Can you heat a house with a water heater????

Another radiant heat video for you guys. This is a house I built for a rental. We used an HTP Phoenix light duty 50 gallon propane fired water heater to heat this little house. This house was super insulated with dence packed cellulose insulation and foam board. The heat system is very simple with one zone and one pump running off the water heater. This house cost $3.00 a day to heat up here in central New York. We have some cold temps here but this house is always super toasty and comfortable.

[@jackonthefarm5540]

Just FYI... when you need to get a pipe through a floor joist, drill the hole in the center (vertically). The joist top fibers are in compression, and the bottom fibers are in tension. The center is neutral. Cutting a 1" notch in the top of the joist weakens the entire joist to the equivalent of dimensional lumber that is 1 inch narrower.... you just turned a 2x10 into a 2x9 for example.

[@johnnelson8956]

Hot water heat is called hydronics and it's been around for a while. My brother has a HVAC business. In the late 80s, I helped him install all of the hydronic systems in a newly constructed 120 unit town house project. They were all about 1200sf, 2bd, 2 bath units. We used 50 gallon high efficiency gas hot water heaters. Later on we were told that the average power bill per unit was about $65/month and the gas bill was about $25 in 1989 dollars. At the time, the whole system was considerably cheaper than the conventional heat pump system. The only downside I've seen with this system is that you have to size your water heater properly. If it's too small, you will run out of hot water and your heating system is forced to run on emergency heat strips. Which defeats the purpose.

[@bondobuilt386]

Thats awesome. Thanks

[@tabbott429]

Great build. I installed a "munchkin" boiler system 10 years ago that feeds a 45gal holding tank for hot water, 1 Boiler for both purposes with a 1 zone loop circling the perimeter of a 24x40 (1-1/4 story )bungalow. Super efficient I love it.

[@bondobuilt386]

That’s awesome. These systems don’t have to be super complicated buddy. Some people spend a fortune on doing there systems. Lol

[@joemizer]

Amazing work. Super impressed

[@bondobuilt386]

Thanks Joe 😊

[@cryptykilla8712]

nice build there ron. i'd live there if i wasn't across the pond. nice seeing your house builds for a change.

[@michaelchamberlain4618]

Fourth generation doing this. Good job 👍

[@bondobuilt386]

That’s awesome. I’m teaching my son the business. He’s big biscuit on my channel lol.

[@timothy8466]

I like the way you think outside the box

[@bondobuilt386]

Thanks Timothy. I appreciate that buddy. 👍😊

[@steveblanco4123]

Pleasure to watch the real mccoy brother, all the best from Scotland

[@johnsilvernale6472]

I did 2800 sq ft house/garage, with in floor heat, super insulate 50 gallon hw tank

[@bondobuilt386]

That is awesome! I'm sure its really warm. 👍

[@dannytheplumber7394]

Great house build. I like all the insulation you wrapped the house with. Check out Navien Combi-boilers.

[@bondobuilt386]

Danny thank you. Ill check therm out thanks. 👍👍

[@chrisE815]

@@bondobuilt386 don't check out Navian boilers lol

[@bondobuilt386]

@@chrisE815 ok why? Lol

[@chrisE815]

@@bondobuilt386 Poor quality product but in general I'm skeptical of condensing boilers. Check out Mikey Pipes- he's a plumber out on Long Island. Unfortunately he installed a lot of Navien units and they all have problems.

[@bondobuilt386]

@@chrisE815 hard to beat a tank style water heater IMO buddy.

[@joenickels5736]

great Job ************

[@bondobuilt386]

Thanks

[@JoseBenitez-ip1gr]

Great job .

[@grantpeacock3537]

I like the style, Bondo a man with many hats👍🏻 What are the two sizes of tubing your are using in your water heater system?

[@bondobuilt386]

Grant sorry I missed this question. And thank you 😊 I used some 1" pex for supply and return main piping and 1/2" pex for the tubing that runs through the floor. They are both oxygen barrier tubing. 👍😊

[@rupe53]

that vent pipe for the boiler is going to be a hop in the ass whenever other repairs are needed. It blocks everything!

[@andsrcg13b41]

Wondering why you didn't put full basement in? I watch alot of your videos ,love the radiant heat ones.thanks

[@bondobuilt386]

It was mainly due to cost. This house is a rental so I was trying to save where I could. This foundation was real inexpensive. Thanks for watching my videos I really appreciate the support 👍😊

[@kennethhudson8013]

Nice heating system, do you have reflectors under the tubes in floor? Well thought out home, nice size bedrooms,. What is square footage?

[@bondobuilt386]

Thanks and no we do not have reflectors just bubble insulation. Its like 1500 counting the upstairs.

[@richardstockwell9637]

I built a 26x40 2 bed room ranch with 2 inch EPS as a thermal brake and 6 inch dense pack saw it out on my wood mizer heat it with a combi lp boiler use vary little fuel to heat

[@fordracer1415]

I heat a 32x 48 15’ ceiling shop on a 52 gallon water tank

[@bondobuilt386]

Thats what I’m talking about buddy. 👍👊

[@davidfoster3740]

i am also interested in your wood burning heating system at your house

[@mmanut]

NICE HOUSE, WELL BUILT‼️ QUESTION, Why did you go with Electric hot water heater for your domestic water when you already had propane to heat the in floor heating⁉️ If you have a power outage you would still have hot showers. NEW SUBSCRIBER ‼️. Vinny 🇺🇸

[@kendrickeskelson1141]

Bondo! Love your videos! What heats the upper story of your rental house? I'm planning my story and a half garage with an apartment/loft, which is similar in size to this rental. Radiant heat in the concrete slab, but I'm not sure how I should heat the apt. loft above? Thanks in advance for your answer. Kendrick

[@daviddesilva4971]

Nice house, Bondo. I'm curious why you went with an electric water tank instead of propane. Thxs for the vids!

[@bondobuilt386]

Thanks David. Just because they are cheaper and don't require a vent. 😊

[@bantambryce4858]

You basically poured a monolithic slab it looks like? Hard to get some inspectors to give the go ahead on them. Personally I like them. Why run block instead of more sections of ICF?

[@bondobuilt386]

Bryce I have never seen a monolithic slab fail. I love them too. They are a real strong foundation. I bought these ICF that were like 15 years old for 5 bucks a piece. This is a house I built real cheap as a rental. I tried to save every where I could. Built it out of pocket. 👍😊

[@douglasb8558]

Looks to be well constructed, but I'm not a fan of the tin ceilings. How are you able to use rough saw unstamped lumber for framing?

[@covecarpentry]

How long you reckon that tank lasts heating that place? i love the simplicity and super insulating.

[@bondobuilt386]

Should last 15 years or more. Thanks

[@covecarpentry]

15 years of heating on one tank? unbelievable @@bondobuilt386

[@mschumaker1]

so your crawlspace is a dirt floor, block walls? Looks like you did a scratch coat or something across the outside face of the block? what about inside, probably foam board? what sort of access door did you do for the crawl space? Something you made up or purchased? Insulated no doubt...

[@bondobuilt386]

Mike we basically poured a frost protected monolithic slab and layed 5 courses of blocks on top of that. So the floor underneith is concrete There is 2” board foam on the inside of the crawl space and we plaster coated the outside with a product called Comproco. Its a fiber reinforced parge mix comes in a bag. The area under the house is conditioned space so its heated like the living area. I made the acess door from 2 layers of foam board skinned with plywood and its fits tight in the opening. 👍😊

[@pennyraven1222]

Love it. Great job. What type of mill do you have?

[@bondobuilt386]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJ2rnYuCaN53qKc Penny this is my sawmill 😊

[@itas0r]

That check valve on the return that you showed...trying to understand what that's for. When would water pull be able to pull in the opposite direction? Thanks for all the info!

[@bondobuilt386]

That would just stop water from migrating when there is no call for heat.

[@itas0r]

@@bondobuilt386 ok, thanks!

[@eddygoodwin7089]

Yep pretty much

[@bondobuilt386]

Absolutely 👍👍

[@user-el8gf5wf1y]

Are the windows not double glazed? This is a bad decision.

[@Familyadventure369]

maybe i missed it i love the idea for a off grid system im building question i have is what temp does it hold in winter in house i live up north and will be building a fully sustainable house and property for a family of 5 so everything helps so far its 35,000 watts of power 3 acres of land with goats chickens and pigs im not tech savy or we would of did a video log on youtube like your self

[@tommckinney3947]

Nice house Ron, Could you also use the tank for radiant to supply the hot water for the house? Just curious as to why you need two water heaters. Also like that you have your own sawmill.

[@bondobuilt386]

Tom you could do what is called an open system and supply the domestic water also but you need a stainless pump and they are quite exspensive and this was an investment property. You also could use a indirect water heater or plate heat exchanger. So many ways to plumb this. LOL

[@bondobuilt386]

Tom I have some videos of cutting stuff on my saw mill. 👍👍

[@RobertSmith-bh5cv]

@@bondobuilt386 Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Not questioning you, you obviously have a ton of know-how. It just seems like one water heater could have done both functions if you used a heat exchanger. Around here, (Ontario, Canada), electricity is crazy expensive so I don't use it to heat anything.

[@bondobuilt386]

@@RobertSmith-bh5cv ya I have done a few systems that use one heater to do both heat and domestic hot water. They are called an open system. Just was easier and quite a bit cheaper to do this one separate. But out electricity isn’t to bad. 😊

[@gjones5153]

@@RobertSmith-bh5cv when using that water heater in a closed system with an expansion tank it will last a lot longer ( almost no corrosion).. He could have added a boiler mate for the domestic hot water heater but his tubing heat is only 125 deg and a boiler mate recovery time would be slow.

[@charlesquesnel2302]

Next time build a house in the golden ratio proportions portions and you will connect it to the cosmos 369 baby

[@bondobuilt386]

I have no idea what that means Charles. lol

[@squeekhobby4571]

Excellent! Kitchen looks great. Can you also mention the time and cost you spend. What is the land cost. Also how deep the foundation?

[@squeekhobby4571]

How much is the propane costing for the heating? Also is there heating on the second floor

[@bondobuilt386]

@@squeekhobby4571 The heating is about $3.00 a day during the winter months. Did not need any heat in the upstairs. It stays nice up there.

[@bondobuilt386]

Thanks. I got the land at a tax auction cheap. The foundation is a frost protected foundation on grade and the crawl space is 5 - 8" blocks high. 40" under there.

[@squeekhobby4571]

@@bondobuilt386 : good deal. Wishing you should build more in future

[@bondobuilt386]

@@squeekhobby4571 Thanks It's a nice place for sure. 😊

[@mschumaker1]

lots of nice details here - curious though, wouldn't the radiant floor heat be more effective if the piping was fastened to the underside of the floor/plywood? as it is, it's just kind of "loose"? Also, I missed it but is there supplemental heat upstairs? thanks

[@bondobuilt386]

Thanks Mike. I do all my in the wood floor joist radiant heat jobs this way. I never put it to the bottom of the plywood. I do it this way for a few reasons. 1. I think putting it up against plywood will damage the tubing down the road if someone hits it with a fastner changing floors. 2. the heat plates can be noisy as tubing expands and contracts. 3. simplicity. I keep my systems real simple and try not to make things complicated so somebody can't fix them. 4. cost. this is probably the cheapest way to do tubing instal. the hangers are just floor joist bracing that I bend at the ends and screw in. then zip tie tubing to them. Im probably not transferring the heat as well but these houses I build are very well insulated so they are real comfortable and no there is no heat needed in the upstairs. 👍👍

[@mschumaker1]

@@bondobuilt386 awesome, thank you. Good stuff, really interested in the radiant floor heat and well insulated exterior details

[@bondobuilt386]

@@mschumaker1 I have many in floor heat videos where we put tubing in concrete. Also several insulation videos. Check out my channel Thanks

[@CRYMEARIVER-S4]

Concrete is the way to do it.

[@michaelchamberlain4618]

We have a put a lot of heated floors in. We laugh when people don't put tubing in the concert up here in the north.

[@bondobuilt386]

Michael Yes I try and talk people into it. Sometimes I put the tubing down for almost nothing just so they have it. They always call me in the first winter and thank me. Lol

[@squeekhobby4571]

Correct. People don’t get it till winter

[@bondobuilt386]

@@squeekhobby4571 yup 👍

[@gordonfrank]

Do you put that 124 degree water straight in the loop or is there a mixer?

[@jamesonkruger6989]

You don't need glycol in it?

[@bondobuilt386]

Nope none in this system.

[@benhellerman3864]

don't you use transfer plates to attach the tubing the bottom of the floor.

[@bondobuilt386]

No I dont use them. They are noisy as the tubing expands and contracts and They cost more and are not nessasary at all. Also my tubing will not get damaged down the road as it is pushed right up against the plywood. 👍😊

[@sfi382]

How much does it cost a month to heat that house

[@bondobuilt386]

About $80 a month

[@localguy9816]

Every other application like this I've watched has the pump on the return side - cooler water for longer lasting pump life. Do you have reason for pumping the hot water?

[@gjones5153]

most boiler diagrams now push the water on the hot side now

[@MrMaddogg2010]

Why isn't there any insulation on your radiant supply piping side until it reached its floor zone?

[@bondobuilt386]

All that pipe is inside the conditioned space so no heat is lost. I never really thought it was necessary I guess. 😊

[@MrMaddogg2010]

@@bondobuilt386 The greater the temperature difference in building and the hot side piping the larger the heat loss! I've done refrigeration for 35 yrs. Now retired.

[@bondobuilt386]

@@MrMaddogg2010 I’m sure your right buddy. It does work real good and burns hardly any fuel for how comfy the house is though. Thanks 👍👍

[@rexgordon4244]

Ron how can I get a hold of you in person to talk to you about radiant floor system in my garage

[@bondobuilt386]

Message me on Facebook buddy.

[@rexgordon4244]

@@bondobuilt386 I tried to find you on Facebook nothing come up

[@rexgordon4244]

@@bondobuilt386 can you try to message me on Facebook @ Rex gordon ‘I can’t seem to pull yours up on FB

[@bondobuilt386]

@@rexgordon4244 search Ron Bond on Facebook and I’ll come up.

[@bondobuilt386]

Rex what’s your email address? I send u an email.

[@tberlin6718]

Sorry, maybe I missed it but what are you heating it with - is it gas or electricity?

[@bondobuilt386]

Propane

[@rosscoep1450]

Dude its almost 2021, stop videoing vertically. No I can't stay with you on the video, it's literally 1/4 the width of my TV screen. Ah but the stills are full width 😑

[@bondobuilt386]

Sorry buddy that part of the video was taken about 2 years ago. Lol 😂 old and new footage there.

[@chrisE815]

"He wasn't so big then..."

[@carmencristantiello5176]

why not a gas water heater for domestic hot water. you are using gas to heat the building and electric to heat water.. electric too expensive

[@andyk2610]

How do you size the water heater for the heating system?

[@rupe53]

in order to size any heater, you need to know the heat loss of the building first. Heaters are listed by either Kw or BTU output so you can choose what you need. (hint: 1 Kw = about 3400 BTUs)