Silver Octopus
Whether you’ve seen them in houses under construction or in the basement of your own home, we all have a mental picture of “the furnace.” When I bought my highlands home in the late 90′s it still ran on the original coal fired “octopus” furnace (remember when Macaulay Culkin falls into the cellar in “Home Alone”?) Sometime after dinosaurs left the earth, this beast of a heating system had been converted to use natural gas but it still had no fan and only one return air duct. The heat was actually not bad and it was almost silent but there were definitely hot spots and it certainly wasn’t an efficient way to heat my home.
Fast forward to the system in our LEED house. “The furnace” is known today as a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system and is critical to the building performance of the home. This particular system was designed and installed by the engineers at Bryant Heating and Cooling. Not only are there return air ducts for most every room but all pipe joints are sealed with mastic to ensure superlative performance. Bryant worked closely with Chris Zitelli, our LEED AP, to insure that this HVAC system will provide safe and comfortable indoor air for Wendy and her family. Many thanks to both Bryant and Chris for making sure this “silver octopus” works well. If you’d like more detailed specs, just post a comment and I’ll gather info on SEER and such.
