base-ment or NO base-ment for house in Maine

[Bydand]

Where in Maine do you have Natural Gas? Must be Portland, because it sure isn't up here yet. I would switch in a heartbeat. And I don't mean to Propane.

[399083453]

Originally Posted by Zymer

The caveat to the tankless water heater is that you can't install it in an enclosed area, such as a closet or a very small room like a bathroom. If you don't have a basement or garage you might have to put it in a location where it will be visible.

Wouldn't a home be considered an enclosed area? Hehe.

Why not a closet? Mine is in a closet with no problems. It does not have a pilot light, its electronic and its vented anyway. I dont use the closet to store anything such as combustible materials or containers.

Im a dope, it is propane, not natural gas.

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by 399083453

Im a dope, it is propane, not natural gas.

Darn it all, you had my hopes up. Up here in the County propane is just WAY too expensive to justify the change. Sure you get some very good numbers for efficiency (99+), but the initial cost of the units and the subsequent cost of the propane doesn't pan out to replace if you don't really have to.

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by 399083453

Wouldn't a home be considered an enclosed area? Hehe.

Why not a closet? Mine is in a closet with no problems. It does not have a pilot light, its electronic and its vented anyway. I dont use the closet to store anything such as combustible materials or containers.

Im a dope, it is propane, not natural gas.

LOL, I'm just going by the installation instructions I've seen. If I were to venture a guess, I would say that the "enclosure" limitation would have something to do with how much airflow can get to the unit for a proper burn, as well as the oxygen depletion rate for the size of the area.

Incidentally, I have a tankless unit that is not installed but it is set up for natural gas. As I understand it, there would need to be some changes made to convert it to propane (orifice size, and ???).

Any advice or suggestions as to who I could talk to, to see about learning what and how to do it?

[boonelsewhere]

Any advice or suggestions as to who I could talk to, to see about learning what and how to do it?

Zymer, many years back we bought a commercial range stove for our house, it was set up for natural gas, we do not have gas line run by our house, they have a kit to convert to use LP gas. Convertion from natural gas to LP gas reduce the BTU out put a bit, but it still better than the low frame gas stove.
Try Appliances store.

[Zymer]

Thanks Boon, good idea. Even if they don't have the specific information for my unit, they can probably give me a general idea, maybe point me to an expert.

[Submariner]

We have used tank-less when we lived in Scotland and again in Italy.

We did look at them here, they are commonly used to heat radiant floor loops.

We did not decide to use one, as the salesman told us that using well-water would violate the unit's warranty. The manufacturers want municipal water plumbed into their units.

We use a 40 gallon tank water heater fueled by propane as the primary heat source for our radiant floor heat system.

Also when reading the install manuals for the tank-less heaters, they need 'X' cubic feet of make-up air. If you put it in a closet, that closet needs a louvered opening to the outside, so it can suck it's intake air.

The water heater that we settled on here, has the intake air and the output exhaust pipes one inside of the other. A larger pipe with a smaller pipe running inside of it. One hole in one wall going outside. It sucks outside air, and it blows it's exhaust out there at the same time.

By the way, we also plumbed our all-fuel stove's water heater to our radiant heating system. So that we can heat our home with propane, or by burning: wood, coal, or peat.

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

lol....it's scary that I knew immediately what you said Dwatted!!

Ayyuppp, showah did!!

[judd2401]

We just spent boo hoo bucks on having our existing unfinished basement finished, new everything from top to bottom, had it water proofed, built a brick swale around the entire end of that house to protect our investment as we live on a ridge and water was a constant problem, the swale took care of that, our basement has been dry as a bone since we bought the house 25 years ago. It's our favorite area in the house. One huge expense that we don't regret is that we put in giant egress windows instead of those typical tiny basement windows, makes it look like living area, let's an incredible amount of light in, and will classify more square feet but just under a different category than the upstairs, and we could convert our exercise room into a bedroom, have one room devoted to wrap around closets, new walk in bathroom/shower, totally titled from top to bottom, it's a gorgeous space and will be a big selling point, could be a family room, a theater room, could be a teenagers dream, a play room for the kids, big laundry room with countertop and huge utility stainless steel sink, drop ceiling, (don't get dry wall ceiling because you'll have leaks and it's nice to be able to replace stained tiles instead of repairing dry wall), get PVC tiles for the laundry and bathroom to resist moisture and mold damange, 2 high powered fans that could run continuously if needbe, not the usual little bathroom fans, radon system helped keep everything ventilated and our radon level went from 20 to 0, rececessed lighting, new stairwell with oak risers and beautiful grey asian runner with stainless rods to match the grey plank porcelain (repels moisture better than plain ceramic) and we kept the floor drains and made them look attractive in case of a catastrophic leak that would require emergency drainage instead of filling up the basement. We thought about putting in a panic room but haven't done it, not sure we will but we've had tornados here and the basement was a real comfort during horrendous storms which tend to be getting worse. It was so worth doing everything high end, handicap accessible so my spouse can banish me to the basement as I get more demented, I have my giant TV, recliners, exercise equipment, my workshop, and walk out to the garage so I can escape, that's all I need! But in all seriousness, the pre-fab cement insulated walls are the best, and get a nice drop ceiling, have the support columns made into fancy posts with moulding throughout, with wains coated walls, nice paint scheme (light and bright) you won't regret it. Make it multi-purpose so you have options and so will the next buyer. Make sure to get the giant egress windows, makes a HUGE difference. YES, get a basement. We researched basement pictures for a couple years before we decided what we wanted, do you homework and think outside the box, we renamed our "basement" the lower level!

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by rico304

I built a spec house last year and the walk out basement was a HUGE plus.
Even if stairs aren't your friend, it is a great place to have your furnace, oil tank, water tank etc etc. Just as stated earlier, you never know what life is going to deal to us. Even if don't ever plan on visiting our basement, it will assist in selling.
That being said, I know of many houses that do not have basements and sold quickly. It is not a "must have", just a "nice to have".
If you don't really want a basement or your land doesn't work for a basement I wouldn't worry that much about it. Just plan for the above mentioned things to be upstairs (or in your garage)
A nicely built/designed house is MUCH more important. Good windows/doors/hardware/KITCHEN setup (huge) etc is what really sells houses. (in my opinion) hahaha Which is equal to..... not much. hahaha

Agreed, an insulated slab is cheaper, but a basement does have value. It provides storage space, a thermal break with the ground, a place to locate utility infrastructure, and if you want to modify electric circuits, water or gas plumbing, HVAC, etc, after the house is built, this is much easier when you have a basement. The space is freely accessible to workers and to new lines.

P.S. I think the ground floor is normally up a little higher with a basement vs a slab, which can be nice if there is any threat of flooding from surface water.