Timber Frame w/ A/C and Radiant heat

[Dan Bodenstein]

We are once again in the planning stages.
We are planning a timber frame home, with a full basement.
We'd like to put A/C and radiant floor heating on the main living area.

Living in Florida all my life, I have no idea how this would or could be done.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Dan

[NRT.Rob]

Where are you building?

[Dan Bodenstein]

Western North Carolina. Near Hickory. City called Old Fort.

[NRT.Rob]

Well, everything starts with a heat load calc. This tells the whole story; what kind of water temps you need, can guide heat source selection, how warm the floors will be, etc etc. All very important, and should definitely be done room by room. Anyone you get bids from should be prepared to at least show you the calcs, if not give them to you (some don't give them out as it's then pretty easy for you to hand it to another contractor to bid off of), and if they can't, then they are probably not doing due diligence. Certainly that should be done and reviewed before a foot of pipe is installed.

If you're doing timberframe, I'd recommend SIPs for the walls incidentally.

beyond that I guess it depends on what your loads are and whether you'll have a basement, slab or crawlspace for this floor, as far as the radiant goes.. not much of an AC expert though so I can't help much there!