Are the newer style gasification boilers less troublesome?

Same, I have a geo system and gasser OWB. Geo will eat you alive in electric cost in the middle of winter. All other times of the year it’s cheap to run.

There’s something to be said of the simplicity of a high efficiency wood stove though vs a complicated HVAC system.

 

My buddy is an electrician and he put some in said it cost about 2-3 $ a day to heat in fall/spring. Has the same expensive electric as I do.

 

Well in that case Chris it sounds like you have it all figured out. Carry on…

 

That doesn’t seem horrible to me. That’s about what it costs me at .16kWh late fall and early spring.

A gallon of propane is the same cost per gallon these days. Doubt you could heat a decent size house all day on one gallon of propane.

A gallon of fuel oil is $4 - $5. Doubt you could heat a decent size house on 1/2 a gallon of fuel oil a day.

 

In the spring and fall? Sure I can...my furnace has a .80 gallon/ hr nozzle (pretty sure) and would likely only run 1-2 x per day for 15 minutes. Once we get beyond that it's time to toast some wood!

 

That’s still $2 a day at $5 gallon fuel oil if the furnace is 100% efficient.

With temperatures in the 50’s during the day and 40’s at night that’s what it roughly costs me. At those temperatures I’m not even thinking about burning, that’s me though.

 

I heated with all oil the begining of this winter, maybe 4-6 weeks...didn't noticably move the gauge on my twin 275 tanks. Haven't bought oil in 15 years either...still half full

 

I had too last week, still runs hot water and backup heat. I also have twin 275 tanks.. why my oil guy does 60 cents gallon cheaper it you take 300 plus gallons.

 

Only time I’d think the mini split would be useful is the fall and spring, I think the biggest issue with the propane at that time is if runs so little it’s always running a long time to get the water temp back. Then shuts off for another 4-7 hours. This time wouldn’t load my boiler very hard either. I don’t have it all figured by any means and the feedback I’m getting is definitely a help.

 

That's where a 500 gallon (or larger) storage tank would come in handy...fire the boiler up and let it rip until its burnt out to charge up the "heat battery"...if the tank is properly sized and insulated, you should not have to touch the boiler for another day or two, even 3 in warmer weather....and your house stays a steady temp, easy peasy.

 

So you’re saying it doesn’t take more energy to hear 60 degree water to 150 vs 120 to 150? I mean my boiler in the house has the pipe volume plus like 3 gallons and during the fall and spring it’s heating it from room temp to 140 or whatever it’s set at.

 

No that isn’t what he’s saying at all. Essentially the laws of thermodynamics state in simplified terms that it requires the same energy spent to raise the given temperature of water, for example, in one long burn as it does in two shorter but equivalent burns.

 

Ok I was just misunderstanding what he was saying

 

At one time when oil heat was my back up to wood the oil boiler was hooked up to storage and would come on automatic if storage dropped below a certain point ,the savings were in the range of 60% as opposed to the oil boiler in stand by . Every body said it would not work , but it was a fact!

 

This gas boiler is inside so it’s heat the water from basically room temp each time spring and fall but I guess it doesn’t have to get it super hot to raise the room temp a few degrees to stop again either.

 

Sounds like we are going down a rabbit hole, might as well keep on going. What happens if the thing being heated is insulated so well that it has very minimal heat loss ?