Conversion from oil

[neohioheat]

I currently have a V14 Burnham boiler in my basement and Lopi Evergreen on the first floor. House is 2000 sq feet and located in Ohio.

Oil prices in my area are currently outrageous and I'm trying to find a different heating system for my house. I'm currently contemplating retiring the oil tank and boiler in the basement and installing a wood stove in its place with a liner installed in the chimney.

For the upstairs I'm also thinking of adding a 24k minisplit to the living room to provide supplemental heat for the insert/stove. Another possible route to go would be to skip the wood stove, add an outdoor wood boiler and then tap into the existing plumbing for the baseboard heating. I'm leaning towards the stove in the basement because that would cost me less than $1000 vs. the outdoor wood boiler which sounds like it'd be around $10k for the unit and install.

Thoughts/opinions? Thanks in advance!

 

[blades]

Well first off check with ins co. they some times require a conventional heating system rather than a couple wood stoves. I dont think the mini split would satisfy them in that regard. 10k is a bottom line figure on a owb now days . on top of that you would be advised to look up the town and county rules regarding owb. flippin libs have been outlawing new installs all over. if a lot of folks have them around they might be grandfathered in. that is the way it is around my place. There are inside wood fired boilers though and the libs have kinda overlooked them.

 

[peakbagger]

The federal government is going to be throwing some serious dollars to homeowners switching out fossil fuels. The problem is they are having the states handle to implementation and lot of states are way behind in getting programs set up. Depending on income of the homeowner, mini splits may be close to free, but for most there will be some subsidy.

Definitely check with your bank and insurance company regarding getting rid of the primary heating system. IMHO a properly sized minisplit should qualify but its up to each company.

Its not just libs against OWB's I have to live with one next door that was improperly installed way too close to the property line and sitting down in low spot and its major local polluter. Some states have banned them outright, most have placed limits on them on where and how they would be located. The salesmen tend to outright lie about the legality and how "clean" they are. They may be clean when there is demand for heat but when there is no heating demand they put out a lot of local near ground level emissions. If you want to pollute your own air you and family will be breathing, that is your choice but your neighbors are another story.

 

[neohioheat]

Well first off check with ins co. they some times require a conventional heating system rather than a couple wood stoves. I dont think the mini split would satisfy them in that regard. 10k is a bottom line figure on a owb now days . on top of that you would be advised to look up the town and county rules regarding owb. flippin libs have been outlawing new installs all over. if a lot of folks have them around they might be grandfathered in. that is the way it is around my place. There are inside wood fired boilers though and the libs have kinda overlooked them.

I'm pretty sure when I bought the house and got home insurance they never took a look at the heating system or asked what it was.

 

[sloeffle]

I agree that the old uncertified OWB's are large local polluters and should be banned from being sold. The newer EPA approved OWB's are not. Most of them are more efficient than the best European indoor boilers being tested by the EPA. When the newer EPA approved boilers "shut down" they don't continue to push smoke out of the stack like the older ones do.

 

[cumminstinkerer]

@sloeffle I would have to say my polar does not put out much of anything when shut down, once in awhile you might smell a wiff of woodsmoke but pretty rare

 

[Micdrew]

I’d look into an OWB and keep the oil burner as a back up, by time you add up all the cash for the Wood stove, liner and mini splits you’d probably be close to an OWB in cost I would think? Idk much about them but I know those mini splits aren’t cheap.

 

[EbS-P]

Do you have AC?

 

[brenndatomu]

@neohioheat , do you have dry firewood ready to burn? If not, it's almost impossible to buy dry ready to burn firewood...it's all "seasoned" which is firewood seller code for "it laid here in log form over the summer and I cut/splitt it 3 weeks ago" and that means it's NO WHERE NEAR ready to burn!
What part of NEO are you in?