Help from pellet users for good back-up heating

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titanracer

Feeling the Heat
Nov 10, 2011
257
South Central PA., Newville
We are currently going thru the financing part right now, for a new modular/sectional home this spring. But I want to get some thoughts from you guys, on a good back-up heating to pellets. We need a back-up thru winter because we do take weekend trips thru winter & I would not feel comfortable leaving pellets bur, while gone. Plus a 40 lb hopper won't burn more than 20 hours. I could get a hopper extension, to make it a total of 100 lb., but still wouldn't feel right leaving over night. What would be the best to get, not using propane ( bad situation), to use for what I call back-up heat because to me, when I am home, pellets are my primary heat. After getting financing, we will order, & I want to be prepared for ordering the system that works, when ordering home. Any help, would be nice. Thanks, Jeff
 
Geothermal heat pump.
 
Froget the stove or insert right now, invest in a pellet furnace or boiler with a propane/nat gas or oil back up.

Unless you are going to place in in a park and not on it's own land?
 
Whatever you do, don't get oil. A natural gas line would be best, I think, and then you can run a line to your kitchen stove. I have an electric stove and oil heat. I'd like to convert when I have the funds to do so. Good luck.
 
Propane is clean and efficient. But varies greatly in price. Some regions are $2.00 a gal... Or around me, about $4.00 a gal.

HHO is through the roof also...

Electric is an option. Then your not tied to a delivery or fee of any kind. You'll already have an electric bill......

If its only gonna be a short time neing gone (even if its weeks). I dont think it really matters.

Obviously Nat Gas would be the best choice and cheapest.......

I left for the weekend (Boy Scout campout with my Son) and filled the hopper to my Fahrenheit Furnace on Fri afternoon. My Wife didnt touch it at all. When I came home this afternoon, the hopper had almost a half a bag in it. Its only a 112 lb hopper, but enables me to just leave it alone.. For Days..... If I would have filled the Quad and set the T-stat 2 degrees below the Fahrenheits T-stat, I could prob be gone for 4-5 days. Depending on outside temps (35* 4-5 or 15* 3-4 days).
Again, if its only a short time. The amount of fuel or electric will be minimal. Get what you think will be the easiest to maintain and operate.

And if you are gonna have a basement dug, I would look into the pellet furnace route.. To easy. Most self clean in some way shape or form and have large hoppers. Harman being the leader, but St. Croix and Fahrenheit making solid units too.
 
It all depends on the layout of the house, whether you are planning for AC, etc. My two favorites - which if I could I'd both have - are:

1. Natural gas. Allows you to power a backup genset, put in some gas fireplaces in rooms for ambiance and point heating, enables tankless water heaters, and also gives you something to cook with. It's much, much cheaper than propane (which, according to eai.gov is about $3.30/gal state avg for PA, so going propane isn't at all worth it compared to almost any other fuel). Downside - not available in many places.

2. Geothermal heat pump if you also want whole-house AC. You're in a somewhat favorable area (unlike here up north) where you'll get decent efficiency, and it will be excellent for shoulder season and runs "in reverse" in the summer. Downside - it's costly because the units themselves aren't cheap, and you need to dig & bury the loops (I prefer horizontal loop setups, but if you're going to have a well anyway you might be able to go cheaper and get a vertical setup).

If you're not going to do AC and don't want to run all kinds of duct work, you could always install electric baseboard (even portables) in key rooms. The downside is the cost of running it, but it's by far the cheapest to install.

EDIT: I do think the best option for new houses - and if it works with the type you're building (I don't think it's ideal for most prefab) - is taking advantage of passive solar. Nothing beats large south-facing energy-efficient windows in a well-insulated house. I have one wall in my living room that's almost all ceiling-to-floor glass and I get some serious sun heat.
 
I think a heat pump would be good, followed by electric resistance heating, baseboard type. Cost of installation might be of interest, and electric baseboard heat is probably cheap to install, and you can control each room separately.
 
Another pellet stove.
 
You will likely find that electric heat, via baseboard units tied to an individual thermostat for each room to be the cheapest by far. My entire house is electric, and its not unreasonable, read that as cheaper than oil. Electric also requires no maintenance and basically never wears out. There isn't a furnace, heat pump, etc. that can make that claim. Yes, it is more expensive than other ways to heat but for limited use its very hard to beat. The best thing about it is you can completely isolate rooms. Heat only the rooms with plumbing in them, leave the rest at 45degrees. RT
 
rwthomas1 said:
You will likely find that electric heat, via baseboard units tied to an individual thermostat for each room to be the cheapest by far. My entire house is electric, and its not unreasonable, read that as cheaper than oil. Electric also requires no maintenance and basically never wears out. There isn't a furnace, heat pump, etc. that can make that claim. Yes, it is more expensive than other ways to heat but for limited use its very hard to beat. The best thing about it is you can completely isolate rooms. Heat only the rooms with plumbing in them, leave the rest at 45degrees. RT

Yup. Put a room-capacity space heater in your most common rooms, and put it on a programmable thermostat.

I use oil for hot water and to keep the pipes from freezing on cold days (something everybody should worry about when playing around with heating room to room). The house was on oil when I bought and I dont' feel like buying a new furnace when this one works good so far.
 
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