I am in the process of building my 1st new home it is a 2 family with an inlaw set up in base. Each floor is 2050 sq. ft I am considering hyro hv/ac have really no idea? I also ned 5 separate zones want good heat plus great a/c and lotsssss of hot water help:confused:

Contact your local contractor. You will need advice from them. They will have to review your plans and do a manual J and a manual D for your home. At that time you can decide what equipment you are going to use. Hydro air is what I have here for over 30 years works great but expensive to install especially for all the separate A/C evaporators and outside condensing units. More zones more units unless you use a bypass damper setup with a dump zone and that is not energy efficient.

Get two or more bids.
Sorry but all the work and calculations/ideas need to be done on your end with the person that is going to do the calculations.

Not sure what area of the world you dwell in but consider in-floor radiant heat and a separate cooling system. You can zone the rooms easier with water heat than air. Conditioning can be zoned by using a ductless system or the new Carrier Infinity fan coil. Do you need to condition every room in the house or just the main area and bedroom(s)? Conditioning a laundry room is so energy wasting.

To get some ideas on cutting edge stuff have a look at Our Cool House (http://www.ourcoolhouse.com/) This is one sweet system.

Eric D

The cost for hydronic heat plus A/C will be expensive. Of course zoning the system is also a big expense and each zone will need to be properly sized, this is often not done right, and bypass dampers are inefficient. Have you considered geo thermal. With the newer two stage equipment you can oversize the system for heat and when the A/C is running in first stage it will still do a good job dehumidifying. With good duct design you can do a good job keeping uniform heat through out the home without zones, that is if floorplan is not to extravagant.