HVAC & Hydronic Heat – Lake Country Heating & Cooling

Lake Country Heating & Cooling Helps Make Homes Comfortable!

Many details go into designing your dream home, and so much of it is visible! From what color you choose to paint the dining room, down to the hardware on your kitchen cabinetry, there are many decisions to make. One decision that doesn’t seem all that exciting is selecting your heating & cooling equipment. But today’s technology offers systems that actually do some of the thinking for you – going way beyond traditional forced air systems.

The Hillcrest has the ultimate in heating and cooling! To learn more about its systems, we spoke with owner Jim Shuda of Lake Country Heating & Cooling. Jim and his partner Wade Wilson have owned Lake Country Heating & Cooling since 1991 and are proud of their service – evidenced by their 5 Star Google Rating. As stated on their website, they are makers of indoor weather – what a great term! And, for Jim and his team, indoor weather making is really a people business. To him, it’s all about comfort!

There are three main components to the HVAC system in the Hillcrest: The Bryant Evolution forced air system, an IBC Boiler, and radiant heat from Rehau RAUPEX Tubing. All three systems work together to maintain a perfect temperature within the house.

The Bryant Evolution system, designed to make life more comfortable, actually works in conjunction with the outside air, sensing both humidity and the temperature. It self-regulates through the two-way communication between the unit and control sensors inside and outside the home. The dual forced air heating and cooling system manage temperature within 1/4 degree, humidity, air quality, fan speeds, ventilation and zoning AND can be accessed remotely through a Wi-Fi connection. Homes today are built almost air-tight which can have some negative implications, such as window condensation, so a ventilation system exchanges inside and outside air. Through this process, you would imagine that heated or cooled air would escape the home, but the system actually recovers up to 80% of the heating/cooling energy used while still creating air exchange.

In the Hillcrest, the primary heating system is the boiler and radiant heat system – with the forced air system during the shoulder seasons. Radiant is the most comfortable way of heating a house, providing a consistent, uniform heat. It gives a gentle warmth to all items in the house, specifically surfaces, not just the air. A radiant heat system recovers quickly from an open door or window and eliminates hot or cold spots, ensuring an even, comfortable feel. And, because heat rises, starting by heating the floor is the most efficient way to leverage the science of air!

To run the Rehau radiant heat system, an IBC boiler is used to heat the water in the tubing to distribute that hot water through the flooring. For all the hot water demands the IBC Boiler system features an extremely efficient tank, which Jim describes as being wrapped like a thermos. This means that the boiler heated water has virtually no standby temperature loss.

The typical radiant heat tubing installation has 12 inch-on-center tubing, but Regency Builders and Lake Country Heating & Cooling believe in a higher quality 8-9 inch-on-center placement, reducing hot/cold striping across the floor and quicker recovery when needed. In addition, extra tubing is placed around windows and doors. The system then runs automatically, with floor sensors keeping the temperature ideal throughout the home. While installing, we take care to mark future wall locations with orange paint to ensure we don’t puncture a tube while nailing the bottom plate of the partition wall into the concrete or tacking carpet down.