Buying a house, no furnace but...

this is a 1300 sqft ranch 3 bed fixer-upper w basement in Maine. One center wall was removed to make a great room ~25 x 25. (The wall is another story.) It has a heat pump in the great room and a small gas unvented wall-mount heater in the unfinished basement. The local radio talk show home guru said it would be enough for winter heat, but I wonder. I think it had a boiler but it was removed with the pipes and baseboard units... I would bet that it froze a couple of years ago. It has a Rennai water heater. Natural gas will be available when I move in next month.

The heater i'm not crazy about. I looked online and they make some nice small gas wall-mount heaters. I'm guessing I'd be fine with abt 60k BTUs for the house, so maybe one for the bedroom areas and the other in the basement (35kbtu ea). The gas would also be nice for power outages. Two of these would be abt $1600, compared to maybe 2k for a boiler PLUS all the piping and baseboard units.

sorry for the long post, but let me know if this is reasonable, or make a different recommendation.

 

I am completely against non-vented heaters in a residence. The fumes from the burning gas leaves higher than normal CO levels behind.

I would recommend looking into the direct vent type where they bring in outside air for combustion and the exhaust is discharged outside.

 

If you are planning on a new gas service I would contact the gas co. and see if they have any recommendations,you will be their new customer.
Geo

 

yes, i forgot to mention it but hoping to get a vented product

 

If you're gutting the house or is just one story plus basement, put in a proper condensing furnace with duct-work and don't waste your time with stand-alone wall heaters.

The wall heaters are no more than 75% efficient, probably closer to 60% being natural draft and standing pilot. Modern furnace is 95%+.

They can provide really comfortable heat at a lower installed cost than hot water when the system is designed right and is 2-stage (two levels of heat output) or modulating. (variable capacity)

Most aren't done right which is why forced air has a bad reputation.

Would increase the value of the house and make is easier to sell.

 

If I didn’t know how much insulation is in the walls, I would go with a hot air heating system. This eliminates the possibility of baseboard water pipes freezing. Also, I would locate the furnace in the basement if the basement contains the water supply and there is a chance the basement could get below freezing.

 

thanks for the ideas...
everyone I asked locally (Maine) said to avoid hot air. One contractor said I should put in a high-eff'y boiler w hwbb (abt $7000)... excuse me while I choke. Besides, that would make my Rennai water heating unit obsolete. The gas co here just supplies gas, offers a list of contractors. I have 2 open flues in the chimney, so I also was going to put in a vented chimney heater for the 500sqft main living area to supplement the heat pump.
It's hard to get the right opinions when I can only convey limited info in a post. Any more ideas are welcome.

 

Hi, I thought most you people up theya berned wood, just kidding, what kind of aux heat does that heat have? are there any incentives from the power co. for reinsulating?
Geo

 

IF you have a basement I would go with a forced air furnace and A/C unit. IDK why the locales say to avoid air units, about 85% of the houses in MN are forced air. With a boiler and HWBB you do not have any A/C. (Yes, I know it is Maine, but even in MN it still gets hot, I assume ME is the same)

 

there is a heat pump in the great room, and ayuh, I've burned wood for 25 years as supplemental heating, but this is our retirement home, and I ain't doin no mo wood. Those condensing burners look nice, so now I need to figure out how I can run the air vents.