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So my wife and I are still in the middle of planning for our renovation, and one question we have is whether we could convert our system from steam to hot water.

Our system right now is steam, with a Weil Mclain EG-55 I think. Right now we have radiators on the right side of our brownstone on all four floors, and there is only a single pipe feeding them.

We will be replacing flooring in a few areas including the bathrooms where currently there are no radiators.

We were wondering whether it is “worth it” to consider now since we are renovating a change over, and whether we could use the same boiler and even use some of the piping and perhaps just have an extra return pipe installed.

We have discussed this on and off with our architect and I think to be fair there is a serious concern of cost here. We certainly don’t have an unlimited budget and he understands and has concerns himself as to making such a drastic change in terms of the cost. In addition, this isn’t a gut renovation so certainly there are some tricky elements here if we need to put new piping in.

Any thoughts from people who have done the changeover? Plusses or minuses? Just stick with our steam system and be happy (and with more $$ in our pocket or for something else)?