Cost Effectiveness of New Hot Air Heating System

John Madden

You have come to the right/wrong place to get help. The best suggestion I can make is to go to the contractor section of this page,locate a listed contractor that serves your area, set up an appointment with them, then LISTEN carefully to his/her suggestions!
Most of us that frequent this "tableau" are "wetheads" and deal mostly with "hydronic" (hot water) heating systems. There are so many options available to you today it could make your head swim. Remember in your quest that quality does cost more up front, but long term rewards are well worth it. Good luck with your project

Tom Ciccone

Cost Effectiveness of New Hot Air Heating System

My wife and I are retired, living in a 35 yr old home in Morgan Hill, CA; we plan to live here indefinitely. During our winter months the outside temperature can be 30 to 40 degrees F. Our home is approx. 2,600 sq/ft and has a crawl space where sheet metal ducts carry the hot air heat to each room. Is it cost effective to install insulation beneath our subfloor (3/4" plywood flooring topped with 3/4" hard wood flooring), and/or installing a new, more efficient, hot air heating system with new, better insulated ducts? The current ducts are insulated with some type of fiber-glass (?) material wrapped around their exterior, but many have been damaged over the years by those needing access to our crawl space.

Steamhead

Tom, if you're considering

a new system, you can't do better than in-floor radiant hot-water heat. You will wonder how you survived with that scorched-air system.

Sure, radiant is more expensive to install, but the greater comfort and lower energy costs are well worth it. Next best would be hot-water using cast-iron baseboards.

You can leave the ducts in place and use them for your air-conditioning. And yes, I'd insulate everything well- energy costs will only go up.

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