I guess I knew that I could live in it as a one family withot necesarily changing the c of o, which is why - pace guest 11:19 - I bid on it. I wonder, however, if renovating along the 1 family lines - removing 3 kitchens will create a title problem in 20 years when I want to sell the house. Will I need to replace 3 kitchens at time of sale because it will be listed as a four family?

Posted by: hegelian at February 3, 2008 1:02 AM in response to 4 family to 2

We're pulling out an old defective steam system and putting in a hot water system as part of a bigger renovation. The price quote on the work is 17K. Four floors, four zones. The radiators will be another 2-3K. I'm not sure about the furnace cost yet.

Posted by: hegelian at April 15, 2008 10:59 PM in response to cost to install hot water heating system

We're pulling out an old defective steam system and putting in a hot water system as part of a bigger renovation. The price quote on the work is 17K. Four floors, four zones. The radiators will be another 2-3K. I'm not sure about the furnace cost yet.

Posted by: hegelian at April 15, 2008 11:00 PM in response to cost to install hot water heating system

No, There is no C of O on file with DOB.

Posted by: hegelian at April 21, 2008 11:48 AM in response to mansion tax

No, There is no C of O on file with DOB.

Posted by: hegelian at April 21, 2008 11:48 AM in response to mansion tax

I'd be interested also: hegelian@upguild.com

Posted by: hegelian at April 21, 2008 3:05 PM in response to auntbert

Thanks everyone for the contributions.

The place is 4 stories (no basement). Its 20' X 40. Its configured as an upper triplex and ground floor rental.
The owner told me the steam heat was good after it was sold, so his word is trustworthy.
We are however, opening all the walls already, and it now looks like I'll probably need to buy a new boiler anyway, so its looking more like I should change to hot water. I've been quoted 18-25K to do the job. Does that sound reasonable?

Posted by: hegelian at April 23, 2008 11:54 PM in response to Steam heat and reno

Thanks everyone for the contributions.

The place is 4 stories (no basement). Its 20' X 40. Its configured as an upper triplex and ground floor rental.
The owner told me the steam heat was good after it was sold, so his word is trustworthy.
We are however, opening all the walls already, and it now looks like I'll probably need to buy a new boiler anyway, so its looking more like I should change to hot water. I've been quoted 18-25K to do the job. Does that sound reasonable?

Posted by: hegelian at April 23, 2008 11:56 PM in response to Steam heat and reno

How much did you spend to convert the system?
Did you have a 2 pipe steam or one?
Did you convert your radiators?
How many floors is your place?

I guess I should several more estimates for the job...

Posted by: hegelian at April 24, 2008 10:48 AM in response to Steam heat and reno

Its true its hard to get a straight answer on this stuff. I'm deciding on solar hot water this week and this is what I gather, currently: I'm not using radiant floor heating, but I can tie the solar hot water into my boiler/hot water heat system, with an indirect heat exchange. It seems fairly straightforward. I've been told that the excess heat in the summer will not be a problem, but if it was, I could just cover some or all of the panels. On a flat roof in Brooklyn, this really isn't a problem, so I'm not sure why people talk about flushing excess hot water down a drain. There is also a solution for airconditioning with the hot water (not sure how it works, but somehow the heat drives the pumps of the hvac) I'm not clear yet on how much 3 panels will help with heating in the winter, but since the efficiency is much great with solar hot water, it seems its better to use the roof space for that than PV which I'm also planning on installing. I will definitely post on my decisions and the progress with installing in the future.

Posted by: hegelian at May 14, 2008 4:26 PM in response to Solar hot water and radiant floor heating

We're pulling out an old defective steam system and putting in a hot water system as part of a bigger renovation. The price quote on the work is 17K. Four floors, four zones. The radiators will be another 2-3K. I'm not sure about the furnace cost yet.

Posted by: hegelian at April 15, 2008 11:00 PM in response to cost to install hot water heating system

No, There is no C of O on file with DOB.

Posted by: hegelian at April 21, 2008 11:48 AM in response to mansion tax

Thanks everyone for the contributions.

The place is 4 stories (no basement). Its 20' X 40. Its configured as an upper triplex and ground floor rental.
The owner told me the steam heat was good after it was sold, so his word is trustworthy.
We are however, opening all the walls already, and it now looks like I'll probably need to buy a new boiler anyway, so its looking more like I should change to hot water. I've been quoted 18-25K to do the job. Does that sound reasonable?

Posted by: hegelian at April 23, 2008 11:56 PM in response to Steam heat and reno

i would switch to hot water no question. your heating bills will go down significantly. ours went down by half and the switch ended up paying for itself in the first year (we spent far less than 20,000 to change though).

Posted by: guest at April 24, 2008 12:16 AM in response to Steam heat and reno

How much did you spend to convert the system?
Did you have a 2 pipe steam or one?
Did you convert your radiators?
How many floors is your place?

I guess I should several more estimates for the job...

Posted by: hegelian at April 24, 2008 10:48 AM in response to Steam heat and reno

12:16 must've turned down the 'stat to 60 after switching, there's no way the efficiency of hot water over steam is that drastic.

Steam boilers (which must boil water) top out approx 82% efficiency, hot water (if you get condensing ones, may be 92-96%). Assuming $3000/yr bills on old system, you may save $320/year, so figure the payback on install at 50+ years. So you wouldn't change for cost reasons. Otoh, hot water is more flexible.

Posted by: cmu at April 25, 2008 5:29 PM in response to Steam heat and reno

Let me also add in direct response to some of the issues Beatlife raised: on the issue of impending technology it seems like its been around the corner for 15 years. The newer cheaper PV panels are not for the consumer market yet and it seems that they're so much less efficient that they won't work on a typical brownstone roof which has quite limited space. Also, if the prices did come down to $1 a watt or so presumably the tax credits would cease. It seems to me major changes in the financing of a PV system are far enough away as to make it smart to do now. Also, the system should pay for itself in 10-15 years and the life is much longer than that, so it seems like it would be a good return on investment regardless.

On the other point, have you asked your engineers why you can't just integrate the solar water into your existing hot water heating system?

Posted by: hegelian at May 14, 2008 4:31 PM in response to Solar hot water and radiant floor heating

Afaik, there should not be any problem "producing too much hot water"...using my simplistic engineering know-how, if you shut off the circulation you will get no more heat. Is this not true? The solar water panels cannot "overheat" can they?

Dumping thousands of gallons of water sounds simply ridiculous; it that were true, no solar system could ever be considered "green."

Also, as 4:31 says, making it produce hot water will increase its utility and push off the point you have to shut it off.

Are you sure these engineers know anything about solar?

Posted by: cmu at May 14, 2008 5:02 PM in response to Solar hot water and radiant floor heating

About as green as that hybrid car paul macartney just had flown from japan to england in a private cargo plane.

Posted by: guest at May 14, 2008 7:51 PM in response to Solar hot water and radiant floor heating

My name is chester birchwood,and i represent Innovative Cooling Solutions.My specialty is on hvac and solar innovation for buildings.
On this blogging event,a comment was made about the solar use is considered wasteful due to excessive dumping of hot water in the summer.NO SUCH THING HAPPENS!The excess heat from the panels is re-directed towards a heat dissipator on the roof(which looks like a convector radiator)which is removed by wind currents.A likely use of the excess heat is for heating pools/spas or even create a drying room in the basement for laundry.Currently the existing panels are more efficient than solar power(pv),which is only 16% efficiency,while solar thermal is about 70% efficient.Solar air-conditioning can be done but currently it is too costly(about $50000 for a whole brownstone).Any questions can be directed to me at birchwood chester @yahoo.com or look at solarpanelsplus.com.

Posted by: guest at May 14, 2008 9:44 PM in response to Solar hot water and radiant floor heating