Choosing a Heating System for Rental Property

[Christopher Freeman]

I'm working on rehabbing a recent purchase to get it ready to rent, and in the course of installing a new curtain wall I discovered that the newly created bedroom would be without a heat source. Upon further inspection, I discovered that one of the existing bedrooms also lacks this.

The house currently has oil steam heat and a wood stove, which for insurance reasons we are replacing with a gas stove. There is gas on the street.

I'm working on crunching the numbers on the best go forward strategy. I can't imagine it makes sense to tie into an old steam heat system that will likely need replacement in the next 5 years.

Adding electric baseboard heaters might be the least expensive way to get a heat source into the rooms, but I'm worried that the high operating costs could be a turn off for renters and drive down what they'd be willing to pay.

Has anyone else gone the electric route, and what was your experience like in terms of impact to your rental business?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some light here!