Home heating questions.....

[chappy]

Just bought a new house. It has oil hot water baseboard heat, with two wood burning stoves. My old house had one wood burning stove along with two forced air propane furnaces. Was just curious as to how efficient the hot water oil system will be?

Basically what I'm looking for is feedback from members who have experience with oil hot water baseboard systems. I'm pricing external wood furnaces to tap into the existing baseboard system, as I have access to free wood, and I enjoy cutting and splitting wood, no joke,
I really do.:tongue:

Any feedback would be appreciated, heck, even tell me how you heat your homes and if you like it. No "Price of heating homes" jokes from the southern gentlemen please.:biggrin.:

[BlownCrewCab]

My 2700sf house has 2 propane furnaces also, I refuse to pay the price they want for propane so when it got empty I had them come take the tank. for the last 7 years I have heated with wood only. I too Enjoy cutting firewood, I have 3 chainsaws, a hyd splitter and a 16'X6' flat trailer, right now I probably have 4 full cords for this winter. Thats about what it takes.


Go to Arboristsite.com for everything you ever wanted to know about firewood, Saws, Splitters,Trees,Trailers,Stoves,chimneys,Cutting,F elling, OWB's, Everything you need is there.

[Dr. Dan]

:smash:Chap,

I have Hot Water Radiated Base Board Heat in our house, its Gas Fired, not oil, but I can tell you this the Furnace/Burner is the original and the house was built in 1951! It will turn the house into a sauna if you crank it up... very efficient, not ambient dust or floating particulate matter from a Forced Air System... so its really been surprisingly great.

Eventually I will replace my burner, our design uses the Iron Radiator Base Board System which is original, much different than the little Electric things that folks use in cheaper applications.

I have no complaints on how the entire system works.

Good Luck.

Doc :wink:

[ky-donzi]

I heat my home with Natural Gas. I have a 2800 sqft victorian home built in 1890 so it's not quite as tight as new house construction. (that's a understatment) When I started remodeling the house I removed the radiators not because of that style of heat but because the boiler was about 75 years old (the size of a volkswagon, no joke) it was a very ineffection boiler. I went with 95% effecient natural gas forced air heater. I love them, they cost quite abit more but are so effecient that the vent pipe is PVC plastic. The vented combustion waste air is about 90 F..... My Home is 2800 and the highest heat bill I have had is 210.00 for a month. We had a spell where it got into the 30's for a high and single digets at night for about 3 weeks (give or take) I relize that in some areas thats a joke (but in Ky that's freekin cold!!!)

[Rootsy]

Not uncommon for an old drafty farmhouse in this part of the world to suck down a 500 gallon tank of propane (400 gallons of fuel) every other month from Mid November through March. My drafty old farm house included.

Therefore I heat with wood nearly 100% in the winter. House has an indoor wood furnace as well as a propane forced air furnace. Sooner or later I am going to move to an outdoor boiler piping hot water to the propane furnace as well as to the shop. Have a wood burner in the shop also but it takes a bloody long time and a lot of babysitting to get it warm on a cold winter day in order to get fiberglass resin to kick properly. Just ask matty, cliff and todd...

[Carl C]

With two wood stoves that should be all you need. I also heat with wood. I gather logs before winter and cut and split it as needed. It gets me some exercise in the winter. I used to heat 100% with wood but now about 50/50 wood and natural gas. There is nothing like a wood stove to sit by when you get a chill or come in out of the cold.

[mike o]

Hi, baseboard heat is more of a even (constant) type of heat, thats what I have.... I have friends who have pulled the trigger on the outside wood boilers and love em. all the mess is outside but so's the stoking.. some digginn involed. free fuel is free fuel. does the hot water tooooo:wink:. Ive seen some giant ones in quebec snowmobilinnn around that heat several building.......:smash::smash::smash::smash: whole bunch of these guys and your golden:wink:

[hardcrab]

In my opinion, hot water baseboad is the most even tempered, comfortable system going.
My 1500 sq. ft. home has an oil fired Weil - Mc lain 4 core boiler. It's larger than what I need, but it's very efficient. It doesn't get much use in the dead of winter since I burn about 5 cords of wood in a season also.
I have an electric water heater (which eliminates that variable)
Last year I burned about 150 gals. in the house and 150 gals in the garage, which has an overhead forced air oil burner.

[Ed Donnelly]

Hardcrab; I knew thereb was something about you I liked...

YUP Its your choice of boilers....Ed

[DonziJon]

Chappy: I've got a 1400 square foot raized ranch in Rhode Island. Built in 1973. Still has the original "Tankless Hot Water" Oil fired furnace....baseboard "hydronic" heating. Works great. Would not trade it for anything else..including a NEW furnace. My oil supplier has been trying to sell me a new furnace for 20 years. Mine is a Cast Iron boiler. "Utica Boiler".

I also have the original WOOD framed (maintained) windows in the house. I believe, the new AIRTIGHT windows sold today are Hazardous To Your Health. Think about it...The house does not breathe with the new windows.. the house will retain all the "Polutants" that the .....environmentalists whine about. SO: You sufficate in your own polluted air. :bonk: It's like taking a bath in a tub full of your own poluted water... Vs. a refreshing shower. :nilly::nilly: John

PS: Sometimes I can't believe how much sense I make.

[ky-donzi]

I also have the original WOOD framed (maintained) windows in the house. I believe, the new AIRTIGHT windows sold today are Hazardous To Your Health. Think about it...The house does not breathe with the new windows.. the house will retain all the "Polutants" that the .....environmentalists whine about


D*** I'll live to be 130 then!!!

[mphatc]

Chappy,

Our 2600 sq ft home has oil fired baseboard hot water heat, and our hot water supply is off the boiler. No other source for hot water, and sole source for heat.
The home is in central NH, we get lots of snow and it gets cold . .

I am changing to a LP on demand hot water heater for all sinks, showers and dishwasher etc. as the summer usage of hot water requires that the boiler is on all the time, and during a ladies shower the boiler runs 3-4 times.

The boiler is also in the basement, which we don't heat, and I have found that by insulating the boiler and all hot water lines leaving the boiler, my heat loss is greatly reduced, which has proven to save a lot of fuel.

This will be my last home with oil heat, as oil prices are skyrocketing, and IMO oil heat is no antiquated . . there are much more efficient systems

My son lives in an old New England cape, with a new gas fired hot air system, this replaced an old system, last year their heating bill was 28% of the previous years . . all made up in the efficiency of the furnace. The old system was dusty, and dirty, the new system has none of this with the contemporary filtration.

NH is now enforcing a new law about outside boilers, for those of you considering these . . they now have to be located 200 ft from the residence and have a chimney stack a bit taller than the highest point of the roof . . doesn't work well with a 2 story plus colonial. These things also stink and create a huge amount of air pollution.

Mario L.

[RedDog]

geez - I guess it should be expected from a community that wastes so much energy on just a selfish boating hobby. Just what is the carbon foot-print of not only cutting LIVE trees but then ACTUALLY burning them just to maintain your comfort?

[BlownCrewCab]

Other than the chainsaw Cutting and burning trees doesn't put off any more pollutants than the tree rotting on the forest floor.

[Rootsy]

Trees are a renewable resource, within our lifetime. Oil and natural gas are not.

[hardcrab]

I get all the firewood I could use every season for free.
People that have tree work done are happy to have it hauled away.
Also, check Craigslist - free firewood constantly advertised.
You're damn right I burn it for comfort.

:nilly:

[txtaz]

I only know that I gagged when I got the oil bill for the new house (Maine). I insulated all the hot water lines hoping to increase efficiency. I installed thermosensors wired to the alarm system and it calls me when temp goes below 50.

Mrs. Taz wants to move up there and to me that is just nuts. Patti, Jamie someone tell her how cold it gets.

I will let you know in the spring how much it costs. I have a monthly contract to keep the tank full. Neighbors told me they would use 206 gallons of oil in three months. (3/4ths of a 275 tank)

Dr. Taz<---A/C bills in the south, oil bills in the north. Geeesshhh I can't win.

[chappy]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I learned a lot. I'll continue to split and burn wood, one because it's free, two because I enjoy it, and three because it will offset the cost of oil. But, the new oil system should be fun, especially since the seller of the new house was kind enough to leave me with two 275 gallon tanks in the basement, FULL!:yes::yes::yes: You've got to love a buyers market, sellers will do some crazy things to close the deal, just ask them.:biggrin.:

[DonziJon]

I just want to remind you people who may be Senior folks that might be considering moving to warmer climes in your retirement: The hardships of living in the Snowy North.....NH, Me, Vt. etc. may be overblown.....and may even be BOGUS. :hangum:

We have learned over the years since refridgeration was invented......Meat lasts much longer under COLD conditions than it does out in the hot sun.: smash: :smash: :nilly:

-----------------------
John ...of always a Moderate take on things evolving. :smash:

[Formula Jr]

Four moving parts: one high temp pump and three zone valves.
50 amp, 40,000 BTU.

1900 SqFt , cross linked poly piping, 2 and 1/12 inch gypcrete thermal mass, finished with cork tile.

Costs me about $3 a day to run in the winter when I have snow on the ground and its toasty 76 degrees inside.

You only cycle it once every other day to recharge the thermal mass. Takes about two hours.

And you can still open windows and stuff. An open window doesn't really matter too much with this system. All the heat is radiant. I have a 50 foot Diameter Geodesic Dome house with an open loft - total 2600 SqFt. Domes pretty much will just heat themselves any way if they are on a slab foundation. I'm at 1200 feet and above the winter fog line, so there is passive solar gain in the winter also. There are five Massive Skylights. All the glass is relfective 88, gas filled double pain.

There is an energy guide label on the Argo electric boiler that says %100 efficient.....

In the absence of electricity, which happens often in my area during the winters, I have an Avalon Olympic model wood stove that will heat the entire house.

Since I'm above the fog line, the really cold days are also the brightest, so the house sort of regulates itself due to the solar gain in the winter.

This is a heating system I designed. It was a bit of an experiement.

After six years, it seems to work perfectly.