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I would have a mechanical contractor familiar with hydronic heating systems do this work. You may need to do some balancing work when you're done, which isn't something a typical handyman is going to be familar with doing.
Bill
Kieran,
The answer may also depend on where you are. Most jurisdictions allow either licensed plumbers or the homeowners to do repairs and modifications to their plumbing, but some preclude other contractors from doing the work.
You want someone that is familiar with hydronics. A lot of plumbers won't be up for the job, so you'll have to do a bit of searching. Definitely not a handyman job.
Make sure they cap the lines bellow the level of your subfloor so the holes in your flooring can eventually be patched.
Overall you are looking at least one, most likely at two days without heat.
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Definitely a plumber. Is the whole system one zone? Those radiators may be installed in series or more likely in a monoflo configuration. If in series you will have to connect the inlet and outlet somehow to keep the rest of the system workable. If monoflo you may be able to just disconnect and cap the lines going to them in the basement. They should have valves going to them at the radiator which you can turn off if you don't want to use them or to regulate them. If they are taking to long to heat you may have air in the lines or in the radiators themselves. Each radiator needs to be bled individually especially if it is monoflo. Once working correctly, you may find that they work well. Not sure why you would want to remove them, might be something to keep just in case, especially cost wise if you plan on putting in electric. Adding a second zone may be costly as well. Baseboards can also be adapted or added to the lines going to the radiators if you really want to get rid of them or get more heat.
Make sure you get an older plumber, younger ones may not be familiar with monoflo systems and will try to talk you into a whole new system of which they are familiar.
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I'm not sure what you mean when you say firing the boiler would be inefficient -- 100% of the heat from the fuel would go into the house. In most places electricity is the most expensive "fuel" for heating so running the boiler is a lot cheaper than running resistance heat.
Maybe I'm missing something, but what I'm getting is you need some sort of supplemental heat because the minisplits don't keep up on the coldest days. So you want to keep the radiators on the first floor but not the second?
Depending on how they're plumbed, it could be about the same amount of money to switch them to a separate zone as to remove them. I think that would work better for you. If you're opening the whole system anyway it's not a big job to remove an individual radiator and send it out to be sandblasted and painted (although it can be a chore getting them down the stairs if they're heavy. But someone got it up the stairs so it's doable.) Fix the trim while it's gone and you'll be as good as new.
The system can be drained down and the radiators should be able to be easily disconnected to do repairs behind, then cleaned, painted and reconnected, refilled and bled. A lot less work and money than replacing. I like old cast iron radiators whereby if the are used correctly they tend to radiate and stay warm over time limiting cycling of the boiler.
Realize in a monoflo system, all the radiators will get or should get warm at the same time so it's not so much you are heating downstairs and then heating the upstairs. If upstairs isn't heating as fast, there's air in the radiators and the water is not making it's way up there.
+1 for using the existing hydronic system as supplemental heat and not electric resistance baseboads. DC is entirely correct about operating costs here.
I would look into zoning those bedrooms. Depending on how the system is currently plumbed, the cost to split the bedrooms off into their own zone may be less than you'd think. If the cost to put in that extra zone is less than the cost to remove the old radiators and install electric resistance baseboards, then you definetely come out ahead with the zoned hydronic system.
Keep in mind that those electric resistance baseboards might be surprisingly expensive to install. I was just in a box store this morning and happened to look at the prices of $$ coppper $$ wire $$$! AGH!!!
Bill
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Souhlasím. V tomto životě je všechno jednoduché. Pokud máte znalosti a zkušenosti, můžete spoustu věcí zvládnout sami. Pokud dovednosti a znalosti nemáte, je lepší obrátit se na odborníky. Jinak se můžete zranit nebo něco zničit a budete muset kupovat nové vybavení. Je lepší nešetřit peníze. Jak ukazuje praxe, nejčastěji lidé zaplatí několikanásobek, když se snaží ušetřit.
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