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Dear Brownstoners,

I would love to hear some professional ‘guess’ on how many BTU/h I will need for a 2700 sq/ft attached house. I said ‘guess’ because I don’t think nobody really ‘knows’ for sure. I am looking for an educated guess from any expert on this Forum.
Details: The house will be very well insulated and will have new double pane windows and it’s not facing south, so doesn’t have the solar heating factor. The building is located in a quiet and charming, tree-line street in Cobble Hill. It has high ceilings, a typical end of 19th Century row house. The heating system will be completely updated.

I’ve read somewhere in the Brownstoner that “a rule of thumb is 30 BTUs per square foot of living space”. I would like to get opinions out of the box, not just ‘rule of thumb’ since I will spend the money insulating the exterior walls, top ceiling and getting new windows.

I am asking hones opinions because I think that many heating contractors just simply overestimate because perhaps they have the obvious theory that there will be no complaints of inadequate heat if they just overkill. Understandable, at the end of the day, they don’t have to pay the bills.

Another detail to add more debate, I do not know the exact system that will heat the house. I would like something that could use solar thermal energy supplemented by something else when it’s too cloudy outside. But at this point I am still researching online. I know, many of you will recommend me to just go to local installer and forget about everything else. Maybe you are right, I should stop trying to educate myself… I am trying to find out the amount of BTU/h before deciding about the right type of heating and since I don’t know the type of heating I don’t want to approach a specialist who is already bias with the system that he/she installs. I am not sure if that makes any sense.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Best,

Heather