We have a 75 year old home and have been wanting to replace our old under-floor propane heater with a newer, more efficient type of heat. We also have a wood stove that we use through the winter months as our primary heat source and only need secondary heat to prevent pipes freezing overnight in the winter, and to warm the house before the fire gets going in the morning. The grate for the old heater got so hot it would melt the bottoms of my shoes if I stood on it for more than a few seconds, and it was right in the middle of the entry/livingroom walkway. I was always worried about grandkids and great-grandkids getting burned on the grate. I got recommendations and estimates from four different local businesses. Two didn't give a written estimate, and were not professional or knowledgeable on the subject. They both could think of only one solution, the installation of an inefficient wall furnace on the only wall available for our TV in the living room. The third recommended a very expensive installation of a central heat and air system, including duct work. It would require extensive work to gain access to where they wanted to put in the duct work between the ceiling joists between the 1st and 2nd floors. We seriously considered doing that, but the company never returned our repeated phone calls to choose the system and schedule the work. The fourth company was Advanced Comfort Control. They came out quickly to assess our needs, and said, yes, they could install a central heat and air system, but recommended a high efficiency propane furnace with an automatic timer built in if we wanted to continue to use our wood stove. The unit was about 36" wide x 30" tall x 8" deep, and fit unobtrusively on a stairway wall in a central location. I received a professional, computer-generated estimate by email and decided to have the unit installed. The workmen were knowledgeable and professional. They had to remove the heavy old heater up through the living room from under the house, patch the large hole in the floor, and run the new propane delivery pipe. They then had to remove the old delivery pipe and vent, patch the vent hole, install a new vent which ran under the stairs (removing several treads to do it) and install the new heater. All this was accomplished with minimal disturbance to the rest of the house and the family. They cleaned up the floors, replaced the stair treads and a section of baseboard, and showed us how the heater operated and how to set the timer, etc. They also disposed of the very heavy old unit. With the new unit, we can now set the timer for hours of operation and temperature settings, so we have minimal required heat at night to keep pipes from freezing, and wake up to a warm toasty home by setting the timer to warm the house up just before wake-up time. Once the wood stove is going to heat the house, the timer again sets the temperature at minimum. We can also manually set the temperature for the times during the day when we don't want to leave an unattended fire to go into town. All in all, we are very pleased with the heater and very pleased with the company that installed it. I
would recommend this company to anyone interested in a system to meet their specific needs and price range. Great work!