Heating Questions

[s1120]

I have a few heating for all of you guys. I will split them into separate posts to make them less confusing for me.[I am a little slow sometimes]/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I will be building a new house and am wondering what to chouse for heat. I would like to know what would be best, oil, or gas? I do not have city gas, so if I chose gas, I would have to go propane. Most people in are area use oil, and that is what we always had as a kid. But with gas, we can hook up a gas stove, and a gas hot water heater. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[MikePA]

We have oil, forced hot air as well as LP for a stove. So, having one, doesn't preclude use of the other. The nice thing about having an LP stove is that even when the power is out we can at least cook.

 

[Thomas]

When I built my home I went total electric,for it was cheaper at the time and somewhat still is.
I do have back up tho,like most New Englanders who live outside of the city or town limits..wood heat.

I kinda look at this way..if mother nature decide to throw a real nasty storm, in which causes damage or the roads are ice etc.. everybody in the same boat..no fuel,but having wood for back up your still warm,and don't forget to have extra candles.

When do you plan on moving in.

Have a safe and Happy New Years.

 

[JJT]

Around here propane is the most expensive fuel to use for heating. Fuel oil is the route I went, with forced warm air for heat. I also added an oil fired hot water heater, (~1000). They say these pay for themselves in a year when compared to an electric water heater. They also produce unlimited hot water.

 

[s1120]

Thomas,
I have beed told to stay away from electric, too pricy. We are planing to have some form of wood heat. Eather a wood, or pellet insert for a fireplace, or we LOVE the soap stone woodstoves. A lot of money, but easier to put in now then 10 years down the road.

We are hopeing to start digging in march, or april. As soon as the weather breaks. Hope to be in by sept./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Thats to long, I want to be in NOW!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[TerryinMD]

Paul,

The choice of heating is totally dependent upon your location. A simple choice of economics. Since you're building a new home and have some time, you could research and plan for the optimum system.

In our case, we decided on a heat pump with propane auxilliary for our main unit and a second heat pump unit for the second floor with no propane. We chose the propane unit because we didn't want to put in a 40kva auxilliary unit to heat the house during the coldest periods. When the temperature gets about 25 degrees, the heating system switches over to the propane unit. You can really tell the difference. The house heats up much faster.

My suggestion to you is to review your house plans with various heating contractors to get the optimum system for your house. We THOUGHT we did this when we built our house and found out the hard way. After 6 years, we had to totally replace our heating system. The original installation of the ducting system was not thought out very well and the first heat pump died. We brought in another contractor and he redid the duct work and now the system works very well.

Terry

 

[GlueGuy]

Paul,

As Terry mentions, which fuel to use depends on the area you live in. Around here, propane is the choice. Our place is mostly propane. Stove, heat, hot water, dryer. The main part of the house is forced air, but we have a couple of auxilary heaters on the north side that don't require power. They are nice when the winter storm knocks out the A/C for a couple of days.

 

[genelp]

I see from your profile that you have a few acres, have you considered geothermal? We have an open loop system and have had no trouble with it at all. While expensive to install, it is very economical to run.

Gene

 

[BWa]

Well I grow up with forced hot water on oil ,with wood stove back up . I have city gas and hot air now,,,,,,, I hate forced hot air , may be easier to put in AC and all but to me it is not worth it ,the hot water system may take longer to heat up but it stays warmer longer and I don't have the job of changing filters every 3 or 4 weeks or have the colds and dust blown around ....... just my 2 cents worth ,

 

[billboe]

I'm in the same boat as BWa! Unless you need/want central air, personally, I'd pass on the forced hot air. When I get to choose my heating system it will be radiant!

 

[HR_Mutt]

s1120
If you have a ongoing supply of firewood, and the desire to cut, split, tote I'd figure in a hi-eff. wood fireplace that would produce enough btu to heat the place. It's a great way to get very low cost heat. Then your back up furnace is another choice. We looked at the pellet stoves, just did not want to have to "buy" the fuel. Not as a primary source of heat anyway. Maybe in a remote room w/ occasional use.
regards
Mutt

 

[RichZ]

Paul, since I now know that we're practically neighbors, I would think wood would be your best bet. I have an oil burner in my house, and in the little over a year that I've owned it, we never used it, but heat the house with a wood stove in the center of the house. It heats well, and wood is pretty cheap by us. It does so well, that I am planning on buying an outdoor wood furnace, so I don't have to keep loading the stove, and it can take care of my hot water, too.

Rich
"What a long strange trip it's been."

 

[beenthere]

IF wood is at all an option in your house heating plans, I am happy that I put hot water heat in my house 34 years ago, and heat the water with wood (gas backup in a second boiler). Sooooo much better than trying to heat with wood in a forced air system. Especially with the outdoor boiler options now. The water stores the heat from the wood, and you pump it around the zones in the house when and where you need it. The wood stoves (I also have one running right now in a three season room I just added) give you different levels of heat depending on the charge of wood: - what its moisture content is, what species it is, and how long it has been burning. Many people I know that burn wood wish they had the hot water system. But if wood isn't in your plans, I wouldn't feel so strongly about the hot water heat. FYI only

 

[Boner]

I agree with radiant. I am kicking myself for not throwing some coils in my foundation. Heating water with natural gas is pretty cheap.

Man, I hope I never go through building a house again, but if I do, I'll definitly go for radiant heat in the rooms with tile or brick.

-Ben

 

[HR_Mutt]

beenthere
what type of water system you using now, and is it what you would use if you did it again?
regards
Mutt

 

[heehaw]

well, considering where you live, first i'd suggest moving a little further south, but if your stuck on staying there, make sure the new house is air tight. air infiltration is the biggest reason for new houses being cold or hard to heat. caulk caulk and then caulk some more. i know you probably don't want to spend the bucks for a tape to show you how to build a house, but a local architect goes all over the country solving energy problems with homes and commercial buildings.
doug rye is his name, dougrye.com is his web address, i think. he has some really good advice, that will save you more than the cost of the tape. he is big on geothermal, in this area he says its not cost effective unless the house is 2000sq. ft. or more, but in your area that may be a lot different. I know several folks that have had costly problems with geothermal, so i don't recommend it. wood/gas back up and electricity is my recommendation.
heehaw

 

[beenthere]

Mutt. Without a question I would do it again. As to type, I'm not sure I follow what you are asking. There are baseboard heat runs with copper/finned piping. I have one run through my rec room with a return line under the concrete floor. I have another in the bedrooms, and another in the living room/kitchen. Normally the bedroom run is set at 67-68, the living room at 68-70, and the rec room up to 68 only when we are using it. The wood boiler heats the water, and the water is pumped around whenever a thermostat 'calls' for heat. Or I can switch the valves to use just the propane gas boiler, and it (boiler) only heats water when a thermostat calls for heat, pumping the hot water around. Or I can run both boilers in series, such that the gas boiler only kicks in when the water coming through the wood boiler drops below 100 F. That way, if the wood gets hung up or gets burned up, and I don't fill it, the house will at least stay warm enough not to freeze the pipes. There is about 15 psi pressure in this system, and the water temp. is not boiling, but limited to about 180 to 190 F. (Even so, I guess we still call them boilers).

 

[HR_Mutt]

beenthere
Drat, I lost the link somewhere, I was looking at a kit to retrofit my wood/coal stove. Just a coil of pipe to mount above it and connect to runs. Would you think something like this is practical? When fireplace and stove were purchased, I did not have a clue about heating water, now due mainly to discussions on TBN/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I'm thinking there's more to be done. Is this an add on project or should and entire system be purchased? In a perfect fit, I'd take some of the heat from wood/coal furnace and pipe it to another location. Hopefully s1120 is interested also as I'm in the middle of his thread.
Thanks for all your help
regards
Mutt

 

[beenthere]

I have heard about these coils, and had a friend (now deceased) that did something similar, but he wasn't happy with it. (He also piped hot air to his wife's dryer from the wood furnace and SHE didn't like that!).
My wood boiler is a 'barrel' within a 'barrel', with a 9 gallon water jacket around the inside barrel. It has a motorized damper which shuts the air supply off when the wood heats the water to 160F. There is a little bit of coast above that set point, but never enough to trip the relief valve (which reminds me, I need to check that it still functions). The company no longer makes this boiler, as I understand the boilers now have to pass steam boiler specs to be certified for in-home use. So they have become so expensive, that they are priced out of the market. However, the outside boilers do not have to meet these specs (so I am told).
If you do the coil idea, I would think getting a tank to store hot water (30 to 50 gallons) warmed by the wood would be helpful. I assume that you have hot water baseboard heat now.

 

[Egon]

HR_Mutt:
When I was a young lad we had a cast iron insert in the wood/coal kitchen cookstove that heated water for a hot water tank that supplied the hot water for the pressure system in the house.
You can have water heating coils installed on some of the new energy efficient wood stoves but it has to be done at the factory to meet our regulations here in Nova Scotia.

Egon