Where do I draw the line on heating?

Question

Today, I had a melt down..The new (old) house I bought has 4 radiators (cast iron) cracked from the previous owner letting them freeze. Each FIN costs about $17. so even one half of the former size, say 17 fins per radiator equal $170.00 so one can easily see the bill. (4) * $170. That is just the basement. I know hot water heat via gas fired boiler is the best heat, but where do I draw the line and go to "forced air" with the AC ductwork? The electric costs will go SKY HIGH! Should I keep spending money replacing cracked cast radiators or go to the forced air system??? AGHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh!

Answer 1

Consider the cost of getting the new heating system/ duct work installed, roughly about $12,000, assuming that everything goes right and you don't run into unforeseen problems halfway through the job. (a 2 story, 115  year old house, approx. 1900 square ft).   That's IF they can even put the duct work in, depending on how the house was actually built.  (can they maybe go up through an old chimney pipe?  do you have the closet/floor space available if they have to put in the furnace on the main floor?  Alot of systems aren't powerful enough to send the heat out into 3 floors---basement+2 floors.)     And if it can be done, can you find someone who is willing to come out and do the work?  (That's the problem I'm having, no one wants to do it, because taking out the whole boiler/radiator system is going to be lots of work-I've had 3 estimates done, and no one wants to commit)  It would be worth the cost of replacing the radiators to save yourself lots of money.  Although, if you decide to go the other route and change over, find out if the electric company offers a discount for electric heat; some do.  But it is only if the electric heat is wired into the house, not for plug-ins, like space heaters.  

Answer 2

Look around and see if you can find any used radiators first.

Answer 3

If you can hook up a forced hot air to your ac. then they do have oil and gas hot air systems. One other thought would be to put new baseboard in place of the radiators, unless your system is steam and in that case...might want to find some used radiators and replace the whole thing.