When we first bought our house, I wasn’t happy with the boiler heating system. My big complaint was the radiators located in every room. The radiators were ancient and enormous. They took up a tremendous amount of valuable living space and detracted from aesthetics. Because the radiators would become dangerously hot to the touch, nothing could be set in close proximity and I worried about safety issues. The advantage of the boiler heating system was the plentiful supply of a very gentle style of heating. No matter how cold the outside temperature, the inside of the house is always perfectly warm. As a hydronic heating system, it does dry out the air and avoids temperature stratification. I contacted a local HVAC contractor and asked what I could do about the radiators. He suggested either updating to a modern radiator that is much more compact and safe or switching to baseboard heaters. I opted for the baseboards that are wonderfully streamlined and installed around the perimeter of the rooms. I don’t need to arrange furniture to accommodate them. The baseboards don’t become overly hot and the heat is infused evenly for a very consistent comfort. The baseboards have made a huge improvement in the appearance of my home. Despite the age of the actual boiler installed in the basement, it continues to operate reliably. According to the HVAC contractor, boilers that are properly serviced each year tend outlast any other type of heating system. Now that we have the baseboard heaters, I’m extremely happy with the whole system and hope to keep it operating for a very long time.
