Need to expand hot air heat to second floor and basement what are my options

rossl56

I have a ranch with a third bedroom addition on the second floor (has electric heat) and a basement (no heat).

The main house consists of living room, kitchen, dining room (formerly the 3rd bedroom before the 2nd floor addition), 2 bedrooms and 1 bath.

The original owner built a 3rd bedroom and 2nd bath above the garage and installed electric baseboard heat. Probably the cheapest to install because he did not have to run ductwork and upgrade the furnace.

There is no heat at all in the basement.

The furnace is a gas/hot air Trane XE80.

How can I add 2 more zones (for 2nd floor and basement)?

I was considering converting to gas baseboard. Just wondering what my other options are if I wanted to keep hot air. can you have multiple zones with one hot air furnace?

Any other suggestions?

This is a long term plan, existing heat is fine for this year

beenthere

You can zone hot air.

rossl56

Can you zone it with one furnace? How does the air get routed to 1 zone and not to other zones?

Would it be much more to convert to gas/water baseboard? Compared to upgrading what I have (gas/hot air).

kennzz05

putting in a boiler and associated plumbing for 2 rooms would be costly,also if you have a/c you would still need to address that issue.you need to do a load calculation to determine what size furnace a/c you will need
the zones are accomplished with an electric damper that mounts in the ductwork directing air to where its requested
if you zone the exsisting ducts so that you have 2 zones than you will be able to heat/cool only the addition if you want to

rossl56

At this time I have wall units for A/C. I was not going to change these at this time.

There will be a challenge installing the ducts for the second floor because the basement does not run under the garage. I assume that's why the previous owner installed the electric hear there.

The 3rd bedroom addition (2nd floor) is directly above the garage. I would have run the duct through the living room (adjacent to the garage).

If I keep the hot air system, I assume I may have to upgrade the furnace and add ductwork and dampers for the 3rd bedroom (2nd floor) and basement.

My thoughts were to install the baseboard and plumbing myself, during the summer months. Then change out the furnace. Is the a per foot cost I can use to estamate materials need for the baseboard install?

I was thinking baseboard might be a more efficient heat. Is this true?

I think I would like it better because the baseboard continues to make the house feel cold after it turns off.