Heating ......what do u use ?

[prairie dog]

I am always looking at alternative heating sources seeing as how everything keeps climbing except for the income of course and would like to hear what others use as there main and maybe secondary source . I heat primarily with a wood boiler which I can use a bit better yet ( heat my hot water ) but it does use a lot of wood . I am trying to design a new one so that it uses less yet supplies more . So what have you got going ???  

[Davinci]

As you know, we heat with wood with oil backup.

When we talk about building a new house and look into the cost of some of the new fancy schmancy heat systems, geothermal that runs through infloor heating, I think, nope, not going to do it. Why?

At this age we are not going to live long enough to recover the $25,000 to $30,000 that such a system costs to drill (through bedrock) and install. We also know many people who have this 'latest technology' who have no idea how to service these systems themselves, and the installers frequently quit the business and go back into drywalling, so getting service is very difficult.

When it comes to heat I think the simpler the better. THe less you have to depend on the overpriced hourly rate of a specialist, the better off you are. Plus the cost of initial install has to be such that you will live long enough to see it benefit your pocket book, otherwise it's just a donation to someone else's livelihood.

That aside, it seems stupid that we don't have a heat recovery system in our septic tank. There can be 3 feet of snow on the ground, but it's melted off over the septic tank. What does that tell you? That a LOT of hot water gets pumped into that tank and we should somehow be recapturing that heat. Haven't figured out how yet.

Good luck with your quest, Prairie. BUt I think in this northern hemisphere, cheap heat is a pipe dream. My thoughts lean more to building houses with 8 inch walls and heat sinks inside. Not so much how to produce cheap/easy heat, but how to make the most out of the heat we do produce.

[prairie dog]

knew a guy years ago who built his second house with 2x8's and he staggered the 2x4 stud's so that there was no transfer of cold through the studs ,? claimed his heating cost's went down so much that when he would build the next house it would be 2x10 or 2x12 plates ? Windows and doors are such a huge area for heat loss and if ( doubtful ) I should ever build again I think I would devise a system where the windows could be cover with a insulating cover/wall once the sun was done beating down and giving me some of it's free heat . Doors should all be built into houses the same as a large store ! one set to enter a lobby , hence a coat area as well as a shoe area and then enter through another set of doors which would lead into the living area .My floor heat is fairly good , I use the ground as a retention area ( stays heated during he long winters we have ! ) and if I should ever have a shut down for what ever reason ? the heat would slowly come back through the floor . I have had the heating down once for three days and the house temp dropped by about 5 degrees ? which I thought was fairly good . These days everyone is placing Styrofoam under the pad so that all the heat comes directly back into the house ? but that can have a adverse effect if not careful .If I could use about 30% less wood I'd be laughing ............in that lies the problem though .......how to do that ?

[Davinci]

I agree, staggered stud is superior. Have you looked into a product called Nascor? Staggered stud construction walls insulated with rigid foam, prebuilt, come flat on a semi deck and you put them with the aid of some friends and a crane. Walls in a day. I think they are still a 6 inch wall, which just isn't enough in my opinion, but the staggered stud is an improvement over regular framing.

Windows are a HUGE heat loss. I think skylights are even worse! I think your idea of an exterior covering of some sort is a good one. Llike what? Plexiglass panels? Shutters? And the two stage entry system, or porch as we used to call them in the olddays is also a brilliant idea. HOWEVER, houses that are too airtight get that funky, yeasty old skin smell. And that FREAKS ME OUT! I would rather sacrifice some heated air in exchange for cold air to avoid smelling like The Crypt Keeper.

And on that note, in the interest of keeping heat, we build more and more airtight houses, which are good from a heating stand point, but I think very bad from a health standpoint. So we build houses air tight, then add systems (which we pay for) to bring fresh air in? Seems kind of stupid.

I think if every hosue has a heat sink, a heat mass, then we could allow ourselves a little bit more of a leaky structure without too much worry. Air is a fairly poor holder of heat and if that's all that's heated, yeah, we don't want out heated air zipping up the chimney. But what if you had a huge stone thingy in your livingroom and it absorbed then radiated out heat? I think that would offset the air you lost to a slight leaky exterior seal. I like the IDEA of air tight houses, but I honestly don't want to live in one.

[prairie dog]

Most house's have a air make up unit these days ,but what it does is heat the fresh air so that it isn't noticeable . I think the whole idea behind the air make up unit was as you said ....get rid of the stale air so the house doesn't stink . So what is your heat sink ? In the early years of cabin building the hearth was HUGE and made of real stone which did exactly what you said ......it held the heat for a long time ! kind of like in a greenroom , solarium ? which work great if they have ceramic tiles , better yet terracotta tiles ! If sunlight can have a good amount of time in a day the floor will release the heat long after the sun is gone .Carpet , linoleum , hardwood just doesn't have those capabilities .I have noticed that with my boiler there is no flue shut off , flap , and thus there is a huge amount of heat loss ! If I had a shop I could regain the heat and use it to heat the shop ........but the only way I have found so far is to down size the chimney and that slowed the burn down ( I do have a damper flap at the door for air ) but it's not good enough ! The next boiler will have a heavy gauge flap built into it in the flue before the chimney ( insulated so no chance of a flap there ) to control the loss of heat ? but we'll see .

[Davinci]

Our furnace is in the basement where there is 1300 sq feet of concrete floor, not covered by any flooring. As well there are some exposed concrete walls. You can tell the heat stays down there better because the basement does not have the temp fluctuations that the main floor does. It also does not have the large window or skylights AND half of it is buried in earth.

I don't know what kind of a heat sink wood is, but I know you can heat a log house for 3 day straight and freeze your butt off the whole time and just as you think you are going to die of exposure while inside a house, that house does something. IT's like it breathes the breath of warm life onto you and wraps you in a kind of cozy that only log home dwellers know about. So logs do have some sort of heat sink capacity. Definitely more than drywall!

Can you jam some sort of radiator system in the chimney to recover the escaping heat, like a heatalator above a fireplace?

[prairie dog]

There is a coil system that some have used , but it wraps around the stove pipe ? close range heating if you're close enough to transfer it to a source that needs heat ! There was a box years ago that had open pipes running through it where you had a fan blowing the air through the pipes and this actually heated huge shops ! but eventually the heat would compromise the box and a few shops burned down so they were banned .....unless you're not worried about insurance ? I would use one , but have it welded out of heavy steel instead of a thinner material which is what the ones that they sold were made of . I might use a fan to force the flame and control the burn and this way I can do some things with the chimney to regain some of the heat loss .That is where the pellet stoves have a advantage .....they use all of the heat and the smoke is actually cool ..thus the reason for a non insulated chimney is allowed .

[Davinci]

A person could invent/build all sorts of interesting heating devices IF we didn't have to worry about insurance. Damn insurance!

[prairie dog]

Yea , that would be the advantage of building one self a cabin in a remote area and living off the grid .........worry about life a bit more and less about getting covered at every corner

[merl]

Look up permies.com they have rocket wood stoves, and I also have met people people using used oil in them and there's plenty of that around, uses less wood, I haven't tried any of the rocket stoves but I sure like the ideas

[prairie dog]

Thanks , they are great stoves that throw a awful high heat , but I don't think they would work in my position where I need a constant heat / flame all day

[Fowler]

We just finished residing the house. Took off the old stuff from the 70's (that seemed to be some sort of particle board covered with a candy shell) and repleced it with cedar shingles. Also put an inch of styrofoam underneath. It was neat to see. Every time I finished a wall, our power usage dropped 10%.

Mind you, the price kept going up so our bills stayed about the same.

I keep thinking about trying one of those solar can heaters on the henhouse or garage.

[prairie dog]

My cousin had a 45 gallon barrel in his coop and he heated the water and although it was a insulated coop .....it was remarkably warm ? Sort of a kick off of radiant heat of sorts

[Fowler]

Ah! A heat sink! I've heard that tanks of water can be used in greenhouses like that.

[Ballyrag]

We use wood mostly for heat and have baseboard electric heaters never on   

Last year for one month i was away wife was home with the kids never used wood just the darn heaters , power bill was $700 same month this year wood only $260  its a 3200sf house. I cut my own wood and its hard work so you can save a few bucks but you work for it. but like alot of things you only get out what you put in

[Sassy]

I am going to live off the grid. Because to keep heating bills down, the solar powered cabin will be very small, 20 by 24 is what I have in mind, and of course well insulated. Inside I will put pine on the walls/ceiling as extra insulation. Easier and cheaper to heat with wood/propane when its a small space. Totally back to basic. It will be fun. :-)

[prairie dog]

Awesome Sassy , would love to do that as well .you'll have to post pictures of the cabin ?

[Sassy]

As soon it's build I sure will! :-)

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