Hello everyone...questions from a new guy.
My wife and I are looking at alternative ways to heat our home. We heat/cool our home currently with geothermal. While the geothermal works great, on very cold days it can run forever and there can still be cool air coming from some of the registers. I said to my wife that I would look into alternative heat sources and see if there was something that would provide more heat.
We have those cozy little gas logs in our living room (which provide heat if you are very close to the front of them) since the home was built. They're attractive to look at but are NOT a source of heat whatsoever. They may heat a bit of the large living room that we have but that's about it. We were thinking about replacing the gas logs with something more efficient and a much higher BTU output.
I cannot go to wood stove because of her allergies and the smell from wood stoves. I wouldn't care, but she does. I've been researching various sources of heating options and without getting into crazy expense (outdoor wood furnace with baseboard hot water) it appears to me we may be looking at a pellet stove or larger natural gas insert of some type. However now I'm more confused about all of our options after crawling around and reading this forum for so long.
If you remove "cost of installation and operation" from the equation for just a moment, which way would you go to heat "MOST" of this house? Pellet stove? NG insert? Other option? Which option is the warmest heat?
Our home is a four bedroom, high cathedral ceiling living room open to the second floor. Yes, a McMansion. Approximately 3,300 sqft.
Thank you for your responses.
Thom
My wife and I are looking at alternative ways to heat our home. We heat/cool our home currently with geothermal. While the geothermal works great, on very cold days it can run forever and there can still be cool air coming from some of the registers. I said to my wife that I would look into alternative heat sources and see if there was something that would provide more heat.
We have those cozy little gas logs in our living room (which provide heat if you are very close to the front of them) since the home was built. They're attractive to look at but are NOT a source of heat whatsoever. They may heat a bit of the large living room that we have but that's about it. We were thinking about replacing the gas logs with something more efficient and a much higher BTU output.
I cannot go to wood stove because of her allergies and the smell from wood stoves. I wouldn't care, but she does. I've been researching various sources of heating options and without getting into crazy expense (outdoor wood furnace with baseboard hot water) it appears to me we may be looking at a pellet stove or larger natural gas insert of some type. However now I'm more confused about all of our options after crawling around and reading this forum for so long.
If you remove "cost of installation and operation" from the equation for just a moment, which way would you go to heat "MOST" of this house? Pellet stove? NG insert? Other option? Which option is the warmest heat?
Our home is a four bedroom, high cathedral ceiling living room open to the second floor. Yes, a McMansion. Approximately 3,300 sqft.
Thank you for your responses.
Thom
