I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but chose The Boiler Room because circulated hot water and/or radiant heat is my preference. I've been a long-time lurker, short-time member, and now first-time poster here at Hearth.com. Good community to say the least. Looking for some advice and input from the members.
I am in the very fortunate (or unfortunate...depending on how you look at it) position of designing and building my own home. The structural design is complete, we're waiting for the permitting process to complete. 2139 sq ft single-story rancher with a full basement and additional 300 sq ft of conditioned attic space. As you can imagine, the design of the HVAC system as been my biggest hurdle. There are far too many options out there for my brain to fully comprehend. I have access to an unending supply of good hard wood (oak, hickory, ash, locust, ect.). I plan on heating with wood in some fashion. In fact, I've already got 11 cord cut, split, and stacked just from the lumber we cleared for the building site. And there is no end in sight to amount of fallen and standing dead wood on my property.
We were originally going to place an old Baker Double Eagle woodstove smack in the middle of the main living space and use a variable speed air handler to circulate the air for even heat distribution. But as the house design progressed we decided that we wanted that real estate for other things. So we then decided on a Yukon Eagle; connecting it to the ductwork that we're going to have to install anyway for central air. We were so much sold on this method that we designed a walk-in basement access (as opposed to Bilco doors) in order to make bringing wood into the basement that much easier. Honeslty though, neither my wife or I are particularily fond of hot forced air heat and would really like to avoid it if at all possible. But of course cost will be the biggest detrmining factor, and the Yukon married with a heat pump appears to be the cheapest option that I could come up with.
I have been reading a lot about different wood boilers, specifically wood gassification systems. I'm sort of at an impasse right now. I'd like to find the most efficient use of my available hard wood. I like being in the woods, cutting, splitting, etc. I am in good physical shape and expect to be able to continue using wood for at least the next 25 years. I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Looking for a way to use wood for heating and domestic hot water while avoiding a hot-forced air solution. I'm sure I missed something and will monitor this thread for any questions.
Many thanks in advance.
I am in the very fortunate (or unfortunate...depending on how you look at it) position of designing and building my own home. The structural design is complete, we're waiting for the permitting process to complete. 2139 sq ft single-story rancher with a full basement and additional 300 sq ft of conditioned attic space. As you can imagine, the design of the HVAC system as been my biggest hurdle. There are far too many options out there for my brain to fully comprehend. I have access to an unending supply of good hard wood (oak, hickory, ash, locust, ect.). I plan on heating with wood in some fashion. In fact, I've already got 11 cord cut, split, and stacked just from the lumber we cleared for the building site. And there is no end in sight to amount of fallen and standing dead wood on my property.
We were originally going to place an old Baker Double Eagle woodstove smack in the middle of the main living space and use a variable speed air handler to circulate the air for even heat distribution. But as the house design progressed we decided that we wanted that real estate for other things. So we then decided on a Yukon Eagle; connecting it to the ductwork that we're going to have to install anyway for central air. We were so much sold on this method that we designed a walk-in basement access (as opposed to Bilco doors) in order to make bringing wood into the basement that much easier. Honeslty though, neither my wife or I are particularily fond of hot forced air heat and would really like to avoid it if at all possible. But of course cost will be the biggest detrmining factor, and the Yukon married with a heat pump appears to be the cheapest option that I could come up with.
I have been reading a lot about different wood boilers, specifically wood gassification systems. I'm sort of at an impasse right now. I'd like to find the most efficient use of my available hard wood. I like being in the woods, cutting, splitting, etc. I am in good physical shape and expect to be able to continue using wood for at least the next 25 years. I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Looking for a way to use wood for heating and domestic hot water while avoiding a hot-forced air solution. I'm sure I missed something and will monitor this thread for any questions.
Many thanks in advance.
