Question:

We just bought an old house with oil  hot water baseboard heat. we plan to make one of the unheated attached garages into a mud room-laundry room; above that is a larger room now heated with electric strips that will be an office. the contactror who is putting in a new burnham furnace which is needed suggests we run the hot water pipes through the ceiling of an 18 by 18 room that is between the furnace and the garage area. that cud be quite a mess — tearing up ceiling etc. would it not be better — and cheaper — just to have a 2nd small boiler in the to-be-converted garage and run the heat pipes to the room above and just have that as its own separate two-zone system. in his proposal the cdurrent three zone would become five zone (one for the mud-room/laundry room, the other zone for the room above.) Under his proposal we would have to run the pipe through the beams in the 18 foot room to get to the garage area. i see that as a big mess. any thought? and questions to make this any clearer? all help appreciated. thanks in advance.

Response:

I don’t see how running 2- 3/4" pipes through a ceiling for 18′ can be considered more work than installing an entire boiler and chimney. In addition, you ‘ll have to run at least 1`pipe for a boiler feed anyway. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -We just bought an old house with oil  hot water baseboard heat. we plan to make one of the unheated attached garages into a mud room-laundry room; above that is a larger room now heated with electric strips that will be an office. the contactror who is putting in a new burnham furnace which is needed suggests we run the hot water pipes through the ceiling of an 18 by 18 room that is between the furnace and the garage area. that cud be quite a mess — tearing up ceiling etc. would it not be better — and cheaper — just to have a 2nd small boiler in the to-be-converted garage and run the heat pipes to the room above and just have that as its own separate two-zone system. in his proposal the cdurrent three zone would become five zone (one for the mud-room/laundry room, the other zone for the room above.) Under his proposal we would have to run the pipe through the beams in the 18 foot room to get to the garage area. i see that as a big mess. any thought? and questions to make this any clearer? all help appreciated. thanks in advance.

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Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – We just bought an old house with oil  hot water baseboard heat. we plan to make one of the unheated attached garages into a mud room-laundry room; above that is a larger room now heated with electric strips that will be an office. the contactror who is putting in a new burnham furnace which is needed suggests we run the hot water pipes through the ceiling of an 18 by 18 room that is between the furnace and the garage area. that cud be quite a mess — tearing up ceiling etc. would it not be better — and cheaper — just to have a 2nd small boiler in the to-be-converted garage and run the heat pipes to the room above and just have that as its own separate two-zone system. in his proposal the cdurrent three zone would become five zone (one for the mud-room/laundry room, the other zone for the room above.) Under his proposal we would have to run the pipe through the beams in the 18 foot room to get to the garage area. i see that as a big mess. any thought? and questions to make this any clearer? all help appreciated. thanks in advance.

He might be able to snake PEX tubing through there with little damage. If you had to re-do the ceiling, it’d still be cheaper than just the chimney of another installation. And the mess only lasts a little while, the better system lasts a long time. Additionally, you get the benefit of radiant ceiling heat in the connecting room.         If the new boiler can handle the additional load, he must have sized it too big, planning on the future. Are you running domestic hot water off of this new Burnham?         I’d run the tubing, and save a lot of trouble and money. He’s giving you sound advice, take it. There’s even a payback to calculate: the savings over the electric baseboard. —         BBB Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Response: