And the Mrs She has had enough of just the woodstove So i am getting ahold of my buddy down the road to install a high efficiency propane furnace for back-up Anybody have one and do you like it? Thanks loon
I have heard stories that they tend to blow air at lower temperatures and take some getting used to. Maybe that has changed?
Yes and I recommend that the t-stat be close to the wood stove ......... > ....... PITA Bear is running to his bunker .... Loon ya can't let'em win it'll be the ruination of you.
It's always nice to have a back-up for heat, we have the oil furnace, pellet stove & the propane fireplace. It's not even worth a fight, good for Mrs. Loon. Then when you want that new saw, you can always point to her purchase! Sav is my teacher.
We're finishing up the install of a 95% eff. propane furnace @ my sis-in-law's place in the next few days. Won't have any real world for you until then.
It's sad to say, but not all home heating problems can be solved with a wood stove. That's why some people have two wood stoves. Seriously though, there are lots of good reasons to have some sort of back-up heating in your house, one of the top being for when you are away from the house for extended periods of time and need to keep the pipes from freezing. Our back-up heating system cost us 4 times what the wood stove cost to install , I'm sure your high efficiency propane furnace won't cost that much. Of course we also have the option to use our back-up system for cooling in the hot summer months, so that's a bonus.
question, if you are using it for backup, you will be a low volume user. Your cost may be more than twice what it would be for a high volume user. Given that, how is propane any less expensive than electric heat? Electric heat is one heck of a lot less expensive to install and you can target the areas you want to heat. Every space is it's own zone. The install is a very easy. The heat is comfortable. No delivery trucks, and no user fees because you didn't use enough propane.
When you are sick, or hurt, or away, or ........ whatever, it pays to have a backup to any wood heating appliance. Electric is the most efficient and the most expensive when operating. Least expensive to install though. Savemoney has a valid point for sure. I installed electric baseboard in the camp to back up a pellet stove to keep the camp at 40 or above. They have kicked on once this winter on their own and several times by our choice when we were going to spend time there and wanted it heated up a little quicker. If you go with propane or electric, you will be glad you have a back up. Some type of generator is always good to have in case a bad storm takes the power out for an extended period of time. Your wood stove will always keep you from getting too cold as long as you have dry wood, but it can't give you the convenience of some electricity to run some of those handy creature comforts! In our case we live in the country and want to run the well pump for water. Water is a handy thing to have! LOFL
Yes I have one ( Natural Gas ) very expensive depending on your location in the country. No we hate it....
When I replaced my natural gas boiler a few years ago the cost difference between the super efficient unit and a standard (but still respectable) efficiency unit could not be justified. I use so little gas that the gain in efficiency could never come close to covering the cost of the most efficient unit based on my bas bill. I do think that you do need some sort of 'on grid' heat. You can't always be there every day to stuff your stove. Vacations happen, accidents happen, reality is we all have to go on unforeseen trips now and then. It will also add to your houses value come the day you sell. Not everybody leads a wood burning lifestyle.
In some instances yes, but in our situation here, it would be more ideal in the cooler part of the house.
We have been without a backup since early 1979. In all these years, only 2 times have we been a bit inconvenienced. It could have been worse for sure. One time I did wish we had something was many moons ago I laid in a hospital for almost 2 months and that came close to being my death bed (but I fooled them). This made it a bit hard on my wife although she will tell you it was no problem. Still, January and February are times when you have to have heat! She was spending way too much time at the hospital but to this day she says not a problem. I know there were not frozen water lines but I'm guessing there were a few times when the house got a bit chilly. I also know that she spent 2 nights at the hospital and came home only long enough to put wood in and back to the hosptital. The other time was when we decided to take a short vacation and the weather was not bad...until that last day. Fortunately we kept track of the weather and when we saw Wisconsin forecast to have -30 or lower we knew the next day it would hit home. It did. We got home and the house was around 50 degrees but the water was frozen. It must have just happened because I took a hair dryer to the well pit and had water within 2 minutes. Got the stove going and soon we were warm again. It cost us only one day of the planned vacation These to instances were some inconvenience but were certainly not deal breakers. So in well over 30 years I think we've done okay. Still, there are times that I wonder and have thought of putting in a pellet stove just in case. We'll think on it a bit more though and do not consider it a high priority. After all, it could turn out that we spend a lot of dollars and never need it so it would be wasted dollars; sort of like insurance. It is wasted money if you never need it but I'd hate to be without it for most things. But I can understand why someone else would be uncomfortable with it.
Loon have you considered adding a pellet stove? This could be a viable option for you as you can load that puppy up and run it on a t-stat to keep up for extended cold periods to assist your wood heater.. Dexter I believe does this.. Of course you will need power but then again you will for any other "conventional" heat source.. Ray
Good plan. Can head for Florida for a few weeks & let the propane keep things thawed while you work on your tan
No, no, no, in this case you want to be able to say "See dear, we didn't use any gas, so we don't need the furnace. "
Dennis. It is only my opinion. But, I think it is a good time for you to put some type of back up heat in.
