I live in central NJ (Princeton Area) and I purchased a Trane System in May (before the PSE&G rebate was reduced). I had quotes from Home Depot, PSE&G, Sears, and a couple of local guys. I went with a local guy because the salesman "seemed" the most knowledgeable at the time. I have a 2800 sq. ft 2-story home and purchased an XL15i 4ton AC and a XV95 100K btu furnace. It included a 10 year parts only and 2 year parts and labor warranty. (They initially tried to give me a 1 year but the Trane website indicated that if your purchase my system it comes with 2 years). I had problems with the install but the HVAC-Talk website helped me resolve them (wiring was set on timer instead of 2-stage). The final cost to me was $8600 after $1000 worth of rebates (Trane $300 and PSE&G $700). Key1

Have to disagree with GreenDesigns who states, "they offer almost zero improvement in efficiency of a new high quality tanked electric heater. ...electrical tankless is only truly practical if designed for a new build from the beginning. Retrofitting is extremely expensive and won't give you a payback for the cost differences inside of your lifetime." I put a whole-house electric tankless in my 1906 house and will never store water in a tank again. Absolutely love it! It's mounted on the wall, directly to the side and just above the dryer. I did not bother to hide the water lines inside the wall, but since they're [mostly] hidden by the dryer, who cares? Sometimes, putting plumbing pipes in the wall is highly overrated. Mine is in the bath/laundry room and I've never found it to be unsightly. Yes, the tankless requires quite a bit of power: Mine requires two, double-pole 60amp breakers with 6g wire. So, here's where distance from the electric panel is a cost consideration.

The proposed new location is just inches away, but it might as well be feet or yards. Moving a panel isn't trivial. You don't just unbolt it and move it over. When your house was wired, the cables (or whatever wiring system was used) were cut to the exact length needed to reach the panel in its current location. Moving the panel means that the electrician has to shorten or extend those cables. Shortening isn't so much of a problem, but cables don't stretch, so lengthening cables means they have to be spliced. That's where things get complicated. The splices have to be made in junction boxes that remain accessible, in case the splices should fail sometime in the future. (Yes, it happens.) They can't be just buried in the wall. Depending on how the cables are currently routed, some might be spliced in junction boxes in the attic or cellar / crawl space. Others may require blank-cover boxes in walls, and/or partial rewiring. Also keep in mind that a change of this scale is likely to bring in some requirements for code related updating. I don't see any way to guess from here how much labor would be required for this job. Before you go any further with your remodeling project, I suggest that you talk to some local electricians to get a sense for what you're getting into. You might decide that this is a golden opportunity for you to sell this place and move to your dream house with your dream kitchen.

I was in a similar situation. Old home from the 60's. Installed a new woodstove, fixed chimney etc to keep my baseboard heating costs low. Whats the most efficient depends on the times. Natural gas if available, Propane, and oil prices fluctuate. It's a roll of the dice. Wood is always the cheapest but labor intensive. Coal if its easily available. Pellet is an option too, but you need to store enough, wood, coal, or pellets somewhere easily accessible. You need to either hire, or clean your chimney and stove yourself. Here's a tip. You ain't getting' any younger. Choose your battles wisely. What if you throw your back out? Then what... Mini splits. Here's what I found. Efficient? To a degree. -20? Nonsense. More like 36. Real world numbers here. You have to run an electric heating element to the coils so when they freeze, you can melt the ice. $$ Then if you're smart, you make sure you build or have built, a shield of sorts to keep the elements off it. If there's a snow drift, you better get out there and clear it by hand. Some will bolt it to the walls to keep it off the floor, but you can't go that high and awnings only do so much. Think about it. The machines need to be serviced. Lets talk a 10 year ROI here. Warranties, such as offered by Mitsubishi, require a licensed professional to come out and service it once a year. $$. If you don't pay, you lose the warranty. How nice. You could gamble and risk it all...There goes my savings over a 10 year period. You either need to buy, or clean the filters. Anywhere form 1 to 3 of em annually depending on model. Replaced eventually if you clean them yourself. Cost of installation? Ridiculous. Run electric, upgrade your panel, run ugly line sets and condensate pipes all over the place? Bah. THE ONLY WAY you could save money is if you knew someone in the biz to cut you an install deal. Other than that you'll pay 10K on average. I got quoted $5k for a single 18K unit. $10K on a split system running off a 36K unit. Run the numbers and you'll see its just not worth it. How much money can you save over a 10 year period will yield an ROI that just about equals out. Clearly a waste of time and effort. That's whats its about. Peace of mind. Baseboards = zero maintenance other than a vacuum cleaner or a coat of paint. Heck. My wife can do that. Companies/Businesses/People can and will say ANYTHING to convince you to empty your pockets. Its unethical yes, against the law, no. Leave the baseboard and have some peace of mind. You'll pay inflated costs over time or drop thousands at once and HOPE that you found a contractor worth his spit. Mini Splits. BAH. You can't escape paying. No one can. One way or the other they're gonna get you. The smartest guys in the world have run the numbers. The system has been set up. Its the working class that pays. Not the poor, Not the rich. Remember that. Choose the path of least resistance and don't' let these jerks fool you. Everybody hates math. You just have to do it. When was the last time you heard someone say they love math...That's how they get you. "Coil size, amperage, etc will fall on sadly deaf ears - with math involved I won't follow it. If possible, please, descriptions are better such as 'the coils are now bigger' or 'they use a different metal so it does x'."