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Electric heat

C

Cummins 1955

Member
Hello everyone. I am considering adding electric heat to my home. The home has baseboard heat, as a backup to a heat pump. The base board heat is old and needs thrown away (falling apart, breakers all off). I installed a corn stove several years ago, and get along well with that. The house will hopefully be sold this summer and buyer wants total electric-no corn stove. I already have Heat pump and just want to add a heater kit. I am in south east Indiana, have an above average insulated ranch home about 1500 square feet. Is it possible to heat it with 10KW heater? I know I should get a load calculaton done, and probably will, but just thinking about it now. What are some of the problems with electric heaters other than expense? I am looking for just a few pointers here nothing concrete.
 
When you say "heater kit", do you mean strip heaters in the ductwork, that come on when heat pump can't keep up? I'd just go with whatever the heating contractors recommend- put in plenty of KW, as the cost difference will be negligable, and you want enough capacity.
 
Total up the watts of all the baseboard heaters as they were probably installed in the house when it was built. I would think it would take at least 15kw to heat your house. You can get a strip heat kit for your heat pump, unless your heat pump is really old. DH
 
The sticker on the air handler says it can have 5,7.5, 10 15 & 20 KW. 15 & 20 requires two heating circuts. Strip heater replacement elements are still available, but don't list a wattage. As far as what the base board heat pulled, they ran off of a 50 amp double pole breaker. This breaker was then sub divided into branch circuits lower in the "c" part of the panel. When the heat pump was installed the house was super insulated. To get the proper r-value on the duct pipes they blown in the attic area about three feet deep! it is thinner towards thed edjes of course. The home has BEE windows throughout the house. Even in single digets the corn stove is on a setting of 5 out of ten. according to the book (which I don't have a lot of faith in) says it is putting out about 35,000 btu.
 
Why not just replace the baseboard heaters? They are pretty cheap really, and you can use thermostats right on each one. Keep in mind most homes with these have 200 amp service, and each heater runs off a 20amp 220 breaker. Use 12 gauge wire for most, maybe 10 if long run or high wattage. You can get many lengths of these. OR, don"t most heat pumps already have elements in main furnace body that kick in to assist?? If not, maybe can Add such a system?
 
I'd negotiate with the prospective buyer rather than spending money. Every dime you spend on something he wants is the same as reducing selling price, it's much better for you to let him do the upgrades after he owns the property.
 
And remember, the real estate agent wants the commission. It doesn't matter to him/her if it's the best deal for you, just that the sale closes. So they'll try to get you to spend whatever it takes to close it.
 
We are swapping properties. We have longed to move close to our farm for several years. The buyer of our property wants it as a rental. He wants total electric, because of fewer utilities to deal with. My air handler is set up for electric strip heaters already. It just needs the kit. The farm is slow now so I would rather do it now before closing time.
 
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