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Posted by HeatPro on May 20, 2008 at 12:44:59:
In Reply to: Bought home with old gas boiler posted by Luke on May 19, 2008 at 10:02:53:
Sorry you got caught up in the silly 'racket' of the past few decades. While fuel was cheap before 1970, steam heated houses were great 'old tech'. The first fuel crisis taught people that insulating housing and zoning so that only the rooms to be occupied were ways to save on fuel. Steam heat was invented before either of those concepts, so an uninsulated house with steam heat costs 3 times what a new house uses in fuel. A new 2500 sq ft house with zoned hot water heat would cost about 200 a month to heat.
You now want to maximize the idea of heating where you are and not heating the rest as much. A thermostat set to heat the house to 50F in the unoccupied rooms like the bedrooms and a separate room heater for the living areas like the kitchen and living room
http://www.houseneeds.com/shop/HeatingProducts/RoomHeaters/orbis/orbisspaceheatermain.asp
with doors closing off the rest of the house will either allow you to live in your house or make more money to heat the 'white elephant.'
Eventually, insulating the house and having the house converted to hot water heat with each room zoned on its own thermostat will be the way to afford heat.