Efficient electrical heat for house??

[wyo george]

Baseboards are all cleaned and open without being blocked in. After talking to some neighbors I think I'll just put a wood stove in this summer. The house is about as well insulated as possible short of building a giant box to put the house inside of!

Thanks everyone for the input


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BadgerBoilerMN]

Be sure you bring combustion air into the wood stove area. Best of luck .

 

[backintheday]

I feel you pain. Not sure where you are in WY you are but I'm in the upper green river valley, it gets just as cold and windy here. My wood stove will not work when the wind blows from the north ( I think I need a taller chimney) so I run the electric heat for back up but that might be a total of 2 weeks a year. My shop will be heated by geothermal (2400 Sq ft). Getting a wood stove is the right choice just make sure your chimney it set up for your roof pitch. Enjoy spending a weekend in the woods dropping all the beetle kill. Another option is find a local logger who will drop off 5 years worth of logs then just block it as you need it each fall. I'm sure you'll figure out what works best for you

 

[theoldwizard1]

~ I've been looking at a pellet stove, the house even has a place where a wood heater used to be, ...

This means that if your pellet stove could keep up, and it can, that your best case savings are 200$ a month.

It sounds like your house has no duct work so any force air solution is out.

If one of your goals IS A/C, then I would go with a couple of mini-split units. Sure on the days when it is below zero, you will have to "augment" your heat, either with you current electric heat or a pellet stove. Check pricing at Lowes/Home Depot/Tractor Supply or even local hardware stores.

No question a pellet stove is your cheapest solution and I would install it first, before doing a mini-split install. It is also a great backup if/when you have a power outage. Forget coal. Too messy/dirty. Pellets are clean and good quality hardwood pellets leave very little ash.

That $200/month saving is not out of line. Buy good quality pellets, store them in a dry area, preferably off the ground. Yes, on really cold days you may have to feed the stove 2 - 4 times. Use the heat pump when the outside temp is above 0F.


Start shopping for a pellet stove NOW ! There is still a lot of winter left !!