Best heating system for a rental

[Codey Fabian]

Me and my business partner are working on our first rental property. We purchased our property back in the end of October and have our own handyman business so are doing the work ourselves. Unfortunately our steam furnace broke and we were told we would need to replace our furnace. I am curious what other in Maine have used or what people think the best heating source for a rental is. This is a single family home.

Like I previously said our current furnace is an oil burning steam boiler. We were told by the technician that it would have to be completely replaced and we would also have to have our chimney lined to bring it up to code. He mentioned looking into a force hot air furnace however we would have to run the duct work and it would be hard to get to the second floor. We already had planned to put in heat pumps in the main living space and in the upstairs between two bedrooms.

I am curious what others recommend or have used. We have thought about using propane wall mounted heaters in the bedrooms and the kitchen which would go along with the heat pumps in the main living spaces. Any advice or suggestions appreciated.

[Dan Weber]

@Codey Fabian have you considered going with just heat pumps everywhere? If you get them sized correctly with enough BTU’s, there’s no reason why they couldn’t solely beat the entire space. I’d suggest getting a head in each bedroom. They do heat and A/C, which is great. Also, they run on electricity which is the easiest utility cost to pass along to the tenant. If anyone tells you that Maine is too cold for them, don’t listen to them. You also get rebates for the install through a program called Efficiency Maine which is funded by a Federal Grant (I think?). Go check out their website and you can read all about it.

https://www.efficiencymaine.com/heat-pumps/