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Posted by on September 7, 2007, 9:42 pm
> >On Sep 7, 6:05 pm, spamb...@milmac.com (Doug Miller) wrote:
komobu
> >> >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?
> >>
> >> >Any suggestions would be welcome.
> >>
> >> My principal suggestion is to leave it alone. You're probably never
going to
> >> recover the additional cost.
> >
> >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?
LP?
Package Gas/Electric?
Both of these solve the above issues.
But without more info, everything is a WAG as to what is best for the OP.
> >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.
Higher rent normally gets you a better renter.
It also works out as an investment...
Why let the utility companies make the extra money when you can?
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