older house hot water heat

The only thing I am aware of on those systems is from watching "Ask This Old House".?ÿ Rich Trethewey helped some folks out with a banging sound.?ÿ There were some super simple seeming things such as leveling that make a difference in the noises they make.

Lots of videos from "Ask TOH" on those systems.?ÿ Would recommend a quick viewing of them to see what you might be getting into.

usually the age is of the lead or galvanized pipes, and unless a miracle happened or they replaced the pipes and radiatiors, all will have occlusion and eventually a leak or rupture.

otherwise water heat(glycol boiler/similar) is an outstanding way to heat.

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just like everything... maintenance is always key.

and knowing a good number or steam fitter that's savvy.

You should be fine.?ÿ How old is the boiler?

@jph?ÿ ?ÿlooked it up, its from 2007.?ÿ ?ÿAll the plumbing looks neat and tidy so i think that's a good thing.

Boilers are either steel or cast iron. Steel usually lasts around 25 years and then starts to leak. Cast iron lasts much longer.

Another issue is fuel. If you have fuel oil, the tank usually needs to be replaced every 25 years or so. Often homeowners don't take that into account and build walls, stairs, etc. that make it impossible to change the tank without demolition.

Finally, the most efficient way to heat these days is a heat pump. I've only seen those for hot/cool air, not hot water. But you need a fossil fuel heat system as a backup for the coldest days. Heat pumps with split/mini system can be added to older homes, if you have the money for it.

Which state are you in??ÿ If you do decide to go for a heat pump and you are in one of the colder parts of the US, make sure you get one that works in cold temperatures.?ÿ Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, and Daikin are all brands that work in Ontario if you get their cold temp versions.?ÿ We are currently installing Daikin's (ducted and non-ducted) for our new build.

My previous house had hot water/radiator system. Be sure to make sure the boiler has water in it every day. When the pipes/radiator starts clanging, it usually means that the boiler is low on water. The heat in winter was great. It dries out the air, so a good humidifier will help in the winter. Usually right away in the morning when the heat was kicking in I would drape my towel on the radiator in the bathroom and have a nice warm towel when my shower was done. The only downside we had, is that we didn't have central air for the summer.

@ashton?ÿ

Aren't you also in VT??ÿ I'm skeptical of heat pumps, would rather just have a boiler/furnace and a wood or pellet stove.

@jph I am in Vermont. The layout of my house doesn't lend itself to installing a wood or pellet stove.

My previous house was built with a boiler and tubes in the concrete floor, flat roof. I think something rusted out so the previous owner put on a sloped roof over the flat roof and added a forced air system with all of the ductwork in the attic and the registers in the ceiling. Worked well for A/C, but not so well for heating as the heat never reached the floor very well. Another issue was that we had roof leaks where the ductwork?ÿ cutouts were.?ÿ

I built my new house/office in 2009 in SW PA. Cold climate but not severe cold. I put in a geothermal system with a 5 ton and a 2.5 ton units, two zones on each. Works great, I spend $100/month averaged over the year to heat and cool a 6000 sq ft house. 70?ø in winter, 74?ø in summer. I also used insulated concrete forms for the outside walls of the basement and first floor, so that helped as well. The only drawback is that you don't want to be changing the temperature a lot, works best if I just set a temperature and leave it that the whole season. If we do go away in the winter, it takes a long time to come back up 10?ø or so. It does have auxiliary and emergency heat, which are just electric resistance elements. Seldom used except when changing the inside set temp by more than a few degrees. Had to put in a separate 200 amp service for the system. I have a monitor that collects data continuously for power consumption, with separate sensors for the house panel and the geothermal system panel. Here is a graph for a hot day (for this area) in July, high 93?ø, low 68?ø, the average was 79.6?ø. The green is the outside temperature. There is always a minimum load of about 180 watts for the two fans which run continuously. So that day I used 29 KW for cooling, which is about $3.00. Max of 6.37 KW, min of 0.18 kw.?ÿ

Interestingly, the consumption for the house panel was more, 33.7 kw, due to multiple computers running24/7 and a large refrigerator and freezer in the garage in addition to the kitchen unit. And it goes up at night due to all of the outdoor lighting.?ÿ

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The one problem I had was when the temperature dropped to -10?ø F. Both systems (which are totally independent of each other) shut down at -4?ø. Turns out they had connected the outside air temp sensor to the terminals for the compressor loop temp sensor. Easy fix.?ÿ

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@john-hamilton?ÿ ?ÿthat's really interesting.?ÿ is the monitor part of the system or something you added yourself?

I added it myself right after I moved in. I wanted to see exactly how much it was costing me. The geothermal system cost about 30% more to install, but I got a 30% tax credit which made it the same cost as a conventional system. At the time, natural gas cost more than it does now around here (due to marcellus shale coming on line), but I still think it saves me money every month.?ÿ