Hi, Not sure if this subreddit can help, but it's a cost analysis basically that I'm looking at. Ultimate goal is to reduce utility costs. We have a well, so our water is free and we don't have gas. A gas hookup is not an option since that would cost about $6500 and then we'd need to install piping etc on top of that.My house has an old oil boiler and oil tank in the basement. All our heating is done through warm water (baseboards) and this boiler is also responsible for all hot water heating for showers and appliances. The issue is however that both of these are about 30 years old and I'm thinking they'll give out on us soon. So I was thinking about replacing it. I see 4 main options: 1: replace the current setup by a newer version2: get a seperate water boiler for appliances/showers and install an electric air heater (since I already have ducts in place for my air conditioning)3: Same as 2, but add a heat pump (I live in PA, close to philly. I was told a heat pump alone wouldn't be sufficient enough since the winters are to cold here. Can anyone confirm?)4: use our current (water) baseboards, but heat the water with an electric boiler instead of an oil boiler.Option 2,3,4 would require a electrician to add some breakers to my electric board and some extra lines and I would need to pay a company to remove my old oil tank. This however gives me the opportunity to finish my basement, which means basically adding another 400sq ft to my house.I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out if electric heating is more expensive or not. Right now this has my preference because of the following: I only need to have 1 utility supplier, I can turn off vents for rooms that don't require heating (like our bedroom, we sleep with the window open even in the winter) and I don't need to deal with any exhausts/oil tanks etc. I believe that the installation of an electric system would be cheaper than a new oil boiler and has the added benefit of not having to heat unused space.Current pricing is 2.5 cents per gallon and we used 800 gallons last year (= heat + hot water combined). Current pricing for electricity is 13.6 cents / kWh.Can anyone provide some insight in what the better choice would be? via /r/DIY http://ift.tt/2gXxUIf
