Starting NOW the pellet stove is my only source of heat...

Great time for the NG furnace to die. The ignitor is out… again. Last one died on Thanksgiving 2013 when I had a houseful of people and no pellets in stock.

I'll get a new one and install it and clean the flame sensor. It's a Trane XL80 installed in '90 IIRC. This makes five or six ignitors… but at least it won't cost me $175.oo this time. Luckily I have enough pellets for about 10 days or so...

 

My furnace died almost 3 years ago, so my P-61 is pretty much my only source of heat. I hold my breath every time it get's real cold out, which this year is everyday. I'm a couple years away from getting a new one. Thinking about putting a woodeater in the basement JIC.

 

Just after I made the post the NG fired up again…

 

We'll see how long it will run. Right now it's a plesant 76F with the stove idling on #2… 11F IIRC.

We'll be gone all day Tuesday as the bride has some tests being done in Madison. Then my son gets married Saturday so we'll be out of town again Saturday and 1/2 of Sunday. Don't know how the weather will be… my tenant upstairs will have to keep an eye open for icicles in my living room.

 

my P61 (note the lack of the -A designation), will be 16 years old this year, and has heated my home for those 16 years. I still have oil-fired hot water, but have turned all my wall tstats down to 50....haven't needed them. I am seriously considering putting one of those on-demand electric hot water units in......no reservoir to keep hot. I know, I know, its electric, but NG isn't available here, and I don't wanna go the propain route......just something I am mulling over.....

 

Bummer when the heating system shuts down.
So happy with my p68. Cleaning, almost little to none compared to my old stove. The exhaust pipe just doesn't get much in it. The rest of it is so simple to clean. I would love to burn regular wood, but physically, it isn't realistic at this time. The whole concept of wood burning is much more realistic when you are able to harvest your own wood. I like having a stove. I like sitting near the stove. I also enjoy keeping the fire. Sitting in a warm room is OK, but sitting by the fire is a whole other experience.

 

Well, so far, the furnace is back working. It's -6F right now… the pellet burner just ran out of pellets before I woke up.. the stove was still warm. I refilled it, restarted it and I'm off to bed. During these cold spells I leave the NG burner @72F so the joint will stay warm if the stove can't keep up on setting #2.

 

Lousyweather and wildwest - I put in one of the GE Geospring heat pump water heaters last summer and I'm very happy with it. I was spending $60 on propane each month for the old propane heater, and now I don't even notice any bump in my electric bill. It helps that the Geospring is in the same room as my corn furnace, but it also helps the dehumidifier run less. As always, YMMV.

 

I'm going to be doing something similar but I need it for my baseboard heat as well. No NG here either. A buddy swears by the propane fired one. What are your objections to it?

 

Well this morning we had a frozen water trap in the shower… usually if I keep the NG deal set to 72F or so it will come on a couple times per hour and generate enough heat to keep things in the basement flowing. But the bathroom is over a crawl space. I aimed an electric heater at the trap and three hours later it thawed.

Regarding the tankless heaters… we installed one about 5 years ago. I'm not impressed. It takes too long to get hot water up to the faucets… seemed a lot quicker when we had water stored in a tank. Plus our gas bill certainly didn't get any smaller. If anything it went up after the install. And our city water bill has gone up because we have to run the water a longer time to wait for hot water.

And it wasn't cheap… had a union plumber install it and he took his good time doing it. We used him when he was an independent and had zero complaints. Now that he works for another guy by the hour he's slow as molasses. Billed us for 12 hours labor IIRC.

If I were to do it again I'd put two point of use heaters in each bathroom to warm the water until the tankless can make it warm.

 

Ive no fundamental issues with the propain powered heater, more issues with the games the propain companies play with service charges for no service, charges for NOT using enough propain, etc. Right now its just myself and two kids at home, soon to be one kid at home, and we just don't use enough hot water to justify keeping a 35 gallon tank hot 24/7.....ergo, the ease of installation of the on0demand electric system.....Ive no gas now, so, its also just easier

 

Ive NO gas-fired....my current unit uses fuel oil as a fuel source

 

I have an oil fired hot water heater that only sips oil. My fill indicator on my oil tanks only goes down the thickness of the red indicator during the summer. I use very little oil for hot water. I've had electric and propane hot water heater. This oil fired hot water heater is by far much more expensive to buy, but the cheapest to run.

 

This is the whirlpool Eco smart hot water tank. I'll let you know soon how Eco it is when the bills come. I can tell you though, at 120 degrees it feels way hotter than old one. Might have to turn it lower lol

 

Oh yes, no water before Blizzard is fun fun fun!
Yes I have seen them before. What I didn't like is you need a certain incoming water temp. Also I didn't think I would recoup that money back in the long run. I like the tankless look and idea. Not the price lol