How do you heat your home ?

[BR7]

I just got done splitting the rest of my wood and it got me thinking how many of you use a wood burner or a furnace to heat your home. I have a propane tank where I live and I got tired of paying the hefty gas prices I was paying $300-$400 a month for gas in the winter months. Since I have had my wood burner I pay $300-$400 a year for gas.Now if I can get the money to buy a windmill to make my electricity then I will be all set .The only disadvantage living where I do is there is no DSL

[locoeng]

I have an electric heat pump (heat and A/C)...costs around $80 per month in the winter and around $200 per month in summer with A/C and pool running.

[volfann]

Heat pump here. Burned wood years ago...Too much work for an old man now and that good red oak was getting hard to find for free.

[ed klein]

Starting to build a new home, will be 3675 sq feet, ranch style, full basement and first floor only, on 3 acres of land, with 6 car garage.

Two electric heating and air condition units with heat pump. One large masonary fireplace with wood burning insert stove with blowers.

Only have electric, and telephone service, no propane, no natural gas, no sewers, house will be on the latest design septic tank system.

Will have low speed DSL at approximately 125-150 kb/sec.

Should be completed late next year. My last house before I am dead & gone.

[locoeng]

That is quite some house ed....sounds right up my alley. Of coarse I'd have to convert half of the garage into two halfs...one half for a wood working shop and the other for the game room, pool table etc.

[Kabuchan]

In Orlando, we didn't have to heat, we had to turn the AC on so we could use the fireplace for Xmas! But in the summer the electric bill was about $450p/mo. We had 3600 sq ft with 2 AC handlers and an electric pool heater.

Here in LA, we have a gas heater. And I am freezing my butt off in southern California!

[Chewy]

I used to get a rodale press(organic gardening) publication call New Shelter. One of the first issues had plans for a russian wood stove, showed it to a buddy of mine who had one built into a new house he was doing. Fill the firebox with long thin branches etc and burn for 1 hour wide open then close it down. An hour later you open the windows if you put too much wood in.
The only thing that comes out the chimney is cool moist white smoke, I climbed up on the roof.

[BR7]

Here in LA, we have a gas heater. And I am freezing my butt off in southern California!

Try living in Iowa
@Chewy
My Uncle has one of those and he loves it.He calls it a masonry stove.My grandfather also swore by using corn cobs for burning.He said that's all they used when they were younger because they couldn't afford oil or gas to heat their home and wood wasn't always available to them.He said you would be surprised the heat they can put out

[Gary D]

I live in Northern Ontario. We heat this old house with gas and electricity in the basement. In the winter, it is $250 / month for the electricity plus $200 / month for the gas. Our summers are generally cooler near Lake Superior. We do not need central air conditioning. Generally, a fan is sufficient in the summer time. We rarely get hot and muggy days (unlike FL). Maybe 5 to 10 days a year only.

But the winters are raw! Cool summers mean very cold winters!!

Here is the weather west of us tonight:

[toomanycats]

I have a bear on an oversized hamster wheel that drives a generator. I feed him unwanted solicitors.

[NightTran]

if my wife is not here I never have to turn on the AC, winter here is cool and not really cold so the electric bill is only 40/80 max but this is an apartment only. I know house will cost more

[dazuk1972]

I just got done splitting the rest of my wood and it got me thinking how many of you use a wood burner or a furnace to heat your home. I have a propane tank where I live and I got tired of paying the hefty gas prices I was paying $300-$400 a month for gas in the winter months. Since I have had my wood burner I pay $300-$400 a year for gas.Now if I can get the money to buy a windmill to make my electricity then I will be all set .The only disadvantage living where I do is there is no DSL

All I use is a gas heater. I live in a small studio flat with no central heating. My living-room and bedroom is one big room. I have my own private kitchen, bathroom and hallway in seperate rooms. The problem for me, the heat from my gas fire can't reach into my bedroom area because it's about 15 feet away from the gas fire. The heat doesn't travel that far even on full blast. I have a mobile gas heater but I haven't used it for years and I want to get it serviced encase of the danger from Carbon Monoxide poisoning. In England we have to have all gas appliances serviced one a year by law. If any Council tenants fail to have it/them serviced, the Council will take them to court and have a warrant for forced entry to have it/them serviced with a fine afterwards. This doesn't apply to hime owners for some reason. That law should apply to everyone. The reason why it's only for Council tenants is because they (as in me) are living in Council property and it's the Council's responsibility, the same as it being a landlord's responsibility for people renting property from a landlord. If this law did excist, the Council would be sued over any Cardon Monoxide poisonings. Landlords are not forced to have this servicing done the same as home owners.

Darren.

[Chewy]

gary,
insulate, study thermal mass and r factors.

an old codger I knew from up that way used to describe how they cleaned out the barns and piled the manure and straw 2-3 ft deep around the base of the house every fall then spread it on the fields every spring. Of course they didn't have gas or electricity when he was a kid. He moved to chicago when he got out of law school.

[Gary D]

gary,
insulate, study thermal mass and r factors.

an old codger I knew from up that way used to describe how they cleaned out the barns and piled the manure and straw 2-3 ft deep around the base of the house every fall then spread it on the fields every spring.

Last fall, I looked at the basement windows very carefully. The installer never foamed around the windows. I used 3 cans and the basement got signifigant warmer. This fall, I used 6 tubes of caulking around windows and door frames as the previous owner never did. I changed the weather stripping on 2 doors for a tighter fit.

But the furnace is mid-efficiency. The next one will be high efficiency. This house is an older 2 story 1915 era. The walls are still cold in the winter. I guess the next step will be to tear off the siding and put 2 inches of styrofoam, tape up the joints, following by a wrap and then put up new siding. It is a lot of work but the pay off will be huge.

My parents house was wood heated. The gas bill in winter was $25.00 / month for the hot water heater. This by far is the most cost effective way of heating a house when the wood is free and all it costs is time and transportation costs. Their small house would burn 8 to 15 cords of wood every winter. But in January, it would be 30 below outside and be 85 inside. The heat is different because it is steady source but great on those very cold days. I have friends that have outdoor wood furnaces that heat a boiler and then circulate the water into the house. They will only burn about 10 cords because the wood stove part is highly efficient. The downfall is the pumping of the water as this involves electricity. But the stove only needs to be stocked twice a day.

[Chewy]

gary,
A New Shelter article was about guys that built a wood furnace outside their
house and superinsulated it and the pipes(phlems) to the house, they fired it every day at most, maybe even every 2 days when it wasn't so cold. Again all you need is thermal mass and R factor. Try to insulate the foundation walls and go deep below the frostline. Most heat loss is in the attic and windows. Think R40 and thermal curtains. With a bill of 300-400$ a month the payback is quick. And let me tell you a secret, energy costs are only gonna go up, not down, so any cost benefit study will be conservative.