Talk to me about radiant heat

[SSLEVO]

So the wife and i will be in the market to buy a house in the next few months. Every time she sees a radiator or oil heat she automatically says "NO" lol.

I know an oil boiler would be god awful expensive but it would work until you could convert it to forced air.

What about an air exchanger? It seems like you would want to move some fresh air around.

I have been looking info foreclosures but i am a little scared about them having mold problems from sitting so long. This one looks like you could make it into a pretty sweet property but they mention some discoloration so some drywall and carpets will probably have to go.

http://www.emmerrealestate.idxco.com/idx/3879/photoGallery.php?idxID=086&listingID=1170917

The wife hates it, i could see a sweet mx track sweeping the property:headbang

[WI_Dave]

A newer efficient oil boiler would not be that expensive to use. I work with a lady who swears hers is cheaper than using WE gas on her other property. I dont think converting it to forced air would be very cost effective, there will be no outlet or return ducts anywhere ect. Upgrading the existing system might be an option to check into if its older and inefficient.

I bought a foreclosure almost 2 years ago in Feb. and the banks real estate agent actually had a plumber winterize it and kept it heated to 50 degrees. I wish they would all do that.

[theavenger333]

A newer efficient oil boiler would not be that expensive to use.

correct. my parent's house in shorewood was oil heated. we ran on a "budget" plan, which included them tuning the furnace up every year, and they delivered oil on demand. you also could have them come an fill the tank if the oil price dropped. that was only with this plan, which you paid a set fee all year round with Jacobus. when we moved, a guy we knew bought the house, he had gas put in, and the overall cost has been minimally lower. he's pretty pissed about it. overal if the boiler is in good shape, and is well maintained, it really isn't THAT awful

[flyin_blue_egg]

The big prob. w/ radiators is you gotta worry bout them w/ kids. My aunt had them in her old house, and they kept the house (fairly old victorian style) pretty warm. But I made the mistake as a kid of accidentaly touching the radiator and it hurt like hell.

[Korndogg]

I'd take radiant heat over forced air any day. It is an even heat, there are no fluctuations like forced air. Also forced air, all you do is "burn air" and then then dump it in to your house will all kinds of other allergens and dust.

[jbiscuit]

^ this!

[pOrk]

I also prefer radiant heat, switching to forced air from radiant will cost 5k+ cost a friend 8600 to add ac to his radiant heated house

[Car Guy]

In floor radiant heat > ANYTHING.....

[SSLEVO]

What about air exchange? Seems like the air would get rather stagnent.

[Korndogg]

There are PLENTY of spots in a house where air will come in. It will come in through every crack and crevice, which is good. Some new houses are TOO sealed and don't let any air infiltrate the house and then mold develops and all of that.

[awsomeears]

Natural Gas Boilers are BEAUTIFUL !!!!

Perfect setup would be the large cast iron Radiators, heat those suckers up and you'd be surprise how long they radiant heat. Plus you can have a outdoor reset installed so when the temp outside gets to the mid 40s and up the boiler will not run as hard like a 10 degree January night

Copper Slant Fin baseboard would be the lesser of radiator, personally If I'd buy a house and this crap was in it I would swap it out with Cast Iron baseboard. IMO copper heats up way to fast and Cools down even faster....

The new boilers we are installing at work are %95 and they have a 14 Gallon water heater inside of them, you wanna talk about something Fucking COOL check it out !!!

The guys have installed at least 20 of them in the past 1.5 years and out customers can't get over how well they work, definitely a product that holds up to its praise and " Cool Feature "

Essentially its a on demand hot water heater, the recovery rate is quick and its running at 95% efficient because that's is what the Boiler runs at..

Most Boiler installs are in the range of 10K to 11.5K

The product is a Canadian design and uses all Stainless Steel, product is called

Triangle Tube Excellence :banana

[awsomeears]

I'd take radiant heat over forced air any day. It is an even heat, there are no fluctuations like forced air. Also forced air, all you do is "burn air" and then then dump it in to your house will all kinds of other allergens and dust.

Agree !!!


There are PLENTY of spots in a house where air will come in. It will come in through every crack and crevice, which is good. Some new houses are TOO sealed and don't let any air infiltrate the house and then mold develops and all of that.

Agree !!!

I'd take a 1950's era home over any new shit that is built today, not only will it outlast the new crap it can breathe

[Rocket Power]

We have Natural Gas radiant heat, my boiler is about 10 years old. It runs in the bathroom floor (which is awesome) and in the walls. My house was built in the 50's. Eventually I'd like to switch it too run under the floors throughout the house.

It def would be better if I didn't still have the 1950's windows still in the house:rolf

[pOrk]

I installed energy efficient elcheapo singlehung windows from menards in my 1951 house, 11 windows cost me 1100 and the difference is incredible

[awsomeears]

Yea Eric is so right, even cheap energy efficient windows are better then originals, today's minimum standards are probably 10 times better... LOL !!!

[theavenger333]

not to mention better fit, open and close better, screens are decent, look nice, clean better yada yada yada. i'll NEVER undertand why people don't replace windows, yes they can be costly, but the positives FAR outweigh the negatives and the cost

[wrath]

I've got a Utica boiler with a Beckett AF burner with a 1GPH nozzle. The baseboard heat in all but the kitchen are made of 16 gauge stamped steel. The intent is to be like a cast iron radiator but less obnoxious. They stick out from the wall 2.5" and are 10" tall. They look like a box against the wall.

The first month we burned up about 100 gallons of fuel oil. I still don't have curtains and the house is full of windows but initially we had a lot of doors and windows open. It is a nice heat. I prefer forced air but I'm not going to replace the boiler. I'm going to put an outside air kit on the boiler to help with the efficiency a bit. This summer I'm going to tear apart the burner and see if it's working to its best because curiosity has gotten the best of me. The chimney is full of oily soot so I'm thinking it isn't getting enough air and there is a lot of smoke. I don't have a CO2 meter to adjust the air band so I'm going to have to have someone check it.

I also have insulated all the pipes. That really helped for the amount of time the radiators put out worthwhile heat.

We've been heating with wood in the evenings and weekends. I'm hoping to get to the point of heating most of the time with wood. At which point it doesn't matter what the primary heating system is.

I'd be wary of a junk boiler or a poorly installed plumbing setup.