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I've lived with steam heat for most of my life--from my school and college to all of my apartments that I ever rented here in Pittsburgh.
My house has baseboard hot water heat and I love it. It's quiet, clean, and very efficient at keeping my little house toasty warm even with the thermostat set at 66-67 degrees. Once it's warm, it stays warm, unlike forced air heating where it always gets a bit chilly before the furnace kicks on.
Outside of replacing the original 1958 American Standard boiler after my first winter here and bleeding the radiators as needed, I've had zero problems with it and wouldn't change it over to forced air heating for the world. Having a great tech who helps me out as needed with the system has also been very helpful. (Jim from Matt Mertz.)
While I am fortunate enough to have the ductwork for air conditioning already installed (for some reason, it was done when the house was built and wasn't a later addition--rare for a house of this vintage) and there is a a.c. unit outside, it is currently non-operational. (I was aware of this when I purchased the house and the price reflected this fact.) The quote to have a new system installed was a bit north of five grand, so I opted to replace the boiler before replacing the a.c. system.
In the meantime, I, like many of my immediate neighbors, use window units to cool my house as needed. One unit adequately cools my entire downstairs; there's one each upstairs in each bedroom to cool the upstairs as needed. They're a bit noisy, but they get the job done until I am ready to put funds towards a new central a.c. unit.
I grew up without central air conditioning, lived in a dorm without air conditioning, and never lived in a place with central air conditioning until I moved in with my former husband, so I'm used to doing without it and seeing it as a luxury rather than a necessity.
Personally I would love to have radiator heat. My grandmother's home had it and I remember sitting next to that on a cold day. For me though, most of my family has allergies so not having heat kicking on and off blowing things around would be nice plus always feeling dry even with the built in humidifier.
It definitely does hurt resale somewhat though, the fact you are asking these questions shows it. I don't think its the end of the world and would not stop me from buying a home. Some people can look past it or don't mind and others won't be able to. Assuming you do not put in AC of some people want AC and Radiators take up space so if a room is small they will make it feel smaller. All that said if you bought a house like that the price you pay is also factoring that in. Personally if you like the home I wouldnt let that stop you, if you add AC down the road then you are improving your resale potential.
Hydronic heat is the technical term nowadays, (It can be steam or hot water, most now are hot water for residential).
In Pittsburgh most people say steam heat, but it is usually hot water heat .
It is often referred to as the Cadillac of heating systems. It's not just about heat, it is about the comfort of this type of heat. Hot water radiant heat rules! It is a soothing heat.
The difference in comfort is huge.
Boilers last forever & have little go wrong.
If you want more floor space & have the $$, you can update the large radiators to baseboard, Runtal has ones that blend well for a contemporary look , Burnham & Weil-mcclain have *cast iron* baseboard for a more classic look.
These are not fin tube (fin tube is not the same, it is not radiant, but convective)
My dream heating system is the cast iron baseboard.
Yes, I dream of heating systems.
The key, if you are not a good DIY'er, is to have a great HVAC person to run the calcs & balance the system.
This is so your circulators & pumps do their magic (outdoor reset)when temps fluctuate outside.
If you want to take it a step further, & you already have a good boiler, you can trade those radiators for in floor heat that you never see. There are all kinds of new & highly efficient systems on the market for hot water heat now. Even retrofits have come a LONG way & the pex systems are amazing.
Why stop there??? Have a boiler? Get yourself towel warmers for the bathroom, instead of the traditional radiator.
You can also put it inside of your walls just like in floor heat.
I have radiator hot water heat and like it a lot. Very comfortable. However, there are some drawbacks. First of all, they take up a lot of space in the room, and can limit how you arrange things. Second, an older house with radiators will creak in the winter....as the pipes warm up, they expand and rub against the wood or the supports ,and you hear knocking and creaking. Doesn't really bother me much, but everyone's different.
If you want more floor space & have the $$, you can update the large radiators to baseboard, Runtal has ones that blend well for a contemporary look , Burnham & Weil-mcclain have *cast iron* baseboard for a more classic look.
Do you know who locally deals with those? I have old radiators that I wouldn't mind swapping out for some baseboard radiators.
As most have said, radiator heat is vastly superior to forced air. Yes, the pipes pop and groan, but that's no worse than a noisy fan blowing. The best thing is that when the boiler cycles off, the radiators are still heating the rooms. When a blower cycles off, the room can get fairly cool before it kicks back on.
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