Please note: this page contains reviews and opinions sent in by Berkeley Parents Net subscribers. Your own experience may be different. Please always check references before hiring!

Best option for a house without heat?

I have a 1200 sq ft house, built in 1922, with no current heating system in place so I have to start from scratch. I have looked into getting forced air heat installed, with vents, gas furnace & thermostat, but the estimates I've gotten are really high, and I'm feeling like it's not the most efficient system. What other options are there? I used a space heater in the baby's room last winter, but it was still freezing in the rest of the house, and my pge bills were quadruple what they are in the summer. I have also looked into radiant heat, but the cost of that was even higher than the forced air system. What else is there? Fireplace insert? Looking for recommendations on an economical, energy efficient, environmentally conscious heating system. (Don't tell me wool sweaters! ) Thanks ColdWinters

Heating vent locations? Need advice

We?re having a remodel done in Oakland and trying to figure out where to put our heating vents on the 2nd floor. Ideally, we would put them in the floor since heat rises, but due to the structural issues of the floor, this is somewhat difficult because of various beams. So, the other choice is to run the ducting up to the attic in one location, and then distribute it through the ceiling (some rooms have lofted ceilings up to 11 feet tall). The upstairs will be very well insulated since it?s new. Anyone have experience with ceiling vents in their home? Does it make a big difference in terms of temperature, noise, or feeling the blowing air? Because if it does, we might push harder to have floor vents. Thanks for your help! Katie

Replace floor furnace?

We are buying a new house, well old house (1904) but new to us, smaller 3 bedroom, about 1000 sq. ft. We would like to consider replacing the scary floor furnace with central heating. Does anyone have any recent recommendations for people to do it and how? I have read about the eheat but with a 2 year old, we may be moving quickly from room to room and would prefer that the house is balanced in heat if that makes sense. thanks!

Heating living room makes bedrooms too hot - gas fireplace?

Does anyone have any recommendations for gas fireplace inserts? Did you recently install one? What model did you buy? Did you buy the unit on-line, or did you go to a store in the Bay Area? Are you happy with it? Is it worth the money? I have a fireplace in my living room, but I don't want to burn wood in it. (My daughter has asthma, and I don't want to add to the air pollution in the Bay Area.) My living room is always cold. The forced air furnace that I have heats the bedrooms, but can't heat the living room without making the bedrooms uncomfortably hot. As a result, I rarely sit in my living room in cool/cold weather. I went to a store today and looked at gas fireplace inserts, and it looks like I could have a warm living room if I invested in one, but the cost of the unit, plus the installation, will be thousands of dollars. I'd appreciate any advice or recommendations. Thanks! Janet

Another possiblity is to balance the system by putting baffles in the ducts to the bedrooms. A heating contractor can do this, and I suspect that it will be much cheaper than a fireplace insert and more effective. A baffle is just a flat piece of metal, shaped to fit the duct, which can be rotated to reduce air flow.

The third choice is to put in a fan in the heating duct to the living room to pull air in. Depending on your system, this may actually be easier than baffles. sunsol

Living in Albany without a heating system?

We recently bought a fixer in Albany and in addition to remodeling the kitchen and bath, and replacing the roof, the home's heating system is kaput. Unfortunately, our savings is also kaput after the roof, bath, and kitchen. We are considering postponing the new heating system until 2006. Our question is whether the Albany winter will be bearable without forced heat. We have a pretty good DeLonghi oil heater that heats up the living room and we would also buy one for the bedroom. Our home is only 1000 sq ft. I'd love to hear your comments and advice as to whether we can bear the winter with just the two oil heaters in our cozy Albany abode. TIA. caroline

There are two main things to think about when considering this: 1) How well insulated your house is -- the house we were in was not well insulated, so the heat did not stay in very well once the heater was turned off. 2) How cold a winter we will have: I know nobody knows for sure how cold the winter will be, but that last winter we spent w/o a proper heating system was very cold - I think it was 2001 - it was in the 20s and 30s most nights - getting out of bed in the morning was hard. Anyway, not trying to freak you out, but I definitely didn't realize how much a good heater made a difference to my experience of winter until I didn't have one during a very cold (for the bay area) winter. I was renting, and chose to move out rather than taking legal action against my landlord, but if I'd owned the place I definitely would've found the money somehow for a heater. anon

Good luck! madelyn

So we can set it to go on about 1/2 hour before we get up and then off about an hour later and then a similar setting in the evening. It works great. We also do the slippers, fleece, scarves routine. We have flannel sheets and down comforters on all the beds and the kids sometimes complain of being too hot!

I also weather stripped all of our windows to help stop the ''breezes''. Warm enough

I am looking for someone who can advise us now on how to make the interior of our home as cool as possible on warm summer days (without air conditioning). I don't know what sort of contractor would do this, and, at this point, are essentially looking for an expert to give advice, not to do construction work. We imagine this would involve knowledge re the following possibilities: air flow patterns, exhaust and/or regular fans, extra venting under the roof, extra insulation under roof and some walls (i.e., would more that we already have really make a difference?), an awning on the back deck, selecting and positioning a tree in the back yard to shade the back of the house, etc. In other words, not just someone who, for example, sells and installs installation, fans, awnings, or insulated shades, but someone can look at our overall situation and prioritize what we can do for a reasonable sum of money. Thanks!