What's Your Backup or 'Real' Heat Source ?

Forced air electric wall heaters. I keep the thermostats at 60 and they rarely come on. When it's real cold I use one of those electric oil filled radiators in the bedroom, which is at the far end of the house from my insert.
I ended up working 16 hours yesterday, came home and slept for 8, then left for a few more hours. The heat was on, but it sure felt COLD inside after all that time with no fire.

 

We have an oil fired boiler that we still use for hot water and I turn the baseboard on a couple times a year just to keep it viable in case we need it. Also have a heat pump upstairs and that’s what we use for supplemental heat when it drops into the single digits and the stove can’t keep it above 65 upstairs. Plan over the next few years is to eliminate oil entirely and install a second heat pump downstairs and an electric water heater, then probably solar panels to lock in the cost. We took a 10-12 year break from wood with pellets but decided it was just as much work, more expensive, and still useless when the power goes out, so we went back to wood. When I get too old to CSS I’ll hire it out and still be ahead and a hell of a lot warmer than those with the thermostat set in the 60’s.

 

[QUOTE="Maina, post: 1082956, member: 5381. We took a 10-12 year break from wood with pellets but decided it was just as much work, more expensive, and still useless when the power goes out, so we went back to wood. When I get too old to CSS I’ll hire it out and still be ahead and a hell of a lot warmer than those with the thermostat set in the 60’s.[/QUOTE]

Each year past the 4 score and 10 plus we're buying more CSS wood. Now up to 4 cords...butt, I ask for high BTU green hardwoods ( beech, yellow birch, rock maple ), which he brings; trees that we don't have in the woodlot.
The shoreland woodlot is mostly spruce, fir, white pine, paper birch, red maple.
Worth every $ for the $250./cord.
He says I'm a PITA....he's correct.

 

We have wood and propane forced air furnaces in parallel and have not used the propane furnace in over 20 years. I did do maintenance on the propane furnace this year and know it runs. We find 69-71 deg is our comfort range. The wood furnace is located below our bedroom and even coals in the furnace makes our bedroom too warm for sleeping. We consume our coals every evening and relight the wood furnace every morning. The 1000 cfm forced air wood furnace does a good job of warming the house in the morning, especially burning "super dry" sugar maple (15% moisture). Nighttime lows below zero can cool the house as low as 55 deg but nighttime lows are typically 59-61 deg.

Firewood burning has increased several fold here in the last 10 years due to outdoor wood boilers. Previously, only a couple of us purchased downed wood firewood permits but now I encounter downed firewood cutters routinely. Indoor wood burning appliances have declined but outdoor wood boilers consume a lot more wood than stoves and furnaces.

 

LP furnace set at 62.It runs at night if I don’t fill the Drolet before I go to bed.
It never, never runs during the day cuz this old retired fart keeps the stove a blazing.
For 15 years wood was our only heat in our first home so if we went away friends or family would stop by two times a day and fill the smoke dragon in our basement.

I just hit the two cords burned threshold. I have one more dry cord left. 1700 sq feet ranch built 1997.

 

I have a NG furnace. I'll admit it has run a lot this winter. Between work, running two teenage girls all over and a little lazyness.

 

The house has a forced air electric furnace for heat; only fans for cooling. Mum had thought about wood heating and had planned for installing a chimney but it never happened while she was alive. Since installing the wood stove the furnace hasn't been on while I was here. If I am away from home for extended time in the winter I will set the thermostat on the furnace to around 5°C so that pipes won't freeze and my plants won't freeze if it gets cold. Even if the fire goes completely out at night the house is not that cold in the mornings. When I am working away from home, I will get the fire burning nice and hot and then set it back for a slow burn. The house has always been comfortable when I returned home in the evening. One thing that would improve for me would be to blow in more insulation in the attic space. The house has blown in insulation in the attic and it has settled considerably; one reason I would never install blown in insulation because you lose the air space that gives the insulation over time.

 

No central heat system. While redoing the kitchen and baths, I put in wall (under-counter for the kitchen) heaters in those rooms. I never run any of them, my wife will run them when in those rooms in the morning, before the woodstove is chooching. Otherwise, the switch for them is normally off.

The 30-NC does the heavy lifting, and is quite capable in that regard. It will keep the house in the 70s when the outside temp is in the negative teens. Maybe lower, I haven't had the "opportunity" to test that yet.

 

nat gas here. Can't burn above 32 or I have to open the back door and still too hot. Don't like running a cool wood stove either.
Gas bill isn't bad considering, heck they knick me for 32 a mth anyway just to have their service so I might as well use some of it.

 

Yes, I know what you mean there. When I go to visit I make sure to take a sweater to wear inside as other homes feel so cold with their heat turned lower than my toasty warm house from wood heat.

 

Nat gas forced air here. Yep, it's used in early fall and late spring....only before the OWB is lit! The OWB uses the blower motor of the furnace to distribute heat through the duct system (supply and return) as well as heating all the domestic hot water. The gas company has changed the gas meter at least 3 times (maybe 4) because every heating season, there is absolutely no gas usage!

 

No backup heat source. Well actually yes there is, the big old oak in the back yard, always tell folks if I run short or out of firewood in the middle of winter, it's going down! Otherwise, just the CB stove.

 

My ”primary” heat is forced air in most of the house, hot water baseboards in the rest, both natural gas. I use them exclusively in the shoulder seasons (above 35-40). I keep the thermostats set a couple degrees below where we like it so there is incentive to keep the fire going. When the stove is running it heats most of the house well except for two rooms.

 

Gas and hot air.

I provide the gas and Mrs buzz-saw provides the hot air.

 

We have a heat pump / electric furnace that we keep the thermostats for both zones at 70F. My wife likes it warm and is constantly "freezing" even at 72F. She wears plenty of clothes all the time. We keep the whole 2700 square foot house at 74F most of the time with the basement woodstove using the furnaces forced air blower to move the heat through the house. The heat pump still kicks on occasionally when it gets really cold out, but well over 90% of the heating is done with the wood stove. I'm usually running around the house barefoot with shorts and a T-shirt on. It's nice to come into the basement stove room after working outside and stand by the stove to warm up and dry out. It's usually 90+ down there. I'm not retired yet, but am fortunate enough to work a job where I can work from home most of the time so I can keep the stove where it needs to be.

We LOVE wood heat and like mentioned by others, when we go out, we dress accordingly. Only our neighbors next door do the wood heat in our circle of regulars that we visit for adult beverages and an evening of cards. Many of them keep their thermostats at 68... and they insist we take our shoes off... we bring our super slippers with us.

 

2 burner propane Ducane. That thing can keep you from freezing, but can't really make it warm... I think the furnace is probably 40-50 years old. The house was built in 1859, and when the furnace was installed didn't have a crappy addition on the back, which is where I put my burner. The people before me had actually removed a wood burner, and had a built in electric space heater in the back bedroom, where there is no furnace vent. I can't see how my place in it's current setup could have ever been comfortable without a wood burner.

 

No furnace. Electric heat set to 55. Stove runs from October to whenever. Usually 60 when I wake up. Reload stove and go to work. If the wife is home she keeps the stove going.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Oil boiler hot water baseboard and domestic hot water.. I don’t think my house could be run with any 1 stove.. thermostat set to 55. Only burn 75 gallons more oil 6 months of winter than summer

 

My heat is first wood.Second oil.Third back to wood when there's a power outage.