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

Newbie here. Been in our current house for 17 months. Fist winter (moved in after Thanksgiving) heated only by propane. This past winter used the Regency F3100 that was already in the house. Heated the whole place like a champ. Kept the thermostat at 60 because we have 2 under 4 years old and didn't want it to get too cold at night. We went through less propane this entire winter (still used for HW and cooking) than we did in probably a week or 2 last year. Was very impressed.

Rookie learning so I ran out of wood at the end of Feb and we have used some extra propane since but still well under what last year was. Already working to get what I hope will be 2-3 years ahead so that won't happen again. Live and learn.

Also, just curious if anyone has any experience with those stoves, specifically the blower. Never used it because it rattles like crazy. I think I'll just look into replacing it, just need to do a little research.

 

Welcome EMPASam !
When those blowers start to rattle it is often because they are out of balance because they need cleaned...those blower wheels plug up with junk pretty quick!
Common problem...

 

Thank you. I will pull it apart and take a look at the fan before I go spend any money.

 

I take mine outside and blow it out with the air compressor hose...makes quite a cloud!

 

Maybe it's just me, but...
...that evaporator fire looks to be built on a wooden pallet. I've learned from experience that pallets burn, so I must be missing something. Can you offer any construction details from up there on PEI?

 

So I didn’t want to burn a patch on the lawn. So what I did was to lay the pallet down first. Then I put two 1x6 on the pallet about 2’ apart. On top of this I placed a 2’x2’ concrete paver pad. Then I placed the cinder blocks around this. This way there was a couple air gaps between the wood and concrete paver. Cleaned it up today as the sap run is over and you would never know it had been there. It does look kind of funny in the pic though!