our house was built around 1982 with electric baseboard radiant heating - and a previous owner added forced air - so we have both.
Adding the forced air must have cost a fortune - and closet space and other spaces lost, and compromises including air ducts running through the attic.
We rarely use the baseboard heating.
I'd recommend getting even a rough estimate of what adding forced air would cost - we now have an estimate of about 8K just to redo some some the ducts running through attic.
BTW - we live in WI

Our first house had baseboard and it was ok. I also grew up with baseboard. If you like the house, don't let it be a deterrent. For under $5K, you could add two heat pumps and use the baseboard as a secondary heat source while solving your A/C problem. You could also look into a pellet stove.

Ask to see the electricity bills for a few years prior to house was sold. Electric heat is expensive.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Bought a house last year with radiant heat. I had debated replacing it. I like it better then forced air. They went overboard with the radiators in our house but they also built them into the walls so they are out of the way. It heats the house up quickly, isn't dry like forced and I'm guessing is a little more efficient. Downside is there's the squeaking/noises that go along with the pipes expanding and such. It's not at all bad in our house but I did have to put insulation on one pipe (one spot ) that was noisy when we bought the place. You have to bleed them from time to time but that's pretty easy with water. Is it water or steam? Steam is a little more work I believe. At least according to what one of my partners describes with his place.

Other downside is adding AC which we haven't done yet. I've gotten quotes for 22-25K for new heat/air and around 15K for just air.

Any specific questions let me know.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

Is it electric or a boiler baseboard heating system? Boiler systems are very efficient and have the added benefit of having separate zones so you don't have to heat your entire house. We have a boiler baseboard heating system in upstate NY. The only downside is not having central AC...but the truth of the matter is, we only need to cool our house for 3-4 weeks total during the summer. We only use the window AC units when its hot or disgustingly humid. It's also not as dry during the heating months compared to forced hot air (which our last house was).

Admittedly, I do miss central air.

$5k? Shit, you can't even get an HVAC guy to spit in your driveway for that kind of money.

A co-worker got an estimate this week, one outside unit and two interior heat pumps, one for each floor, for $4,500. We looked into them last year but the price of oil was so low, we decided to wait. We have oil baseboard and a woodstove. If you research heat pumps they're very efficient accept for when the temp gets below 15-20 degrees.

Depends where you are. You can get a 22,000 btu wall mounted unit installed for around $3000 here. You could probably get 2 head units in a house under 2000 sq ft for $5k.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

 
Ah I guess you are referring to ductless systems. I thought you were stating $5k for ducts and a system. That'd be insanely cheap.

Our damn house was built on a slab so all the vents on the lower level are in the ceiling, which of course makes it a bugger to heat and then our bedroom is upstairs too. So you get to wear a parka downstairs in the living room while the gas furnace turns the upstairs bedroom into an inferno. It is real neat.

We had an HVAC guy out to ask about installing more vents downstairs as they skimped on number of vents as well. The sticker shock made the temps easier to deal with.

Spent 14 years renting different houses in NW Europe. First house in England had natural gas fired hot water radiators. Not baseboard radiators, these were about 3 ft tall. Had to bleed the steam from the top of the radiators every now and then but that wasn't a big deal. Really liked that system.

Went to Germany and had a whacky system with lava rocks in wall units. The rocks were electrically heated at night and during the day fans would blow warmish air into the room. The electric bill was huge and we were never warm in the winter.

Back to England and we moved into an 18th century cottage with no central heat. We burned a couple of tons of coal every winter in the kitchen and living room fireplaces and we wore sweaters all day. Never really warm in the winter, but pretty economical!

Back to Germany again. Some sort of electric heating elements in the floor of the house. Stayed nice and warm but large electric bill in the winter months.

I don't know how this applies in your case other than to check the utility costs. Heating with electricity has always been expensive in my experience.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Thanks for the feedback!

It is a boiler based system, not sure water or steam, house was built in 1965 so it's not the really old stuff. There is a good sized wall AC unit (Looks like a window AC but built into a wall) at the top of the stairs to the second story which I would imagine isn't that cheap to run. When we did a walk through with our realtor last weekend around 2pm, it was 90° and humid outside and it was pretty comfortable in the house.

I did a google search on the High Velocity mini duct systems and, from what I found, the cost is less that 8k and the ducts can typically be run through interior walls pretty easily. So that might be an alternative to a traditional system.

Thank guys.

Not true, we just had our entire HVAC system replaced for $8K and change for a 2 stage 16 SEER system. If we did not need a system that nice we could have easily ended up with a system for less than $5K, particularly if the system would only supplement the existing system.

That is pretty unusual for that age in Michigan. I grew up with forced air. Had forced air in California. Have had hydronic in Massachusetts.

Hydronic is much more comfortable in the winter, not as dry.

8K total or per floor ?

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

DO NOT DO THIS.

Pellet stoves are a gigantic pain in the ass.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Only if you live in Ontario.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Don't know, that was just a quick google search of avg cost of a system in my zip code, nothing else. If we do move on this house I would hit up some HVAC contractors I know to get me more exact pricing before we make the final decision on our offer.

Not really my style. Also, forgot to mention there is a fireplace in the living room (gas) and in the basement (wood).

Can you install a pellet stove and store pellets in a garage? We love our stove and it heard our entire 2500 sq. Ft. House

I've been a HVAC guy for the best part of 15 years, and my dream system would be a gas-fired boiler with hydronic panels. The Euro style continuous flow setup can be remarkably efficient - get a boiler upgrade and you're in business.

Wall ACs can be a pain in the arse to replace - you not only have to get new units, but you've also got a hole to fill...

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I will let you down.

I love radiant floor heat and had it in the house we just moved from. Initially it was all baseboard heat and probably 20 years ago I converted the entire lower floor to under the floor radiant heat which, IMO, is the best heating system out there. Despite having an old boiler, seriously leaky house and poorly insulated to boot our heating bills where generally not ridiculous. The down side is that for A/C you are stuck with window units or Mini-splits.

We looked at mini splits for a long time and due to the age of the boiler, original in 1968, the cost of the mini splits plus the probability of the boiler going out was considerably more expensive then the cost of running duct work and putting in a new central AC and heat unit. The cost of the mini-split system sans install was pretty close the cost of what we paid for ducts, AC and central forced.

I love, love, love radiant heat particular under the floor. A new version boiler in a well sealed and insulated modern house would be, IMO, the best possible heating in the world. I wish there was some way to use the same system to cool but you then have condensation issues.

I would never shy away from a home with radiant heat particularly if the system and boiler is relatively new and well maintained. I would include considerable cost for AC either mini split or Hi-velocity.

~Matt

In floor radiant heat is awesome. The only downside is lack of ac. but as strictly a heating option, I think it's the best. Quiet, effecient, and the most even, pleasant heat you can get.

When we bought our 50's place the basement was unfinished. We tore out the old oil tank and furnace and went mini split upstairs, electric baseboard for the suite downstairs (they're on a separate meter so cost doesn't effect us. We also insulated and sealed the shit out of the basement so cost is minimal anyway). If I had the cash upfront to go radiant I would have in a heartbeat. I would have axed the electric water tank, gone gas tankless and in floor radiant upstairs, radiant baseboard downstairs. Total cost would have been around 25k, but essentially we would have re-plumbed the entire upper house, added a kitchen and bath downstairs and replaced the heating to something more efficient in one swoop.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Total for a single story house, approx. 2,300 sq. ft.

Seems like a good way to go, not bad, just different. In my other internet research I didn't find a huge show stopper so you guys helped to confirm that.

I'm definitely going to get some quotes on ductless systems before putting in an offer just to see where we are at on the whole AC thing.

Thanks for the input!