Just bought house.
Old house, brand new Peerless Boiler.
129k BTU Steam
150k BTU Hot Water

We hate the steam heat and already talked to plumber about converting to FHW

But now that I gutted the basement it seems like the perfect time to do a staple up radiant system on 1st floor, FHW 2nd & 3rd floors One or the other in basement.

Questions:

-Is this the wrong boiler for the job?
(it came w/ House )

-Could I use a tankless water heater to run a closed radiant system on this boiler.? Would continue to use seperate water heater.

Will I go batty trying to calibrate this with 2 different types of heat in house?

Should I just listen to plumber who wants to rip out my big old cast-iron radiators and run god awfull baseboard?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
What does NRT Rob think?

Woody78

DO NOT REPLACE RADIATORS WITH BASEBOARD. Sorry to get all excited but thats a big mistake as sectional radiators are app 50% radiant and base board is 90% convective in heat transfer. Get someone who understands the concepts here. First thing I would do is have the existing system surveyed and find out the condition of piping and radiators and what your heat load is and what water temp your radiators will run and what temp your proposed radiant floor will operate. They could be very close depending on sizing of radiators and heat load. This is not hard to do and any competent contractor can do this. zoning and reset control with a condensing boiler may be something to consider..Eric

Thanks Eric

Certainly plumbers tend to lean towards baseboard cause its cheap and easy.Both my wife and I prefer the feel and asthetics of cast iron.The current piping is in rough shape 2 leaks, and they are f#@%ing noisy!!

My hope was to maintain some aesthetic and improve comfort by going under floor.

Thanks again

Find yourself a good heating guy.I'd look into either fixing the old steam system so it's quiet and working properly again or converting them beautiful old radiators to hot water.

You can also add some floor warming to make the floors as toasty as the radiators.

If your steam system is a 2 pipe system with standard radiators, you could convert to hot water. You lose a little capacity going to water, but it usually isn't a big deal. Expect to fix a couple leaks.

Oh, and some steam boilers can be converted to water. It's going to take a competant contractor to do a radiation analysis and boiler survey.

Where are you located?