Forced air heating debate radiant floor always wins because it provides a quiet even heat and eliminates the allergy problems often associated with heating ducts.
Convert floor furnace to forced air.
Also the piping in the subfloors tends to keep floors warmer and prevent the near exterior wall cold wall and floor issues common with forced air heating which is pretty inefficient about heating floors.
If the boiler was vented into a chimney and you plan to install a direct vent furnace you may be able to use the chimney as a vent chase to the attic for the ducting for the second floor.
As of publication time expect to pay from 3 000 to 3 500 at the low end and from 4 000 to 6 000 at the high end to add central air conditioning to the forced air heating system in a 2 000.
While electric baseboard heaters are easier and cheaper to install than forced air systems or hydronic baseboard heaters they are also less energy efficient and can hurt your wallet in the long run.
If you don t have ductwork you will need to plan for and install these first.
In the radiant floor vs.
A furnace blower that only runs half the year or the downsized air filter in a window unit can t match the air quality improvements available from adding central air conditioning and using quality air filters.
The first step your contractor will take to determine the position of ducts is to draw a floor plan of the second floor and lay it over a floor plan of the first floor.
In 99 percent of homes says frank scarangello of staten island new york based scaran heating and air conditioning second floor closets will give you access to locations.
Mount a manifold to the wall beside the furnace and then connect the ends air tubing ends to the ports on the manifold.
Numbers vary a lot but a forced air system in a drafty house can be 10 25 less efficient that baseboard and around 10 more efficient.
Houses with radiators usually do not.
Remove all foam rubber blocks from the registers and reinstall the grilles.
This will take much longer than the installation of the air conditioning system itself and will usually double the cost of adding central air conditioning.
A central air conditioning system incorporates a number of components most of which aren t pre existing in a home.
Next to the manifold mount an electric air pump.
Houses with forced air heating systems those with furnaces have ductwork.