare that with a centralised system.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I've not seen anything like that here.  It gives the efficiency, so you'd have to compare that with a centralised system.

 

Yeah and I have no idea how to compare them.

[Laura Corin]

Yeah and I have no idea how to compare them.

 

Efficiency and BTU figures should give you the best data, I would think.

[Carol in Cal.]

The ones I have seen in motels, cabins, or SRO places always seem to smell a bit of the gas.

I find that very unpleasant and a bit alarming.

 

Maybe the newer models are better--I hope so.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Efficiency and BTU figures should give you the best data, I would think.

 

Um...well...no I don't know how useful that would be.  For example, would I need one in every room?  Or does it work for more than one room?  KWIM?

 

I could measure my rooms and figure out approximate BTU needed, but I just wonder if I would actually  need one in every single room.

 

Ugh I dunno what I'm asking.  A miracle. 

 

I can't change my heating system without spending a zillion dollars and/or tearing up the house.  I really don't want to move.  So I dunno. 

[City Mouse]

We have ones kind of like this https://www.totalhomesupply.com/blue-flame-vent-free-gas-heater-with-hydraulic-thermostat/p/EMPIRE-BF30/v/EMPIRE-BF30N?&utm_source=google&utm_medium=pla&utm_campaign=google-feed&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIk6v4gvSo2AIVSU1-Ch1kJgOQEAQYBSABEgJLPvD_BwE

 

We use them to supplement the wood stoves that we uses as our main heat source. They are fairly common where we live, but most here run on propane. When we bought the house it came with propane heaters. After we added natural gas, we had to special order natural gas ones from our local propane company. They come in different sizes. We have some with a thermostat and some that are just on or off. Just like electric space heaters, the size of the room dictates the size heater needed. Building code here does not allow the kind with a thermostat to be installed in a closed room (room with a door). We have the smallest size ones installed in the laundry room, a bathroom, and my DS's bedroom. We have a large one in our open living room.

 

They put out a lot of heat. We almost never have them turned up past "2" as it gets much too hot.

 

The only time I notice a smell is when lighting the pilot light. Sometimes I can smell the natural gas then. When we still had propane, there was bad smell when the propane tank gut very low. We knew whenever we got that smell that we needed to call for a tank refill right away.

[Lecka]

We have two, and a hookup where we could place a third.

 

We have been in this house about 9 months so we are fairly new to them.

 

Ime it isn't steady heat. It gets hot fast and heats up the room. Then we turn it off usually after 15 minutes and maybe an hour or two later turn it on again for 15 minutes. We would never leave it on while we were asleep. It allows us to keep the heat set fairly low in our house and then be cozy in our basement room with the gas heater. We love it.

 

The one in my son's bedroom has a smell, sometimes, but only I can smell it. The one we mainly use has no smell.

 

Edit: we are supplementing electric heat I am pretty sure.

Edited December 27, 2017 by Lecka

[luuknam]

https://libertywholesalegroup.com/rinnai-ex11cn-11-000-btu-direct-vent-81-efficiency-natural-gas-wall-furnace.html?m=Abstract&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7KCf7tao2AIVko2zCh0PPAsOEAQYAiABEgKmBPD_BwE

 

Like that.  It seems it isn't intended for whole house use or is intended as a sort of supplement/addition to already existing heating systems, but I wondered if it COULD be used to replace heating if you had enough units. 

 

 

So, in Texas we had a couple of these (unvented gas space heaters, not these exact ones, but very similar):

 

https://www.energyvanguard.com/sites/default/files/hubimage/unvented-natural-gas-space-heater-water-vapor-combustion-safety.jpg

 

They put out an amazing amount of heat (we only ever had one hooked up at a time though, since we didn't have the gas plumbing hookups in a good spot for the second one. I think we occasionally switched out whether we used the large one or the small one, lol. Amazingly, they were never a safety issue for the toddler & preschooler either. 

 

Do you need one in every room? Not necessarily. How many you'd need and where is going to depend on the layout of your house, and how well insulated it is. Warm air rises, and an open floor plan would help the warm air spread out, but, putting all the heat out in one or two spots is going to cause uneven heating. So, if you're okay with, say, the bedrooms being fairly cool, and maybe willing to just use an electric blanket or something, you might be able to skip putting one in the bedrooms. Likewise, if there are other places you don't need constant heat, you could put an electric space heater there (we had (and still have) an electric space heater in the bathroom). You probably should talk to an HVAC guy - a good one *should* be able to help you figure out what would or wouldn't work.

 

Now, the link where I got that picture from is some warning about gas heaters putting out humidity (no kidding), and that his grandma in Louisiana got a bunch of mold because of it. Personally, I think more humidity would be a win - I regularly hang wet towels in front of our heater vents hoping to make the place slightly less dry* (because we have a whole house gas heater in the basement, which doesn't do any good for humidity in, like, the living room). But, it depends on the climate and on the kind of insulation you have - drafty house in a dryer climate shouldn't be an issue for gas space heaters at all. Never had a humidity issue with the gas space heater in Texas, really, I think the humidity is a positive.

 

*Yes, I know there are humidifiers. Keeping those clean and mold-free is too much work and I haven't found them to be that effective anyway - towels can just be thrown in the laundry on a regular basis. 

[luuknam]

Btw, the ones we had were adjustable in how much heat they put out, and we did leave them on overnight. If it was cold outside, we didn't have to turn them off during the day either. Of course, that house had zero insulation and was quite drafty, so, excess heat disappeared quite nicely, ahem. (of course, in North Texas it might be freezing for a week, and then be 70F again, so, it's not like we had them on all day all winter)

 

We never attempted to heat the whole house with just the one heater though, partially because of aforementioned lack of insulation and draftiness - it would not have been possible. Also, the layout would not have been conducive to that - I would've loved to heat the kitchen with it too, and not just the living room and downstairs bedroom, but beyond the living room was a hallway and a staircase to upstairs, so there was no way that the heat would've ever reached the kitchen - it would all have gone upstairs and disappeared. 

 

ETA: I think we got our gas space heaters for free, from someone at whose house DW installed satellite tv and who happened to be getting rid of them anyway. Or maybe super cheap off of CL. I don't know that buying new units would be cost effective compared to fixing an existing heating system. 

 

ETA2: I don't remember smell being an issue. 

Edited December 27, 2017 by luuknam

[luuknam]

I guess a big question is if you have the gas plumbing in place you'd need to hook up a gas heater, or if you or someone else can do the gas plumbing needed for cheap. DW did the gas plumbing herself, but if you have to hire a plumber... I don't know (also, I don't know if NYS law allows you to mess with the gas plumbing in your own house - I think in Texas, with some home repair stuff, you could do it yourself if you're the homeowner, but if you had somebody else do it, that person would need to be a licensed plumber/electrician/whatnot). 

[luuknam]

So, this site says that for an old house in a cold climate (we're going to count your climate as cold, yes?), you'd need 60 BTU/sqft (for a new house, 50). So, even for a small 1000 sqft house, that'd be 60,000 BTU, so, that'd be 5+ of those heaters you linked to. So, that'd probably be close to one per room. 

 

https://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-BTU-Per-Square-Foot

 

ETA: in other words, if you live in a palace with huge rooms, that 11,000 BTU heater might not be enough for a single room. 

Edited December 27, 2017 by luuknam

[foxbridgeacademy]

We did in an old house that had no central heating.... it was ok. We had to have fans in each doorway to blow the hot air from room to room.  It would have been MUCH better if we'd have had 2 smaller units spread out instead of 1 big unit centrally located.  We ended up getting portable space heaters for the farthest rooms that would kick on if the big one wasn't keeping up.

[fairfarmhand]

Ok. We just got into this. I think it depends on the configuration of the house and the way your air returns are laid out. We closed in our garage and installed gas logs. Outdoors we installed a 100 gal lp tank and connected it to the house underground. The gas logs are incredible but the best part is that due to the fat that there’s an air return in the garage, we can switch off the main heat unit in the house (heat pump) leave the fan on and circulate the Heatedc air from the gas logs and the temp in the whole house went up. I’d wager that you could do the same with that unit if you installed it in the right area in your house with good circulation.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TrixieB]

Does anyone have these?  Can these possibly replace other heating systems? 

 

We lived in a basement apartment that had one wall mounted forced air gas heater in the living room.  It was the only permanently installed heat source in the place.  All the other rooms were FREEZING.  Like barely above outdoor temp.  It took the cat about one day to learn to park himself directly in front of the heater the instant he heard it click on.

 

We never noticed any gas smell but the apartment was pretty drafty.  Zero insulation and big single pane windows.  The tenants before us didn't call to terminate their electric billing and the city tried to stick us with it.  It was huge.  In hindsight we realized they must have been using electric space heaters.

[prairiewindmomma]

We have these in our current residence. Each room has a wall mounted gas heater with its own thermostat. It's placed a bit into the studs so it doesn't project out far. IMO, it works great in smaller rooms, like the bedroom, but we only have on heater in our living/dining/kitchen area and I'm cold quite a bit. I think the correct search term is "single zone ductless system". 

 

For a new install/retrofit, I would only consider it if the house didn't already have ducts AND it was cost prohibitive to install.  I'm not a huge fan.

[Hilltopmom]

We had a Monitor and a Rinnai in our last house to supplement the wood stoves. I liked the Rinnai better, heated faster didn’t run just the fan as long. They could be either kerosene or propane, we had outside tanks for them, no natural gas in the country.

 

I believe they’re against code in other places though.

Many people use them here when building an addition on (just one extra room, for example).