Best heating option

[Zymer]

Pellet stoves- If you like a fire but don't want to mess around with wood it's excellent. I like a good wood fire but my pellet stove will keep the house temp up when no one is here to feed the wood stoves. They can be had fully automatic now, all you have to do is put in the pellets and it will turn itself on and off (if you get one like that. You will need to empty yhe ash pan and clean the heat exchangers every now and then, plus some other maint., but not as much hassle as a wood stove. And yes, there is still a credit/rebate deal on them, for as long as it lasts. 200 miles south and slightly warmer winters I went through two tons per year at about $250/ton for an 1100 square foot, poorly insulated house. My brother who lived a couple of miles away was spending more than that every month to heat his house (which was quite a bit bigger) with oil. Even so, the pellets were less expensive than the oil.

Radon- basement, crawlspace, doesn't matter. It comes up through the ground (from the rock), if it's there, it's there. Ventilation is the only solution.

Geo-thermal- Depends on how close ledge is to the surface. Geo-thermal is best installed vertically but they are doing some horizontal installations now. You still need some depth though, and if you're sitting right on ledge it will probably be a no-go.

If ledge is too close to the surface, you probably arent going to get a full basement either, unless you truck in a heck of a lot of fill to build up.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by Zarathu

I think it depends on how deep you go, how big the diameter of the posts are, what the posts are made of, and how much weight the posts are supporting.

I had posts in my cabin in western PA. Frost line was two feet down. Posts went down 4 feet, two below the frost line. Posts were made of reinforced concrete, and were 12 inches in diameter. House was two floors, 20 x 24 post and beam. There were 8 posts altogether.

In ten years that we owned the house, nothing ever shifted at all. Winter temperatures were often below 0 degrees F.

Posts can be fine. I have posts under parts of my house with no movement. It's just a shame to take up room in your house for the utilities.

[bangorme]

Originally Posted by Zymer

Pellet stoves- ...And yes, there is still a credit/rebate deal on them, for as long as it lasts.

Yes, my post was unclear. It's the passive solar home which isn't covered by the tax credit. It saves much more than anything mentioned so far, but coincidentally, unlike the pellet stove, isn't made in a factory.

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by bangorme

Yes, my post was unclear. It's the passive solar home which isn't covered by the tax credit. It saves much more than anything mentioned so far, but coincidentally, unlike the pellet stove, isn't made in a factory.

No credit for passive solar? Bummer. I was reading something recently on credit for installing PV for electric...but I wasn't focused on that, I'm more interested in having it to reduce cost (net metering) and having a little backup juice when the Public Utility goes down. So far, power loss here has typically lasted only a few hours, but it happens often enough to be annoying, frequently it's just a small blip- enough to screw up the clocks so I have to reset them...and sometimes it happens early AM and kills the alarm setting so we don't wake up on time.

[shadowfax1997]

Wet basements are a possibility, but not a given. I have never had water in mine. We finished off the basement and it gained us another 1100 sq ft of space. When the house was built, we thought carefully about outside drainage to keep the water out of the basement. Radon is also an issue, but not all houses have it. Ours does have radon, and an air system was installed to remove it. Works fine.