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Good info.
Interesting your heating bill didn't go up much, aclauver.
I will know by next bill how much our auxiliary heat added to it, since it goes on automatically, we can't really control it.
We have been supplementing with a portable electric plug in heater and our fireplace. Oddly, as inefficient as they say fireplaces are, our masonry is on the inside of the house - the fireplace sticks out four feet from outside wall, and the stone masonry really heats up and radiates into the house. We got free firewood this year, so not an expense as long as we close the damper at night when the fire is out.
I'm in E TN and happy with my heat pump. But it's just me and when the cold comes I hole up in one room with an electric heater.
Under normal conditions I will bump up my heat pump in the afternoon when i get home, never bumping more than 3 degrees at a time. I understand there are programmable timers specifically for heat pumps that will do the same thing. Turn it way low or off at night.
$103 total electric bill - fridge, freezer, hot water & everything. 900 sf older home - but insulated.
It's good you have a source for wood heat. it may be time to invest in a fireplace insert.
We don't have a heat pump, but since we're also talking about supplemental heating....
Several years ago we bought one of those add-on wood furnaces and tied it into our existing ductwork. Initially, I bought it to offset the amount of oil we were using - mainly to keep our oil expenses a little more predictable since the prices fluctuate so drastically.
Wow! This thing paid for itself in the first year. It works so well, we've been using is as our primary heat source since 2011 and the oil that's in our tank was bought in 2010. We pay $350 for a tandem axle dump truck load of logs. Its a lot of hard work (and great exercise) but that is basically our yearly heating fuel costs. Well, that and maybe $15 extra a month in electricity to run the blower fan. We buy and process our wood a year in advance so its seasoned when we need it.
Now, we run the oil furnace a few times monthly just to make sure it still works . The only time we actually use oil is when we are away for long periods to keep a low base temperature (to keep stuff from freezing / bursting).
Our house is a traditional ranch style ~2300 sq/ft. upstairs with the same downstairs as an unfinished basement. The wood furnace sits in the basement and keeps all of this quite comfortable. We used to burn about 400 gallons of oil per winter just to heat the upstairs.
The unit we got is available at Home Depot, Lowes, and independents. It's carried under different names (probably to avoid honoring their price match promises ):
We have wood heat tied to duct system will heat us out of the house. We also have propane and 2 thermostats if temp. drops below setting on wood heater propane will turn on, rarely happens except those single digit nights with howlin winds. We are at 3200 feet. If you buy a big load of wood during summer prices are lower. Husband likes splitting wood so that helps!
We don't have a heat pump, but since we're also talking about supplemental heating....
Several years ago we bought one of those add-on wood furnaces and tied it into our existing ductwork. Initially, I bought it to offset the amount of oil we were using - mainly to keep our oil expenses a little more predictable since the prices fluctuate so drastically.
Wow! This thing paid for itself in the first year. It works so well, we've been using is as our primary heat source since 2011 and the oil that's in our tank was bought in 2010. We pay $350 for a tandem axle dump truck load of logs. Its a lot of hard work (and great exercise) but that is basically our yearly heating fuel costs. Well, that and maybe $15 extra a month in electricity to run the blower fan. We buy and process our wood a year in advance so its seasoned when we need it.
Now, we run the oil furnace a few times monthly just to make sure it still works . The only time we actually use oil is when we are away for long periods to keep a low base temperature (to keep stuff from freezing / bursting).
Our house is a traditional ranch style ~2300 sq/ft. upstairs with the same downstairs as an unfinished basement. The wood furnace sits in the basement and keeps all of this quite comfortable. We used to burn about 400 gallons of oil per winter just to heat the upstairs.
The unit we got is available at Home Depot, Lowes, and independents. It's carried under different names (probably to avoid honoring their price match promises ):
Ours is the Englander from HD, but the manufacturer plate on the back lists all three model numbers....
Not trying to sell you one. It has just been so good for us that I felt compelled to share.
Good luck,
Opt-Out
Interesting!
You say you put the wood burner in your basement, did you have to put in a new chimney, or was there already one there? And somehow you vent it into your heating ducts???
Do you know if you could adapt that kind of wood burner with making hot water to produce radiant heat in floors? That is our favorite type of heating system, and even if your heat goes out, your floors keep radiating heat for a day or two if they are tile, cement or stone.
I just looked up the Englander and it is EPA certified which is nice and less polluting.
We have wood heat tied to duct system will heat us out of the house. We also have propane and 2 thermostats if temp. drops below setting on wood heater propane will turn on, rarely happens except those single digit nights with howlin winds. We are at 3200 feet. If you buy a big load of wood during summer prices are lower. Husband likes splitting wood so that helps!
I am curious with the same questions I asked above of Opt-out.
And another question is how often do you have to load wood - every couple of hours or twice a day?
And do you need chimney cleaning often because it stays on all the time?
Thanks
For the chimney, ours has two flues. One was used for the oil furnace and the other was not being used. The original owner of the house used to do canning with wood cookstove but that was no longer in place. You would need a dedicated flue for a wood burner.
The unit has two outputs. One for exhaust (smoke) which ties directly into the chimney. The other is for hot air - pushed by a dedicated blower on the back of the unit. I connected that to the plenum duct above the oil furnace for distribution to the rest of the house.
I don't think this would be a good unit for heating water. Since it is already double-walled with a fire box and a hot air box around it, the radiant heat that comes directly off the unit is minimal. You'd be better off using a system designed to heat water it that is the primary goal.
Also, my stove model is not EPA certified. Most basic wood-burners that I've seen are not. You'll need either a pellet-fuel model or one with secondary catalytic combustion for it to be certified in most cases, I think.
As for burn times, once the stove it good and hot, it'll go 8-9 hours. In the AM, we usually have enough embers to rekindle if need be. It gets the house so warm though that recently with the milder temps, we've been letting it sit during the day and crank it up again around sundown. Today for example, I woke up and it was in the upper 20's outside. The house was 71. It was mild, but cloudy all day and house cooled down to 67. I just got another fire going around 6pm.
The condition of your chimney is directly tied to the quality of wood and how it is burned. As long as you use seasoned (dry) hardwood and maintain decent temperature, the creosote build-up is minimal. I clean the chimney myself halfway thru the burning season and have a pro out every year in the summer. We have very little build-up, but I like to have somebody with a keener eye for problems to give a yearly once-over for safety.
Hope this helps (and sorry for the long post...),
Opt-Out
mountainrose, You never mentioned, (or I don't remember), where you live, altitude, etc.
You have a good sized house, but my suggestion is before you get into auxiliary heating setups, is to check what your insulation is: R30 min for ceilings/attics, (R40 is better), side walls 2x4 or 2x6, etc. Window quality, door seals, caulking and sealing, et al.
Wood stoves/furnaces are remarkable, (we have had them in our non-FL homes for decades), but even free standing or fireplace inserts require some careful install and use. And, next year's wood supply collection starts in May or, else delivered in summer.
Heat pumps are heat pumps, and as I have posted, they are not my pick for any kind of ambient cold or higher altitude/lower ambient air pressure situ.
Otoh, it's been 'normal cold' in western NC this winter, as opposed to the milder winters of the past few. People have a short memory on 'how it is vs how it's supposed to be', imo.
Oil heat is efficient, but that efficiency also erodes quickly at higher altitudes...
No HVAC expert, but have spent a lot of time looking into/and having installed different systems in several homes, from NY to high alt NC, et al.
GL, mD
Thanks Opt-Out and Motordavid for all the great info and details.
I am particularly interested because we are thinking of buying land and building, so that set up could be incorporated in the building plans. It's helpful to hear from people who have used that setup successfully, rather than just the salespeople.
Also, one of the homes we looked at (instead of building) had an interesting wood burning setup. In the middle of the house had been built a huge masonry chimney that went up through both stories and left exposed with no drywall around it. There was a woodburning stove attached to it downstairs with a regular chimney inside the masonry, but the way they built the masonry around the interior chimney had gaps inside that trapped the heat somehow and heated up the whole masonry and radiated out to the rest of the house. There was no drywall anywhere over the masonry.
They also had a heat pump, but rarely needed it. The house was 2,800 sq ft. We didn't believe it could actually heat the whole house, so came out on a really cold day, and was amazed at how much the masonry radiated heat even all the way upstairs where the masonry chimney was left exposed in middle of upstairs area. Apparently, they are pretty expensive to have built, and you need a mason that knows how to engineer them right, but it was pretty impressive way to use a woodburning setup.. The wood burner was really efficient EPA approved with catalytic and they only loaded it twice a day. I think it was a vermont castings and looked attractive with doors that opened like a fireplace.
Many building codes do not allow for the use of a wood furnace as the sole source of heat for a home as it is not a regulated and "automatic" source of heat, i.e., it has to be fed by a person. Look at building codes, if you are planning on building that way. Building codes will be more controlling than the EPA.
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. The only time we actually use oil is when we are away for long periods to keep a low base temperature (to keep stuff from freezing / bursting).
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