how you heat your home

[Horned Hereford]

How do you guys in the colder parts heat your home? Just wondering. My furnace just keeps running with the cold that seems to be here to stay. I know some of you have it colder but we were at -4 F here and have been for awhile. Seems it isnt going to warm up much till next week.

 

[Faster horses]

My family is from Missouri and I can tell you, 40 degrees above
zero in Missouri just about equals zero here in the north.
Both places are darn cold. :shock:

We use propane for heat. Have a propane furnace.

 

[leanin' H]

We have a wood stove out here on the desert. It's been at or below zero at night for going on a month and a half. Dipped to -27 one night. The old stove keeps the house comfy. Plus ya get warmed up cutting wood, stacking it in the shed, hauling it in the house, hauling out ashes and cleaning the chimney. :wink: Since we put it in we fill our propane tank every other year. When we only used the furnace to heat we'd fill it every 45 days. :evil:

 

[gcreekrch]

Wood heater. Natural gas is 200 miles away and can't bring myself to pay for propane.

Besides that, you get three warms from wood. :wink:

 

[burnt]

Wood/oil combo furnace but the oil burner doesn't get much work. I'm too tight to give the Ayrabs any money. We burn about 25 or so cords of wood per year. That would be 16" wood, not bush cords.

If we're away for all day, the thermostat is set to kick in the oil if it gets down to 60F in the house. Seldom happens - the furnace has a big firebox and beech or maple holds a long time!

 

[gcreekrch]

Wood/oil combo furnace but the oil burner doesn't get much work. I'm too tight to give the Ayrabs any money. We burn about 25 or so cords of wood per year. That would be 16' wood, not bush cords.

If we're away for all day, the thermostat is set to kick in the oil if it gets down to 60F in the house. Seldom happens - the furnace has a big firebox and beech or maple holds a long time!

If I may be so nosy Burnt, how big/old is your house? Ours is 25 years old, six inch walls, 1100 sq. ft. plus a half basement. We only burn 10 to 12 cords all year.

 

[burnt]

It's a big old two story, double brick house without any insulation in the walls for the most part except for the couple of rooms that we stripped back to the brick and sprayed on urethane before re-drywalling them. The original walls have a 1 1/2 inch airspace between the brick and the plaster and lath. About a foot of blown-in in the attic for insulation.

It's about 28' x 44' x two stories with a mostly in-ground unfinished full basement. Probably about 80 or 90 years old. iI've lived in it for 45 of those years, moving into it in '64. With the improvements we've made to it, we burn a lot less wood than we used to and it's much warmer than when mom and dad were still here.

I corrected my first post to say 16" wood rather than 16' wood. 16' wood would take a big furnace, wooden it? :wink:

 

[hypocritexposer]

I corrected my first post to say 16" wood rather than 16' wood. 16' wood would take a big furnace, wooden it? :wink:

yep, but it would save you some mixed and bar oil. :wink:

 

[gcreekrch]

It's a big old two story, double brick house without any insulation in the walls for the most part except for the couple of rooms that we stripped back to the brick and sprayed on urethane before re-drywalling them. The original walls have a 1 1/2 inch airspace between the brick and the plaster and lath. About a foot of blown-in in the attic for insulation.

It's about 28' x 44' x two stories with a mostly in-ground unfinished full basement. Probably about 80 or 90 years old. iI've lived in it for 45 of those years, moving into it in '64. With the improvements we've made to it, we burn a lot less wood than we used to and it's much warmer than when mom and dad were still here.

I corrected my first post to say 16" wood rather than 16' wood. 16' wood would take a big furnace, wooden it? :wink:

Sounds like a beautiful old home, in the summertime.

Some friends of ours lived in a frame house about that age and size. There were three pellet stoves going full blast in there and the old couple watched TV with electric blankets over them to be comfy.

Would it be possible to blow insulation into the airspace?

 

[Jigger Boss]

I have an outdoor wood furnace. Its heats and pumps hot water to heat both the house and the shop. Shop has in floor heating.
I fill the furnace every 12 hours, a little more if the temps get below -25C. The colder it gets outside the more wood it will go through. Its a real nice heat. All in all I like the system, but in my case I don't have a back up heat so I'm pretty much married to the place all winter.

 

[per]

Natural gas keeps the boilers boiling. Shop is also heated by natural gas. 10 gas wells and a compressor station within a mile of my yard. 2 Gas Plants within a 3 mile radius.

 

[burnt]

Gcreek, the airspace is too small and rough to allow any kind of insulation down in the walls. The house is actually quite comfortable since we put new doors and windows in over the years. But yep we burn quite a bit of wood to keep it that way.

 

[burnt]

Natural gas keeps the boilers boiling. Shop is also heated by natural gas. 10 gas wells and a compressor station within a mile of my yard. 2 Gas Plants within a 3 mile radius.

When I visited a friend at Brooks a long time ago, I was pretty impressed that he heated his shop with natural gas since he had cracks in the walls that you could stick your fingers through . . . :lol:

 

[per]

Natural gas keeps the boilers boiling. Shop is also heated by natural gas. 10 gas wells and a compressor station within a mile of my yard. 2 Gas Plants within a 3 mile radius.

When I visited a friend at Brooks a long time ago, I was pretty impressed that he heated his shop with natural gas since he had cracks in the walls that you could stick your fingers through . . . :lol:

Mine has insulation. It sure makes for nice starting equipment when you need it.

 

[Justin]

My family is from Missouri and I can tell you, 40 degrees above
zero in Missouri just about equals zero here in the north.
Both places are darn cold. :shock:

We use propane for heat. Have a propane furnace.[/quote]

me too

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

We have propane. But try not to use it for heatin the house if at all possible. The themostat stays at around 60....and we use the fireplace a whole lot when it's cold. Been a fire goin in there now for prolly a week strait. LOL I know that sounds minimal to most of ya'll...but it sure comes in handy.
Now we don't have to stockpile firewood like you all do up north. We just head out on the pretty days, and go cut a truck load ever now n then. Bout time to do that with this front comin in soon.

 

[Northern Rancher]

We had a wood stove but they just kept raising our insurance so we use propane and body heat.

 

[Horned Hereford]

We had a wood stove but they just kept raising our insurance so we use propane and body heat.

My wife just wants me to play on the computer and leave her alone.

Been thinking of the outdoor wood furnace. I have enough woods and fence rows to keep it going. I dont mind cutting wood and it seems more cost efective to do than just turn the t-stat up and still be cold.

Next question is can they or I pipe that in to my existing duct work?
Can I just splice in on one side of the house and use a seperate thermostat and call it good or do I need something special.
I have propane heat (central air)

 

[per]

We had a wood stove but they just kept raising our insurance so we use propane and body heat.

Our insurance went up enough that it was cheaper not to have the wood stoves in the house or the shop. We took them out for that reason.

The average human body gives off the equivalent heat of a 100watt light bulb. This is not however an indication of how bright they are.

 

[gcreekrch]

If we were to change our heating we would go to a geo-thermal set-up. A little pricey to put in but no fuel to add once up and running.