Heat?

[Bmbbm]

High efficency heat pump with NG backup. Heat pump shuts down at 32degrees outside temperature and then the gas kicks in.

 

[RCW]

Harman XXV pellet stove @ 50k BTU. Stove can burn up to 50% corn, but haven't tried it.

The oil-fired boiler is essentially backup.

Burn about 5 tons of pellets and 20 gallons of oil per year.

 

[JackJ]

Wood stove, with all the fuel free from my property and an occasional downed tree from a neighbor. It not only keeps me warm, but necessitates playing with tractors, saws, mauls, and the other fun toys. And I stay more fit than I otherwise would.

 

[D2Cat]

Heat with wood. Use Osage Orange. Been some winters the furnace never comes on. Designed and had a welder build the stove which is actually an insert. It extends out 18" over the hearth and provides nice radiant heat. Has big enough doors I don't have to split the wood, as long as I can lift it. Depth is 36", so wood volume is not a problem. I can put wood in at 10PM and never look in the stove until noon. Have heat pump with elec resistance heat as a backup, but elec heat does not get me warm!

 

[shootem604]

We have electric wall heaters, propane fireplaces, and even wood in the basement fireplace if we are in a pinch. Nice to have options.

 

[GeoBx2680]

House is NG forced air, furnace is 32 years old, still 95% eff. I was going to replace this year but why ?!
If I was to live longer, I'd go GeoThermal.Overall a cleaner, better system. They were too much $$ 3 decdes ago...a lot cheaper now.

Your 32 year old furnace is probably not 95% eff. anymore trust me. And if is a Trane furnace probably has a cracked heat exchanger. We replace more Trane heat exchanger then on any other furnace out there.

And the GEO thermal is a cool drafty heat that is sized for cooling so you will only end up with a BTU load about a 1/3 of what you actually need. Which makes the GEO run all the time. We still install them here in Minnesota my boss doesn't push them but sometimes we get a home owner that insist they want them. Because there Greener. They think anyway !! Most electricity is created by burning something ?

Geo system around here are 20-25k for a 3 ton system with vertical wells. Good for a 2000-2500 sq ft home.

My advice is take the money you'd spend on a GEO system put in a New 2 stage gas, variable speed blower furnace 96-97% eff. Around $3500-$5000 for a 60k-100k btu furnace in my area. But if winter temps never get below 40* in your area GEO might work better for you.

Then take the money you got left over from that 20-25k and buy a tractor or take the wife on a nice trip somewhere. Just my .02


Other than that I heat with GEO thermal with a propane furnace as back up. And we burn wood on the weekends.

If your wondering we bought the house with the GEO system already installed. And We bought the house for the property not the Geo system. I would never in a million years put a GEO system in my home.

Yes I am a heating and cooling guy by trade 25+ years

 

[Daren Todd]

We use an electric heat pump. Plus a wood burning insert in the fire place. So far we've just been using the heat pump. Hasn't been cold long enough to fire up the stove.

Temps gotta get down to the 20's in order to use the stove. If not, it will have you in your underwear with all the doors and windows open.

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[DustyRusty]

Just got our propane tanks filled this morning, and it was 230 gallons ($1.26 per gallon) for 36 days of heating. This works out to $8 a day to heat and hot water the home of 3600 square feet, in cold Connecticut. I am too old to go back to heating with wood, and when we had a pellet stove, it didn't really supplement the oil that much. If we didn't have cathedral ceiling living room, and a 14' high balcony, I am sure that the heating would be a lot less. When I built the home 35 years ago, it was what we wanted, never thinking that we were going to still be here when we got old. Old age just crept up on us when we weren't looking.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Well two HVAC guys did the measuring, one 94% other 95% and were impressed. My sensors and math said 93%(built my own 'computers' .Both heat exchangers are solid( secondary is SS, lasts forever) Unit is a Clare Megasave, company long out of business of course..built them too darn good! NO fancy computer($$$) or DC motors($$$$)...old school and cheap to repair. One ventor motor/fan and a condensate pump. AC is still cold too.

 

[Lil Foot]

I forgot to mention that at home in addition to NG, we have (2) conventional block/stone fireplaces., one 1/2 story below grade and one on the second story.
We used to use them a lot, but now air pollution regs designate "No Burn Days" when it is illegal to use woodburning fireplaces, pits, or heaters. Those days are always on the coldest days when I want to light the fireplaces. Might convert them to NG, if I live long enough.

 

[dirtydeed]

Harman XXV pellet stove @ 50k BTU. Stove can burn up to 50% corn, but haven't tried it.

I have the same stove. Burn about 4 ton/year. Ductless mini split heat pumps as well, but my electric bills still run $400/mo plus about a ton of pellets per month. Wifey likes to be warm and you just can't get that from heat pumps.

Also have propane fired boiler with radiant floor (basement, first floor and garage) and hot water baseboard on 2nd floor. Radiant floor system wasn't installed correctly, so, I don't use the boiler at all. Tried it the first year and it was pitiful.

We have a 3100 sq ft log home. First floor is log, second floor stick framed. First floor is not well insulated because the logs are only about 6" thick. People think that log homes are well insulated...they're not. Unless you have very thick logs. I believe the R value is about 1 for every inch of wood.

 

[BAP]

Heat with Buderus Hot water boiler with base board and radiant in concrete floor heat in the basement. It also heats our in-direct domestic hot water. In all, we burn 550-600 gallons a year for our 2200 square foot well insulated home in cold New Hampshire.

 

[DaTow'd]

We heat with 40% Solar and 60% wood. Also have IR electric heater in our computer room.
We burn Fir, Maple, and Western Red Alder- 6 cords a year mostly off of our own wood lot.
My shop used to have a in floor hot water heating but we dropped a GMC 6V71 diesel engine when the eye bolt pulled out. Cracked the cement and damaged the pipe- so we just use wood now in the shop.
Big plans for next year is installing a water sourced heat pump in the house
keeping warm
cheers
Hank

 

[Tughill Tom]

Now have 97% Propane Hot Air. In the new house planning on 97%HA with a Hot water coil supplied by a HI Eff wood boiler which will supply the garage and hot water on the domestic side.
Building on a 40 Acre lot I have that's wooded an pastures , hopefully within the next year.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Solar is only good when the sun shines and it don't shine much here in Michigan. <y issue with solar is solar farms take valuable cropland out of production and it's basically unreliable, plus the raw materials to make the panels must be imported from China.

I look at processed wood pellets made from scrap lumber and corn as the ultimate renewable fuel source, especially corn. Processed wood pellets from scrap lumber keeps that commodity out of landfills.

 

[KennysNewFarm]

We have geo thermal heat and air. All electric home cost $134.45 this month in electricity.

 

[Fro65]

We heat with an air to air heat pump down to 20 degrees. Then, LP furnace takes over.

Highest electric bill ever was $147.00 and the most LP used in a winter was 238 gallons. I actually built my house too tight in 1994 and had to put an air exchanger in. House is 2000 square feet and basement is 2000 square feet.

 

[D2Cat]

I remember years back KCP&L billed for elec. usage every two month. Prices gradually went up, and apparently folks were delinquent in payments so they sent invoices monthly. Now the monthly invoice is larger then the two month one use to be!!!

 

[fruitcakesa]

TARM wood boiler w/oil gun backup in the same unit in the basement hooked to radiant hydronic in the floor. Set to 72* all winter. Burn maybe 6 cords a year.
Old wood cookstove in the kitchen for extra heat when needed ie;windy winter days and occasional power outages.

 

[John T]

Home heating oil / boiler / hot water baseboard

Also,

Jotul on the basement level.

VERY HAPPY with the burn times on this new stove.

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