So, how are you heating your home this winter?

I used to heat my home with wood (about 20 years or so ago). We had a homebuilt hot water system to circulate water through the fire box to take the heat from the wood stove in the shop/garage through underground insulated pipes into the house. Worked great and we could burn just about any fuel; the house required about a million BTUs per day so we went through a lot of wood etc. I now live in a house about 1/4 the size and don’t do any where near the work to keep it heated (mind you it is a newer home, better insulated etc).

I think living in the city is very different for burning wood, imagine if everyone burnt wood to heat their homes….the smoke would be worse than a forest fire and it would happen all winter long. Not great for folks with asthma or other respiratory conditions. Geo-thermal seems to be an interesting alternative…not great for the high latitudes (and continental climates like in Manitoba here) but perhaps a way to lessen the dependance on NG. I like the idea of electric heat, especially if it could be derived from wind…but again in the city it would be difficult to have a wind turbine with sufficient capacity to power an electric furnace…I think.

-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark

Yeah, geo-thermal interests me as well. I understand the basics of it, using the heat of the earth. I wish we could drill down, say, 1000 feet, and be able to heat water to boiling at that point; then you could use a steam generator. I think you’d have to drill down a heck of a lot farther than that to accomplish that amount of heat though.

-- -Be Blessed!, Patrick

We installed an outdoor wood boiler and run the hot water through underground insulated lines into the house, through a 200K BTU heat exchanger and then use the hot-water baseboard heat. We burn about a cord of firewood a week and I load the boiler about once a day. It is nice since the wood scraps can go right into the furnace. The boiler also heats the garage and snow-melts the driveway. We put in a new driveway at the same time and ran the pex lines through it. Kind of like outdoor radiant floor heat. It won’t melt the 8” of snow off of it, but after snow-blowing you turn it on for a couple of hours and it gets rid of the leftover little bit and any ice that accumulated. Also when the boiler is burning the hot water runs through another exchanger which keeps the hot water heater hot so we burn less gas heating our water. Also just installed an 80K BTU hot water heat exchanger in the basement so I can keep the shop warm and keep the first floor floors a little warmer in the winter.

There is also a NG backup boiler in the basement in case we have to go away and no one is around to load the outdoor furnace.

The previous system used an indoor wood-burning boiler but we only got 3-4 hour burn times so unless you got up in the middle of the night, you would go to bed with the house at 72 and wake up with it at 60.

We also looked into the geo-thermal since we have 10 acres and laying the pipe would not have been an issue, but it would have ended up costing twice as much and we would have had to install a forced air setup in the house.

One season of heating costs about $1500 for the wood and about $200 for the NG which we run in October as needed and in May as needed. We light the fire in the boiler on November 1st and burn until we are out of wood or the temps are above 50 at night.

Our weather, we get about 5’ of snow a year and typical overnight temps are in the teens. The house is 150 years old so insulation stinks. We just installed new triple-pane windows a couple of winters ago and that really helped alot, but there is still room for improvement.

-- Rich, WNY, www.nyrockingchairs.com

I heat my house every year with a wood stove . There,s nothing like waking up in the morning to minus 1 or 2 in the house.

-- John in Cranbrook http://www.extremebirdhouse.com ....http://community.webshots.com/user/cranbrook2

What, no burst pipes?!

-- -Be Blessed!, Patrick

My pipes freeze up every year but luckily they never burst . I usually have to take a little torch them to get the water flowing again .

-- John in Cranbrook http://www.extremebirdhouse.com ....http://community.webshots.com/user/cranbrook2

Geo-thermal is just a heat exchanger (like your fridge) using the Earth as the heat source…you don’t need it to be boiling water just warmer than the outside temp. I think in places like Iceland they use natural/volcanic steam to heat offices/apartment buildings…I guess you could do the same in Hawaii…if you needed to heat in Hawaii :-)

-- ....next big purchase is wood for the next project, Mark

We use natural gas with wood for a secondary source during the winter. It helps to keep the costs of heating the house down. I have radiant in floor heat in the shop. I can see us burning more wood than past years due to increases in natural gas prices. We got a call from a buddy a couple days ago asking me to clear part of his land so he can remove some gravel. Ended up with 4-5 full cord of birch that will be ready for next winter (2009).

I’ve got a dual fuel setup that uses a 13 seer heat pump down to 40 deg. then the propane kicks in using a 95% eff. furnace. I sure wish we had natural gas here. I supplement all this with a wood stove which pretty much handles it as long as it’s over freezing outside. Heck, if I didn’t have two cold natured women living here, the furnace would never be used. Oh well.

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

I usually turn off the central air units sometime in October and just run one furnace (natural gas) through a programmable thermostat.

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville

UPSIDE: We turn the Air Conditioning OFF in mid January and February, open the windows and hope for a cool day. I think we have used the heaters in the house 3 times in 27 years.

DOWNSIDE: We have the A/C on 10.5 months a year and this time of the year, I can not work in my shop past noon. It’s in my uninsulated, non-air conditioned garage.

-- Smile. Life can be FUN!

FlWoodRat,

Our air is conditioned naturally 12 months of the year. I don’t think we have had a day over 80 degrees this summer, and darn few over 70.

Mart

I am some what envious Mart… of your summer temperatures, but not your winters. Have a great day. By the way, thanks for giving the lower 48 a chance to check out your ex mayor Sarah Palin.

-- Smile. Life can be FUN!

She has caused quite a stir. I can remember buying raffle tickets from her three years ago when she was helping the high school hockey team at one of the local gun shows. My wife used to see her at the store on a pretty regular basis. We probably won’t be rubbing elbows nearly as often now. She will be a great vice president.

As for our winters, well they are great. Lots of snow, beautiful mountains and lots of projects lined up.

Mart

I think she is awesome; now I know how the Libs feel, in terms of the rock star appea of Obamal, but now it’s on the conservative side.

-- -Be Blessed!, Patrick

We heat with 2 tanks of propane, I just filled up in August $840…OUCH! that will last us until we fill up again in Januuary. I am trying an alternative method to hopefully supplement heating our basement this year, a solar pop can heater since we have a south facing window. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDcsGbetgG4 if interested. I am going to set on the 10 deep window sill. Maybe I’ll post it as a project.

-- Tim: Remember, if it doesn't say "Binford", someone else made it.

we used to burn wood… I didn’t want to be doing all that work in my older-age so to supplement our oil furnace I bought a propane stove. Last year it (first winter with it) we saved about $600 I think.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I live in a rather large home, five bathrooms, lots of big windows, very high ceilings, no real protection from the winter winds and sits atop a platue which is the highest point in the county and its dead center of the snow belt.

We have forced air/propane which last year hit 70 cents a litre and knowing that the price of propane is pegged to price of a barrell of oil (despite being a waste product?) and that the price of a barrell of oil has doubled since last winter probably means that our heat bill might double…...........which means out heat bill is going to be bigger then most folks mortgages

If work continues to be as busy as it is now I will get an indoor wood boiler by “Greenwood Technologies”, put it in the shed part of the barn and run a line to the house, put a radiator type heat exchanger in the return air duct of the furnace….............and free heat. I would also get free hot water, free clothes dryer, heat the pool and the shop. We have 14 acres of hard and soft woods and another 150 acres of hardwoods a few hours drive north.

When someone presently asks “How is your heat bill?”........................I shudder

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

it’s scary stuff… I also close off my porch for the winter, put lots of blankets on the bed and keep the temp down low overnight.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I will heat with natural gas in a forced air furnace. If this fails, I may burn presidential campaign literature. I hear dung burns hot and for a long time.. campaign literature is full of it so we should stay warm.

-- making sawdust....

We use a wood pellet stove. I love it had it about 3 years now, with the price of propane going over four $ a gallon we save piles of money.
The forced air heater runs us about $425 to $450 a month to run. The pellets cost around $300 for a pallet at 50 bags per pallet thats almost 2 months of fuel at less than half the cost of propane.
I installed one in the wood shop also, They are a lazy/very busy guys fire place. thermostat controlled and clean only once a week….he he he, I love it.
Jim

-- A duck that brags on his own pond, soon swims alone.

One odd thing about this discussion is that there seems to be no interest in insulation and barrier materials?

Just whacking the energy into a building for A/C or heating can be and expensive exercise.

I built my new shop with 2×6 walls and 2×8 ceilings and 2×10 floors. All cavities are fully insulated to R22.
I can heat the joint up with a Bic lighter. (exageration but..)

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

I use propane (to keep pipes from freezing), and supplement it considerably with a woodburner. I’ve got more wood than I can use, if my back and the old splitting axe will just hold out.

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Our house is 8 years old, insulated to the hilt, air tight and heated with a fuel oil boiler and baseboard radiators in every room. I had the foresight when I designed (Dadoo do plumbing as well) this system to zone off certain areas and control them with their own thermostat. I also installed a propane gas log fireplace for ambiance but have heated this house to 84 one winter evening when it was -20 outside! These gas logs are non-vented and 100% efficient. We will now use it to supplement the radiators this winter but only while we’re home. So the living areas are 72 and the bedroom is a constant 68 and the spare bedrooms are 55. The garage/shop is also on its own zone and stays at 45 in the winter, but I can up that to 70 within’ a half hour as there’s a forced air (hot water) heater in the upper corner. The radiators thru-out the house are adequate, but in the way considering the placement of furniture. Radiant floor heating is the new thing and supposedly much more efficient. We will be converting to radiant floor heating this fall. Fuel oil is now near the $4.00/gal range. I kept all my receipts for the first 3+ years and find we burn an average 1000 gallons per year in fuel oil. So this years heating bill will be around $4000.00! That my friends is unacceptable.

I’ve also recently been considering a coal fired boiler system to supplement the fuel oil boiler and have found that most of the makers are at least 6 months behind in orders. I’m wary of coal as it was coal that produced the acid rain that poisoned the Adirondacks! But I hear that the Anthracite coal they use burns cleaner than fuel oil!

What I really want to get my hands on is a Hydrogen fired boiler! Some day when we’re easily able to convert water into hydrogen then our cars and trucks and houses will all use it. Just imagine having an endless supply of fuel for your boat!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

We are heating with 2 pellet stoves this year, one in the basement, and one on the main floor. We are heating about 3500 SQ ft. We heated the entire house last year with one pellet stove, however the basement was a little cool. And at the moment that is where my shop is. I won’t be freezing this year though. We are in Norther Wisconsin so it gets a little chillie. We are figuring on 2 bags a day for both stoves, and that will be keeping the house at 75 degrees all winter. My dog hates to be cold.

Ray

-- Ray

Dadoo, I am curious as to how you will retrofit radiant heating in your home. I understand that you will need at least 5/8” for the tubing and hold downs and the flooring must be raised above that as well as the doors , trim and jams adjusted.
I’m thinking it will be quite expensive???

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

wood stove here. Price of oil and propane are cost prohibitive. We used maybe 50 gallons of oil last year and maybe 20 gallons of propane.
To fill our oil tank would exceed a house payment. Sad and unaffordable right now.
Shop relies on a kersoene heater. I have an oil heater for it but can’t justify the expense :(
I’m looking for a wood heater like a pot belly stove for down there. I’m hoping to get a fridge and a heating pad to store finish/glue/etc in to keep from hauling it back and forth this year.
See if this is odd to you? Diesel is over $4.40 a gallon. Heating fuel is the same price. Diesel has state and federal road taxes added to the ‘cost’. Heating fuel doesn’t. But they claim they aren’t gounging us… Perhpas there’s a “luxury” tax we don’t know about for trying to be warm???

-- CaptnA - "When someone hurts you, write it in the sand so the winds of forgiveness will scatter the memory... "

We have a geo thermal and recommend it. It is expensive to install, twice as much probably, but you should recover those costs within 8 – 10 years and it is a whole lot less work than using firewood and a wood stove. Our geo does have a hard time keeping up though when the temps fall below 20 and windy because our home is old and pretty drafty. My sister has one in newer home and loves it. There is no doubt it will recover the costs to install alot quicker when gas and propane prices are going out of sight. My brother has an outdoor wood burner like mentioned above. Lots of work but the heat is good, but keep in mind, if you have a injury or something, someone still has to saw the wood and feed the stove.

-- http://rusty@midohio.twcbc.com

Bob#2…Radiant floor heating can be installed a number of ways. The way I will use places the PEX tubing hanging appx 3” under the floor with a run between each joice. You can also make your runs across the joices but that involves a ton of drilling and added installation time. After the runs are supported, there’s an aluminum “pan” that rivets to the tubing which makes the tubes even more efficient. 2” under this is a layer of foil lined foam, or bubble wrap then insulate the rest with fiberglass. The PEX tubing is looped to a manifold and then fed from the boiler. You can effectively heat your home with 140 degree F. temps…means you can use a water heater! Since my boiler Aquastat only goes down to 180 degrees, I’ll need a mixing valve at the manifold. It makes for very clean even heating.

Sorry for getting back to ya so late but I’ve been working and out of the loop for a couple days. I also apologize but I don’t have any links to this PEX tubing or the “pans” but you can check out http://www.radiantdesigninstitute.com for more info.

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

I gottcha now Dadoo.
It never occured to me to run pex under the floor. What a neat solution.

I’ve been moving my tools to the new shop so just found your reply tonight.
I’m currently living on Tyenol Arthriitus and red wine. <vbg>
I can’t wait to get the heavy stuff done. I can feel my old muscles creaking and tearing.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner