Hi, I've been reading through the posts and gotten some great ideas... too many, I think, to make heads or tails. I'll start with our scenario:
My hubby and I have a large 200 yr old farmhouse. Complicating matters is a large outbuilding that is now an apartment that must be heated - but is heated using our boiler - the pipes underground and heats via radiant floor. Our main house has zoned baseboard heat. We shut off a large portion of the house in the winter, as it has no plumbing and the forced hot air furnace is ancient and very inefficient. When we wanted to use the shut off space, we heated it with a wood stove (a nice little Jotul). In the main house, with the baseboard, there is another wood stove, and two fireplaces that we rarely use. Last year, with part of the house closed, thermostats low (avg @ 60), the apartment at 55 (it was unoccupied - not the case this winter), and running one of the wood stoves almost full time we burned nearly 1800 gallons of oil, and six cords of wood. Our windows are new, parts of our house are insulated - although poorly we believe (for obvious reasons), and the apartment is well insulated new construction. The apartment is also using an electric hot water heater. Insulating is a challenge due to finances and that the house is post and bean and over 200 years old.
What we are thinking of doing:
a. installing an additional wood stove or pellet stove in the main fireplace - in a central location of house. I'm skeptical that this cut our costs enough to justify the cost of purchase, installation, etc
b. installing an indoor wood boiler that ties into our current baseboard/radiant system. Is this an efficient system that will cut our costs enough to justify the installation and purchase? We like the idea of it because we could eventually expand it to the other part of the house that currently is heated with the old forced hot air furnace.
Any thoughts or are we just up a creek this winter?
thanks all!
My hubby and I have a large 200 yr old farmhouse. Complicating matters is a large outbuilding that is now an apartment that must be heated - but is heated using our boiler - the pipes underground and heats via radiant floor. Our main house has zoned baseboard heat. We shut off a large portion of the house in the winter, as it has no plumbing and the forced hot air furnace is ancient and very inefficient. When we wanted to use the shut off space, we heated it with a wood stove (a nice little Jotul). In the main house, with the baseboard, there is another wood stove, and two fireplaces that we rarely use. Last year, with part of the house closed, thermostats low (avg @ 60), the apartment at 55 (it was unoccupied - not the case this winter), and running one of the wood stoves almost full time we burned nearly 1800 gallons of oil, and six cords of wood. Our windows are new, parts of our house are insulated - although poorly we believe (for obvious reasons), and the apartment is well insulated new construction. The apartment is also using an electric hot water heater. Insulating is a challenge due to finances and that the house is post and bean and over 200 years old.
What we are thinking of doing:
a. installing an additional wood stove or pellet stove in the main fireplace - in a central location of house. I'm skeptical that this cut our costs enough to justify the cost of purchase, installation, etc
b. installing an indoor wood boiler that ties into our current baseboard/radiant system. Is this an efficient system that will cut our costs enough to justify the installation and purchase? We like the idea of it because we could eventually expand it to the other part of the house that currently is heated with the old forced hot air furnace.
Any thoughts or are we just up a creek this winter?
thanks all!
