Hot water steam radiators vs electric baseboard

whiteke12

Live in northern Minnesota and am currently using City steam with four main floor and one upstairs radiator. Basement has residual heat from steam pipes. Cost of steam is getting expensive for the amount we use. Also used for hot water.

Cost of natural gas conversion is too high for me. We have pretty low electric rates and looking to remove three smaller radiators and putting in electric baseboard heaters to have a little steam heat and a little electric. Eventually get of steam hot water and go to an on demand.

Any thoughts on this?

Brewbeer

To help guide our thoughts, it would be helpful to know the heat load of the building, your cost for steam, and your cost for electricity.

FranklinD

Where in northern MN are you? I live right outside Duluth.

I can only think of one city up here with district steam, and that is Duluth (though not for long - the new owners of the steam utility have decided to retrofit to district hot water - not the best or the brightest at that particular company). They're supposed to start ditching the steam in the next 2-3 years.

As BB said, there is more info needed to tell you if it would be cost effective.

I have a friend nearby who has an 8" thick electrically heated slab (not electric boiler, but actual resistance wires in the slab) with four zones. The heaters are turned on at 9pm and run until 6-9am if needed, then the slab radiates the heat into the house during the day. The nighttime electric rate (storage rate?) is almost a third of standard rate. He says he does very well cost-wise. But the house is only 10-15 years old and built with that system in mind.

I think I'm paying around $0.107/kWh after the fees are factored in, probably similar for you if you're in the same area.

whiteke12

Steam is $18 a month plus $14.36 per m/pounds.
Electric is $11 a month plus $0.095/ kWh
Use on average in winter of 9-14 units of steam which includes hot water.

Heat is kept around 70 degrees with young kids.
House is basement with a story and half.

Located in Hibbing.

FranklinD

Boy that seems pretty pricey...but I could be wrong. Is it supplied by a local industry there? Sorry for the questions, but I think that's pretty interesting.

I'd advise doing a heat loss calculation, using something like the Slant Fin app, to see what your room-by-room heating needs are. That way you'd know what size electric baseboard you'd need for each room as well.

In my case, for say, my master bedroom, I have a heat loss (at design temp of -17 or so) of 11000 btu/hour to maintain 70*. That translates into about 3300 watts, so around $0.33 per hour (at $0.10/kWh) to operate. This might also require upgrades to electric service and wiring in the home. It looks like I'd end up using two 6 ft long 1500 watt electric baseboards (I currently have two cast iron radiators in this room with hot water heat -- this bedroom is large - 12'x23' with an 8' ceiling, so maybe a bad example).

I'm not familiar with the metering of district steam in terms of pounds...maybe someone else can chip in?

whiteke12

It is supplied by a govt owned PUC. It's a joke to be exact. They buy their power from MP and then sell the power they make back to MP.

Just getting frustrated with cost each month. An empty house still would yield about an $100 bill with base charges.

I have a 200 amp service with about 12 open breakers.

Thanks for the input. I will look into that app.

Steamhead

Electric baseboards present more of a fire hazard than radiators do. I would not want them in my house.

whiteke12

So the recommendation would be deal with situation I have because there really are no other solutions today other than electric. NG is not available yet.

Thanks all for input.