My husband and I have an old victorian. We don't know exactly how old the house actually is. The deed says, "built prior to 1902." The house was built before the town hall, so who knows? We did however find some love letters in one of the walls that were dated August 11th, 1889. So we think it must be at least that old.
The house has been added three times over the years. Which is easily visable because the attic is unfinished. So it's easy to see where the roof lines have been added to over the years. So far we have put on a new roof and put insulation in the rooms we have gutted. The rooms we haven't gotten to yet have no insulation unfortunately.
Okay, there is a little background on the house. I'm not sure if you needed to know that or not, but I decided to include the info incase it might make a difference in any advice I might receive.
We plan to install a new heating system as our next project. However, we are undecided about which kind of system to go with. We are leaning towards electric heat because natural gas in our area (northern Michigan) is 0.729 per CCF and electric is 0.078 per KWH.
We are thinking that it would be considerably cheaper to run, but we may be mistaken. Which is why we are here asking for some advice. If we did switch to electric heat, which is the best way to go? Also, if anyone can give us some good brands to research, that would be great. Because there are SO many different brands and everyone says they are the best to use.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, because this is our first home and we are completely clueless!
Thanks in advance,
LisaMichelle & Adam

 

Are you planning to add central A/C at any time in the future? If so, forced air is probably the cheapest way to go. A heatpump with either electric or gas backup would provide economical heating and cooling. The furnace(s) can be installed in the attic and/or basement. Look for a furnace/air handler with variable speed blower to minimize temperature variations and provide quieter more economical operation.

If you have no plans for A/C (or even if you do and have enough money to install separate systems), the ideal heat is a hydronic radiant floor system - heated water is circulated through plastic pipes (PEX tubing) under the floor. Boilers come in many shapes and sizes and can be gas, electric or oil. PEX can be run in existing walls and retro-fitted under existing floors usually with little disruption.

Having lived with electric baseboards for many years as a kid, I'm not real fond of them. They do the job, but tend to heat the ceiling more than the rest of the room and the floor never warms up.

Be sure to use a qualified HVAC pro for the installation of the system no matter what you go with.

Doug M.

 

With my figures Nat Gas is way cheaper. A kwh of electricity has approximately 3412 BTU's. A cubic foot of Nat Gas has approximately 1027 BTU's. Note that the rate for Nat Gas is per hundred cubic feet. My calculator says its an easy choice. Make sure the Nat Gas rate is correct. Good luck.

 

We have checked on the radiant heating for the floors, unfortunately it isn't an option. We want to keep the stone floors in the house and the house was built in three seperate sections with three seperate foundations and no way to get from one to the next without tearing up the floors. (very small crawl spaces and only a small "Michigan basement" which is about 6x6 feet.)We have had several people out for estimates and in our case it is completely cost prohibitive.
We have no plans for central air as where we live it just isn't nessasary.

 

What type of heat do you have now? Have you considered hot water baseboards or radiators? They can be connected with PEX too making them almost as easy to install as electric and it would be easy to add rooms on as you insulate them.

Electric baseboards are rarely a less expensive way to heat. They're usually more of a last resort when installation of other options is either impossible or cost prohibitive. I'm not sure you've reached that point with your house yet.

Doug M.

 

At the moment we have a natural gas forced air furnace. However, there is no venting in the unfinished second floor which we plan to finish. And only vent into each of the downstairs rooms. The furnace is over 20 years old and not very energy efficient. It still works, but we would like to replace before next winter. We really don't want to go with another forced air furnace.
Thank you for replying. We had thought about hot water baseboards, but we don't really have alot of room for a boiler. Are there smaller boilers available? Once again, any suggestions that could point us into the right direction for research would be great.

 

The boiler would take up less space than your furnace does. Sounds like the best option for you.