Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - baseboard or wall heater?

Long story short... hubby and I bought a house without heat. We knew that before we signed, but figured we had time to tie into the natural gas line that runs out front.... WRONG! What we didn't know is that the town has a bylaw of no digging after a certain date, which means no gas for us this winter! So we have to come up with a temporary alternative.

We decided to go with electric heat. We have plenty of room in our service panel, which we just upgraded to 200 amp. The question remains now, do we go with electric baseboard or electric wall heaters?

The wall heaters would be "easier" because we are not dismantling the forced hot water registers that are already in place. (We are converting back to natural gas in the spring.) We don't have a ton of baseboard room to add the baseboard heat.

Any comments or suggestions?:confused:

What we didn't know is that the town has a bylaw of no digging after a certain date, which means no gas for us this winter! So we have to come up with a temporary alternative.
Huh!? I have never heard such thing about not allowing to dig for gas service.... The gas company say this or who?


The wall heaters would be "easier" because we are not dismantling the forced hot water registers that are already in place.
Is there a boiler in the home? If yes, what is the fuel source is it? If none, you could put a gas fired boiler, and have it set up to LP then switch back to Nat gas.

I concur with Jay. The temporary LP < > Nat Gas swap is a better solution rather than the electric wall units. Room in the service panel doesn't always equal room in the wallet Purchasing a unit, installation, removal in the spring plus the additional cost monthly, all adds up. :)

How was the house heated before you bought?

I presently have a gas boiler in my home, which I bought in March 2008. I previously lived in a mobile home with electric forced air and really liked the heat and the low electric bills for being all-electric.

Since moving into this house, my worst gas bill was for the month of April, at $150.00, and the average temps here were in the 40s and 50s. So, I'm really afraid of what is yet to come in January and February.

The gas boiler, as closely as I can tell, was installed in the home in 1958. It is a 75,000 BTU boiler with 134 linear feet of registers. Due to the boiler's age, I'm sure that it is only 50% efficient.

I have priced electric boilers. I need a 20KW boiler, which is rated to draw 83A. By the time I buy all of the extra stuff to install it, I will have over $2000 in the conversion. So I then went looking at Electric Baseboard (EB) heaters.

I priced EB heaters and then talking to a HVC man at a church party, he suggested Electric Wall (EW) heaters. He took me to his house and showed me where he removed all of his EB and replaced them with EW heaters in his 100 year old farm house. He claims that his worst electric bill last winter was $300.00......not bad I said!

I just converted my service from 100A fuses to 200A breakers, so I'm ready to go with electric heat. But what will EW heaters do to my home's value? Same? Lower? What is the opinion on EW heaters as primary heat for a house?

Or, should I just change my old gas boiler out for a new electric boiler and be done with it? Any opinions on Thermo 2000 boilers?

Thanks,
George

I would look into a new boiler. Hot water heat is quiet, and very comfortable. electric boaseboard/wall heater (depends on what style/brand) can make more noise of some type.

A few things I would look into before jumping the gun going all electric.

-What's your boiler pressure?

-What the boiler's temp?

-Has the baseboard been bleed?

-Are the burners clean, and correct color?


Also, how's the windows, attic insulation, doors, and wall insulation?