Boiler Heating

We have a boiler and radiators in our house. We love them. They never make noise, they give off moist heat so it doesn't get too dry, and there's always a warm place to set your cold icy gloves in the wintertime or warm your slippers up. The maintenance is easy..the radiators need to be bled once a year (flip the valve open on each one, and wait until the hissing goes away and water dribbles out). Our house is 95 years old, so we don't have central AC, but we actually save money by having window units. The biggest problem we have (in the future), is that the boiler is so old it will need to be replaced soon.

Just a couple of notes not already mentioned: If the boiler is old make sure it has been updated with safety features (there should be some sort of regulator that shuts off the boiler if the water pressure is out of range - in case of leaks or build up of pressure) and as far as AC goes, our home has an AC unit in the attic with vents added through the ceiling and closets.

I think you will find that most plumbers/HVAC companies can maintain a boiler system.
A good friend of mine has boiler heat BUT the biggest issue for them was the lack of duct work in place to add AC so they have never had AC in their house...

You should have the boiler iteself checked every year just as you would a furnace, though it would be someone with plumbing experience as well. If someone tells you to replace it, make sure you get a second opinion. You also have to "bleed" the radiators. They have a valve of some type that may need a special "key". You would empty the radiators at the beginning and end of the heating season. That is what my dad did anyway. We had radiators with really small valves that needed a special key to turn them to open. An apartment we lived in had this valve that you just turned the valve to open.

We live in a house with a boiler and radiators, they last a LOOOOOOONG time. Don't need much maintenance, just have the Heating/cooling/plumbing guys come do a checkup once a year....ours just had some anti-corrosive added to the system, and then bled all the radiators for us, in about September/beginning of true heating season. Costs about $100 I think.

We don't have central air yet, because of the lack of vents, it will be a bit of a bigger project to do....so we have 4 window units,one BIG one for the whole downstairs, and one in each bedroom, we turn them on individually when we need them. We do plan on adding a central air system, like someone else said, from the attic down, run the ducts around the attic and the vents will be in the 2nd floor ceiling, and then maybe a few will run ductwork down through existing closets to put a few more vents in the downstairs, but mostly that will gravity-feed down our 2 large stairways.

It is really a nice type of heat, doesn't blow dust around your house, no filters to change, very little maintanence, and a nice even moist heat....

Jess