Hello All,
I just bought a house and would love a little input as to which system I should choose.
I like to heat with wood and would like to supply at least most of my heating needs with whatever wood burning system I choose. We had a VC Defiant in the house we just sold...loved it, but had the usual drawbacks (mess inside house, uneven heat, risk of fire, etc).
The house we just bought is about 3,000 sq ft on three levels (main floor, upstairs and finished basement) it's about 7 years old, well built and seems to be very well insulated. The main floor and upstairs is pretty open and I think lends itself well to wood heat. There is an existing zero clearance fireplace on the main floor, but it's not airtight and certainly not an efficient heater. My initial thought was to tear out the existing fp and replace it and the chimney system with a high efficiency zero clearance fireplace that would be a more efficient heater. Because I want to heat the basement as well, I've been looking at units that are able to be ducted to the basement or even into the existing forced air furnace ductwork. I had pretty much decided on going this route but was on a roadtrip with my wife over the weekend and had a lot of time to talk about the subject. We both love the idea of a usable wood fireplace but are not crazy about the drawbacks mentioned above. I think with the ductwork option, I can mostly eliminate the uneven heat aspect, but it still leaves us with the mess in the living room, the danger of having a fire in the house 24/7 and the work of tending to a fire in these smaller units. The existing fireplace though well built and I'm convinced safe, was unattractive so I've torn off the fake stone and exposed most of the interior portion of the chimney chase...so, we HAVE to replace it with something. I brought up the idea of putting a mid-priced gas unit (mainly for ambiance, not heat production) in place of the existing zc unit and installing a gasification boiler in the barn (the barn does not exist yet, but will be built in the spring about 40' from the house). Thus, heating the house (evenly, through our existing forced air ductwork) and the barn (with hot water I'll install)...this was very well received, so it's time for me to do a little more research!
I've done quite a bit of reading on these forums, but have a few questions right off the bat. First, what kind of results have people been having with gasifiers using a water to air exchanger? I still consider myself a newbie to wood burning, is a gasifier a bit too complicated for a relative newbie? Cost is definitely a concern, I figure I'll have about $6k in the zero clearance setup, is it reasonable to figure somewhere in the $6-8K range for a gasifier setup? What should I be considering in looking at a gasifier boiler? Any advice, comments, suggestions are appreciated!
I just bought a house and would love a little input as to which system I should choose.
I like to heat with wood and would like to supply at least most of my heating needs with whatever wood burning system I choose. We had a VC Defiant in the house we just sold...loved it, but had the usual drawbacks (mess inside house, uneven heat, risk of fire, etc).
The house we just bought is about 3,000 sq ft on three levels (main floor, upstairs and finished basement) it's about 7 years old, well built and seems to be very well insulated. The main floor and upstairs is pretty open and I think lends itself well to wood heat. There is an existing zero clearance fireplace on the main floor, but it's not airtight and certainly not an efficient heater. My initial thought was to tear out the existing fp and replace it and the chimney system with a high efficiency zero clearance fireplace that would be a more efficient heater. Because I want to heat the basement as well, I've been looking at units that are able to be ducted to the basement or even into the existing forced air furnace ductwork. I had pretty much decided on going this route but was on a roadtrip with my wife over the weekend and had a lot of time to talk about the subject. We both love the idea of a usable wood fireplace but are not crazy about the drawbacks mentioned above. I think with the ductwork option, I can mostly eliminate the uneven heat aspect, but it still leaves us with the mess in the living room, the danger of having a fire in the house 24/7 and the work of tending to a fire in these smaller units. The existing fireplace though well built and I'm convinced safe, was unattractive so I've torn off the fake stone and exposed most of the interior portion of the chimney chase...so, we HAVE to replace it with something. I brought up the idea of putting a mid-priced gas unit (mainly for ambiance, not heat production) in place of the existing zc unit and installing a gasification boiler in the barn (the barn does not exist yet, but will be built in the spring about 40' from the house). Thus, heating the house (evenly, through our existing forced air ductwork) and the barn (with hot water I'll install)...this was very well received, so it's time for me to do a little more research!
I've done quite a bit of reading on these forums, but have a few questions right off the bat. First, what kind of results have people been having with gasifiers using a water to air exchanger? I still consider myself a newbie to wood burning, is a gasifier a bit too complicated for a relative newbie? Cost is definitely a concern, I figure I'll have about $6k in the zero clearance setup, is it reasonable to figure somewhere in the $6-8K range for a gasifier setup? What should I be considering in looking at a gasifier boiler? Any advice, comments, suggestions are appreciated!
