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Northeastern Pennsylvania Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pocono area
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Old 10-11-2014, 09:16 AM
 
Location: northern Indiana
2 posts, read 6,489 times
Reputation: 10

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I have been looking at homes online for sale, in the Carbondale to Scranton area. So far I have looked at homes online in Mayfield and in the Jermyn area. On the realtor websites there are a lot of housing pages to look at. It seems as though most of your area homes have hot water heat, and no central air. We have always had a forced hot air gas furnace with central heat in all of our recent homes. The gas forced hot air heat with central air, is just not the type of heat used in the nepa mid city area that I have found. I do not know if the newer developements have any other type of heat or not, as I do not know where they are located.

I want to thank everyone who made a post in response to my earlier post, about where is a good place for an older couple to retire in the Carbondale to Scranton area. . I have read everyones posts, and looked at the various housing links. I had to laugh at the one post, about the pollution and congestion, somewhere between Carbondale and Scranton. We used to live near Ft Worth, TX. It was very crowded, congested, with heavy car pollution. Most of the time there was a brown cloud of pollution over the whole Dallas, Ft Worth, TX cities. My husband use to work 12 miles from where we lived in Keller, TX. During the evening rush hr, it would take him 1 1/2 hrs to come home from work, due to the traffic. So a little bit of traffic, and a little bit of pollution near the shopping areas would be nothing for us to worry about. Traffic and congestion around the stores and malls was just a nightmare.

I have relatives in the Carbondale area and I wanted to stay fairly close to them, while staying close to walmart, the mall, etc in Dickson city. Currently we live in northern Indiana. We wanted to move closer to some relatives. My husband and I have lived in the Buffalo, N.Y. area, and in Ft Worth, TX and now in northern Indiana. All of our homes in those areas have had, gas forced hot air heat with central air. Plus they have had a 2 car attached garage. I cannot find any homes in the mid city area, which is what I call it, there near the Dickson city area, that have any of those items in it. We have never had hot water baseboard heat, and I do not know anything about it. I guess there is no way of adding central air without adding a new furnace unit for the blower, and adding heating ducts in every rm. Which would be expensive.

We need to find a good, fair realtor to work with that knows the area. Most of our past realtors have always worked for the other people in the housing deal.

My cousin lives near Carbondale, but she does not know any realtors. My cousin will show me the different areas, when I take a trip over there to look at houses. That will help a little.
Thanks so much for your helpful responses.
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Old 10-11-2014, 09:40 AM
 
5,288 posts, read 6,096,798 times
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Hot water baseboard heating is the best kind: even and constant warmth. With hot air heating, you're either too cold (when the blower isn't on) or too hot (when the blower is on).

It's not too expensive to add air conditioning to a house without ductwork. Nowadays, homeowners install a split or ductless system.

The housing stock north of Scranton is mostly older homes. You'd be hard pressed to find a house that meets all of your requirements.

I don't know what your budget is but I might suggest buying a building lot and putting a new house on it. You can put up a modular or sectional house to your specifications in 8 weeks or less. If you prefer a stick built home, I recommend Fine Line Homes.
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Old 10-11-2014, 10:17 AM
 
2,861 posts, read 3,828,107 times
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For new houses and additions/updates, in floor radiant heat (hydronic or electric..depending on circumstances) is VERY nice...IMO better than baseboard hot water and also forced air (we have had all these), but more expensive and complex to install.

To add A/C to radiant floor heat, people usually add a ducting system too (increasing overall HVAC cost). There are A/C alternatives that might be OK in NEPA, especially since that area doesn't need A/C often.
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Old 10-11-2014, 11:13 AM
 
41,815 posts, read 50,806,627 times
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Most of th homes are going to be older hence the reason most will have baseboard. The only complaint you can have about baseboard is the space it takes up. It's far better heat than ducted heating systems and certainly better for your health. Newer homes typically have ducted heating because it can be many thousands less to install.

As far as the AC goes you might have a few days that really want it that might add up to a week or two. I live at higher elevation and to be honest didn't need it once this year. A lot of people opt for window air conditioners unless they are building a new home which usually has the duct work already installed.
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Old 10-11-2014, 11:18 AM
 
671 posts, read 884,784 times
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Natural gas locations....Go to the providers web sites and they have location information where service is availably.
That doesn't mean that all the homes are hooked to the service just that the street has a main in place.
Apparently you lean towards gas hot air from experience but a pro and con search on the internet will tell you about the other types of heat sources and what the advantages of each comes into play for your locations heating seasons needs.....
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Old 10-11-2014, 11:34 AM
 
48,505 posts, read 96,526,809 times
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Yep; anywhere you look natural gas availably varies by development. Natural gas most places bring a certain premium to homes that have it for its clean and low cost; especially now days.More and more homes even have optional backup generation of electricity by natural gas.
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Old 10-11-2014, 06:33 PM
 
54 posts, read 80,939 times
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Most houses in the valley use gas, not sure about newer developments but I would think they would also. I don't know why most have a hot water system verses hot air. Maybe some used a coal boiler before switching to gas and already had the baseboard or radiators. Dry air could be a problem but I know they have systems to add humidity.

I'll be switching from coal to propane (out in the country no nat gas service) and am being told hot air is the way to go as far as cost even though I already have baseboard. But there is going to be new large addition. Hot air gas furnaces cost less than boilers too I' told. Plus I want central air, no more window ac's to deal with. I'm a little scared at the cost of LP versus coal but I hope to have an add on wood furnace.
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Old 10-11-2014, 07:36 PM
 
41,815 posts, read 50,806,627 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by F.Jenco View Post

I'll be switching from coal to propane (out in the country no nat gas service)....
Coal $200/ton @ 80% efficiency = $10.42 per million BTU

Propane $2.50/gallon @ 80% efficiency = $34.22 per million BTU

Quote:
I already have baseboard.
Switching out boilers should be cheaper even with the higher cost of the boiler.

What kind do you have now?
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Old 10-11-2014, 09:00 PM
 
54 posts, read 80,939 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thecoalman View Post
Coal $200/ton @ 80% efficiency = $10.42 per million BTU

Propane $2.50/gallon @ 80% efficiency = $34.22 per million BTU



Switching out boilers should be cheaper even with the higher cost of the boiler.

What kind do you have now?
It's an old VanWert. It generates quite a bit of dust. I'm hoping to move it out and use it to heat a two story garage with woodworking shop upstairs. I hope to use some kind of heat exchanger that will convert the hot water into hot air for that.
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Old 10-12-2014, 07:00 AM
 
41,815 posts, read 50,806,627 times
Reputation: 17862
They still make Van Wert's, some guy in New york bought the molds and plans and is making them but only two from the middle of the line. He also has the parts for all models.

A&B Van Wert Coal Stoker Inc.

I have one myself, they are good for 40 or 50 years if you burn them 24/7/365 and perhaps another 30 years with minor overhaul. Not sure the cost on new one but they are not cheap, comparable EFM is about $9K on a pallet. Refurbished it might be worth $3K.

Dust is always a problem with any solid fuel but ours is in the garage and the auger goes right into the bin which is completely sealed. You can buy oiled coal but I recoomend keeping a garden type sprayer around and lightly dampen it before shoveling.

In any event changing to propane is going to be significant increase in costs for your heating and the $2.50/gallon is conservative estimate. Be sure to get on a contract if you go that route, you don't want to be like some of these people paying $5+ per gallon if the price spikes.

Last edited by thecoalman; 10-12-2014 at 07:09 AM..
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