What would YOU do? Historic brick home heating questions

[eclecticcottage]

Trying to stay away from gas if possible. Anyone have any experience with between floor blowers/registers? I know there are some that provide a fire break.

I think gas will be your only option in a bedroom (if you want to have the fireplaces used), at least if you want to be up to code. As far as I've found, at least here, pellet burners are also out for sleeping areas.

We had an infloor register in our old house, right above the gravity heater below. Didn't do butkus IMO. It was just a register (register covers on each side with a box built in the floor between), no firebreak. I've been in other homes with them and felt the same way-not worth cutting the holes. Might depend on how cold it gets where you are, but I wouldn't bother with them. Especially if you have original wood floors.

 

[jharkin]

We are able to heat an old house on just a single stove downstairs but have a rather unusual situation for a house of our vintage. Its basically a cape with back ell - but the ell is partially contemporary addition and the space is open. So we have the stove in a central room that is open to the addition space, and adjacent to all the other first floor rooms through (narrow 26") doorways. The stars to the second floor also open directly from the stove room which helps. Our insulation has been upgraded about as much as possible without gutting things. We have blown in to around R10 walls and R18 in the roof of the original and R38 in the roof of the addition.

Before I did the insulation and sealing work the single stove was OK, but the first floor bedrooms and the far room upstairs would get cold... maybe 10 degree difference. This year with the insulation and air sealing addressed I see less than 5 degree difference to the farthest room in the house without any fans.


I feel your pain about not wanting to gut original walls but it seems like plaster on brick are one of those setups that there is just no retrofit option for. You might also try the forums on oldhouseweb for ideas ... Hopefully you will at least be able to save your original windows and recreate whatever trim details get taken out.

A side benefit of the gut and rebuild is that you will be able to do a lot more insulation and tighter sealing than the rest of us old housers can and wont need as a big of a stove to get the heat you need- probably opening up more options. Still have to deal with moving heat through a lot of doorways but even that should be less of a challenge with better insulation.

 

[KennyK]

Another great forum that is specific to home heating (not with stoves, but furnaces, boilers, etc.) is www.heatinghelp.com. It's similar to this site in that there are a lot of intelligent people with great ideas, willing to help at a moments notice!

Regarding insulation and heating systems other than stoves, you should also look into if your state has any programs that offer financial support. I live in Massachusetts and in an effort to be a greener state, they are offering a lot of financial assistance for high efficiency furnaces and boilers and insulation - I received $3500 of free insulation work (in my previously uninsulated home home built in the 1890s) in 2011 and just applied again for 2012! The program here is called Mass Save. If you look it up, they may be able to point you in the right direction for your area.

Good luck!

Kenny