Hello everyone... We are in the midst of building over our garage (master bedroom, closets, bath) and we are trying to figure out the heating system. The entire house has oil-based hydronic heat with 5 zones. The furnace is about 17 years old. The addition will add about 500 square feet to the heating space.
I also have a Jotul woodstove in the main family room which can heat most of the house (cut my oil consumption by 40% last year).
My contractor is telling me that our best bet is to install electric baseboard with a programmable thermostat for the new room. He says that the thermostat can regualte the electric heat and minimize when the heat runs. The room is extremely well insulated.
I'm inclined to agree with him since we'd really only need the room temp above 50 from 6pm - 11pm.
On top of this is the fact that our oil furnace is probably not big enough for the additional 500 square feet so we'd likely have to upgrade it. Now, given that it is 17 years old I'll probably have to upgrade it in the next 10 years anyway.
So.... what do you think? Does the electric heat make sense in this room? It would be nice to not touch the furnace, and when we do replace it would likely be cheaper to replace with a smaller furnace than a larger (to cover the 500 sq feet). I am just leary about the electric heating costs, but it seems to make sense that we wouldn't be using it all that much (with the programmable thermostat).
Any thoughts? Thanks!
steve
I also have a Jotul woodstove in the main family room which can heat most of the house (cut my oil consumption by 40% last year).
My contractor is telling me that our best bet is to install electric baseboard with a programmable thermostat for the new room. He says that the thermostat can regualte the electric heat and minimize when the heat runs. The room is extremely well insulated.
I'm inclined to agree with him since we'd really only need the room temp above 50 from 6pm - 11pm.
On top of this is the fact that our oil furnace is probably not big enough for the additional 500 square feet so we'd likely have to upgrade it. Now, given that it is 17 years old I'll probably have to upgrade it in the next 10 years anyway.
So.... what do you think? Does the electric heat make sense in this room? It would be nice to not touch the furnace, and when we do replace it would likely be cheaper to replace with a smaller furnace than a larger (to cover the 500 sq feet). I am just leary about the electric heating costs, but it seems to make sense that we wouldn't be using it all that much (with the programmable thermostat).
Any thoughts? Thanks!
steve