Cadet Heaters- Eliminate Boiler Baseboards

[Dan Kelley]

I'll be closing on my 6-plex in the next couple of weeks, so I'm starting to plan out my remodel for the 2 vacant/semi-gutted units. I need to do flooring, cabinets, bathroom, wall repair and paint. My goal for this property is to slowly transition as many of the utilities over to the tenant as I can. Currently, I will be responsible for paying for Gas, Water/Sewer, and Trash. All 6 units are heated by hot water baseboards. Here's my question for you...

1. Would it be crazy to remove the baseboards and install something like a Cadet electric wall heater? They have a 4,000 watt unit that's supposed to be able to heat 1,000 sq ft and it's only $172. I've heard really good things about the Cadet heaters and they seem to have great reviews. Since the tenants have to pay electricity, that would be 2 units that I can remove from the boiler load. Then everytime a unit is vacant, I can do the same process until I eventually have all units on electric heat. Then I would only be paying water.

2. If we determine that this isn't a crazy idea- How many of those cadet heaters would I need in a 2bd apartment? I was thinking that I could potentially even get smaller ones to put in the bedrooms and then a somewhat larger one to heat the main living room and kitchen.

3. If I did such a setup, would the electricity bill be astronomical for my tenants? 

As I'm remodeling the 2 units, I may look into seeing what it would take to submeter the water as well while I'm at it, or split it to a separate meter though I'm afraid that may end up being too difficult/ not cost effective.

What are your thoughts? Look into converting the setup or just live with the boiler and face the facts that I'll have to forever pay gas and water? 

[Matt R.]

Disclaimer: I am not a professional electrician.

I live in Missouri, which is warmer than Iowa, and nobody has electric heat if they can avoid it.  Either straight forced-air gas, or heatpump backed up by gas, seems to work out the cheapest.  On the other hand, if you don't have ducts now, you probably don't want to pay for installing them.

One important thing to consider: how big is the electrical service to your building and to each unit?  One of those 4 kW heaters is 16 A at 240 V; two of those are equal to a clothes dryer.  If the units also have an electric dryer hookup and electric hot water, and they only have a 100 A service, adding electric space heating might pop a breaker.  Also, if your breaker panels are at all sketchy (Federal Pacific Electric, or maybe Pushmatic), you might think about swapping them out before adding the load of new heaters.

As to how many heaters you need... you can go by the square footage they list, but also think about how people are going to use the apartments.  I think your idea of smaller ones in each bedroom and then one for the living/kitchen is good; if there's just one for the whole place, the tenants won't be happy if they like to sleep with the bedroom door closed.  If the heater is near where people will sit and watch TV, and it's noisy, they'll have to keep turning the TV volume up and down.

Also, talk to your electric utility.  They may be able to put the apartments with electric heaters on a different rate plan.  It's still not as cheap as gas, but they will give you a little bit of a break to get the business.  Occasionally they will have other incentives for you to switch fuels; they might send a guy out to inspect that the hydronic heaters are there, and then later to inspect the electric ones, and then give you a rebate.

I've never had to deal with hydronic heat, but you might ask an HVAC guy if anything needs to be adjusted on the boiler / water tank if you permanently remove some of the apartments from the system.

If you have any of the exterior walls open, now is an excellent time to put in as much insulation as you possibly can.  Sometimes you can get rebates for doing that, too... the utility companies and maybe the place where you get the insulation will know about it.