Thank you for your response Tigerdunes. I will definitely check with the bidder on the third party evaporator coil. I specified matched systems having read your prior posts to others extensively, but didn't catch that this evaporator coil wasn't a matching Trane. Thanks. The boiler was sufficient in heating the entire 1200 square feet main floor living space with AND without all the radiators in place. I don't recall the size at the moment, but will check. The HVAC people were all pleased with its size when they looked at it. Because the house is without electric and water service as yet, we are not totally sure the boiler is still in working order. It was not fire damaged, but water from the fire fighters and heat from the fire might have caused some unknown problems, which was another reason to hedge the bet by adding a gas furnace. The second reason for considering a gas furnace, not just A/C is that a realtor who knows the house and its value, - which is considerable for a small house, given its location and craftsman, cedar shingled cottage charm - suggests that some buyers don't like radiator systems, and feels the addition of an alternate heat system and the addition of A/C will be worth it, which is another reason I got the bid for it. The third reason for considering a gas furnace is code compliance, and the cost to do so. The cost of adding hydronic units to the sunroom, pantry, dining room and bath areas to meet code are unnecessary if I install the gas furnace. Anyone wanting to use the radiator system only for heat would have to add these units, or live without them as I did, but code is met with the addition of a furnace. No furnace, and I have to add radiators in the areas mentioned above and detailed below. I agree that a heat pump would be the way to go if we knew for sure that the radiator system was going to be the primary source of heat as it was when I lived in the house. New owners might opt for a forced air system. My question on this is, can a gas furnace be added into the system as cost effectively later as it can be added now with the A/C going in. The new heating system, if installed, l would heat/coo the 1200 sq ft main floor with its 9 ft ceilings, with two registers in the open 950 sq ft unfinished basement. The basement stays cool in summer and warm in winter without additional heating and cooling. The attic space, if developed later, will be heated and cooled with an in-wall, Mitsubishi type system. Trying to run ducts and vents is a problem, which is why we don't have the new proposed system sited in the attic. It would make the attic fairly unusable in a future development as a master suite and sitting room. The ducting layout using the in the basement location has worked well, and the location of cold air returns well placed and spaced. So the attic will not be heated or cooled with this system. In the past, with the boiler, the heat loss from the main floor was enough to keep the attic above freezing, but does not warm it significantly. The attic has 4 large double window sets, 3 large Velux skylights and a 4.0 french door set, and the roof is black, so it stays warm enough on sunny days, and is well ventilated in summer.. The attic floor will be re-insulated at this time, but not the walls or ceiling. The new insulation in the attic floor will be far better than the old, and as I said, the new windows throughout, from basement to attic are a vast improvement in energy efficiency over what the boiler used to have to handle. The 950 sq ft basement is unheated at present, though I believe two registers will be added to this space with the new furnace The basement stays comfortable in winter when the boiler is in operation simply from the hot water pipes to the radiators and hot water heater and warmth of the up stairs. It is is open space, unfinished and only used for laundry and workshop space/tool storage. The dining room radiator was removed from under a south facing bump out window. That window was removed and replaced by an exterior double french door when a new deck was added at the time of the new boiler. The heat loss to this room was noticeable but not enough to be a problem for me, though it would be for others, and it is for code. Each room has to have a heat source, so I either have to put in a register or add a radiator. The bathroom is only 6x7 and is now warmed by the heat/fan which is not sufficient for code. I have a not yet installed hydronic towel bar that gives off 1500 BTU, enough to handle the bath and the small hall adjoining the dining room, bath, bedroom and parlor. If I do the gas furnace, this is unnecessary. At same time the new boiler was installed, a kitchen was installed in a 11x12 ft space that only had a sink and refrigerator with a radiator. An adjoining but separate 6x8 pantry at the south end of the kitchen had a stove and a cabinet. The pantry is also an access corridor to the basement stairs. So in installing a kitchen, I removed the radiator and replaced it with a toe kick radiator under the sink base the fully fitted kitchen. Base and upper cabinets were added to the pantry on the load bearing exterior wall that separated the pantry from the screen 8x8 screened back porch at the other half of the kitchen south wall. The fire that started at the electric service connection into the house was located on the east wall between the kitchen and screen porch, so this area and the attic above it were severely impacted by the fire. In rebuilding this area, the screen porch got a solid foundation, was mostly opened to the kitchen, and serves as a sunroom breakfast area. It is,fully windowed from ceiling to 36 inches above the floor with a door that opens to the deck. The load bearing wall separating the sunroom from the pantry still exists, but the pantry is now open to the kitchen rather than walled off with a doorway. The kitchen toe kick puts out 5,600 BTU and has to handle the kitchen sunroom and pantry area now. If I do not add a furnace, code will require me to heat the sunroom and pantry areas, which I would do with toe kick units under the pantry base cabinets - one venting into the sunroom through the wall and one venting into the pantry. If I add a furnace, this will not be required, we will simply use those areas for the forced air registers. If I do not add a furnace I will have to provide hydronic heat sources for both areas. So, to answer your question 4, the only addition to the heat load that the boiler has covered adequately (1200 sp ft) is the 8x8 fully weatherized and insulated sunroom. If I go with a gas furnace we will add the register(s) for the unfinished basement. I don't know if code requires the basement to be covered. I do know the non living space attic does not need to be covered. Sorry for all the detail, but I find that sooner or later the information is needed, so I am trying to give it all upfront.

I had a similar situation -- I lost all my walls where I could have baseboard heat. Went from a constricted to open floor plan. Instead of going the toekick route -- I went radiant floor heat. If you have access to the floor from below, and your floor will be tile or stone, it wasn't all that different than adding a zone like your hydronic toekick heater would be. I did all the work myself. 1. Add zone to heating system 2. Add Taco RMB -1 controller (computer control, takes care of mixing, activating boiler, etc) ~ 1,000 3. Add manifolds 4. Staple aluminum fins bottom of subfloor, run tubing in joist bays 5. Add insulation This will likely be a few thousand more than the toekick hydronic heating, but on a wintry day -- your feet will thank you! I did this in two rooms, one room I used the staple up method from below, for the kitchen tile, and the other I embedded the tubing in 2 inches of concrete under a wood floor (I have a sunken dining room where I could get away with the concrete). Mind you, a quote to do the same work from a plumber was $40,000. This was likely a way of saying "I don't want to do this work, but if you are stupid enough to pay me that much, I will" For the tubing for 2 rooms, aluminum plates, clips for tubing, 2 manifolds, 2 controllers, piping, zone valve, 2 thermostats, etc -- all in I was talking a little less than 5k. BEST MONEY EVER SPENT! If you are interested in going this route, I can help via pictures model #'s etc. If you have a good honest plumber, I am sure their charge would be less than my quote. The biggest pain is snaking the tubes in the bays - which anyone can do if they have patience and your plumber would likely charge less if you took care of that part for him...

In the long run the electric will cost more, the boiler is already hot and heating

I would like to thank everybody who has taken the time to respond and give their opinions. I want to clarify a couple of things. The "handy man" was my "slang", he is actually a contractor, he's just a "younger" man newer to the contruction business, not one who has been displaced from building homes by the recession like the "other" one we interviewed and received a quote from. The GC from the "big box store" was also one who had been active in the home building side in our town during the boom town years of the mid 2000's. We have actually received a glowing referral from our neighbors who he has done a number of projects for. Live Wire Oak, our friends who have had everything under the sun go wrong with their kitchen remodel had referred us to the first person we attempted to work with. It wasn't the GC we have ended up with. This lady is a KD, who happens to sell cabinets also. After our friends were several months into their debacle we were actually happy we didn't go any further with her. They are close personal friends with her and her husband. We have had a number of contractors look at our plan. The only wall to be taken down is the one in the picture I posted. It is not load bearing. We have a very detailed contract with this young man. He is insured. He plans to be working at our house for a month. As for the budget...I have found that the big box store is a great option for somebody who has unlimited funds. None of the other quotes we received came close to that high amount and were very realistic we found. No, we wouldn't have had to lift a finger if we'd taken their quote and gone with it, but we're not rich people and it wasn't an option. This will be our one and only time that we will ever remodel our kitchen and downstairs half bath and we will never build anything ever. Thank you dilly, badgergal, debrak, chispa and art teacher mom for your hard wood flooring thoughts. It appears we all have I am certainly going to be open to exploring the tile option. I would certainly make the tile flooring heating a priority. We are putting the tile in our half bath with an electric flooring mat. We have paid a sizable deposit to our guy already and I will need to make a quick decision on the floor. I plan on revisiting calling the flooring people tomorrow and seeing if that is an option. We called our contractor today to clarify what we needed to do. Need to move fridge, set up temp kitchen in house somewhere. He takes care of stove and dishwasher. We then spent several hours at our Big Box store today picking up all our other materials. The first KD designer we worked with there working, she helped us and gave us designs layouts, etc for our contractor.. She apologized about the lack of follow through from her co-worker. I am feeling now alot more confident. I will keep the board up to date on what we decide. I'm still torn. In love with wood, but warm tiles wouldn't kill me. Honestly, we were on the north end of the Sandy storm and were very fortunate we didn't sustain damage like so many others. This is a small matter at best and I thank everybody for their thoughts.