Electric baseboard heat and hot water baseboard heat will feel the same. Gas fired hot water will be cheaper to run, likely even with the solar.

The advantage to forced air is that you can easily install a whole house humidifier and combine it with air conditioning. Ductwork and such are not all that $$$ on a ranch with an attic as long as you don’t mind ceiling registers, but if you don’t like forced air then replacing the boiler with a high efficiency gas model will be your best move.

I think Jack Frost did this recently. Perhaps he’ll chime in.

it looks like it's only about $8k to replace a boiler on a house this size. this makes me wonder if there is more to this than a boiler that needs replacing. it could be the entire system needs to be replaced, not just the boiler. the sellers should disclose everything they know about it.

steve, i totally would prefer to just replace the boiler. we'll see what they will disclose.

wondering what we can do for air conditioning? especially if solar works fine in the summer, we could do in-wall units, I suppose, and not spend much to run them. we don't really need a/c here unless the forest fire smoke gets bad and you can't open the windows.

The condition of the piping/radiators is going to be key. It’s fairly easy to pressure test the system - maybe work out a way to have that done.

Wall units should work nicely if you don’t need A/C often. You could also install wall mounted heat pumps that will not only provide air conditioning but will also provide winter heat fairly efficiently at outdoor temps over about 30 degrees. There may now be wall units that perform down to about zero - I know there are central units, not sure about wall units.

They blow air like forced air units but might be a way to take advantage of the solar setup as long as it doesn’t get too cold.

Ugh, pique, I’m so sorry about this development.

Regarding the piano, where will it go? Is it a close-able space? Because if so, a free standing humidifier could work in the winter. There are cheap ones of course, but they have several drawbacks. I used a Venta this winter, which I think worked ok and would work much better in a room with a door. It’s an evaporative system, you put water in the take and there’s a fan that moves a roller with blades (they call it a disk stack), the roller picks up water as it turns from the fan and the water evaporates from the blades. Unlike the cheaper ones, this one doesn’t need to have water added as often (like only once or twice a week instead of once or twice a day) and it doesn’t leave dust everywhere the way a steam humidifier does. Oh and there’s no filter, which means it’s easier to clean and doesn’t carry the health risks that you get when there’s a filter for bacteria to grow in.

I put my Venta near the piano in a fairly open space (living that flows to dining room to kitchen, with an open stairwell) which is not ideal for adding humidity but it worked ok. I also installed a dampp chaser on the piano, the kind that both adds humidity and dehumidifies depending on conditions. In the cold months, I had to add water to the dampp chaser maybe once a week. Your place will be colder and drier, so if went this route, you would probably need to add water to both a DC and free-standing humidifier more often.

Also, re the heating options, I read a little bit about cold climate heat pumps, which I think is a pretty new technology. I think you’d want a dual fuel system IIRC. I don’t know if that would be an option for you there, but just throwing it out there in case it might be helpful.Maybe Steve knows about them?

Good luck and keep us posted!

Beautiful house. Great town. Perseverance pays off.

Did they take the radiant heaters out of the rooms? Doesn't sound like they would have done that if they didn't install baseboard heaters. if the infrastructure is still in place, it should be pretty easy to get the boiler replaced and running. The house doesn't look so old that the pipes and radiators would be bad.

Piqué, I hope you can resolve the heating issues and get the house in Missoula that you've been pining for.

Big Al

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
The condition of the piping/radiators is going to be key. It’s fairly easy to pressure test the system - maybe work out a way to have that done.

Wall units should work nicely if you don’t need A/C often. You could also install wall mounted heat pumps that will not only provide air conditioning but will also provide winter heat fairly efficiently at outdoor temps over about 30 degrees. There may now be wall units that perform down to about zero - I know there are central units, not sure about wall units.

They blow air like forced air units but might be a way to take advantage of the solar setup as long as it doesn’t get too cold.

mr pique and i are both getting pretty stressed out about all this.

the listing agent says the boiler works. so there has to be a reason they are running space heaters IN EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE all winter instead of using the boiler. If the hot water heating system runs fine, then it must be pretty expensive to run the boiler for heat. I am insisting that they tell us what it costs.

our agent is insisting that we just go ahead with the inspection (to the tune of close to $1,500 for everything), even though there is no way in hell I am running space heaters to heat the house. I don't care if it costs zero with the solar kickbacks from the power company.

so our agent insists we can ask for money to put in mini-splits if needed. But we can't ask in advance if they'll do that (why would they pay for that??). I just did a little research on mini-splits--enough to convince me that I don't want to heat my house with mini-splits.

that means the boiler has to heat the house in winter. the inspector can tell us if it is functioning and/or needs replacement, but he can't tell us what it costs to heat the house with the current boiler. and our agent says she will ask, but keeps saying she doesn't know if we can get that info "and let's just go ahead with the inspection."

this is really ticking me off.

heat pumps do not work in montana, is my understanding. we get down to 50 below zero some winters. uh-uh. and mini-splits apparently require a lot of maintenance, cause mold, and have a lifespan of only ten years. what a stupid idea.

what is really annoying is my agent's attitude of "just let me do this the way I do it and trust my expertise."

central heating is not a small matter. it 's downright critical in our climate.

I have to go now and create .pdfs of all our financial accounts to send to the lender.

Moi aussi. I know you won't but don't try space heaters. You'd freeze to death. I've used them and even here it was complicated and uncomfortable. My grandparents' house in upstate New York had steam radiators. It's the best, far and away, imo. My Dad's house has electric baseboard. It wasn't bad.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
Beautiful house. Great town. Perseverance pays off.

Did they take the radiant heaters out of the rooms? Doesn't sound like they would have done that if they didn't install baseboard heaters. if the infrastructure is still in place, it should be pretty easy to get the boiler replaced and running. The house doesn't look so old that the pipes and radiators would be bad.

thanks, Mik. the house was built in 1948. They replaced all the plumbing. I think the radiators are original, just judging from pictures. they are still there. A high-efficiency new boiler would likely run about $10k. That should be an easy gimme since we are paying $30k over asking. my concern is if the lines and radiators all work, which hopefully the inspector will investigate.

hi SK, there are two living rooms. The piano will go in one of them. Probably the one without a fireplace, if the fireplace is functional. The one with the fireplace has a perfect piano spot, though--under the row of track lights where the ceiling drops down a bit. That room also could have french doors put in the entry to be able to enclose the space.

But we love having fires in the winter. We'll be going from three fireplaces to one, and I'm sure if it is usable we'll want to use it. So, we'll find that out with the inspection.

i have a venta airwasher. i've used it for many years, replaced the parts a few times, too. it works great, but when it gets super duper dry here i have to also add a cheep vaporizer to keep the humidity above 30 percent.

quote:

Originally posted by big al:
Piqué, I hope you can resolve the heating issues and get the house in Missoula that you've been pining for.

Big Al

thanks, al.

Pique, why is the inspection so expensive? Because you’re having different pros come out for each concern?

there's the basic house inspection
there's the well and water inspections
there's the radon inspection
there's the septic tank and line inspection

Ugh, yeah, that's a lot of inspections, but it's an older home, so it makes sense to do them each individually.

BTW re your earlier comment:

quote:

what is really annoying is my agent's attitude of "just let me do this the way I do it and trust my expertise."

This would kind of drive me crazy.

I had a moment of friction with my real estate agent as well.

I get that she's the expert, and she's been doing this, in this community, for a very long time.

But at the end of the day, it's my money, and if anything goes wrong, I'm the one who has to deal with it.

I felt like she wasn't sufficiently aware of that reality. And of how precarious things can feel for the buyer in a way that they never are for the agent.

I would guess that your agent is perhaps similar where this is concerned.

I also think that sometimes agents tend to have a view that anything can be fixed. Well, yeah, maybe but...