heres my heating setup. a pellet stove in the living room, oil boiler in the basement, next to a newyorker wc-90 wood/coal. pellet stove is probably the most effiecient piece when temps are above 35. when it gets real cold it can burn through probably as much pellets as oil, or firewood, and leaves the house unevenly heated. so, onto the boilers for colder temps. the boilers are in series, sort of, right now i have them on two different thermostats, and two different circulators. if the oil boiler runs, it only sends water through the oil boiler and to the rads. if the wood boiler is running, it runs through the oil boiler then to the rads. so my question is, is it actually more cost effiecient to run the oil at a temperature that "just basically keeps the water hot", and use the wood boiler when i am able to tender it. it seems i burn through a bunch of wood just to get everything up to temp,(water being at room temp) and then that slows down when everything is up to temp. i will have to outsource for some more firewood. i did not think we would be experiencing 22 degree overnite temps on november. so - i am i wasting more on wood just bringing everything up to temp, then i would be spending on oil? i know theres no mathmatical equation for this, but i would like to here some opinions.
