The Heat is On...

[thetrailboss]

Just turned on the heat for the first time this fall/winter. Not too bad considering we're in VT. October 23rd. About average. Won't be on for too long today though. Snow is being reported in other parts of NNE, but here in the Upper Valley it has been all rain.

Cold rain though.

 

[bvibert]

We turned ours on Thurday night in anticippation of our first frost. We probably would have held out a bit longer, but we didn't want our daughter to get too cold at night.

 

[Npage148]

Mine is on and boy is this forced aid dry. I am wating to wake up with a nose bleed

 

[nancie2k]

had our first fire of the season last night

 

[Paul]

had our first fire of the season last night

Ditto. The wife and kid went tent camping Sat. night for the Girl Scouts. Needless to say, when they got home Sun. morning, they were wet, cold and beat. I had a fire going all day not only to warm them up, but to help dry out sleeping bags and stuff. We turned on the furnace last night for the first time as well.

 

[skijay]

I have a funky shaped circa 1980's wood stove in my living room. It has been used about 5 times if that. I also have one in the basement, that is an older Vt Casting and has been used once. That was to be used to keep the pipes from freezing in the event of a prolonged power outage. Never happened since the house was built.

I want to go with a gas stove in the lving room, but I can not get a connection. Go figure as the gas line runs under my property!

I ran into the problem with the gas pool heater that came with the pool package. I have no "safe place" for a cylinder. I either had a window issue or it was the C/A box outside.

If I can ever get a connection I am going with two on demand (tankless) water heaters. I do not care what the up front cost is, I just like the reliability and the efficiency of these types of units. Most of my oil use is with the furnace to heat the water. I think it is such a waste of oil to have this type of configuration.

 

[Marc]

Mine is on as well. The house I'm renting has forced hot air, and was plumbed very smart... there's a register under the bathroom counter that blows across the floor.... it's awesome!

I do wish I had a woodstove. My parents do and heat the whole house with it. VT castings as well. They only use oil for heat water and real early and late season cold snaps. They have an 8 acre wood lot behind the house, plenty to live off of. Burn about 4 - 5 cords a winter.


Anyone ever seen those outdoor wood furnaces? Four foot lengths, refill every couple days. Burns virtually anything that burns. Now that's something I'm definitely going to look into when I eventually (glup) become a homeowner.

 

[tree_skier]

Heat is still off. I do run my woodstove when home but try to keep the heat off untill thanksgiving, but the wife generally turns it on a week or two earlier.

 

[ctenidae]

We've had a fire just about every night for the past two weeks. Not that it's really cold enough, but a small fire is so romantic...

Plus, it helps keep the heat turned off. perception is everything.

 

[smitty77]

Anyone ever seen those outdoor wood furnaces? Four foot lengths, refill every couple days. Burns virtually anything that burns. Now that's something I'm definitely going to look into when I eventually (glup) become a homeowner.

A former co-worker has one of those and LOVES it. Purists would say it's not as efficient as a normal woodstove, but you don't have to store wood in the house (no dirt or bugs), you don't have to get the ashes out of the house (again, no mess), you don't have to spend your life cutting and splitting, and you don't have to worry about little ones running into a blazing hot stove. Plus, it plumbs right into your hotwater baseboard heat.
For those with forced hot air, they make a relatively cheap indoor wood stove that comes with an additional forced air output that can be plumbed directly into your ductwork. Another co-worker just bought one at Home Depot and put it in his basement. He loves it so far.

 

[Marc]

I was told second hand that the outdoor furnaces can be used with forced hot air as well, you just use a couple of heat exchangers to get the heat from the water to the air.

And in terms of efficiency, well, that's dependant on a huge number of factors.

You could certainly make the case that less cutting and spliting (even if done by hand) saves wasted energy, not to mention the actual wood saved in making fewer cuts. And because the heat from the furnace is distributed evenly in the house, there are fewer high gradients between the interior and exterior of the house and overall heat loss would be less than with a woodstove.


When you weigh how close the two really are, plus all the convenience factors you mentioned as well as the ability to heat water for water consumption, it really does make it an attractive idea. The one hold back for most woodstove users is probably just installation cost or space.