Heat options?

[Ima LeShalosh]

I didn't know where to put this, so if there is a better place mods, feel free to move it.

We have an old house...my dad grew up in this house from age 2. It has baseboard heating with an old fashioned boiler that runs hot water through the pipes of the baseboard units to heat the entire house. As you can imagine, our natural gas bills are through the roof in the winter months (upwards of $300 to $400 a month). We keep our heat low (never over 62*) and still have insane gas bills.

We are thinking about infrared heating units...one for the back wing of the house and one for the front. We could block off the boys bed room and move them into the office for the winter if we had to (I don't think the heat in either wing would heat down the hall into the boys room).

Has anyone had any experience with infrared eating units? Or is there a better, more economic solution?

[HomeyT]

Sorry no experience. Just wanted to put a plug for wood heat :) a few years ago we upgraded our fireplace to a high efficiency one I believe it heats 2000 sq ft. We love it!

[cbmk4]

It was my understanding that natural gas with radiant hot water heat was one of the most economical ways to heat a house (and better in terms of not creating such dry air like forced hot air.) Is your boiler quite old and not efficient?

If it's an old house, perhaps the expense comes from poor insulation.

Sorry, I know nothing about infrared heating units.

[Ima LeShalosh]

It was my understanding that natural gas with radiant hot water heat was one of the most economical ways to heat a house (and better in terms of not creating such dry air like forced hot air.) Is your boiler quite old and not efficient?

If it's an old house, perhaps the expense comes from poor insulation.

Sorry, I know nothing about infrared heating units.The boiler is only 2 years old. It only cut our cost by $50 a month. but YES..poor isulation is a HUGE problem with this house! Coupled with it's a good size house and not an open floor plan makes it harder to heat.

---------- Post added at 03:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:44 PM ----------

Sorry no experience. Just wanted to put a plug for wood heat :) a few years ago we upgraded our fireplace to a high efficiency one I believe it heats 2000 sq ft. We love it!
We have a fireplace and a wood stove, both amazing..but my son has asthma and the first time I light it, he is sick the rest of the winter. We can't utilize this AMAZING feature in our home :/

[knitlove]

It was my understanding that natural gas with radiant hot water heat was one of the most economical ways to heat a house (and better in terms of not creating such dry air like forced hot air.) Is your boiler quite old and not efficient?

If it's an old house, perhaps the expense comes from poor insulation.

Sorry, I know nothing about infrared heating units.

this was my understanding as well, have you looked in to any of the programs that will help you insulate your house for very little or nothing down.

[HomeyT]

We have a fireplace and a wood stove, both amazing..but my son has asthma and the first time I light it, he is sick the rest of the winter. We can't utilize this AMAZING feature in our home :/

bummer!

Could you insulate better? what's in the attic?

[NeshamaMama]

Yes, unfortunately you're not going to find a much cheaper option than natural gas. :( I would definitely look into options for insulating. I totally get it, I used to live in a house build in the 1800s and it was always FREEZING no matter what we did, and cost an absolute fortune to heat. The windows were really old and horribly inefficient as well, that's something to look at along with insulation. There are insulating blinds and curtains that you can get instead of replacing the windows. We have some in our current house, not for that specific purpose but we definitely noticed a difference after they were installed. :yes