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Posted by ransley on September 7, 2007, 8:28 pm
On Sep 7, 7:12 pm, spamb...@milmac.com (Doug Miller) wrote:
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> >On Sep 7, 6:05 pm, spamb...@milmac.com (Doug Miller) wrote:
> >> >I am buying a house for rental property. It currently has a 2 year old
> >> >13 seer 3.5 ton Carrier Central AC System that is self contained and
> >> >sits outside. There is a huge duct that comes out of the unit and
> >> >enters the crawl space and cools the house.
>
> >> >As for heat, the house was made in 65 and has electric base board heat
> >> >and I would like to convert to gas forced air, or maybe even a boiler
> >> >system for water that heats the floors.
>
> >> Why? It's a rental unit. You're not going to live there. Why do you care
what
> >> the heating system is?
>
> >> Retrofitting a hot-water radiant floor heating system into a house that
> > wasn't
> >> designed for it will be very, very expensive. Hot water heat is wonderful --
> >> but if you're going to retrofit that into a house, do it to _your_own_
house,
> >> not a rental.
>
> >> >What are my options?
>
> >> That depends a lot on what type of energy sources are available at the
> >> property. For example, if there are no gas mains in the neighborhood, then
> >> putting in a natural gas furnace is obviously not an option.
>
> >> >If I was
> >> >to install a natural gas heater, could I hook into the AC Duct under
> >> >the house?
>
> >> Yes, but there are several questions you need answers to first:
> >> 1) is natural gas available at the house?
> >> 2) is there a place to put the furnace?
> >> 3) is there a place to *vent* the furnace?
> >> 4) can you recover the additional cost?
>
> >> >I hate to think what the electric heat is going to cost
> >> >with base board.
>
> >> Why do you care what electric heat is going to cost, if the tenant pays the
> >> bill?
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> >> >Any suggestions would be welcome.
>
> >> My principal suggestion is to leave it alone. You're probably never going to
> >> recover the additional cost.
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> >A gas furnace would be best and easy to install.
>
> Garbage. You don't know that. What if natural gas isn't even available in the
> neighborhood? What if the house has no place where a gas furnace can be
> installed or vented?
>
> >Ducts should be
> >sealed with mastic and well insulated. You should care about heating
> >cost, Electric is more expensive by a large margin in most areas, if
> >utilities are to high tennants wont stay, it also limits what you can
> >ask in rent.
>
> Needing to recover the cost of a new heating system also places a lower limit
> on what he *needs* to get in rent.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)
>
> It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.- Hide quoted text
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> - Show quoted text -
He has a crawl space, did you ever hear of Propane, its common in most
areas, did you ever hear of direct vent condensing units , maybe
not, , they to are common. What we dont know is what he pays per Kwh
or the location, down south you dont need much heat. Electric heat
suks, I rented an apt with electric, I wold never have electric heat
again and nobody else I know would. I rent apts doug, Total cost is
what a tennant wants to know, and a house up north with electric heat
could break you.
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