I already posted this in Attics, but didn't get any responses. Maybe someone here can help. We have given up on our original plan for heat. I am now considering electric heat or bringing the steam up to the attic. I need some cost/benefit advice on the choice. I am also open to any other suggestions. Electric: I don't like electric heat, at all. It will be more expensive to run, but the room will be used for a relatively few hours a day, and the room will not suck heat out of the rest of the house when unheated. I think it will be cheaper to install. I think it will heat the room more evenly and more quickly, but I have never had electric heat, so I am not certain about that. Steam: I love steam heat. I love the hisses and clanks. I know it will be expensive to install. I am afraid it will take much longer to heat the room. I think that if I have a single radiator, the room will heat unevenly; I don't want a cast radiator in the attic. [Are there baseboard steam heating units?] I don't know how I could turn it on from the second floor [to let the room warm up before I go up there]. Any advice, insights, or alternatives will be greatly appreciated. More information: The house currently has natural gas fueled heat, with cast radiators in the rest of the house. This will be a pretty big room, about 25' x 16', with a pretty low ceiling, under 7', 3' knee walls. The floors are insulated, have thin plywood over the original rough plank flooring; the knee walls and sloping walls and narrow ceiling will be insulated. The room will be used primarily in the afternoon and evening [after the sun has been on the roof all day]. The intended use is as an office, but may be used as a kids' den by the next owners [not that we are planning on selling just yet]

I have a York heat pump with a honeywell multi stage thermostat. Th pump is about 8 years old and the thermostat is about 1 year old. For the past two years in the heat mode the compressor shuts down over night. The only way I have found to restore operation is to shut power off to the heat pump and air handler at the circuit breaker, wait five minutes and then restore power. About five minutes later the heat pump kicks on and runs normally until the following night. At this point the thermostat displays 'aux heat on'. I have had two firms out to fix so far without success even though one is a certified york service. Help!