That was my thoughts exactly and the best reason I knew to rip out all of those extras including A/C. Then add insulation where needed and make repairs. And boy did this place need it. The roof leaked like there was none, and when I pulled the old roof there was only the tin across the truss's. There had been blown in insulation, but it was all bunched up at the peak, seriously solid. I had to use a pitch fork to fluff it up and distribute it. So with no insulation to speak of, the condensation from the tin roof dripping over the truss's and into the house, plus actual openings in the tin for the rain to come through, that meant repairing 29 truss's distributing the blown in insulation and adding where it needed. Then adding the sheathing, synthetic underlayment, and new tin (with both ridge and soffit vents running the length of the house for airflow) brought those hefty bills down to a more manageable level. And yes, I did the roof myself, all 1554 square feet of it. (I didn't ask for help and none was offered) So it took me a couple of months to complete while fighting winds and rain in the fall. I managed to get it complete one day before the first snowfall of the season. (it's no wonder the previous owner had to have both propane and oil heat. They had a 300 gallon tank for propane and two 250 gallon fuel oil tanks an used as much per season) I also installed the wood stove myself. That included punching a hole through the brick and fireclay to move the opening to an appropriate height with a new fireclay thimble and changing the class B chimney liner over to a class A with a cleanout at the base and then insulated between the fireclay chimney liner and the rigid stainless steel liner. 14 inches of snow on the roof would melt off in a day with the original system with the outside temperature being in the 20's and 30's. Now that same amount of snow with the outside temperatures in the 40's and 50's still takes better than a week to melt off. So I'm guessing I must be doing something right. The average temperature inside the house is now 76 degrees where before I had to fight to keep it at 70 during the winter months. The house is also much cooler during the summer months so there is no need for A/C. I hope that explains the average of 1000kwh a month electrical usage. I had no knowledge on how to do any of this when I first started, but with the help of the Internet and YouTube, I have learned quite a bit.
I don't know her personally, but I have seen her on the forums. I've also kind of been following her posts in the DIY forum since I am an avid DIYer. I had considered contributing to the threads, but she is in good hands.
OWB has oil fired backup, but from 10/1 - 4/1 we are almost all wood. Shut furnace down and use electric for domestic in summer months.
My sister had that problem with her son when he was going to school, he liked to stand under the hot water in the mornings before getting ready for school, constantly late as well. So one morning she turned the valve on the hot line off; a blast of cold water broke that habit. You might want to try it yourself, not much they can do when they are in the shower naked LOL.
Yeah, not sure I'd tolerate that....but I'm gettin' old and crotchety. Didn't pay too much attention to it when mine were in their teens.
Getting to the valve is an adventure! She's 22 Dave, I've yelled, screamed, and threatened to shut the water off when she's home! Lucky she's in College and we see her on weekends.
I turned on my furnace to test it out. The upstairs Progress Hybrid keeps the furnace off and when it dips down into the 30degree mark or so I fire up the T6 in the basement. This is my second season in the house so I am still learning and figuring out what works best. The propane tank is sitting at 70_75% from last winter My electric bill is about $130-140 a month. Two boys and two sets of washer and dryers. I run fans to circulate heat and have a electric heater to keep my furnace water pipes from freezing, ironic, isn't it? Hopefully I will fix the furnace pipe thing this year. My water heater is electric and I also had to turn off the hot water during a long shower. The boys are catching on. The wife likes to take a bath and shave her legs and relax, then she takes a shower. She is exempt from my penny pinching antics.
I try to heat my home with 100% wood, although I have an oil gun in the same furnace as a back up. I am proud to say the oil has not kicked on since February of 2015. I have a domestic hot water coil going in soon, so I should be good with wood!!
That sounds like an awful lot of work but I bet it is well worth it. I am doing a build it myself house so I have had many of the learnings that you have had. I had my blown-in insulation done professionally but crawled up into the attic a few times during the work to make sure I was happy with the way it was being done. I can totally understand much higher than average electric bills. I live in a semi-well insulated house built in the late 70s with nat gas heat, dryer and water heater but I have a tropical fish hobby and know that the 100 to 200 watt heaters in each of 26 tanks is the reason for my high bills, not to mention the 80+ watt aquarium lights that cycle on several hours every day to keep my aquarium plants alive.
I have a big fire pit out back with one of those big black witches brew kettles. Just kidding. OWB has a loop in it that uses pressure from my domestic water supply bring it back to the hot water heater. Some people use a plate exchanger.
100% wood. Installed Central owb in 2006. Had enough of going outside and feeding when it was -20 and blowing. Plus the wife kinda "complained " when she needed to feed it occasionally. Installed an Attack dpx last year and we're not looking back. Was a little slow getting it finished up, still don't have storage installed but heat 2600 sf house and 1800 sf garage plus she on a cord per month. The Pensotti pos runs in the summer for hot water for the time being.
I have one of those kettles, but I use it for mixing large batches of stuff. One time I mixed up enough batter to make six 9 inch NewYork style cheesecakes for a pot luck dinner thing(made with real cream cheese and sour cream.) And it works well for basic mixing of meats for burger or sausage.
Have done 100% wood many years, 40 year old oil FHA furnace died in "08" and didn't replace it for two years. I usually get 150 gallons of oil that last about 4 years. We will turn on the furnace for ten minutes in the morning for shoulder season. Used a little more oil than usual this year with the warmth as the stove hasn't been running as much with temps in the 40's & 50's outside. Hot H2O is electric, cook stove is propane.
I have seen "hot water jackets" for wood stoves on Craig's List though I'm not sure how well they would work especially in my home. The hot water heater is clear on the other side of the house diagonally to the wood stove plus I have far to many cold starts even on the coldest of days for my area. I also think those might be stove specific. I'd be pretty sure they would work well in the colder climates though.
100 percent with wood here other than a few timess in spring and fall when the wood stove would really cook us out. Got a propane fired furnace for those times and if we need to be gone from the house for a weekend, etc. House is 2000 sq. ft. ranch and the Pacific Energy Super 27 does a fine job. Been heating with this set up for about 14 yrs.
