We pulled out hot water baseboards and went over to forced air for both heat and AC. Even with installing the ductwork it was a lot cheaper than refurbishing and extending the hot water system and using an AC solution like mini-splits. Works fine, completely comfortable, regained a lot of freedom to put stuff up against the walls, and don't have the ugly baseboard radiators. Plus, we have good AC without the minisplit units hanging on the walls.

Not sure I understand why you think re-plumbing for hot water is any different or cheaper than re-plumbing for your steam radiators,it's pretty much the same amount of pipe going roughly the same places--it might even cost more, because the return lines will need to be displaced from the supply. I'd definitely opt for keeping the real radiators in an old house. Forced air will be dramatically cheaper, especially if you have the ductwork already in place.

We are dealing with our hot water boiler/ radiator system right now because of freeze damage. I guess I don't understand how it would be any cheaper for you to go to hot water baseboard that it would be for you to repair the radiator system. Either system needs piping to it.

Could you leave the existing damaged piping in the walls in place and instead run pex to replace the damaged lines? Many of the contractors we've been talking with say that it is more cost effective to just run new pex than to try to fix all of the old piping.

Rwiegand- from what I am being told, it would be cheaper to do hot water baseboards because of the type of pipe that could be used. It's more like a flexible tubing. It can be snaked through our walls without having to cut them open, which saves us a lot because the walls are plaster with chestnut woodwork, and having these repaired would be expensive. The flexible piping materials are also much cheaper and putting it in would be significantly less labor intensive(less measuring, cutting, fitting and threading). For the work, with a new boiler installed, it is about 1/4 of the cost of redoing the steam system. I'm glad to hear that the forced hot air is comfortable for you, that is good to know.

Needinfo1- we would definitely be leaving the pipe in the wall either way. It's just too corroded at this point, and pinpointing leaks to fix them would be a nightmare. Plus with the pipes being so old we'd be looking at having to patch pipes every once in a while as regular maintenance. The pex is an interesting idea, though I think we'd run into the same issue of having to cut into plaster.

Hot water baseboard is more even heat... that said, go forced air and spend the money you would save on insulation.

You will get more benefit from finding a way to insulate the walls and using forced air than spending the additional money to go baseboard hot water.

I have a similar age house - with the walls insulated and tight storm windows, I don't have cold drafts. I also have a very low heating bill. Get a 95% furnace too.

ktj459,

Go over to the Heating and A/C Forum and get some additional thoughts.