We ripped out the 1970’s era electric baseboard units from my apartment because they were inefficient and seemed like a fire hazard, not to mention ugly. We got quotes to install central heat - but the price tag is $8000! What other options do we have? Given that we have nothing in place right now, what would be the added cost for solar or other green solutions?
Solar air heating comes in many different varieties and is surprisingly very efficient! One manner of heating air with the sun is by using collector plates which absorb the radiating heat from our star, heats the air inside of the collector, and uses this air to heat a closed space. As the website Easy Green Living describes, you can either buy a system or you can build one yourself! This is an extremely simple technology to implement and this article is going to show you how to build one for yourself!
http://fwdssp.com/Green_Energy.cfm?domain=easy-green-living.org&fp=RVUsUdMJRZE9b86crXB9rOX%2FPwwg%2BB0Usa1utnOOWSaYeL8GQwLS4Ut8uN8qOCbhJQelXgRvx1JTMyavIlkjoptDcPfXmL9vaS%2Bp7Z9hlZOAku4gbmTNitsqu8sML13ZLJjSeIwiaKlQznf%2Bxw4W6Oty8E6JBZMD2rPKKhZvFmp8yb61QkQVNXWL4ToFd3FXOAF5IpFJjxGlmDt%2BfNvffw%3D%3D&klb=2&maxads=0&kld=1042&prvtof=%2FAEVoDiygw8Q9Y9fPGDZkDPG687JZVwFiU5uuGOQFekjydlPTtd6Rvzd74FixZBwS6HJtBXl%2BLixkGVUFO8Q6vJn1pI35sJnMTib%2F6E5bGM%3D&&&kt=251&&kbc=3180&ki=12861803&ktd=263882790666240&kld=1042&kp=6&bd=-5%231080%231920%231%230%23443%23635
Gas heat
A very high efficiency and inexpensive option (depending on size of the apartment and rooms) is installing a ductless heat pump system. Good options are
Daikin: http://daikincomfort.com/residential/ductless
and Mitsubishi: