Keeping warm

[Stretch]

Was just wondering how everyone heated your house? We have been working on ours over the last couple yrs and so I built a new chimney and installed this new wood furnace and also a new high eficiency (propane)furnace. Try not to use the propane much but the wood is the greatest thing since sliced bread...... :lol: 8) Now if I can get my new wood splitter built to split the bigger stuff I will really have things on easy street.. Sure nice to toss a few chunks of oak,ash and red elm in and dive into the easy chair for the evening to watch the NFR..... 8)

 

[cowzilla]

You can't beat wood heat but I cheat a bit and use a pellet stove. All the warmth without a axe or chainsaw :lol:

 

[Jassy]

You can't beat wood heat but I cheat a bit and use a pellet stove. All the warmth without a axe or chainsaw :lol:

:agree: Wood heat is wonderful, but here in the sandhills wood is very hard to come by, so we switched to pellot stoves, one in the kitchen and one in the living room...plus we have propane also...the furnace hardly ever kicks on with the pellot stoves going...and it's alot cleaner than hauling wood into the main part of the house...I did have a few mice sneak in with the wood...didn't like that! Looks like you got a great setup!

 

[Denny]

We have an outdoor wood boiler and a indoor wood fireplace along with a propane furnace for backup when were away..

We burn about 20 cord of wood per winter but with a skidloader and a flatbed it goes quickley. We haul it in about 3 cord at a time and cut it up.I burn alot of junk wood aspen,basswood oak at night and when it's bitter cold.I heat my shop also with the boiler..

 

[cattleluvr18]

your gonna need all that to keep warm with all the winter crap we've been having. farmers almanac said southeast nebraska is supposed to have 2 snow storms per week through january. ugh.

were all electric. its pretty great. dont have to worry about wood or propane. but it sucks when the electricity goes out cuz of an ice storm.

 

[jigs]

ok Stretch, I am very curious....

price?
how does it tie into the furnace?
what happens if the power goes out? will it still heat??

folks had an out door wood burner and if the power went out you had to go pull the fire out or it would melt the fan!

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

That's why I like my wood burnin fireplace......electricity or no....all ya gotta do is put wood in there n light it...and watch it burn.

 

[Silver]

I use a Blaze King wood heater in the basement ( I wanted to have a source of heat that didn't require power) and some electric baseboards upstairs. I'm seriously considering a pellet stove for upstairs, even though I don't like heat that 'blows around'.
Has anyone burned anything other than pellets in their pellet stove? And how does it compare for heat? I would think in Nebraska corn would be alot chepaer than wood pellets, and easy to come by.

 

[meat_fire]

Been using a Blaze King wood stove for 25 years. Sure has saved allot in gas bills, plus I love the way a wood stove heats. It is a little mess with ashes etc but I love it.
If Electricity goes out, we still have heat and can cook on the stove.

 

[Stretch]

ok Stretch, I am very curious....

price?
how does it tie into the furnace?
what happens if the power goes out? will it still heat??

folks had an out door wood burner and if the power went out you had to go pull the fire out or it would melt the fan!

Well it goes something like this. The stove cost me 950.00 the chimney and pipe and other stuff to make the chimney work cost me about 1000.00. I laid the chimney myself and it is a brick outside and a clay tile liner with zonolite(sp) for insulation. It goes up through the inside wall clear up to the roof. It is about 30-31 ft tall and has a clean out at the bottom about 2 ft up off the floor. I wouldn't do it any other way as I am a volunteer fireman and the steel chimneys have proved to me that I don't want them. I am sure I missed some small items and so I would guess that it would bring the cost to 2000-2200.00. I tried my best to build it to last 50+ yrs like the last stove and chimney did in the house. If the power goes out it does present a small problem. It does require power to make the fan run but not much, about same as a box fan or a tv. So I went and got a 5500 watt generator to solve that. It also has enough juice to power up the well and fridge and such. I am not saying that my setup is the only way but I studied and studied and I really felt for the money it was my best option. I had the wood and wanted to keep the dead wood cleaned up and trim trees and such. Corn would have cost me near double the cost to go to a corn furnace.

The wood stove is piped in with the two round pipes into the top of the gas furnace and has a divider above the gas unit to direct the heat up into the duct work. I can super charge the whole deal if I turn on the fan of the gas unit and push the heat more.

The only two things I would change is the stove is fine but I hate the door on it. The trouble is I don't think any other stove does any better.. It is to small and so the wood has to be split down to fit. My old stove had a door big enough to almost roll a 5 gal bucket in. The other thing is I would get a generator that was wired in and would automatically come on when the power went off so it wouldn't matter if we were home or not. Sorry for the long story... Ask away I am glad to share ideas to help if I can..

 

[CattleArmy]

My various homes have had wood burning stove........which I did not like. If we were gone then the house was cold. Plus it seemed no matter how hard you try smoke gets out and it makes stuff smell. We lived in a house with a wood pellet stove and I didn't mind it to much. It's much cleaner then burning wood and can be adjusted to run longer so on long days away the chill is still off the house.

Our home now has a propane furnace and I love the comforts of it. Always warm no matter how long of day that I'm gone from home and the fact there isn't anything to clean. However with the price of propane that cuts into cattle profits.

I guess if i had my choice considering the cost I'd have a pellet stove.

 

[spoon]

We recently replaced both of our heat/air gas packs. They had been good units but finally wore out. We replaced them with a couple of dual heat units. They heat with a heat pump until the temp gets down to a preset temperature, we set ours at 35, and then changes over to natural gas to provide REAL heat. The heat pump provides the a/c in summer. I must say they have proven to be much cheaper to operate than our old gas packs. For anyone that might not recognize the term a gas pack is a all in one unit that sits outside and provides heat via natural/propane and has a a/c unit built in as well. Ours were natural gas ones. The dual units are kinda pricy but I believe I will live long enough to see a savings if they last as long as our other units. We also have a Heatilator fireplace insert that for heat when the electric goes out and on special occasions.

 

[Stretch]

CattleArmy
My various homes have had wood burning stove........which I did not like. If we were gone then the house was cold. Plus it seemed no matter how hard you try smoke gets out and it makes stuff smell. We lived in a house with a wood pellet stove and I didn't mind it to much. It's much cleaner then burning wood and can be adjusted to run longer so on long days away the chill is still off the house.

You bring up several good points that we deal with. One thing that helps us is the fact that the chimney drafts really well, which really helps with the smoke. I have really not been around the pellet or corn stoves so I can't really say much about how they work. I do know several people around here and seem to like them quite well. The tough part for us is that our house is fairly large (with a full basement and two levels above) and so we needed a furnace set up to be able to heat it. To overcome the wood fire burning down, we usually let the gas furnace set at about 72 and that way if it does start to cool here the gas will pick up the slack. When we return and load up the stove it doesn't take long to re heat the house. It isn't a perfect system but I can't complain as it has treated us as I had expected it to.