Need advice on secondary heating

[383 240z]

I am fed up with the fluctuating prices of HHO, I'm burning about 10 gal a day with this extreme cold we have been seeing here this winter. This has led me to decide I want/need to add a secondary heat source to my home, I figure now is the right time since we are having the entire ducting system re-done.

I'm torn between fuels, pellets, corn cobs, and cherry pits are readily available in my area. My main hang up is what furnace to buy? I have a way to load it right from my truck. So I won't be carrying 50-80 lb bags of fuel down to the basement. The wood pellets seem to be the most common type of furnace offered. Are most of those multi fuel?

I'm not interested in any of the outside wood burning units.

Anybody have these in their homes? Any insight to living with one?

My house is about 2700 sq ft on 2 levels. I'm guessing I should buy one rated for about 3000 sqft at least. Any brands I should look for, or stay away from. I know somebody posted a 2500 sq ft burner on a deep discount from Menards a few days ago. Keith

 

[mygarageone]

I would stick with a pellet stove , wood will always be available , I wonder about cherry pit ?
I have a Harmon unit and very satisfied . Lennox is a good one too.
Also some of the pellet stoves will burn corn .

Stay away from the box store units , they are **** compared to the Harmon or Lennox
Do the research , you get the reviews .

 

[Hpozzuoli]

My buddy just got a jotul pellet stove. Not sure on model but it is the insert type. It's beautiful looking and heats his entire one level home with the exception of a bedroom in the very back. Like mentioned above wood will always be around.


****edit...just realized what you are doing with it. Disregard the insert I was talking about. I still believe the pellets will be a better choice and more readily available.

 

[Jackfre]

I think if I was going pellet I would go with a boiler. That way you can do your hot water as well as run a hot water coil to your existing furnace plenum and run the fan on the furnace into the duct system. Ducting dual furnaces is problematic and takes up a lot of room. I would also have a Bulk storage container for the pellets.

Back when I had my manuf rep business in New England I had a lot of people in ME, NH and VT install mini-splits. I have a friend who did this in his old VT farmhouse overlooking Lake Champlain. He would run the mini-splits down to 20 and then turn on his oil radiant. Net/net dollar saving of about 70% on his heating bill. The combination is excellent.

 

[CiscoRob]

I have a pretty plain CAB50 from Heatilator. It holds 3 bags of pellets, has electric start, and is thermostatically controlled. I have it in my pole building; which is 24'x40' with about 21' roof peak. It is insulated w/R21, but I keep it between 50-60 degrees all the time; which costs me 1-2bags per day with it about 10F at night this winter. I just need some way to circulate the air at this point, but everything stays pretty toasty in there for working, drinking beer, or whatever...

http://www.heatilatorecochoice.com/products/details.asp?cat=pellet-stoves&f=CAB50

 

[theoldwizard1]

I'm torn between fuels, pellets, corn cobs, and cherry pits are readily available in my area. My main hang up is what furnace to buy? I have a way to load it right from my truck. So I won't be carrying 50-80 lb bags of fuel down to the basement. The wood pellets seem to be the most common type of furnace offered. Are most of those multi fuel?

The experts hang out at Hearth.com. You will get more and better answers there.

You want a "furnace" not a stove, right ?

This has led me to decide I want/need to add a secondary heat source to my home, I figure now is the right time since we are having the entire ducting system re-done.

Good, because that is what it is going to take !

You need to hire an HVAC/duct person who knows how to plumb to heat sources. Experience counts !

The most common fuel is wood pellets. You are still going to have to haul and dump them or pay someone. Forget buying the "retail" (HD, Menards, etc). You want to buy them wholesale (multiple pallets) or straight from the factory. Hardwood pellets are MUCH better (more heat, burn longer) than softwood.

Most furnace/stove have a separate storage hopper/auger/feeder system than has some flexibility in configuration.

Before you lay your money down, price out a traditional heat pump and possibly changing over to propane furnace as the secondary heat source. Propane is much cheaper for water heating, clothes drying and cooking.

Geothermal heat-pump is the cheapest to operate, but the installation costs are high !

 

[theoldwizard1]

Back when I had my manuf rep business in New England I had a lot of people in ME, NH and VT install mini-splits. I have a friend who did this in his old VT farmhouse overlooking Lake Champlain. He would run the mini-splits down to 20 and then turn on his oil radiant. Net/net dollar saving of about 70% on his heating bill. The combination is excellent.

Very encouraging !

I imagine it would take 2 - 4 units depending on the layout of the house. Of course A/C is "free" !

 

[mygarageone]

Before you go out and do anything based on some of the so called experts advice on this thread.
Do your research !
Fact: soft wood pellets burn hotter than hard wood pellets not the opposite !
Buying in bulk is great if you have a place to store a semi load of pellets and thers not that big , Break in price and the longer you store them , the more likely they can go bad. And when they show up with 20 tons of pellets , You get to unload them.
They won't
And pellets are not all the same , there is a difference in who makes them.
And why you would need more than 2 units at most is questionable ,
But like I said do the research and it will payoff.

Before I bought my unit , I did research for quite awhile and talked to people who own them and on and on. I have had mine for 2 yrs now and it was worth it.

 

[Autorotica]

Between Philly and Harrisburg here in a 20 year old 2400 square foot cape cod style home that sits on top of a hill getting blasted with wind...

Got tired of all the volatility of oil pricing so we took some control over it. We were given a 2nd oil tank, cut the legs shorter, welded plates on the bottom and casters to the plates. Don't have room for a 2nd tank next to the original, but can now wheel this one over to transfer fuel into it.

I paid $3.01 for HHO in June. This week I will have to transfer some fuel from the movable tank into my hard piped stationary tank. I haven't had to touch the 2nd tank in 2 previous years because the winters had been so mild. 2011-12 usage was 196 gallons, 2012-13 was 182 gallons. Thinking I am going to go thru about 300 gallons this season.

Here are some other things we do that you can do....

Lower your thermostat settings in the home and use small electric heaters to heat the rooms your in when you are in them instead of trying to heat the entire home. We use an oil filled programmable radiator looking electric heater in the master and the kids bedroom. At 5am, they come on and heat the rooms to 72 degrees until we leave and then shuts off, the rest of the house stays set back to 64 until we come home from work, then it ramps up to 68 until 10:30 or so.

Use heated mattress pads to keep YOU warm at night and allow more setback. Hopping into a warm bed on a cold night is a huge quality of life boost. I'd even call it decadent. Queen and King sizes have separate controls so the Mrs doesn't bake you outta bed. We don't sleep with ours on overnight.

Since I am a geek for this stuff I have a Kill-A-Watt meter providing me with some information. In the last 736 hours (30 days) the Presto "Heat Dish" radiant heater we turn on in the living room while we are in there has consumed 216KWH. We pay $0.135 per KWH so the monthly cost to run that heater was $28.08. That included an additional 30 or so hours of run time since the kid had off so many snow days recently.

I will move the Kill-A-Watt to our radiator bedroom heater tonight to provide the usage/consumption from that heater.


Chris