Trying to heat a 2000 sq ft 1 story house. House built in 1954, has crawl space under floor. Right now, I have an original boiler that was oil fired. It was converted some time ago to burn nat. gas. The bill just came in for last month at $375 and we have some of the lowest nat. gas prices around.

I need to do something about this.... can't take it much longer.

I can get wood or corn.....

I have a fireplace in the middle of the house.

What is my best option?

convert boiler back to oil, replace boiler (are new ones that much more efficient?) install wood or corn insert into fireplace, install forced air nat gas or propane, install heat pump for when its warm enough and run current boiler setup for when its too cold for heat pump......

any thoughts/suggestions?

thanks.

 

i would look for a used insert. then if you don't have your own wood, you can scrounge around for hardwood pallets, scraps, small tree jobs etc. all summer to come up with enough to burn for the winter.

 

I would think heating oil would cost more to use!!
I would go with a electric boiler. But only if you can get off peak rates. My electric off peak is .033 KWH I got a new 25 KW boiler for about $1400.
But one more thing to consider about electric is if your service to your house is big enough.
I was going to go with corn but they are expensive and the corn is to.

 

I considered electric boiler but electric is really expensive and they only allow off peak rates for commercial and industrial..... so unfortunately that wont work well for me.

 

I used to have a wood furnace that was dual fueled backup with oil. I put in a geothermal unit and am spending less in the added electricity than I was for the backup oil, let alone all the mess,wear and tear, chainsaws, gas and oil etc. Took some getting used to as the air out the ducts is not HOT anymore, but the house is just as warm.

 

I cant say enough good abought my corn burner. I have a large 2 story house built in the late 20s early 30s and I heat my main flore(all we use) with one. I have the Lancaster buy St Croix http://www.eventempinc.com/stcroix/stoves/stoves.html and love it. If I had it to do over again i would get the Auburn or Greenfeild for the bigger hopper. They all put out the same heat but the other 2 have a 90 pound hopper vs my 30 pounder. This is my main heat source. Some ideut before us ripped out all the duct work in the house when they remodeled it and put in all electric base board heat. Our average heat bill was around $300/month before the corn burner. Now with the corn burner I spent around $200 to heat the house ALL last winter. I burn a little over a bushel a day and on average corn is around $1.50-$1.80/bushel. This year is a rarity where corn is now up to around $3.80ish. The last time i remember it getting this high was around 96 or so and then the next year it was barly over a buck. I bought a barge box wagon for $250 in November that holds a little over 100 bushel and filled it for around $2.80ish a bushel and still have enough left to get me threw several more weeks maybee a month yet. It is currently abought 5-10 below 0 and windy as all get out and it is around 74 in here rite now and the only heat I have on is the corn burner. The only draw back is that we have to use a fan to get the warm air down the hall to the bed room and bath room. When it gets this cold out the wife does turn on the bath room heat beacuse it is so far from the corn burner but thats abought it for the main flore. We do have the basement heat on becaus obviuosly the heat dont go down and the second flore only has heat on in 2 rooms and they are barely ever on. We leave the stairway dore shut all the time but enough heat radiats up there that we dont have to run the heat much at all up there. Our unit cost around $2100 with everything I needed to install it and tax. The others are abought $500 more. It is a bit of an initial expense but so is a new furnace that you are considering. If I had duct work in the house I would no dought go with a furnace repalcement style. They have a 14 bushel hopper so they will burn for almost 2 weeks on a single fill and obviousle heat the house more evenly and operate more like a conventional furnace on a thermostate. The one listed on the link I provided is new and I have not seen one of these before but it dont look like anything I would consider. Its numbers are a little week comparred to others I have researched. These are the ones i would most likely go with if I had ducts in the house. http://www.cornburningfurnace.com/furnaces.html They are an impresive unit and if memory serves me corectly they are around $3500, but unlike a normale furnace they will actualy pay for themselves as you use them. Think of it like this. You spent an average of $12.50 per day last month to heat your house. Even at the current $3.80/bushel you will be saving around $8.70 per day or $261 per month. The people I have talked to with the Corn furnace listed above claim it burns an average of 1 bushel a day just like my stove does so what ever the corn cost per bushel is abought what it costs to heat your house per day. Now take into acount that this is an abnormaly high year for corn and you will be saving even more money per month. Like I said corn is normaly around $1.50-$1.80 per bushel. At $2/bushel you would save around $315/month, More than enough to pay for the initial cost of the unit plus you can now crank up the heat and keep it as warm as you like with out having to worry abough the heat bill.

 

I'm in the HVAC biz, here's my two cents- How big is your crawl space? If you have the room, I would strongly suggest installing a Forced air set up with a high efficency nat. gas furnace. The newer 95% units are really good and you will be amazed how little gas they use. Also, insulate!! Attic, floor and walls if possible. This really helps. Dual pane windows of course help too, though to a lesser degree.

 

Right now, i have forced air in the attic. Do you think it would be ok to use this for forced air heat? The crawl space is rather tight in a lot of areas to be putting ducting in there.... someone tried at one point and its partially done but i dont think it would be very easy to finish.

The attic is well insulated, I have dual pane windows and the floor can be insulated.

-Trey

 

I will never heat with anything but wood. I love the hot heat. I currently have an outdoor boiler that heats the house and garage. I would look into either wood, pellet or corn. It depends if you have access to wood or want to cut it and mess, or you can buy pellets or corn with less mess. We used to have an indoor wood stove and I don't miss the mess in the house and carrying in. Now I can dump wood outside in front of the stove and only have to clean it up in the spring one time. I also have an unlimited supply of wood and love to cut wood so it works good for me. Can't beat the warmth.

 

Insullation? Windows?

Wood heat.

 

Alot of variables for your decision. You'll have to gather the information and weigh it for your situation.

I have a farm with 5 water gaps. I take my Cat down in the creek when it's dry and drag out all the fallen trees. This saves me replacing the watergaps when we get a good rain, and keeps the cattle in! So, I drag it up to a high spot where I can cut whenever I choose.

I often get enough wood there to heat me house all winter. And that's not choice wood. I do have some hedge (hard wood) to get me through these days of 15 deg. for a high.

I use a custom built insert for my lower fireplace. It sticks out over the hearth about 18" which provides radiant heat if the power is out, but has a blower to help circulate air. House is probably 2500 sq. ft. and have a 2 year old heat pump with resistance heat backup, and neither one has been on in the last 2 months. House will stay 75 all day and night easily. It's well insulated with thermo pane windows.

I'm just a spoiled wusss. I like to come in and get my backside as hot as needed to take the chill out.

If you don't have access to wood, go to something else. It will cost too much for the effort required, even if you have an outside unit.

 

My aunt and uncle have 220 Volt baseboard heaters in their house. One in each room. but their house is only about 1200 sq ft.

Where do you guys that are heating with wood get it?

The last couple years, I have been running off of a friends land that he cleared for his house. This wood is almost gone now and I dont want to pay $50/rick for wood.

 

i've got wood up the ying yang. It just seems to grow faster than we can cut it.

I can go around the edge of a field and drop 20 good sized trees like nothing and it's better for the field and keeps you warm.

 

I dont know anyone with much land. I live technically, in town so I have ONE tree.

 

If you don't have access to trees to cut, here's something that might help. Contact the local tree service. They probably won't have wood in the fall and winter, 'cause they have their guys splitting and selling during their slow times. But...in the summer they may have more wood then they have room to store.

I had a friend who managed one of the big name tree service companies in K.C. and he would call me and let me know jobs they had coming up to see if I wanted the wood in the summer. I'd actually take the day and go work with them. All I did was load my truck and trailer with stuff they cut. I had no limbs to drag off, nothing, just cut pieces. And they'd cut them any length I preferred. I'd haul 2 cords at a time, so it didn't take but a couple of trips to have a stockpile.

Check with your local city. They may have a place on the edge of town they pile wood logs from trees they have to remove. Often times they'll give it away.

If a thunderstorm comes thru your area and you see damaged trees, stop and ask. I've had people pay me to cut a tree out of their property that was damaged by a storm.

Be creative!

I've gone out on the 4th of July weekend, and 98 deg. heat, to cut up wood the county had cleaned out of a drainage area. It was free, no limbs, and dry. Just nobody else wants to mess with it.