What is your home primary heat source?
I have two natural gas furnaces and two ventless natural gas heaters in the basement, one in the storage area one in my gun room, I have free natural gas in my home. I also have a wood burning stove in the great room, several propane heaters if needed and even a few electric spot heaters as back up to the back ups. The whole house generator can be ran on natural gas or propane, I keep the 500 gallon propane tank full just in case.
How do you heat your home and are you prepared for extended power outages?
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Primary? High efficiency heat pump. But we also have a Woodchuck hot air furnace that is plumbed into the ductwork, Move a damper left to right, fire up the furnace, heat the house. We were burning about 3 cords of wood a year, have cut that WAY back- if you are buying firewood, heat pump is cheaper, However, we have been thru 8 days with no power (really bad ice storm) and our house was 73 degrees when the power came back.
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I am tied, with two ventless propane heaters, and a big wood stove. I use 'em half and half. Right now I am sitting in the big room and looking right at the wood stove and it is cranking.
None of my heaters uses electricity. I got the propane tank filled yesterday and I have a 2 year supply of firewood. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
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The sun.
When it is not sufficient, I augment it with a heat pump system that has back up electrical heating elements.
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We have two natural gas furnaces, one for each floor, and a gas fireplace downstairs. If all that fails, we have an AMEX card.
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Heat pump and gas logs in the fireplace
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Primarily wood, about six cords a year. We also have an oil furnace that we can/do use once in a while when it gets real cold.
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We have an open loop geothermal furnace - A/C, and a wood burning fireplace with about a 4 -5 year supply of cut/split Black and White Oak, Walnut, Ash, Maple, and Hickory. Out in the barn I have 2 radiant tube heaters in the shop area running off of a 500 gal. propane tank, and a motel type heater/AC in the office.
We also have several south facing windows to catch free solar heat.
Down in the basement I have a couple of electric quartz tube radiant heaters for those special times.
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have a ventless wall mount stove in basement, gas forced air for primary heat, usually light the ventless heater in basement and it will keep the basement 70+ which keeps the upstairs warm and furnace doesn't run much till weather gets around freezing....
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Wood with electric backup plus my hot wife.
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Fat thighs in corduroy pants😂
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I have a wood fired boiler in the basement and back it up with fuel oil. It takes about 12 to 14 face cords to heat the house.
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We also have an open loop geothermal. Uses water from the well and exhausts it into our pond. Basement fireplace with forced air ducting to the first floor. The fireplace will keep the house livable during power failures and has quite a few times because of our power companies dismal performance. Bob
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House Heat pump for air and Heat. Also propane gas fireplace in living room and one in basement. Use the propane very little. Was $285.00 a mo After adding metal roof , new windows, and new water heater down to $ 150.00 mo electric
Warehouse/ Shop 40'x 50', has propane two large overhead heaters. uses about 200 gal per year, Keeps the chill off. Office 12'x20' has a wall air conditioner/heater unit, works well. With exterior and interior lights, computer and small fridge $50.00 mo electric
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Do you guys with heat pumps see them efficient in cold weather? I had a heat pump before I got the free natural gas. Once the temps got below about 35 the 15KW electric heaters kicked on a lot. It made the meter spin like a 78 RPM record. My electric bill in the winter was more than for summer cooling.
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Wife
Heat pUmp
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Wood and Oil.
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I heat my ranch style house with a propane forced air furnace and a propane burning chimney vented gas log fireplace in the full basement. Living in the boondocks leaves little choice between propane and wood burning around here. There are natural gas lines within 1\2 mile of my place but the company in control will not invest in the few rural customers they could generate.
When we have power outages, the basement fireplace works without electric and will keep the place quite warm. Even in Michigan winters! I normally keep the basement thermostat set low at 55 degrees and the fireplace rarely runs at all. I do as much as I can to keep propane costs down but it is a major winter expense. Got locked in for this season with my supplier for 1.55 per gallon. About a dime cheaper than last year.
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bpost: 31547103250843/comments/31547165771547
Do you guys with heat pumps see them efficient in cold weather? I had a heat pump before I got the free natural gas. Once the temps got below about 35 the 15KW electric heaters kicked on a lot. It made the meter spin like a 78 RPM record. My electric bill in the winter was more than for summer cooling.
You need more insulation. Our heat pump will not kick the heat strips in to around 20 degree. We don't see very many 20 degree days in SC.
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H.E. Natural Gas Forced Air heat.
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I can't help you with the answer about a air to air heat pump. A geothermal unit is technically a heat pump as it removes heat from a fluid and transfers it to the air. The fluid whether in a closed system or open like we have is obviously much denser than air and the btu transfer is much greater. Even here in Michigan it is quite rare for the electric backup to come on. Where I live my only other choices are wood or propane and propane has fluctuated so much the last few years it is hard to tell you what my savings have been but a few years ago our utility bill was a lot less than comparable sized houses that had to pay electric and propane. Bob
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Pleased so far with the heat pump . In eastern N.C. we get few days that call for the backup heat strips to kick in . If those temps are predicted I just fire up the gas fireplace set on the slowest setting .
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Don McManus: 31547103250843/comments/31547130620699
The sun.
When it is not sufficient, I augment it with a heat pump system that has back up electrical heating elements.
Nuclear fusion is a great heat source.
ETA oops thanks Don.
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Fission / fusion. What difference at this point does it make?
Sadly the sun is the single largest contributor to global warming. Hopefully Uncle Joe can get a handle on it.
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love2shoot, Does she happen to have a single sister? 😘
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Do you guys with heat pumps see them efficient in cold weather?
Older heat pumps- no. As you said, they reach a point they cannot pull heat from cold air, and go to the strip heaters.
However, we got a new heat pump about 2 years ago, and we have been impressed. Our electric bill dropped by half. Air from the vents actually feels warm. Strip heat cuts in around 20 degrees. Trane. Arranged purchase/ install thru Lowes, and they did the 10% military discount. New unit uses a HEPA type filter that I change 2X a year.
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#1. Heat pump.
#2. Below 40 degrees - wood.
#3. Below 10 degrees - wood + propane force air backup.
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We have a forced air furnace that uses propane, and propane accessories.
When we moved in 15 yrs ago, we had our 500 gallon tank filled 5-6 times a winter. House built in 1887.
After all the remodeling projects, starting with blowing in 20" of insulation in the attic, where there was only 3". Then, room by room, tearing out plaster and lathe, foaming all walls and ceilings, and a new furnace 12 yrs ago, we're down to about 2 fills a year.
Edit: not done remodeling yet
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Gas furnace, pellet stove and if the power goes out a Big Buddy heater by Mr. Heater with a large propane tank attached. The Big Buddy can be used inside and will heat 450sq ft. But I’ve never had to use it in the house.
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The sun, which I keep fighting off with central air. I am in Florida, btw~
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LOL
let me start off with I do not like being cold as a kid had enough of it and later on and working construction in the winter was enough for me
so many years ago I decided no more being cold we have a propane furnace as the main source ( added in the second year we lived here along with AC . then a wood pellet stove about 10 years ago we run it about 50% of the time in the winter
we also two vent less heaters I put in 30 years ago one up and one down stairs as back up's so no electric needed but have fans if electric is on , when we moved in ( there was no heat just a old free standing heating stove barely kept one room warm )
add in about 10 electric heaters mostly Eden pure ( most I bought dirt cheap and repaired even gave away several ) and a few more off brand generic electric heaters
in my pole barn I have a couple electric heaters 220 vt , several kerosene / diesel forced air heaters , several propane forced air heaters even a few of the mr heater propane buddies that get loaned out more than I use them LOL
oh a few electric blankets 😁
if all else fails I have 4 dogs to keep me warm 😂
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