For The Next Hundred Years
When Bill Ticineto and Jill Chase moved into a rambling 1894 shingled cottage in northwest Connecticut a few years ago, there was little to no insulation and the house was heated with convector steam radiators. The house had all the charm they could desire, but that first winter was miserable. The convection units got hot quickly, but lacking thermal mass, they cooled off as soon as the heat source stopped. Installing interior compression windows from Indow in especially drafty locations helped, but the couple knew they were looking at a major heating-system overhaul.
They began by insulating the entire house, and ended with the installation of a state-ofthe-art Viessmann condensing boiler that can also supply domestic hot water. “We were able to use the existing hot/ cold pipes from the previous steam system,” Ticineto says, “which saved a lot of money.”
The new condensing boiler is a two-pipe system with four zones. The boiler uses an exterior thermostat to monitor and predict future heat demand, keeping the heat in the house both consistent and comfortable. Ticineto and Chase very much wanted to install period-look radiators—the house appears never to have had any—and found a source from Castrads, which makes cast-iron radiators in England and sells them in the U.S.
The upfront expense ran into tens of thousands of dollars, but Ticineto says it was worth it. “The house maintained an even temperature all winter, no hot spots, no noise, and the fuel bills were very reasonable.”
Besides that, fuel costs for heat, hot water, cooking, and even the clothes dryer dropped to less than 25 percent of the first winter’s heating bill. That means the couple are on track to recoup their outlay in 10 years or sooner. “I don’t think I could be happier with the radiators and new heating system. It has performed better than I expected,” Ticineto reports.
and Shuchman, the benefits were many.
Not only did they get a substantial tax rebate from the state of New York (rebates can range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on location), but also the new setup supplies air conditioning as well as heating. For years, Christiansen had laboriously installed and removed five window air conditioners each season, plus two floor units. “We both work from home so this should be a great improvement over those,” he says.
As part of the system upgrade, he swapped out an existing 60-gallon water
heater for a 65-gallon combination boiler that can supplement the air-source heat pump. He’d previously installed solar panels on the roof, which had already significantly cut into power bills.
Although Christiansen and Shuchman have spent less than a year with the new system, they can tell that it’s saving them money. And “summer comfort has been outstanding,” Christiansen reports.
As for the existing, historic radiators in the house, the couple decided to keep them as a decorative nod to the past. The five window air conditioners are nowhere in sight.