Help My Buddy make a wise choice...

[lightyear]

He bought a small house (1,000 sq. ft) with a vaulted ceiling and a small loft area. He has oil heat, but refused to buy oil this year. He is heating his place (for now) with space heaters (eden pure etc.) His bill this past month (which has been pretty mild) was $200 due to running the heaters. The heaters have only managed to get his house to about 50+ degrees.

He plans on ditching the oil heat set up and plans to install base board electric heat. I don't know if that is a good idea or not. I suggested that he buy a used wood burning stove and place it in his house or buy a cheap pellet stove. It would heat the house much more thoroughly.

We also agree that he needs to install a ceiling fan in his living room (where vaulted ceilings are) to help push what little heat he has in the house down. His loft area overlooks the small 200' living area where the vaulted ceiling is. There is no attic and he doesn't think the ceiling in the house is insulated.

what would you do?

Info:
-majority of living space is kitchen, living room (tv), and 2 small bedrooms on other side.
-loft area overlooking living room
-crawl space
-oil heat-not used and empty
-one wall of living room is all windows and the other wall has his tv and front door. I think he could do a caddycorner stove of some sort.
-possible no insulation in roof between drywall and roof.

Thanks. I have suggested craigs list. We are in southern maryland so winters aren't too awful, but we can get blasted with very cold weather and bad snow-but not frequently.

 

[moey]

Any idea the size of his furnace/boiler? Has he ever used it did it heat the place sufficiently? Any idea on the usage? This will help determine what would work best. Sounds like a seasonal cabin.

 

[lightyear]

good question. No, I have no idea. I know it is the original unit (built in early 80s) and he claims it didn't heat the place too well. However, it was much better than 50 degrees I can tell you that!

 

[jtakeman]

If its costing $200 with small space heaters(not getting it warm even) then it most likely will only be more with baseboard. I have electric and I use pellets. Pellets keep me far warmer for much less $$ spent.

 

[P38X2]

I agree with your suggestions, lightyear. Ceiling fan, cheap wood stove, small new or used pellet stove. Screw electric heat!

 

[imacman]

Keep an eye out on CL for the small Englander unit (25pdvc). They can be had pretty cheap sometimes, and may just need some good cleaning and some TLC.

Also, there are factory refurbished units for sale pretty reasonably. Refurbed right at Englander.
http://www.amfmenergy.com/55trp10--epa-certified-pellet-stove--1555101501.html

 

[DexterDay]

If there are no children to consider and its just him, then any smaller stove thats around 30,000 BTU should be fine.

some smaller units are....

Harman P-38
Quarafire Santa Fe or Castile
Enviro Mini
Heatilator PS-35, PS-50, or CAB-50

Best bang for the buck out of all of those would be the Heatilator line-up. The PS-50 looks nice and has way more HP than he needs, so he can run it on Low majority of the Time.

 

[lightyear]

Thanks guys! I appreciate it. I think maybe hearing it from someone else will help him move forward. We are going to check out a few places tomorrow night.

 

[Mr. Spock]

I used to heat that sg footage with electric. Each room still has it's own baseboard and thermostat but I have not used them since Feb 2012. The pellet stove is in the living room and the heat distribution works well. The main living areas are the warmest with the bedrooms being cooler. Exactly the way the electric therms were set to run.

In my experience electric was very expensive even with digital programmable thermostats in each room. In the coldest months the bill could go as high as 400 running modest temps in the main living space of 68 deg and 62 in the bedrooms. Even at 72 on the electric, which was rare except for house guests or home with a flu, electric baseboard heat does not feel warm. The house has new windows, doors and is well insulated.

Now I can keep the main living areas of the househouse @ 74 for way less money. No sure what he would be paying for kw/hr. but might also want to check for additional charges applied for high kw usage.

Another thing to consider is that most small homes would not have the 200 amp service required for electric baseboard.

I could go on, so many negatives to electric heat.

 

[Eatonpcat]

Thanks guys! I appreciate it. I think maybe hearing it from someone else will help him move forward. We are going to check out a few places tomorrow night.

If living at 50 degrees didn't help him move forward, I imagine hearing it from us clowns won't make much difference!

Get that boy a stove and post some pictures of his smiling face as he walks around the new crib in shorts and a tee shirt!

 

[saladdin]

My first $500 would be spent at Lowe's renting their blower, buying insulation and spraying the attic. No heat source will work if it is just going straight back outside.

 

[lightyear]

Problem was that he does not have an attic.

He is buying a used harman accentra floor model from dealer.

What do you feel is a.fair.price? He was quoted $1799.00
Do you think that is fair?

 

[will711]

Problem was that he does not have an attic.

He is buying a used harman accentra floor model from dealer.

What do you feel is a.fair.price? He was quoted $1799.00
Do you think that is fair?

Sounds like a good price . What year is the stove ? Does it come with a full warranty?

 

[imacman]

....He is buying a used harman accentra floor model from dealer.

What do you feel is a.fair.price? He was quoted $1799.00
Do you think that is fair?

All depends on how old the unit is. I bought an '05 floor model Avalon Astoria when I first started pellet burning. It was 3 yrs old and hardly burned....paid $1500 delivered.

Warranty?

 

[will711]

All depends on how old the unit is. I bought an '05 floor model Avalon Astoria when I first started pellet burning. It was 3 yrs old and hardly burned....paid $1500 delivered.

Warranty?

Thinking alike on this one

 

[sheetmetaldan]

Problem was that he does not have an attic.

He is buying a used harman accentra floor model from dealer.

What do you feel is a.fair.price? He was quoted $1799.00
Do you think that is fair?

Does he have a roof? Remove roof shingles wherever necessary to drill a hole big enough for the hose to blow in insulation to each roof bay and blow the insulation in there. Patch the holes with some metal flashing put some roof tar over the edges of the metal flashing and then put shingles back in place.FYI. use roofing tar that comes in a tube for a caulking gun, the stuff in a 1 gallon can will ooze and run in hot weather and may make a runny mess. As someone else said spend the money on insulation first, no matter what you use for heat if the house can`t hold it in your friend is wasting money.

 

[peirhead]

I agree with the recommendation for insulation....make sure you have the whole house envelope has at least some modern insulation. Also as to your heating source ...don't ignore the newer air to air heat pumps (mini splits) they are very efficient, many have COP of 4 or better..that means for every $ you spend on electricity running it you get $4 of heat delivered into the house...around here the newer heat pumps are cheaper to heat with than pellets!!

 

[lightyear]

[quote="will711, it does not have a warranty, and is 3-4 years old. We can find out the year. We are going to try and get a free ton out of it too

 

[Tim Linden]

From what I hear Harmans run great for years, so good choice even if used! I don't know though
cuz mine is less than a month used =P