1st fire in the house this year

[faller]

If I never see another wood fireplace or wood stove it'll be too soon. We had wood heat for years when we lived in the Interior in the coast mountains at an elevation of 4,000 ft. So ya, cold and a shit ton of snow. One place we lived in stands out the most, it was a big old log house with a massive fireplace. This thing was huge! Built from rock but not rock like you see today this thing had boulders in it. The opening was about 5ft across and 4ft high and the only source of heat in the place and burned about 18/20 cord a winter. It had these huge steel doors that you closed after loading the fire place for the night.

Now you have to remember that I cut tree's all day long for a living and now after work I have to spend hours cutting more wood, 4ft rounds not an easy task. The novelty wore off fast. I'm all about a thermostat and gas now

 

[superbeast]

I just bought a second house, about 45min from you @animal-inside if you live where I think you do. It has a nice fireplace that I am looking forward to sitting in front of this winter. It also has gas furnace. . But my main house has just gas. I like wood but just for a treat. Too much extra work for wood that I dont have time for. And for gas, I find it cheap compared to what I used to pay for furnace oil back in NS ten years ago. We had some months over $600/mth just to keep warm!!

 

[animal-inside]

I just bought a second house, about 45min from you @animal-inside if you live where I think you do. It has a nice fireplace that I am looking forward to sitting in front of this winter. It also has gas furnace. . But my main house has just gas. I like wood but just for a treat. Too much extra work for wood that I dont have time for. And for gas, I find it cheap compared to what I used to pay for furnace oil back in NS ten years ago. We had some months over $600/mth just to keep warm!!

I'll send you a pm in a min..


ya furnace oil has gone to the way side for price...

don't kid yourself though, gas is going to sky rocket in the next 10-15 years... why? because we can't live without it and because gas is a privately owned resource.

 

[Cheapshot]

Gas is cheap.. its all the damn fees they charge. I use under 10 bucks of gas in the summer for my tankless water heater and my bill is still 75 bucks or more

 

[superbeast]

Yeah. The damn delivery fees. Bastards. Lol

 

[animal-inside]

Gas is cheap.. its all the damn fees they charge. I use under 10 bucks of gas in the summer for my tankless water heater and my bill is still 75 bucks or more

I agree right now its the fees.. I promise in the future it will cost a lot more for the gas though.

 

[Treneth]

Anyone looking to really stop paying gas bills should looking into an outdoor wood boiler.

Easy to install and you use your current forced air system to distribute the heat. It heats the entire house just like your furnace, but without using gas

You have any recommendations for a couple
Of brands of wood boiler to narrow some of the searching down for me?

 

[animal-inside]

You have any recommendations for a couple
Of brands of wood boiler to narrow some of the searching down for me?

I was doing a lot of research on outdoor boilers a year ago when I Was planning on building a new house, I stopped because we decided to wait a couple years to builder.

But I found there is basically two types of boilers. Ones that have a way of re burning the smoke to get more energy and ones that are just a tradition wood stove. There's pros and cons for both, but first look for your bylaws, you might have no choice and have to buy one that reburns smoke because they produce much less smoke and are more efficient. In BC you have to use these for example.

reburner
pro's
-uses less wood
-much less smoke

Cons
-much more expensive
-more maintence
-your wood must be perfectly seasoned (cut and split and dried)
-you have to feed it more often
-more parts to wear out


traditional
pros
-cheaper
-it will burn ANYTHING... you can cut green poplar and put it in the stove the same day and it will burn
-less parts to wear
-even on -40 days you feed it once in the AM and once before you go to bed... If you stuff it, on -20 or warmer days you can get by with filling it once a day
-no need to split wood.. You cut your log to 3-4 foot lengths.. DOesn't matter the diameter. Shove them in the stove as is... If you do it this way, its recommended you let them dry for 2-3 years depending on the type of wood..

Cons
-some areas they won't pass by laws
-more smoke
-use 30% more wood




Another thing to consider is having a storge tank.... So in your basement you'd have a 1000 gallon water holding tank. YOur furnace heats this water to super hot temps.. Then your furnace fire dies out, but your 1000gallon super hot water will stay hot long enough to heat your home for the day.. The water circulates through a heat exhanger in your duct work behind your fan, so the fan just blows the hot air through your duct work jiust like your gas furance would do. This system works great with the smoke reburner's..

As for brands, I recall there was some that got really bad reviews and others that didn't.. Thats all I recall though.. youd have to google the brands

 

[Treneth]

I was doing a lot of research on outdoor boilers a year ago when I Was planning on building a new house, I stopped because we decided to wait a couple years to builder.

But I found there is basically two types of boilers. Ones that have a way of re burning the smoke to get more energy and ones that are just a tradition wood stove. There's pros and cons for both, but first look for your bylaws, you might have no choice and have to buy one that reburns smoke because they produce much less smoke and are more efficient. In BC you have to use these for example.

reburner
pro's
-uses less wood
-much less smoke

Cons
-much more expensive
-more maintence
-your wood must be perfectly seasoned (cut and split and dried)
-you have to feed it more often
-more parts to wear out


traditional
pros
-cheaper
-it will burn ANYTHING... you can cut green poplar and put it in the stove the same day and it will burn
-less parts to wear
-even on -40 days you feed it once in the AM and once before you go to bed... If you stuff it, on -20 or warmer days you can get by with filling it once a day
-no need to split wood.. You cut your log to 3-4 foot lengths.. DOesn't matter the diameter. Shove them in the stove as is... If you do it this way, its recommended you let them dry for 2-3 years depending on the type of wood..

Cons
-some areas they won't pass by laws
-more smoke
-use 30% more wood




Another thing to consider is having a storge tank.... So in your basement you'd have a 1000 gallon water holding tank. YOur furnace heats this water to super hot temps.. Then your furnace fire dies out, but your 1000gallon super hot water will stay hot long enough to heat your home for the day.. The water circulates through a heat exhanger in your duct work behind your fan, so the fan just blows the hot air through your duct work jiust like your gas furance would do. This system works great with the smoke reburner's..

As for brands, I recall there was some that got really bad reviews and others that didn't.. Thats all I recall though.. youd have to google the brands

I'm going to assume using a wood boiler and a water heat exchange is still much cheaper then geo thermal heating? Otherwise why not just go geo thermal? When I looked into geo thermal years ago after crunching some numbers and with the hike in my power bill to run the electric heat exchanger I'd be dead before I seen a return, power is very costly where I live and fricking solar power is still pretty pricey imo.

Also I'd prob still want to stay connected to gas and be able to switch between the two if needed, I would imagine that is an option?

 

[animal-inside]

I'm going to assume using a wood boiler and a water heat exchange is still much cheaper then geo thermal heating? Otherwise why not just go geo thermal? When I looked into geo thermal years ago after crunching some numbers and with the hike in my power bill to run the electric heat exchanger I'd be dead before I seen a return, power is very costly where I live and fricking solar power is still pretty pricey imo.

Also I'd prob still want to stay connected to gas and be able to switch between the two if needed, I would imagine that is an option?

I heard the same thing you figured out.. You'll never see any return or $ advantage once its all said and done.

That's for a family home.


I heard if you run a big buisness, farm etc that it makes sense to run geothermal. There is a buisness around here that has geo thermal heating and I'm told its cheaper for them. They have it heating their store, shop and even melts their parking lot and side walks.

 

[animal-inside]

I'm going to look into solar power once I build.

There used to be huge government subsidies to install solar pannels, but I was told they are gone or ignficantly less.

When I was looking into solar, the part that scared me was the battery.. You charge your litium battery off your solar pannels and the house runs off the battery so you have power all day every day unless its dark and stormy for a couple days then your gen set picks up the slack and charges the battery.

Anywyas the battery was $20,000 approx.. And its scary because I've never had any litum battery last more than 3 or 4 years before it just wouldn;t hold a charge anymore.

 

[Treneth]

I'm going to look into solar power once I build.

There used to be huge government subsidies to install solar pannels, but I was told they are gone or ignficantly less.

When I was looking into solar, the part that scared me was the battery.. You charge your litium battery off your solar pannels and the house runs off the battery so you have power all day every day unless its dark and stormy for a couple days then your gen set picks up the slack and charges the battery.

Anywyas the battery was $20,000 approx.. And its scary because I've never had any litum battery last more than 3 or 4 years before it just wouldn;t hold a charge anymore.

Yes I personally would still stay tied in to the grid and avoid the batteries but that's because I already built and paid for power, when I built tho to service my acerage it was 17,000 roughly the same as batteries so if I was to do it all again I might just stay totally off the grid but your right relying off batteries is scary to have to replace would need some serious warranty on them

 

[animal-inside]

Yes I personally would still stay tied in to the grid and avoid the batteries but that's because I already built and paid for power, when I built tho to service my acerage it was 17,000 roughly the same as batteries so if I was to do it all again I might just stay totally off the grid but your right relying off batteries is scary to have to replace would need some serious warranty on them

I read the batteries used in solar systems are good for 15-20 years.... But that's the sellers statements. My iphone battieres have always shit the bed after a year even though I use them properly. Yes after a year they still hold a charge, but you go from full charge lasting 2 days to a full charge lasting 12 hours in a year.