I recently purchased a new house, and I'm going step by step upgrading what I can afford at the time. My heating is hydronic baseboard powered by a 30 year old peerless boiler burning oil. I have no air conditioning at the moment, nor ductwork. My boiler is insufficient and I've already had to spend a few hundred fixing it, so it's on my short list of things to replace. Right above it is adding air conditioning.

Assuming I need to replace my boiler, I figured I might as well do both at the same time and install the air conditioning and boiler in one go. This leaves me with a few options- do I keep the hydronic baseboard and get a new oil boiler, and add in ductwork for central air? Or go with mini-split for central air? Or replace the oil boiler completely and go with a furnace and ductwork for propane forced air and central air?

My house is built in the late 80's in New England, it's 3000 Sq FT 4 bedrooms, a very rectangular colonial with a walkup attic and open basement, so adding ductwork would probably be easy if I put a unit in the attic and a unit in the basement.

I love certain things about baseboard hydronic, and I hate certain things about it, so I'm neutral. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

jackaustin631:
I recently purchased a new house, and I'm going step by step upgrading what I can afford at the time. My heating is hydronic baseboard powered by a 30 year old peerless boiler burning oil. I have no air conditioning at the moment, nor ductwork. My boiler is insufficient and I've already had to spend a few hundred fixing it with the help of Everest Heating & Cooling, so it's on my short list of things to replace. Right above it is adding air conditioning.

Assuming I need to replace my boiler, I figured I might as well do both at the same time and install the air conditioning and boiler in one go. This leaves me with a few options- do I keep the hydronic baseboard and get a new oil boiler, and add in ductwork for central air? Or go with mini-split for central air? Or replace the oil boiler completely and go with a furnace and ductwork for propane forced air and central air?

My house is built in the late 80's in New England, it's 3000 Sq FT 4 bedrooms, a very rectangular colonial with a walkup attic and open basement, so adding ductwork would probably be easy if I put a unit in the attic and a unit in the basement.

I love certain things about baseboard hydronic, and I hate certain things about it, so I'm neutral. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

thanks in advance for any help