Does anybody use space heaters to compliment the wood stove?

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I have a heat pump but it is very poor in temperatures below 20 degrees.
 
Depends on the specs, but from what I'm reading newer highly efficient mini-splits like the hyper heat and variants will go to abt 5F at rated output. In any case I see it as a possible replacement for firewood in the shoulder seasons so above 20F wouldn't rule it out.
 
Depends on the specs, but from what I'm reading newer highly efficient mini-splits like the hyper heat and variants will go to abt 5F at rated output. In any case I see it as a possible replacement for firewood in the shoulder seasons so above 20F wouldn't rule it out.


My unit is a cheapie attic install job. I bought the house this way. They removed the oil boiler and installed the air handler in the attic with a heat pump outside. I'm sure a real install in a new house would kick this things butt all over the place.
 
My unit is a cheapie attic install job. I bought the house this way. They removed the oil boiler and installed the air handler in the attic with a heat pump outside. I'm sure a real install in a new house would kick this things butt all over the place.

I'm glad I saw this thread. My PE Summit will do a fine job of heating our house, but with the "POLAR VORTEX" it is struggling a little. I can keep the house at 68 burning it hard, but at times that's a little chilly for momma. I have a kerosene heater that I've been using that works very well to supplement, but I hate it. It's a pain to use and to keep filled with stinky kerosene. My question would be how do I figure out how much propane my furnace burns per hour? I can achieve the same results running it for an hour or so at night, but is it costing more than using the kerosene heater? Can anyone help with the calculations? Thanks
 
You can get a rough idea which is costing you more for the same heat output by comparing the cost/btu x the efficiency. There are some sites that have the calculators built in where you just plug in your particular cost for the fuel. But you need to also know the efficiency of your particular furnace. Propane is about 91,600 btu/gal. Kerosene is 134,000 btu/gal. Your kerosene heater is likely not vented so is roughly 100% efficient.

E.g. if Kero is $4/gal it's about $.029 for 10k btu ($4 /134). And if your propane cost is $3/gal and furnace is 90% efficient it's costing about $.036 for 10k btu ($3 / 91.6 x .90). So propane would be costing you about 25% more for fuel with those prices and furnace efficiency.

Edit: should be cost per 1k btu not 10k btu
 
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You can get a rough idea which is costing you more for the same heat output by comparing the cost/btu x the efficiency. There are some sites that have the calculators built in where you just plug in your particular cost for the fuel. But you need to also know the efficiency of your particular furnace. Propane is about 91,600 btu/gal. Kerosene is 134,000 btu/gal. Your kerosene heater is likely not vented so is roughly 100% efficient.

E.g. if Kero is $4/gal it's about $.029 for 10k btu ($4 /134). And if your propane cost is $3/gal and furnace is 90% efficient it's costing about $.036 for 10k btu ($3 / 91.6 x .90). So propane would be costing you about 25% more for fuel with those prices and furnace efficiency.
You can get a rough idea which is costing you more for the same heat output by comparing the cost/btu x the efficiency. There are some sites that have the calculators built in where you just plug in your particular cost for the fuel. But you need to also know the efficiency of your particular furnace. Propane is about 91,600 btu/gal. Kerosene is 134,000 btu/gal. Your kerosene heater is likely not vented so is roughly 100% efficient.

E.g. if Kero is $4/gal it's about $.029 for 10k btu ($4 /134). And if your propane cost is $3/gal and furnace is 90% efficient it's costing about $.036 for 10k btu ($3 / 91.6 x .90). So propane would be costing you about 25% more for fuel with those prices and furnace efficiency.

Thanks Dave, plugging in my numbers made it an easy choice for me. Propane $1.79 / 91.6 x .95 = .019, Kerosene $4.29 / 134 = .032. A no brainer for Propane coupled with no smell, no having to run to get Propane, no heater maintenance.
 
+1 on oil filled units. When I'm at the place by myself, they're not used (I crash on the couch in the stove room). When the family is out, I run 1 in each back bedroom. It's a pretty well insulated place, 1 level @ 1500 sq ft, so they run on low setting (500W) and they only cycle on occasionally once the stove's been running for a day or so and the place has soaked up the wood heat.
 
The best thing I did for the bedrooms in the winter is putting on heated mattress pads for all the beds in the house. I don't always need to use them but they are nice to have if it's too cold. Otherwise we are usually in the front of the house and don't need the back rooms muscle warmer than they are now. Also, a tighter house does better with hot and cold areas. They say if it's leaky they just don't keep up well.

Wattage for the King size pad is 110 each side but I have it on 1 or 2 out of 10 so it cycles on and off.

We bought a king sized heated mattress pad for the king sized pull out bed in our first pop up camper, which did not have a furnace. We figured that it would get us through the shoulder seasons for camping. Turned out that we camped/traveled all year long (ask me sometime about the New Year's Eve camping trip at the tippy top of the Chesapeake Bay.) We loved that heated mattress pad so much that it's required equipment in the house. We heat our little bungalow in town with a pellet stove (the wood stove is going into the house to which we hope to retire; that location gets challenging weather.) When temps get into the teens and single digits, the pellet stove will hold the entire house above 60'F by itself, but sometimes not much above it. The heated mattress pad makes that comfortable overnight.

Heated mattress pads are GREAT for aches and pains as well. Turn it on "HELL" (the highest setting is actually "H" and we swear it means "HELL") crawl in and bake! :) :)

P.S. My absolute all time favorite Marital Practical Joke is to turn on the heated mattress pad, dawdle around in the bathroom until my husband gets into the heated bed, gets comfortable and is dozing off, then crawl into bed and slip my ice cold feet between his legs. That trick just never gets old. :)
 
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I have an oil filled radiator that I move around and turn on as needed
Ditto......I like it because it is noise free and holds heat. We have two that we use only in the coldest parts of winter for the rooms the furthest from the stove.
 
We also have an electric blanket for use in the master bedroom as it also gets a bit cool.
Us and the kids use these. We only turn ours on when it is really cold outside and the bedroom gets down to 65- 66 (i like it that cool for sleeping). My oldest son uses his almost six months out of the year, but he likes it warm. I once caught him taking a Saturday nap on the edge of the hearth ==c
 
The best thing I did for the bedrooms in the winter is putting on heated mattress pads for all the beds in the house. I don't always need to use them but they are nice to have if it's too cold. Otherwise we are usually in the front of the house and don't need the back rooms muscle warmer than they are now. Also, a tighter house does better with hot and cold areas. They say if it's leaky they just don't keep up well.

Wattage for the King size pad is 110 each side but I have it on 1 or 2 out of 10 so it cycles on and off.

We had a heated mattress pad and a few years ago my wife called the electric company to find out how much it cost to run it every night. The lady calculated that it would cost 6 cents per side per night to run. Try keeping warm with propane for that much money.
 
Plug in your fuel prices and see what's cheapest for you. NG is so cheap here that it's probably cheaper than the heat pump below 35 degrees (as opposed to just generating more heat) and will probably make using the wood stove more trouble than it's worth unless I can get a bunch of free wood.

www.eia.gov/neic/experts/heatcalc.xls‎
 
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