What would you suggest for a new heating system?

Joe Brix

now leaves you with wall repair and the need for new moulding.
Hydronic baseboard can cover most of that up. Radiant flooring might be an option for some of the rooms, but you're looking at a large conversion expense.

Joyce_2

new heating system questions

Our home was built in 1976 with baseboard heaters. We have used mostly wood and wood pellets for the last 28 years. We would like to try a cleaner, more efficient heating system. Unfortunately, we don't have duct work in place. Do you have any suggestions?

ALH_4

The Wall

Do you have a finished basement? How many levels are there in your home? Is natural gas available?

For a retrofit, in general I like a modulating condensing boiler coupled to steel panel radiators with thermostatic radiator valves. It saves running thermostat wires and requires a minimum of piping.

joel_19

???

When you say baseboard do you mean electric heat??? because baseboard could also be oil or gas.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Tom Hopkins

Joyce...

Do each one of those baseboards have thier own little thermostat?

Joyce_2

Thanks so much for your reply. Yes, the basement is finished. Only two levels. 1700 square feet total. Electric baseboards with individual thermostats were original. The thermostats and wiring is still intact. No natural gas available in our area. Propane could be an option.

Boilerpro_5

I echo Andrew's recommendations

and I wouldn't worry about pulling out the baseboards...Just turn them down. That way if you do have heating system trouble, the baeboards can provide back up heating.

Boilerpro

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Steamhead (in transit)

Propane is not a good value

on a cost-per-BTU basis. Plus it's heavier than air and can accumulate in the basement if a leak develops. This can result in an explosion.

In your situation I'd go with an oil-fired boiler, which can burn biodiesel once it's UL-approved for that use. The boiler can also drive an indirect heater for your hot faucet water, which will give you more hot water at less operating cost than an electric heater.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Nick S

Where?

Where are located? Where you live has an impact on the type of heating system that will be most cost effective. What are your elec rates? Propane, oil?

ALH_4

Fuel

Oil will beat propane on a cost basis, and if you have the room oil may be the way to go. Depending on the space you have available, a propane mod/con may be the only appealing option. I doubt a 1700sf house has much spare room for mechanical equipment.

Calculate your heating load from electric bills as far back as you have. Subtract the summer electricity use from the winter use and you should have a reasonable estimate of your energy use each year. Then compare how much that energy would cost with electricity or with propane. I suspect it will take many years to recover the investment of installing a heating system, but it is worth doing the math at this point.

Weezbo

oil is the best choise, now....

i remove all the electric base board.

properly sized hydronic baseboard and a mixing control strategy with say an I series R 3 or 4 way mixer from Taco would be a fairly decent system that would likely be heads and shoulders above the electric costs.... perhaps so much so , that you would have a ROI within the second year..

as a guess.

John MacGregor_2

New system

You didn't say where you are located, but if you have a well for your water supply or some vacant land around the house for a pipe loop, you may be a candidate for Geothermal. You will be getting away from your dependence on the vagaries of OPEC and all that that entails.Fossil fuels can do nothing but escalate at increasingly dramatic rates, electric will be much slower.
As long as you are looking at an entirely new system, take a serious look at Geothermal. The cost of operation can be significantly less than electric, oil or gas. Up to 75% lower operating cost.
Do NOT hire an amateur to do the installation.

joel_19

Geo

in my area electric is out escalating oil and gas,75% savings??? Could you please show some math that explains how Geo heating is 75% cheaper with 18C a kilowatt electric V.S oil at 2.50-3.0$ a gallon. Please convert that cost per kilowatt to 140,000BTU.

Since in my area the majority of electricity is derived from imported fuel sources could you also explain how Geo removes us from having to worry about those fuel sources? If you had PV power plants or Nuc's I could understand your rational but since we don't I'd like that explained a little further,thank you.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

geoboy

Actually, the economics may work for geothermal if you can absorb the high initial cost of installation.

Assuming oil costs $2.50 /gal., and your boiler is 80% efficient, you are paying $2.23 per 100,000 btus. Assuming that electricity is $.18 / kw-hr, and that 1 kw-hr of electricity yields 3412 btus, your cost per 100,000 btus would be 100,000 /3,412 x $.18, or $5.28 IF you were running standard resistance electric heat. BUT a geothermal heat pump runs at a coefficient of performance typically between 3 and 4. This means that using such a system you get between 3 and 4 times as much heat from the electricity consumed as if you had used your existing electric baseboards. Assuming a COP of 3, your cost is now $5.28 / 3, or $1.76 per 100,000 btus.

When we faced replacement of our large-scale geothermal system four years ago, we had our engineer perform a feasibilty study as to whether we should continue the use of geothermal. (Of course, this was before the large increases in fuel costs in the wake of hurricane Katrina.) In our case it made sense to stay with geothermal, and we still believe today that we made the right choice. Of coarse, we already had our geothermal infrastructure in place. Nonetheless, if you are in it for the long haul (so to speak) and you live in an area where electricity prices are relatively stable, it may work for you.

Joyce_2

Hydronic baseboards

Please explain. I've never heard of hydronic baseboards. We have radiant heat in the studio of our garage. OK, I guess, no complaints, really. A couple of the bedrooms have cove fixtures. I really don't want the cove fixtures in my living areas. We live in rural Wyoming, in the oil and gas-rich NE corner. Currently, electricity isn't too expensive- well below the national average I am told. I am not interested in coal- lived that way as a kid- messy. We are looking for something less labor intensive than wood. Cleaner than coal. I am thrilled by all the responses. Any thoughts on Infra Red Heating systems?