sundogusa

My brother is building a house. In the house will be an office where is wife pplans on spending most of the day. We are looking for an alternative heat source. Baseboard heaters are ok but not really asthetically pleasing. The floor will be a hardware floor nailed to the subfloor, which means no hydronic or electric mat (unless he uses a floating floor). They would like to keep the office cozy, without heating the whole house all day long. Maybe keep the house at 62 and the office at 70.
Any ideas? We are in Wisconsin.

Bestheating

Matt heaters don't respond well to all the nails in a hardwood floor. It will also dry them out. If you want a floor heat, consider quarry tile or ceramic. Oops that would be electrically generated. Baseboard heaters are generally electric and that would cost you as much as keeping the house a few degrees warmer. Depending on the size of the office and the fuel availability at the house, you might consider some kind of free standing or wall mounted gas heater. Unvented is not recommended. If the office has a southern exposure, consider a solar panel with a circulating fan into the room. I have seen these heat an entire second floor. In my case, I have computer equipment in my smaller office, which adds more heat than you might realize, all by itself.

rabadger

If they don't want to go with electric or hot water radiant, take a look at the overall plan. Depending on the CFM requirements for the entire job and office area only, it may be possible to use zoning and a two stage furnace.

What type of heat do they want?

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Richard

Trueheat

Depending on the primary fuel to be used in the rest of the house.
If you're heating with oil, Toyotomi makes a direct vent heater that is extremely cost effective and does an excellent job heating under 1000 sq/ft. This heater is thermostaticly controlled and is probably the least expensive (as far as fuel consumption) way to heat, unless you own your own wood lot.
If you're heating with gas, Rinnai makes the most cost effective gas heater. It is also a direct vent and does an excellent job.