Qu'est-ce qu'un système de chauffage hydronique ? Est-ce une option de chauffage efficace ?
Les systèmes de chauffage hydroniques sont l'un des systèmes les plus écoénergétiques qui existent.
Si vous êtes déjà entré dans une maison qui est juste à la bonne température, mais qui n'a pas de ventilation ou de pompe à chaleur en vue et que vous vous êtes demandé quel est leur secret, c'est ça :un système de chauffage hydronique !
Les systèmes de chauffage hydroniques sont une solution idéale si vous recherchez un système de chauffage économe en énergie et propre pour votre maison. Comme tout autre système là-bas, cela a aussi des avantages et des inconvénients. Mais avant de pouvoir en arriver là, examinons d'abord ce qu'est le chauffage hydronique et comment il fonctionne.
Qu'est-ce que le chauffage hydronique ?
Un système de chauffage hydronique, également connu sous le nom de chauffage par rayonnement, repose sur l'eau ou d'autres liquides pour chauffer votre maison. Ces systèmes constituent une source de chaleur et un réseau de tubes qui transportent le fluide chauffé vers d'autres parties de votre maison.
Les systèmes de chauffage hydroniques peuvent être utilisés comme systèmes de plancher radiant, systèmes de chauffage mural radiant, plinthes chauffantes hydroniques, chauffe-serviettes hydroniques ou radiateurs.
Les grands bâtiments peuvent souvent bénéficier de ce système en l'utilisant avec des chaudières. De nombreuses maisons résidentielles du nord ont également adopté ce système en raison de leurs longues saisons de chauffage. Les personnes vivant dans des zones où les saisons de chauffage sont plus courtes utilisent également ce système à une échelle beaucoup plus petite.
Comment fonctionnent les systèmes de chauffage hydronique ?
Le transfert de chaleur peut se produire de l'une des trois manières suivantes :conduction, convection et rayonnement.
Les systèmes de chauffage hydroniques utilisent la conduction et le rayonnement pour garder vos maisons au chaud.
Premièrement, une chaudière utilise la conduction pour réchauffer l'eau ou un autre liquide utilisé comme milieu de transfert. Ensuite, lorsque ce liquide traverse le système, il chauffe tout ce qu'il touche par conduction. Enfin, lorsque ce liquide chauffé atteint les radiateurs, les panneaux chauffants muraux, etc., il utilise le rayonnement pour réchauffer votre espace.
Lisez cet article pour une comparaison détaillée entre la chaleur rayonnante et l'air pulsé.
Avantages du système de chauffage hydronique
Les systèmes de chauffage hydroniques sont très efficaces, mais ce n'est pas tout. Ces systèmes présentent une myriade d'avantages.
1. Créer des zones séparées
Les systèmes hydroniques vous permettent de créer des zones de température pour améliorer votre confort.
Par exemple, plutôt que d'avoir un thermostat dans toute votre maison, vous pouvez avoir un thermostat à deux zones pour faire varier les températures dans différentes pièces. Les zones sont une excellente idée si vous vivez avec quelqu'un qui a d'autres préférences de température que vous-même.
2. Niveaux d'humidité
Les systèmes à air pulsé peuvent extraire l'humidité de l'air tout en le chauffant, ce qui entraîne des niveaux d'humidité déséquilibrés dans votre maison. Les systèmes de chauffage hydroniques n'assèchent pas votre maison comme les autres systèmes de chauffage par rayonnement, car ils utilisent un liquide dans un système fermé pour chauffer votre maison.
3. Sols chauds
Les systèmes de chauffage hydronique peuvent fonctionner comme un plancher chauffant pour rendre vos planchers plus chauds, de sorte que vous n'ayez plus à craindre de sortir du lit les matins froids. Les tubes peuvent être placés sous le sol ou dans des dalles de béton, et le sol agit comme un conducteur pour votre confort.
4. Fonctionnement silencieux
Les systèmes hydroniques ne déplacent pas l'air pour réchauffer votre maison, contrairement aux systèmes de chauffage à air pulsé. Ainsi, non seulement vous n'avez pas besoin de rester à l'écoute de l'air qui passe à travers le système, mais vous n'avez pas non plus à vous soucier des bruits d'une fournaise qui s'allume ou des gémissements des conduits froids lorsque l'air chaud passe à travers leur. Ainsi, vous êtes à peu près débarrassé de tous les différents bruits de climatisation que vous devez supporter dans d'autres systèmes de chauffage.
5. Pas de conduits
Ductwork can take up quite a bit of space in your walls and ceilings. Additionally, ducts can also be expensive and messy to install and maintain. Instead, hydronic heating system tubes can be installed in the wall or attached to floor joists. These pipes can also be routed around the existing pipework.
6. No Dust, Pollen, or Allergens
Forced air systems push air into your room to regulate the climate. Unfortunately, this airflow can often bring dust, pollen, pet dander, or other indoor air pollutants, or the brisk moving air can stir up allergens in the room. If you don’t maintain your ducts or change your air filters regularly, this situation can worsen. On the other hand, hydronic heating systems do not rely on ducts, don’t displace air, and are much cleaner.
7. Energy Efficiency
Air isn’t the best heat conductor. It can lose energy as it travels through ducts or leaks through gaps, leading to heat loss. In contrast, water needs less energy to heat since it absorbs heat better and retains the heat for longer. Compared to forced-air heating systems, a hydronic heating system is about 25% more efficient.
8. Hydronic Systems Are Durable
Normal HVAC systems have a lot of moving and mechanical parts, which means they need repairs more often. Instead, hydronic heating systems do not have many mechanical parts, do not need much maintenance, and are more likely to last a long time.
9. Warmer Where It Matters
Hydronic systems are commonly used as radiant floor systems, baseboard heaters, or radiators. Even in radiant wall heating systems, the tubes are installed close to the ground, where you are. Forced air systems are usually at a distance, making hydronic heating systems a better solution.
10. Even Heating
Forced air heating systems use air displacement to keep you warm. However, these systems move air briskly, and the subsequent drafts and breezes may result in uneven heating or cooling around your home. Hydronic heating systems eradicate this issue by using radiation rather than air to keep you warm.
Disadvantages of Hydronic Heating System
Hydronic systems have many perks, but they aren’t without their downsides.
1. Long Heating Time
While water does absorb heat better than air, the heated water needs to travel through the whole system to warm your home up. This process can take quite a long time, and you’ll have to wait longer to benefit from the warmth. Due to this issue, hydronic heating systems are better suited for moderate climates or when consistent temperatures are needed.
2. Space Requirements
Baseboard hydronic systems require additional space on the wall and interrupt your interior. Hydronic heating systems also need a network of pipes to transfer heat to different parts of your home. These pipes can take up a significant amount of space in your home. However, the space required is only about half an inch which is still much lesser than the space ducts take up. This may not be an issue when you’re constructing a new home but adding this system to an existing home may require tearing up floors or walls.
3. Require Maintenance
All closed-loop water heating systems need an expansion tank for safety. These tanks have to be occasionally drained to work efficiently. Since this maintenance task is one of the only ones that hydronic heating systems need, it’s easy to look past, prompting efficiency issues.
4. Hard to Access Piping if a Problem Comes Up
With hydronic heating systems, there’s a slight risk that pipes in the system might leak or burst. While this is a highly unlikely situation, it still poses a threat to the system’s working and your home’s building elements. In addition, the pipes are hidden away under the floor or behind the walls or ceiling, making repairs of this sort a difficult and expensive process.
5. Higher Installation Costs Upfront
Installing a hydronic heating system into an already built home can be very expensive. It requires professional builders, and you will need access to your floor joists. The alternative is to remove the floor or the drywall and then reinstall them with the system installed. If you’re looking to refurbish your home or are building a new house, installing the system in those instances won’t be as cost-restrictive.
6. No Ductwork for Air Conditioning
Since radiant cooling isn’t a widely popular or efficient system, most people only use hydronic systems for heating. So, if you live in an area where you would like central air conditioning, opting for radiant heating isn’t a good idea. In addition, installing two separate systems for heating and cooling is quite expensive.
7. Water Could Potentially Freeze During Power Outage
If you live in an area where temperatures can likely fall below the freezing point of water, you will have to worry about ice damaging the components during power outages or when you’re away. You can solve the latter issue if you own a mini-split paired with a smart AC controller that can keep your pipes from freezing even when you’re on vacation.
Here are 20 tips on what to do during a winter power outage.
8. Requires Careful Planning Before Installation
Extensive planning is necessary to ensure that a hydronic heating system will work efficiently. For instance, it’s important to keep the warming elements closer to the ground where people are when installing radiant wall heating. If they’re too high up, the generated heat will be of no use to the inhabitants of the room since radiant heat only warms objects in its line of sight.
9. Lack of Ventilation
Without air circulation, you’ll soon have stagnant air filling your home up, leading to pent-up pollutants and bad odors in your home. To improve the indoor air quality of your home, you can open up windows and doors to allow adequate home ventilation.
10. Furniture Can Be a Hindrance
Radiant heating warms objects by radiation, and the things need to be in the line of sight for them to work efficiently. For example, furniture pulled up against the wall (in the case of radiant wall heating) or thick carpets that act as insulators can bring down the heating abilities of the system.
If now you’ve made up your mind to get a hydronic heating system for your home, then let’s look at its different types.
Types of Hydronic Radiant Heating Systems
Hydronic heating systems have seven basic components that work together to work efficiently. In addition, these components can have several variations that allow you to customize the system according to your needs.
- Boiler: The boiler is the central part of your system and is the means to heat the liquid.
- Liquid medium: Traditionally, most systems use water as a heat transfer medium, although some can use other liquids or antifreeze mixes.
- Thermostat: It controls the temperature in the system and decides when to turn the system on or off to control the climate better.
- Manifold: A plumbing manifold is a hub for directing the water flow in the system and is connected to the thermostat.
- Tubing: The tubes for carrying the liquid medium are usually made of PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) or some other form of plastic rather than copper or different types of rigid tubing.
- Heat Exchanger: A heat exchanger transfers the heat from the pipes to the inside of the house.
- Pump: To maintain a steady flow of heated liquid and constantly replenish the room’s warmth, a pump is used to push the fluid through the pipes.
Some of the variations available for boilers, liquid medium, and heat exchangers are as follows:
Boiler Options
An efficient boiler is the cornerstone of any hydronic heating system that works without heat loss or wasting energy. Some of the options available in boilers are as follows:
- Tankless Hydronic Water Heaters: These heaters are much smaller than the traditional tankless water heaters and work by heating water through their pipes. Since these tanks don’t have a storage tank for retaining water, they provide an on-demand hot water supply.
- Combined Hot Water and Heating Systems Boiler: Also known as combi boilers, these boilers combine a high-efficiency water heater with a central heating boiler. Combi boilers are similar to tankless water heaters because they don’t have a water storage tank.
- Solar Water Heater: Solar heaters will seldom provide enough heat to run the system alone. But when combined with your boiler, they can increase the energy efficiency of your system. Solar panels heat liquid that runs through pipes within a storage tank. This process creates a stream of pre-heated water that will not require much energy from the boiler to reach the right temperature.
- Heat Pumps: Heat pumps use the natural warmth of the ground or air to pre-heat water and make it easier for your boiler to heat the water. There are several different heat pumps that can use varying heat sources like air, ground, or water.
Liquid Options
The liquid medium for the transfer of heat can also vary across systems. Traditionally, most hydronic heating systems have used hot water, which remains the norm today. However, some modern systems also use glycol or other liquids with antifreeze properties. Incorporating these liquids into the system can protect the liquid from freezing in exposed pipes and increase the boiling point.
Heating Exchangers Options and Their Locations
Hydronic heating systems can have several heat exchangers to deliver heat to your living space.
- Underfloor Radiant System: Floor heating systems are one of the most common types of hydronic heating systems due to their ability to provide consistent and comfortable heating throughout your home.
- Baseboard Heaters and Radiators: Hydronic baseboard heaters and radiators are easier to install than floor heating systems in built homes.
- Walls and Ceilings: Like in-floor heating systems, hydronic heating systems can be installed behind walls or in the ceiling to heat any room. However, wall and radiant ceiling systems often use electricity instead of hydronic systems due to the possibility of water damage.
Hydronic heating systems are a great heating option for anyone looking for energy-efficient and even heating. There are many benefits these systems offer other than energy efficiency, such as quiet and clean heating. However, the system also has downsides like an expensive upfront installation cost and air stagnation. But, all in all, these systems are quite efficient!