hot water heat

Krissimarie

has anyone delt with hot water heat? We recently looked at a house that has hot water heat, and are wondering about it. We havent had to deal with hot water heat so we really arent sure what we would be getting in to.

tammy41208

We're buying a house with hot water heat. I can't tell you from experience yet cause we haven't closed. But from what I hear, its a very nice even heat. And can be cheaper then normal heat. As for repairs and all that, I'm not sure how the costs compare. But we also got an A/C quote cause the house doesn't have air yet. Without the duct work, its alot more expensive to put in.

koosh ball

We have it in addition to a tankless hot water heater. it works fine.

JaredsgirlErin

We're buying a house with hot water heat. I haven't ever lived with it before though, so I don't really have too many words of advice. Our pipes are wrapped in asbestos, so make sure to check for the condition if that if it's that way in your case, too.

MaineWifey

We have hot water heat, and I love it compared to forced hot air heat because its cleaner.  You have less dust and particulates in the air because its just hot water running through pipes. 

We have baseboard hot water, so the heat is very evenly distributed around the room, rather than blown through a few vents like hot air heat is. 

lawright

The one thing I can warn you about is to not shut off the valve to a radiator in any room.  I did that once in college when I was away on vacation, and the pipes froze, shattering the radiator.  Ironically, this was the one place I stayed in that actually gave me my entire security deposit back.  Now that I think about it, it's really a "duh" sort of thing, but we always did that with my parents' forced air vents before vacations, so I just did it without even thinking about it.

cwheels82

We just bought a house with hot water heat and are learning the ropes right now.  Here's what I've got so far: 

Perks - It is cheaper.  It warms the house well.  Put your towels over the radiator in the bathroom.. it's amazing in the morning!

Here's what you need to know:  The water in there gets dirty.  Once a week you need to empty out some water and refill it to get the water flowing so you can get rid of the dirty water (only takes about 15 minutes).  Otherwise, you get little brown dots on the ceiling of your bathroom from the dirty water coming off the radiator and condensing on the walls/ceiling.  You should also know how to light the pilot light, fill it, empty it, etc.  I'm totally clueless but DH read some things online and is pretty good with it now.  Also, if you have friends with radiotors, that's a perk.  You can always call them in a jam. 

I was bummed initially but a lot of people have told us they'd love to have radiator heat.  But I second the air conditioning issue... we haven't decided what to do there yet.  As of now, we installed ceiling fans.

tammy41208

As for the a/c issue. Look up Mitsubishi (hope thats spelled right) air conditioning units. Apparently its the cheaper route. We'll be getting these and apparently they're getting good reviews. For our 3 floors, we'll be looking at around 11k. But we got the sellers to give half.

mrs.rescue4

cwheels82:

We just bought a house with hot water heat and are learning the ropes right now.  Here's what I've got so far: 

Perks - It is cheaper.  It warms the house well.  Put your towels over the radiator in the bathroom.. it's amazing in the morning!

Here's what you need to know:  The water in there gets dirty.  Once a week you need to empty out some water and refill it to get the water flowing so you can get rid of the dirty water (only takes about 15 minutes).  Otherwise, you get little brown dots on the ceiling of your bathroom from the dirty water coming off the radiator and condensing on the walls/ceiling.  You should also know how to light the pilot light, fill it, empty it, etc.  I'm totally clueless but DH read some things online and is pretty good with it now.  Also, if you have friends with radiotors, that's a perk.  You can always call them in a jam. 

I was bummed initially but a lot of people have told us they'd love to have radiator heat.  But I second the air conditioning issue... we haven't decided what to do there yet.  As of now, we installed ceiling fans.

I believe this must be in reference to a gas fueled boiler as, most of my life, I have had oil and have never had to get rid of dirty water nor have I ever had brown spots on my ceilings.  Interesting.  Anyway, oil fueled hw bb heat here for years and years and no problems.

angelhudson

We have recently bought  old house and there was no hot water heater presented, so I have installed new tank-less water heater with help of heating service nj. I have chose tankless water heater because it required less space and easy to installation and maintenance.

Sisugal

angelhudson said:

We have recently bought  old house and there was no hot water heater presented, so I have installed new tank-less water heater with help of heating service nj. I have chose tankless water heater because it required less space and easy to installation and maintenance.

This sounds like a solicitation - which is against the rules of this board.

JoanE2012

Sisugal said:

angelhudson said:

We have recently bought  old house and there was no hot water heater presented, so I have installed new tank-less water heater with help of heating service nj. I have chose tankless water heater because it required less space and easy to installation and maintenance.

This sounds like a solicitation - which is against the rules of this board.

I agree, especially considering it's not even a current conversation.  But with a modless board and, from my experience, unresponsive TN Gods, nothing will happen.