Thanks all, very helpful advice.
I'm not too worried about resale as hopefully we will not be moving any time soon.
I like radiator heat but am not too strongly biased towards one or the other.
Great to hear from person doing a major renovation and how they decided to get rid of old radiators.
Our contractor is suggesting that we do the same thing. Hopefully forced air with good filters and humidifier will be ok.
Renovations are so expensive that we are trying to reduce costs where ever we can.
Wish we could do geothermal heating and cooling. That sounds very cool and also very green.
Maybe we can add solar panels at some point.

I've heard one major criticism of radiant heat flooring: It's great initially, but if it breaks down they have to rip up the floor/ceiling to get at it for repairs.

We have radiator heat, which I love, so I'm happy to live with window units for AC.

If we ever decided to install central air, I'd have a tough decision as far as switching to forced air heat versus sticking with radiators.

We are getting ready to do an addition to our Arlington bungalow that involves adding another level and a three story addition in the back. We currently have radiator heat, which we like and which does the trick, and no A/C. In the end we decided to rip out the radiators and do an a/c and forced heat system throughout the house.

We considered keeping the radiator system but were convinced by the builders we talked to and our architect to ditch them. The main beef I have with the radiators is the amount of valuable floor space they take up which limits how we arrange our furniture. We could have done baseboards, but that would have added rather than saved costs.

One builder told us that since radiators are becoming less common there are fewer repairmen available who specialize in radiator and boiler repair issues. I'd hate to have a problem and then have a hard time getting someone to come and check it out.

I guess the final thing was that we were doing such a substantial renovation and going through a lot of design solutions to make the old sections fit seamlessly with the new sections, we didn't want to have the existence of radiators potentially frustrating that objective.

FWIW - I asked about radiant heat flooring and it seems to be not an option for someone focused on a tight budget.

Anonymous wrote:Radiator heaters ROCK. No toxins being blown about, they are sturdy, reliable etc. etc. I would never replace them if they were in my house. And the PP who mentioned the cozy factor is so right. I even used mine to soften butter when baking. People just want to make more money by replacing good working things.

What toxins are being blown about? You also lose usable wall space. Another issue is that reaction time is slow so during fall and spring the heat might still be radiating when the AC comes on.

In my house we have a microwave or a stove that can soften butter.

Anyways radiant heat under tiles is relatively cheap to install and you can get heat mats installed under joists for other types of flooring.

Anonymous wrote:Radiator heat is undersirable and the radiators or baseboards are a major negative on resale issue. If you want hot moist air I would install a natural gas furnace and a steam humidifier http://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/whole-house-products/humidifiers/model-800

Such BS. Or ignorance. Many people - myself included - love radiators and see it s a major POSITIVE when looking for houses. It is a much better heat than forced air. You can also get beautiful (traditional or modern) radiators, or even have under floor heating using radiant heat.

Radiator heaters ROCK. No toxins being blown about, they are sturdy, reliable etc. etc. I would never replace them if they were in my house. And the PP who mentioned the cozy factor is so right. I even used mine to soften butter when baking. People just want to make more money by replacing good working things.

Don't listen to the guy saying boilers/radiators are a major negative on resale - he shows up saying the same thing every time this question is posed (check the archives for more on this topic). There are a lot of benefits to boilers/radiators including air quality, efficiency, silent operation, and even the "coziness" factor (think warming your gloves on the radiator before you put them on). Runtal radiators are very efficient, compact and even multi-functional (they have a bathroom model that doubles as a towel rack). Bottom line, radiator heat is superior, IMO, and for me was even a plus when purchasing vs. negative.

Thanks for all this info!
I will look into radiant floor heating although I'm not sure we can afford it.
Forced air with humidifier might be a decent solution.

We are doing radiant floor heat for our gut renovation. Have not decided yet what we'll do for cooling: high velocity or mini split.

It's an issue of cost -- installing two systems costs more than having ductwork and blowing different temperature air through it.

If money were no object and I were building a whole house, I would do radiant floor heat. Because money *is* an object, when we remodeled and added on, we did radiant floor heat in the kitchen and radiators elsewhere. Our contractor tried to talk us into replacing our A/C unit with a heat pump, which would mean we'd only need the radiators on really cold days, but I hate forced air heat.

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).

It's cheaper to do forced air, esp. with AC (although I expect soon enough there will be a poster along trying to convince you that radiator heat is akin to using an outhouse).

I can tell you that the person who redid our house extended the radiators and and put in a second AC unit, but I do think it would be more expensive that way.

Radiator heat is undersirable and the radiators or baseboards are a major negative on resale issue. If you want hot moist air I would install a natural gas furnace and a steam humidifier http://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/whole-house-products/humidifiers/model-800

Most people have an HVAC because we live in an area that you need AC. My in laws have radiators, but don't have air conditioning. Why install 2 huge systems when you can just get away with an HVAC?

Are boilers very expensive to install these days? Is it because you also need a separate AC system?
I'm wondering why you never see radiator heat any more in newer construction?
We are considering doing a large 3 floor addition but how do we handle heat and ac since we have radiators in the old part of the house?
Has anyone been in a similar situation. Did you just convert the entire house to forced air? Budget is an issue for us.