Radiator heat vs. forced air for house renovation

[Anonymous]

Radiator market is dead, it is very costly to maintain or add on especially as technology moves forward with forced air systems. The demand isn't there and you will need to call old timers and expensive specialists. It's like the cobol or mainframe of computers.

It's so obvious that you're in the HVAC business, pushing forced air and too lazy to learn about radiating systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Radiator market is dead, it is very costly to maintain or add on especially as technology moves forward with forced air systems. The demand isn't there and you will need to call old timers and expensive specialists. It's like the cobol or mainframe of computers.

It's so obvious that you're in the HVAC business, pushing forced air and too lazy to learn about radiating systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Radiator market is dead, it is very costly to maintain or add on especially as technology moves forward with forced air systems. The demand isn't there and you will need to call old timers and expensive specialists. It's like the cobol or mainframe of computers.

It's so obvious that you're in the HVAC business, pushing forced air and too lazy to learn about radiating systems.

+1. We've lived with both at various times. Love the quiet cozyness of radiators. Less dust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clanking radiator guy here. Can anyone actually recommend someone? Drives me bonko as fuck. Please.

Where are you? I live in Virginia, and Ace Heating and Air Conditioning takes care of our systems. Love them (used to use Arlington H&AC, which we did not love as much).

[Anonymous]

LOVE radiator heat. Forced air is more expensive and not as good. Probably cheaper to install, as I can't figure out why else folks would put it in.

[Anonymous]

Depending on how old the radiator system is you will need to worry about leaks and pipe maintenance. Also during a power outage you will need to figure out how to bleed the water out to avoid frozen pipes.

[Anonymous]

NP here, and didn't read everything, but I LOVE radiator heat, and hate hot-air heat. I don't like the blowing air and the dryness of it. Humidifiers in hot-air systems can create mold issues, so I don't use them. Humidifiers can also get moldy. Why create a dryness problem with hot-air heat and then have to use humidifiers? Just use radiator heat, or as PPs suggested, radiant floor heating. Yum.

I bought a great boiler system for a house that I sold before moving here. It was so small that they just hung it on the wall in the basement. It provided heat and hot water for an apartment. It was super efficient. (Cost more than another boiler, about $11,000, but was a plus at resale time.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clanking radiator guy here. Can anyone actually recommend someone? Drives me bonko as fuck. Please.

One of the owners of Leahy Plumbing, based in Bethesda, is very good with boilers and radiators in general. http://www.leahyplumbinginc.com or [phone].

[Anonymous]

Haven't read all the previous posts, but I LOVE radiators. One of the things I miss the most from growing up in Europe. We looked high and low for a house with radiators when we bought, but couldn't find one that fit our needs.

Now I just would like to know how much would it be to have them installed....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depending on how old the radiator system is you will need to worry about leaks and pipe maintenance. Also during a power outage you will need to figure out how to bleed the water out to avoid frozen pipes.

You'd only have to do this if your power was out for a very, very long time -- it's pretty unlikely that a standard-issue power outage of a few hours or even a really bad one of a few days would drop the ambient temperature of your house enough to freeze the pipes in your radiators.

[Anonymous]

Radiators are so ugly and take up space. You get cooked sitting next to them while the other end of the room is cold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Radiators are so ugly and take up space. You get cooked sitting next to them while the other end of the room is cold.

No, sweetie, that's a fireplace you're thinking of.

Radiators are prized for, among other thing, the evenness of the heat they produce.

Our 1930 house has convectors (basically, in-wall radiators) -- best of both worlds! Doesn't take up floor space but has all the myriad advantages of hydronic heating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depending on how old the radiator system is you will need to worry about leaks and pipe maintenance. Also during a power outage you will need to figure out how to bleed the water out to avoid frozen pipes.

You'd only have to do this if your power was out for a very, very long time -- it's pretty unlikely that a standard-issue power outage of a few hours or even a really bad one of a few days would drop the ambient temperature of your house enough to freeze the pipes in your radiators.

+1 in that extreme case you also have a problem with all your pipes in the house, not just the heating system. Plus, under floors the system is pretty well insulated, so it would take a long time for things to freeze.Try again lazy HVAC guy.

[Anonymous]

rads are pretty much an eyesore and a big item to rip out. It's a large project to get normal HVAC in and then all of the patching and painting to get rid of the ugly rads etc... You can up your resale by ripping them out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would do radiant floor heating and forced air furnace w/ a humidifer. No one wants or does new installs w/ radiators unless you can't get central AC installed (crappy electric rads).

Radiant floor heating sounds great but in the long run is a maintenance and repair issue waiting to happen. We did an extensive renovation & addition and I was interested in radiant heat but our architect (and the builder we later selected) suggested reconsidering because they've seen so many issues develop over time, that take extensive destructive work to locate and repair (tearing up floors, etc.).

I prefer radiators but in a newer house or construction they're rare. We had them in our previous house (along with central AC). We now have forced air with whole house humidifier but it is not nearly as nice as the heat from radiators in our opinion.