New home heating and AC

carbon70

I am buying a ~50 year old single-family house. It has steam heat in the 1st floor and hot water(using electricity)in the 2nd floor. Window AC. ~1500sq. I am considerring to install central AC and convert whole system to hot water although my budge is pretty tight. I think steam may be noisy and hot air just too dry. Any advice and estimation about this.

ed wallace

heat and A/C upgrade

steam heat when installed correctly is silent heat if you have noises you should correct them same goes for hot water heat if you do central A/C you will need 2 systems 1 for each floor unless you have space in the attic to drop down duct to work to the 1st floor problem is 1 system means you lose either closet space or wall space for duct work

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GMcD

Budget for envelope upgrades

If the existing heating system is in good shape, take your budget and upgrade the envelope, from simple low cost efforts like plugging up and sealing air leaks, then roof/attic insulation, to replacing the windows with low-e triple glazing. You can take the $$ for converting the heating system and apply them to the envelope and cut your heat losses way down, and with window tints or exterior shading, reduce the heat gains so AC may not be needed. Then you save big energy $$ for the remainder of the life of the house.

carbon70

Thanks Ed & Geoff.
Ed, I agree with you. I may need two AC units.
I don't think the existing system is in good system. In the 1st floor, one radiator is missing. The 2nd floor has baseboard for hot water, but it is heated by electricity. It is weird, doesn't it?
I prefer to convert whole system to hot water unless it's much more expensive than converting it to steam.
How difficult to install hot water system?

ed wallace

converting

hard to say how hard to convert to baseboard heat with out lookig at the house you say it has baseboard yet is heated by electricity im kind of confused by that statement

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Mike T., Swampeast MO

If the downstairs rooms are nicely open to one another and there's an open staircase it's quite possible that a single A/C system in the upper floor with a big return and plenty of supply in the ceiling of the stairhall will work well.

I've felt such in homes significantly larger than you mention and it works surpisingly well even in our extremely warm and humid climate.

Techman

Heat and heat

HI. How about a nice dutcless split for AC ,if it fits your application.