Oil HW Baseboard to electric heat?
I have an old cape that had a second floor living space added with shed dormers about 30 yrs ago. I’m in the midst of a long term remodel and am thinking about changing the upstairs heat, or even the entire house. We just added a good size master bed and bath to the first floor and the quote for fin tube is $5000.00. Seems awful expensive to me for adding a zone to my existing system (new zone controller? too) and cleaning up some of the wiring, which does look like a birds nest. The wife and I are empty nesters but our granddaughter is here 4-5 days a week. Once the downstairs master br is done she’ll be the only one sleeping upstairs. The house is 2 zones,1 up 1 down, so on the days GD is here I’m heating the entire second floor to keep one room comfy. Additionally, some of the work on the 2nd fl addition is on the shoddy side, the copper pipe is 30 years old and runs through the very leaky knee wall closets etc. I’m wondering if it would be prudent to tear out the upstairs HW BB now and add electric baseboard w/ a thermostat in each room. Aside from the cost/ efficiency factor I’m also concerned about those 30 yo pipes eventually leaking on my new t&g ceiling. Based on the price I got for the MB heat, replacing the upstairs hw heat is probably out of the question. The boiler is about 12 yrs old. I’m open to any suggestions. Thanks in advance, Dave
Replies
Lots of options available without tearing out the upstairs HWBB. There are enough experts here to make my simple ideas irrelevant but that's never stopped me from adding my two cents so....
I'd probably first try putting the upstairs zone/thermostat on a very low setting and adding heat to the one bedroom with a small electric/ceramic heater, possibly wall mounted. They're safe, inexpensive to buy and pretty efficient.
That's a pretty good solution when the guest living situation is potentially changeable.
Edited 8/3/2009 11:59 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
Thanks for your thoughts Hudson, are these heaters hard wired or plug in?
They're available both ways. Google Ceramic Electric Heaters.
Edited 8/3/2009 11:14 pm by Hudson Valley Carpenter