We’ve been in our house now for a couple of weeks and one thing we are noticing is that the heating system is woefully inadequate. First off, the furnace is a combination gas, wood burner. Combo units are typically very inefficient. Secondly, it turns out despite the fact that there were registers in the floor there is only one real vent on the second floor. It is in what will become the master bedroom once we gut it and redo it. But this winter we are going to be sleeping in the other bedroom and it has no register, and what I think is worse the bathroom doesn’t have one either. Thirdly, the third floor (read finished attic) doesn’t have any heat at all, and this is where I decided to put my office. Fourthly, the furnace, water heater, and wood stove all vent to the same flue this is unsafe and could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Also, our hot water heater (a 40 gallon unit) is barely able to put out enough hot water for me to shave and shower. The unit is fairly old and should be replaced anyway before it leaks all over the place.

We want to make things better and hopefully before winter gets into full swing. I called a heating company and had them come out and give an estimate. We are going to replace the furnace and water heater with these new fangled high efficiency models; the benefit is they can vent straight out of the side of the house via 2″ PVC and thus free the flue up for the wood stove. Since our house is very old getting more registers on the second floor is going to be very difficult and virtually impossible on the third floor.

We have a few ideas on how to get to the second floor, which most will involve running vents up the sides of walls on the first floor and then boxing the vents in and trying to make it look like it is supposed to be that way.

The third floor is going to require a separate unit, which will need a gas feed from the basement, and will need to vent directly out the side of the house.

Of course all of this will require a large capital investment on our part. Hopefully, we will recoup the cost in being warm, lower heating bills, and by adding to the resale value of the house.

I just thought I’d share some of the joys of owning an older house with you.