Hello , I am purchasing a home which currently has a heat pump as the main heat source and AC for milder weather and has an oil furnace as auxiliary heat in the winter time . I live in New Brunswick Canada where winter temperatures can reach -40 so I need an auxiliary heat source for about 3-4 months ( december through march ) . I will need to replace my oil furnace and oil tank this year so after consideration I thought about getting a wood furnace instead as I am able to get free wood from lands I own . My question is , can I swap out my oil furnace an get a wood furnace installed in it's place ? I read some people using heat pumps with wood furnaces and other people don't recommend it . Any imput would be greatly appreciated
Wood furnace add on with heat pump
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flyingcow
Minister of Fire
You can switch out the boilers but you probably shouldn't? Should leave a heat source of someknd that is a typical unit? But I wouldn't think it'd be a problem switching to all wood just that banks and realtor frown on all wood. No problem running a HP and wood boiler..I have both. They also make HP water heaters also.
Welcome there are other "over homers" here also. I'm just 40 miles south of HOULTON.
Welcome there are other "over homers" here also. I'm just 40 miles south of HOULTON.
flyingcow
Minister of Fire
If the oil furnace need replacing the wood furnace sounds like a reasonable replacement. The HP should have electric resistance backup and should satify the insurance company/bank requirements for a primary heat source. One thing to consider is if you don't plan to stay there long as mentioned above is that the market value could be hurt if oil is a lot cheaper than the electric HP portion since not everyone wants to burn wood.
DBoon
Minister of Fire
If you are using a heat pump as your back up, I would make sure that the one you have today either has an electric resistance backup or I would install a mini-split type rated for operation down to -15 degrees F or so (Fujitsu and Mitsubishi make these).
I went the mini-split route and even at well be 0 degrees F it put out rated heat (15 kBTU) and more than rated heat above this. My application is just to keep a vacant (and being renovated) house at 50-55 degrees F through the winter, and it did that with a little help (about 100 gallons) from the oil furnace. Normally, the oil furnace would have used 500 gallons. It was a cold winter, and a good test of capability for the mini-split. We had many nights well below zero degrees F here in Central NY this year.
I went the mini-split route and even at well be 0 degrees F it put out rated heat (15 kBTU) and more than rated heat above this. My application is just to keep a vacant (and being renovated) house at 50-55 degrees F through the winter, and it did that with a little help (about 100 gallons) from the oil furnace. Normally, the oil furnace would have used 500 gallons. It was a cold winter, and a good test of capability for the mini-split. We had many nights well below zero degrees F here in Central NY this year.
thanks every one for the imput . The heat pump right now is set to run down to -18 C then the oil furnace wood kick in . I believe the Heat Pump is whats called a single stage heat pump as it was meant to be used with the assistance of the oil furnace . If I am correct I think this means there are no electric resistance in the air handler . I think these can be installed pretty cheap the heat strips can be purchased for around 200$ for 10 Kwh but what worries me is the cost or electricity for when these heat strips will come on , I have read online a lot that people are getting huge bills when the start using the heat strips with the heat pump
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