I heated primarily with wood last year using a fireplace insert. I absolutely loved it- this was our first year in a cold climate (we moved from South Florida) and we were very concerned about freezing all winter. I can honestly say I never spent a warmer winter anywhere. But don't neglect to think about how much work it is. My husband chops wood all spring and summer to stay a year ahead so it is all properly seasoned. These are trees we took down on our own property so there wasn't even a truck involved- just hours of intensive labor. They have to be messed with fairly often (I can go around 7 hours or so between loads if I do everything perfectly), and in order to do it safely you have to study up on how to burn properly. The wood storage itself takes up a fair amount of yard space and isn't particularly attractive. It is messy. No matter how careful you are you will track in grime and drop little pieces, and it will be a daily chore to keep the area around the fire clean. You'll bring in a bug from time to time. Every time you scoop ash you try and not stir up too much dust, but you do anyway and so dusting chores are multiplied considerably. A safe installation is key and with a full chimney liner (highly recommended for safety) the whole shebang can run you an easy $3500. Regular inspections and chimney cleanings are essential and depending on your roof you may or may not want to attempt this yourself. So don't just see "free wood" and think it is a walk in the park- it's hard. But it is the warmest heat you will ever experience, and the fire itself is like a living entity- I miss it terribly in the warmer months. It is great when it's the right choice, but wrong for many households who are away the major portion of the day, fussbudgets, or even remotely lazy.

You can prime it off the wall if you like. Then bring the wood into the house and sticker it and let it acclimate a bit before your first cut. Use a sharp coping or jigsaw to handle where it meets in the corners Be sure to take the time to get a good, straight, smooth caulk joint between the top of the baseboard and the wall. No wall is ever as flat as a well-milled stock. Use a nail set carefully. Then touch up any dings and hit the nail holes with some wood filler (or spackle) , prime over the caulk and dings and nail holes, sand one last time, vacuum well and tack it off. Use a high quality slanted brush, good light and with a confident, steady hand you can zip right along with the finish paint's first coat. The sand, vac and tack it again and then put a final smooth, smooth, smooth coat on the baseboard. Sit right on on the floor and make it perfect. It will be a pleasure to live with for years. Store some of the finish paint in a couple of small, full-up, tightly closed, well-labeled 1/4 cup mason jars. These are your long-term, ding-fixin' kits. Paint which is stored in a can that is opened and re-closed repeatedly will eventually dry out. But those little jars will stay fine for years and years. HTH L.

There are lots of boiler/hydronic experts at the following fora. This is a great forum but there is a lot more activity in these areas and some sharp people posting: http://www.terrylove.com/forums/index.php and http://forum.heatinghelp.com If you do a web search for "monoflow T" you will find a much better explanation that I can field. The mechanical bypass t-stats that I am familiar with would be right on the radiators themselves and you'd need to have a bypass pipe with them as well. Electrical valves could be elsewhere. All of this kind of stuff puts you outside of the "simple loop" concept. have you been able to view and evaluate the whole of the pipes that run your system to be sure what you have?

For this situation, in-floor electric will be much better. Its also a real plus in a bathroom where you are usually walking with bare feet. Just remember that in-floor heat only runs at a low temperature, so it will not feel as hot as your forced air or hydronic heat system (radiators or baseboard hot water). Running it at hotter temps would not feel good on the feet. Bruce