Heating Basics 104

Hot Water Heat

More often than not, my experience points to hot water base board being the choice of heat most commonly made in homes, compared to hot air, wood stoves, and fireplaces.


The warmth is delivered by moving the heated water through a network of pipes around the house, usually divided into separate zones on each floor. Radiating outwards from the water into the air in each room, the heat is accelerated and amplified by fins in the baseboard or reflectors in the floor. It is a passive, unobtrusive friend.

In older houses, this system is identified by the ornate bulky cast-iron boilers in every room. Homes less than 50 years old have sections of bulky baseboards along the wall, noticeable only as limiting for the placement of furniture.
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In the basement, the efficient system sits contained in a small box (size of a filing cabinet) with a well-organized mane of pipes and valves. Often now, the hot water tank for dishes and showers serves as auxiliary to hold water heated by the boiler, no longer a heater by itself.

This system is the most expensive to install and cheapest to maintain, quietly (well, older versions provide the comforting gurgle and knocks moving through) providing an even, warm heat without another thought. Anyone who just wants to go about their day should live with hot water heat.

Baseboards, like grilles of a forced air system, are usually set under windows to offer the strongest defense against the largest loss. A large room requires longer runs, limiting some locations for a sofa or bed. The pipes can remain effective built into a shelf or cabinet unit.

Although the most expensive installation, most people would prefer to run radiant in the floor, especially in a solid slab concrete floor. This requires a web of pipes weaving to cover every square foot of the floor for maximum warmth and effect. The mass becomes warm enough to live in bare feet while winter rages outside, heating from your toes upwards.

Beyond cost, there is no downside to hot water heat. Solid and persistent, this is a heat source that does all the work with little complaint beyond the creaking of expanding pipes. There are no pauses in the day to feel cold or hot; simply set the thermostat and live.

Confessions of a Sub-Primer

I am a contributor to the sub-prime fiasco.

So much blame for the current economic crisis is placed on the shoulders of the mortgages made to people with less than stellar credit desperate to buy homes they could not afford. The rising rate of defaults on these so-called predator loans, it is explained, has shaken confidence around the world, and the entire economic system is on the verge of collapse.

This bail-out package has been rushed so quickly—desperately—to vote, one wonders if taking just a little more time might uncover better solutions. If, in fact, failed mortgages are at the root, why are we not looking at supporting those mortgages instead of bailing out the “evil” men who made them? This answer seems just as poor a decision as the one that made me sign that mortgage in the first place.

In the super-charged economy of pre 911, when contractors had all the work they wanted and not enough labor to get it done, I rushed along, putting unqualified people in place, making mistakes that tumbled my company into serious debt. Unwilling to face bankruptcy, over-confident that money alone would cure the shortfall, equity in my home seemed the best way to rescue my company, the men, and our families we were feeding.

My own credit had been destroyed in the effort to pay bills late instead of borrowing. Taking advantage of “No doc” loans available, we used my wife’s name, supported by my unproven income.

The interest rate was an affordable 6.5% for 3 years. The processor agreed enthusiastically that I could rebuild my credit and refinance by then, and rates were holding steady anyway, unlikely to rise. I even checked the index rate that would trigger an adjustment and was again re-assured.

So with hope and optimism in ourselves and our commitment to work hard, and in desperation to bail out a business that could turn profitable on the very next project, we met with the courier, and my wife signed the papers. What I did not see in the pages of fine, fine print--rushed through and signed in under 20 minutes—was that the link had enough points over the index to guarantee adjustment upwards.

It angers me to hear commentators speak with scorn of the people who made such decisions. We, The People, who are leading desperate lives to pay these mortgages of 12% are just as much “Main Street” as the citizen asked to pay for the bailout. In fact, we have to pay the mortgage and our taxes.

I chose this option when it was a rate I could afford, but as payments have risen more than $1,000 a month—money that goes entirely to the profits of the lender--my back has been slowly, painfully broken.

The demise of my business, the dissolution of my marriage, the search for a new career cannot be blamed on the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. The desperation to solve financial problems was an imposing factor. I am fortunate to be able to sell my house and get out from under this pain. I know there are others in neighborhoods who have lost all value and are forced to just walk away.

Perhaps there could be a solution that simply adjusts these mortgages back to the original affordable rates, and supports those unable to pay even that. People remain in their homes (perhaps other marriages can be saved), lenders see fair and modest returns, and confidence is restored.

Very simple, yes. But like a frightened child, I am listening carefully to the arguments and reassurances of our President and Congressionals sitting around the kitchen table late into the night. They want to leverage the perceived equity in our government’s home and it sounds eerily familiar.

Heating Basics 103

Air Ducts & furnaces

If you know the feeling of damp shivering chilled to the bone cold, and you want to come into a house and be embraced like a mother wrapping a sick child in a blanket, then forced –air heat is the one to choose. Turn up the thermostat, stand on the grate and the warmth surrounds your chill and smothers it.

Forced air systems are easily recognized in a basement as the network of silvery trunks and pipes converging on a large metal box. The older the unit, the larger the box and the more places to duck underneath. In the rooms upstairs, the system is identified by the simple or decorative grilles in the floor, usually under windows. Typically the grills do not interfere with furniture placement and are a great delight for kids to stand over in bathrobes.

This system, aptly named, makes the cold air hot and pushes it through a duct system, entering each room through the grilles in the floor. Another set of grates, usually in central common areas, returns the cooled air back to the furnace to be heated again. This is an on-demand system: a call for heat delivers immediate satisfaction with a rush of warm air no one could deny. The heat is a comforting embrace, a luxury of warmth.

But in any house, especially a drafty one, the heat soon dissipates. The cold slowly creeps back in. A whirr of motor and a fluff or breeze soon delivers more heat. The body constantly readjusts.

All that movement of air also stirs up and redistributes the dust we wish was not actually there. This could certainly be a problem for allergy sufferers, but additional filters installed within the system provide a strong argument that this system actually cleans the house while heating. As long as they are maintained regularly, a series of filters in the ductwork may actually catch and control a healthy portion of the dust naturally floating around.

Air movement also accentuates the amount of moisture drawn out naturally in the process of heating air. Felt mostly in our dried out nostrils, this is often experienced by an increase of bloody noses. Here too, a humidifier can be added to the system to replace moisture lost in the changes of temperature blown through the house. Humidifiers in various strengths being necessary to balance any form of winter heat, this system may actually hold the advantage, being directly applied internally and requiring no oversight.

While these drawbacks make people avoid furnaces, each problem has a solution that actually improves it overall. Forced air is less expensive to install (about $6,000) and costs about the same to run relative to natural gas, LP, or oil. No system satisfies our need for heat more quickly and the fluctuations may be controlled by well-placed thermostats. The vicious claws of winter are well-tamed with a forced-air system.

Heating Basics 102

Hearth & Home

Heating your own home is all about comfort. The goal is to efficiently create warmth, with minimum effort and cost, to enable easily living the rest of your life (obtaining food in all forms) while winter rages outside.


Fireplaces satisfy that basic urge to bring the flame into the home, creating the direct warmth on the face and the extended, rubbing hands around a campfire feel. The mantle provides a place for stockings with care, and a visual focus for the artwork of the Home. During a gathering of friends, the ambient flame welcomes guests to feel safe.

While it satisfies a basic psychological urge, unfortunately, in addition to being dangerous when not-maintained properly, the fireplace is not able to offer much heat into the room, spitefully pushing it up the chimney instead. Even worse, it sucks already conditioned air from every nook and cranny throughout the house, causing drafts and discomfort.

Woodstoves are a great compromise to the nearly-hands-on afficianados, providing much of the ambiance of an open flame, but turbo-charged to provide serious heat. No other source can match the saturating blanket of warmth, the embracing feel of entering a room toasty and sizzling.

The word “cozy” is perhaps best defined by an evening heated by a woodstove. As darkness descends and winter cold creeps in, the appliance becomes the center of life. The warmer you want to be, the closer you get. Children play on the floor in front of it. Animals sleep practically under it. Mittens dry on hooks behind it. The sizzle and crackle is as soothing as classical music.

Cheaper to install ($2-3000 plus labor), and one third the cost to run, wood heat is a great alternative for the energy conscious, but requires a year round commitment not suitable for the feint-at-heart. No matter how comfy the sound, heat by woodstove takes constant attention, and armfuls of work.

The adage is absolutely correct that woodstoves heat you twice: once when you burn, and once collecting the wood. As winter ends, the real work begins to secure and cure enough cords (typically 3-5 at $150 each) by late Fall. The stack must remain dry and close enough to be easily hauled inside. The chips of bark and dust fall where they may, littering the pathway, and just when you are really settled down and comfortable, it demands another log.

Efficient designs allow for stoves to burn all night, but like feeding a pet, there is a problem for those who spend the Holidays away. Additionally, the amount of heat enjoyed is directly proportional to the proximity to the stove, so the far reaches of a home tend to remain chilly and comparatively uncomfortable.

While a great solution for someone concerned with economics and a greener lifestyle, in cold climates the drawback of a woodstove is that it requires the support of another system to ensure that pipes are never frozen. Discussion of these will follow in future entries.

Heating Basics 101

3 Ways to Heat Your Home

The high cost of heat and the number of calls for help with weatherization invites a few basic lessons on the subject of creating efficient comfort in colder climates.


This week, a friend called complaining of cold feet. With rolls of fiberglass insulation laying in the basement since purchasing the house, it was only logical for her to finally take the time to hang it between the hand-hewn (this means really old and imperfect) joists under the floors separating the living spaces from the cold basement.

In actuality, the warmth generated by finally taking this action would have only made her feet colder come winter. Like our bodies, a house is a complicated system, and a chill is not always cured by putting on a sweater.

Comfort in the home is all about the condition of the air and surfaces. In hot climates, the solution is named air-conditioning for a reason. Against the cold, heaters are the appropriate solution.

How best to heat and move the air has been under discussion since people first shivered. The invention of fire has not only led to filet mignon, but created sophisticated ways to ensure comfort in the home.

The fire itself has remained a choice for those who love the psychological warmth of hands close to the heat. From the primitive lodges with a hole at the top to Rumford fireplaces channeling hot air through the chimney, an open flame within the house has provided warmth throughout the ages.

But also danger.


Unfortunately, with the benefits has come the pain of too many lives destroyed from fire burning out of control. A multitude of heaters have been designed to contain the fire safely and distribute the warmth efficiently. In my experience, there are three basic methods: the woodstove containing the raging fire; the furnace heating and distributing the air; and the boiler heating and distributing water which radiates heat outward to condition the air in each room.

How each of these works and how to hold their heat in your home can be the topics for many entries to come as the leaves change and temperatures drop, heading towards a long, cold winter.

Just Another Season

The New Year really begins in the Fall.

With the start of school is also the approach of winter. Settled back into a home after a summer of outdoor play and travel, the approach of winter looms. Like squirrels gathering nuts, people prepare for the long, cold days ahead.

Conventional wisdom may say that Spring is a carpenter’s busiest season, but my experience has consistently logged the longest hours in the Fall. Projects conceived when the snow melted, were designed, priced and redesigned in June, then put on hold. Now settling back into cramped quarters, jobs are rushed into production to be finished before family arrives at Thanksgiving.

This year, uncertainty about the Election and fears for the economy have changed the landscape. After years of flourishing under the lights of low interest rates and high confidence, the ripe additions are not so abundant for the picking. Instead, people are taking stock and just making the necessary repairs to protect their investment.

In truth, the majority of builders have seen a lot of good years where the biggest problem has been finding the labor needed to construct the wealth of projects contracted. One had the luxury to pick and choose, be too busy to answer new calls, and enjoy profits that only seem appropriate for such hard work.

For some, it is the only season they have known.

Now, it is easy—like breathing the crisp air that turns leaves to brilliant colors before falling off—to smell the panic. Men swaggering in big new pick-ups two years ago are sweating their payment due next week. Others, who have enjoyed the paycheck every Friday working for someone else, are suddenly on their own, with little ability or experience to know how to take off their nail belt to turn over stones. The signs that advertised hiring have been taken down and stored away.

I hate to admit I have been doing this long enough to have survived several such downturns. The good news is that I have learned that it is a cycle and will eventually turn upwards again. Those signs to hire will eventually be brought back out.

In the meantime, we have to tighten our nail belts and work harder to distinguish ourselves from the next guy. Tough choices must be made to retain the best of your crew, laying off the less productive, no matter how many mouths they might have at home to feed. Spend more time in the field and save office work for the evenings, side-by-side with your kids doing schoolwork. Relentless attention to detail will trim wasteful habits and secure a profitable job against competition. Creative financing may ease troublesome debt.

Having been through it before makes it no easier. Ideally, in the good times, one has stashed some money aside, and diversified the kind of work in the portfolio as well as the kind of client for whom it is done. Ultimately, the ones who have maintained marketing strategies, even though the Good Times felt too busy to have the time to spare, are the ones with phones that will continue to ring.

For the Sake of Fun

So focused on my other blog, I recognize and acknowledge my lack of attention here.

In actuality, while absorbed in the lofty thoughts of heart by night, my days have been methodically constructed around carpentry projects, hour by hour, just doing the work. In completing projects with my own dirty and recalloused hands, I better understand my problems when at the lead of a much larger business.


To really be effective in any endeavor, there must be an element of fun. Responsible for the livelihood of 6 to 10 others, the overwhelming pressure to find work and produce it efficiently under mounting debt smothered rare moments of satisfaction and enjoyment. There was no time for pride or celebration.

In these past months, I have been working alone, or alongside friends who need the help and guidance to improve their homes. In addition to earnings without liability beyond my own two hands, I am able to rediscover the pleasure, sweeping up at the end of the day, of a job well done, day by day, hour by hour. There is an exquisite moment, just before driving off into the homelife, of accomplishment, of plans working out, of measurable progress.

Usually distracted in my life by larger concerns of family, our own home and mortgage, dreams of vacations, and even bigger dreams of someday being the Writer I always wanted to be, the actual tasks of carpentry have been, for me, but means to an end. Not really in stride with the tools in hand, I could recite the adage “measure twice, cut once”, even go through the motions of measuring a third time (having been interrupted by a question), and still get the cut wrong.

Better to leave the carpentry to the ones who really want to do it, I thought, and focused on design and sales. I drew great plans, supported by charts and spreadsheets that no one else actually understood as clearly, and in a booming economy, hired any guy with tools who answered the desperate ads to fill crews to finish all the jobs I could get started.

No matter the impressive portfolio that was built, so very little of it turned out to be any fun.


I miss the big projects, the large and beautiful additions, the buzz of activity on job sites, the line of pick-ups parked in the yard. Honestly, I really enjoyed driving up to answer questions, point fingers, and run off to attend to another site. I tried to be clear that I did not have all the answers, that I was just a facilitator, part of a team, but the truth is that the job needs a leader, someone in touch with every detail, someone who can prevent mistakes, and fixes them quickly with authority, demanding accountability when they happen anyway.

Today, I finish a kitchen. I have installed every cabinet, set every screw, laid every piece of flooring. The job is not perfect if one looks closely enough. I know where the scratches are and the excessive caulk that filled a gap. Even so, my friends will enjoy years of meals here, watch their grandchildren grow. Many, many more scratches will appear.


More importantly, although I would love to redo a couple of measurements and cuts, I will remember this kitchen fondly, the feeling each day of contentment and the tools in hand.

And wouldn’t you know, last night in a casual conversation about something else, I was asked to design an addition.