I’d like to consolidate all of my mechanicals into one room, which is located inside a detached garage. This is new construction, so I can pretty much design this any way that I’d like.
I’m attracted to the idea of having everything in one place, next to a garage area. This is California, so there really isn’t too much of an issue regarding getting to the remote mechanicals room through inclement weather.
The remote mechanials room will be about 35 feet from the main house. The house itself is about 120 feet long. So, there could be runs as long as 150-170 feet to deliver systems to the house.
Here are the systems I would like to place in the garage mechanicals room:
- domestic hot water storage w/recirculating system,
- hydronic radiant floor heating boiler/storage tanks/pumps,
- solar water heating and exchange (collectors on roof)
- on-grid photovoltaics – no batteries
- sprinkler controls
I would like to hear about the drawbacks to this perspective, as well as the roadblocks I may encounter, and other factors that I should considerer.
Thanks, Martin Petersen
Replies
Cali is a pretty tall state with ALOT of different environments. Drive 5 minutes to change the average temp 5 degrees around here.
Fill out your profile so we can get a better idea of your location environment.
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
I assume you mean a detached garage? The major factor with this idea is $$$$, the system will have to be run underground, any time you go into the ground the cost rises rapidly. Another thing is what does your code enforcement people say, where I live it would be no problem, but codes are local. Lots of luck.
Why would you want to? All you'll do is add more distance for leaks and trouble, and waste energy with longer, less efficient runs.
Large mansions have had mechanical outbuildings for years. I remember the DuPont fellow getting lured out of his house when the police turned off his heating, for example. So it can be done.
However, you will have to contend with the added heat loss of running pipe through the ground and the head that adds to the pumps. With the right pipe sizes, this shouldn't be a big deal, but the mass of your system will increase.
If I were you, I'd take a closer look at small wall hung boilers and a closet I could mount one in. If you have an insulated attic, you could even mount it up below the roof - there is no hard and fast rule re: where the boiler has to be. Your indirect could also be up there, provied the house can take the point load that it'll exert.
Another benefit of mounting all the stuff in the attic is minimizing the amount of piping that you'll have to run through the house for the solar, etc, which can be a considerable expense. If you have a closed-loop system with propylene glycol, your need for small short pipes just went up again... the high-quality stuff like DowFrost is expensive.
Well, you get a nice concentration of utilities. This will make the MEP work, where it interacts considerably easier.
The downside is that it will now "drive" your house design.
How so? Well, you will either need some sort of attic 'chase' space in the connecting portico roof from house to garage, or underground connections (or, most likely, both). Also, since you are dealing with some long "home" runs, you are introducing some larger-sized mechanicals (bigger conduit, larger supply/feed piping, etc.), which then need larger openings and or supports.
So, there are some very real MEP "issues" to cope with. Coping with them affects the desing of everything else a bit. In an ideal MEP world, your proposed 'room" would be in the geometric center of your house (but it would also have seperate entire 'universes' to run each system through, so there's no ducts in the way of the electrician or plumber, to be "ideal").
Electrically, the general 'rule' is to spot the panel as close to the largest load(s) as possible. Mechanically, ducts "want" to be as short as possible. Plumbing wants short runs for best pressure & best temperature.
All of that can still encompass your detached mechanical room, just possibly not in the way it is presently seen. PV connections could go to a sub panel which then feeds the main (or other satelite panels). Solar water heating can also be accomplished similarly, as a "node" on a recirculating system. RFH might be the stiing point--a long run suggests heat loss getting to the zoned floor loops. That might require higher set points for the RFH (or hydronic heat coils).
None of that means it can't be done, neither that it shouldn't be done. It just suggests to me that there may be more to think about.
Like, say, a 6' wide pseudo-basement to carry utilities from the detached mechanical room into the house. The semi- or pseudo- basement might also be a good spot for centralized "sourcing" of mechanicals.
Or, you might need a mock clerestory connecting the roof structures to achieve a similar result. (Or both <g>.)
The test I generally apply is to think about what it will be like 25 and 50 years from now, when things might have to change. That can have a person run sleeves with piping and/or conduit within, rather than just gorund-contact piping. Or to have a crawlspace that also has "man access" or the like.
Thinking like a remodeler can change a person's view of new construction.