[thaumasiotes]

> You're thinking of forced hot air systems

> Also, in a forced hot water system, there is no air circulation at all. 100% of the air involved is heated and goes straight up the chimney.

Without disputing your other points, this isn't right. I'm not thinking of any particular style of system. The point of every heating system is to release heat into the air. The problem people experience is that the air they occupy is too cold, and the solution is to heat that air. The point of a system that circulates hot water through your building, or your apartment, or anywhere, is that the hot water will release heat into the air there. Heating the air is the only goal regardless of whether the system involves circulating any air.

The point that you can lose heat by venting hot combustion waste to the external atmosphere is well taken.

[quesera]

I think we were talking about furnace efficiency. This is measured without respect to the heating distribution elements. You don't need to have a distribution system connected to measure furnace efficiency.

So when I said that 100% of the air involved in a forced hot water system is used for combustion and exhausted, I mean the air at the furnace, not the air that is indirectly heated in the living space.

Agreed that the goal is to heat the living space though, including the air. A forced hot air system does that directly (pushing heated air into living space), and forced hot water does so indirectly (pushing hot water into radiators in living space, which heat the air by convection).

Radiant floor heat is another example where there's no air at the heat source.