Heating unique homes

Each year as winter starts to come on, I start to wonder how we can heat our family room now converted to our bedroom. Our bedroom is an addition my dad put on in the late 70's early 80's. He added a one car garage with the 24'X14' room over the garage. This addition is not tied into and not able to be tied into the current forced hot air system in the main part of the house.


We are in the process of moving the wood stove from the now bedroom to our living room. This presents some issues in and of itself. By removing the wood stove from the now bedroom, we'll need to come up with a new solution to heat the 24'X14' bedroom. One thing I am planning on after the roof is redone is to insulate the ceiling. That should help with the heat loss. One recommendation we've been given is a mini split. Next week we have a friend in the heating business coming in to make recommendations.


The second problem is moving the wood stove into the living room. I don't know if our wood stove will heat us out of the living room or not. Another issue with the living room is venting. For the time being, I am going to tie into the single flu chimney to be able to operate the wood stove. Yes this is out of code. The advantage is that the furnace will not be running while we heat with the wood stove. My plan is to move the furnace and oil fired hot water heater into a double walled chimney next spring/summer.


Our house is cottage that was added onto three times in order for it be a full size home. None of the additions were planned properly to integrate the existing mechanical systems. Our family room which we've now converted to a bedroom over our one car garage has been a sizable challenge over the years to heat. My mom heated that room with a propane wall furnace costing her roughly $800 a year. When we bought the house, I had that furnace removed as I could heat that room with one or two cords of wood cheaper. Over the years, that has increased to 2.5 cords with the old soapstone wood stove. The newer stove eats about 4 cords of wood.

My hope is to build us a house in the next 10-15 years. By 10 years my two older kids will be done with college. The youngest one will entering college. We could build a much smaller home which is constructed more efficiently heat with fire wood.

 

Is the ceiling above the garage insulated?

 

Yes. I even took out a small section to verify it. I've even gone so far as to consider heating the garage knowing that the floor in the family room would be warmer.

 

I do like a cool bedroom, and we'd often sleep with our windows open in our old bedroom. However; temps in the winter will drop this room down to the mid 40's over night. 40's is a bit too cold for my liking. I am hoping that insulating the ceiling will prevent the room from dropping that far. If so, we'd be able to heat the room with the electric Pelonis heater. That is what we are using now.

 

The little Pelonis heater is something else. On cold days, we've been able to keep the room at 60. I fear that once winter sets in, it will struggle to keep up with the current heat loss in that room.

 

You could install electric baseboards. Probably the least initial expense for purchase, but more expensive to run.
Your HVAC guy should be able to come up with something for you.
I keep dreaming of building a house a little farther back (about where the garden is), and superinsulating.

 

The Mini-splits would be more expensive the electric baseboard, but more efficient and also provide cooling in the summer. Though my wife said he tries to use that as a last resort. I'm very interested to hear what he has to say. I've looked at just about every possible solution under the sun.

 

Mini splits work well until the temperature drops outside. My parents had one installed and I am impressed with it, but under a certain temperature, the oil must go on. They are a little spendy, but you get the A/C benefit out of it too.

If your mechanicals are not too far from this room, there are hot water tanks that have heat loop take offs that can run a hydronic baseboard with a circulator. They do both domestic and heating demands. I am sure there are some decent options out there for you.

 

Options yes. Plenty. I've even gone so far as thinking about putting in a boiler in our garage, and then running forced hot water baseboard to that room and some adjacent rooms on the opposite end of the house. However; I am trying to stay away from solutions averaging 7K+. Even the Mini-splits are rated to come in around 4500.

 

Does RI offer any programs that offer insulation/window/heating systems?

We have Massave up here that does a home assessment and offers good pricing on blown in insulation, windows or furance and boiler upgrades.

 

The floor! We had a cement floor covered by carpet in a sunroom addition and that was freezing! Not sure what your set up is.

 

Any way to run some ductwork through the garage and up, or hot water lines same?
I've seen some newer mini-splits that are 27 SEER, and supposedly work pretty well at lower temps, but I have no experience with that.
ETA: got a layout? Sketch?

 

Duct work is a no. The first floor's exterior walls are granite, and then add the poured cement for the garage wall, and there is no way for me to get duct work over there without some major construction. As for hot water, yes that can be done, and we looked at it about 10 years ago. They wanted 17K just put in the boiler and run three zones with a 6 zone setup. The two extra zones would be for the upstairs when we were ready. Just couldn't stomach that cost. I suspect the cost would be much higher today.

We replaced our forced hot air furnace two years ago, and could barely afford that. Thankfully my wife's friend gave us a really good deal. Yes I realize that would have been the ideal time for the change out. I just have no room for anymore debt. If I can't pay cash, then it's not happening.


I will try to do up a drawing later tonight. It might help everyone if they can visualize. I can also take pics to help.

 

Didn't you mention the granite walls in another thread?
Yeah, that's tough.
I hear ya' on the debt thing. We pay cash for everything, and if there isn't any, we don't buy.

 

yeah new mini splits are effective to 15 below you should not see that too often in Rhode island.. just a thought on the roof if decking is bad any way my foam guy recommends spraying to ceiling with inch air space at top. Running me about .70 cents board foot less if cash.. just an idea to really super insulate that room

my bid on 2 splits (20th and 35 k btu) in line was 2700 plus 800 in labor our electric company is now renting or leasing them. I also have non-traditional home 2200 square feet 5 different levels with half having short wall and 18 foot tall wall with vaulted ceilings. round peg in square hole when trying to upgrade...

 

Not sure how spendy it is but am considering putting in the fancy in floor heat into our arctic bathroom. Yes its electric, yes we need new floor in there and no I don't know how much heat it will give or if it can be switch activated but if just to use to take edge off for a small time of bitter cold in heating season it may be an option. Or.... the average person puts out 100 watts of heat per hour so....15 or so lingerie models in your bedroom = a 1500 watt heater and I bet that would keep things hot at night!

 

A new suggestion was made to us, a propane vented heater. My mom had one in there before. However; it might be worthwhile withe the new roof and the ceiling insulated. That should reduce the cost of propane significantly.

The mini-split is my first choice as it would be provide both heating and cooling. Though the expense after the roof replacement and insulating the ceiling could be a stretch financially.


Jason