ABOUT US
Jeff and Diana Holmes, and family, have lived quite comfortably in a hydronic heated home of their own design since 1992, complete with biomass boiler. Jeff is a retired engineer from the hydrocarbon industry where he specialized in fluid flow and heat transfer.
With added family, Diana instigated the 1992 home remodel, even to the point of drawing floor plans. At that time, the house, built in 1979, had an electric forced air heating system and a wood stove/fireplace in the living room. Even then, the wood stove did most of the heating, at some mess of course, but that's the way of wood heat.
In considering the remodel, electric heat was costly, and forced air was difficult to route to the two-story addition. Hydronic systems were just making in-roads into the heating market and was a good fit for our home. The boiler could be located where convenient (no ducting) and radiant heat was a good fit for our open beam ceilings (little temperature stratification vs. forced air).
It was not our original intent to design and install our own heating system but the understanding of pumps, system hydraulics and controls were not in the contractor realm at that time. More than 20 years later, we are still pleased with our choice. While our location could be better for solar, we are looking at solar collectors for late fall and early spring, space heating and year-round domestic water heating work. We are also considering a ground source heat-pump.
Accolades: Jeff has published an article in Chemical Engineering Magazine titled, Using Spreadsheets in Fluid Flow Analysis, he also holds two US Patents; Alkylation Processes and Submersible Pump Seal Design. Always interested in home heating developments in particular those dealing with hydronic heating, Jeff has traveled to New York to take classes with John Siegenthaler, author of Modern Hydronic Heating, the industry design handbook for Hydronics.
Education: Bachelor of Science – Chemical Engineering, University of Idaho - 1970
With added family, Diana instigated the 1992 home remodel, even to the point of drawing floor plans. At that time, the house, built in 1979, had an electric forced air heating system and a wood stove/fireplace in the living room. Even then, the wood stove did most of the heating, at some mess of course, but that's the way of wood heat.
In considering the remodel, electric heat was costly, and forced air was difficult to route to the two-story addition. Hydronic systems were just making in-roads into the heating market and was a good fit for our home. The boiler could be located where convenient (no ducting) and radiant heat was a good fit for our open beam ceilings (little temperature stratification vs. forced air).
It was not our original intent to design and install our own heating system but the understanding of pumps, system hydraulics and controls were not in the contractor realm at that time. More than 20 years later, we are still pleased with our choice. While our location could be better for solar, we are looking at solar collectors for late fall and early spring, space heating and year-round domestic water heating work. We are also considering a ground source heat-pump.
Accolades: Jeff has published an article in Chemical Engineering Magazine titled, Using Spreadsheets in Fluid Flow Analysis, he also holds two US Patents; Alkylation Processes and Submersible Pump Seal Design. Always interested in home heating developments in particular those dealing with hydronic heating, Jeff has traveled to New York to take classes with John Siegenthaler, author of Modern Hydronic Heating, the industry design handbook for Hydronics.
Education: Bachelor of Science – Chemical Engineering, University of Idaho - 1970
