Experiments in heating.......suggestions appreciated

[thistlewoodmanor]

Four years ago I "inherited" 8.5 acres of woods and a drafty 106 year old farmhouse when my ex left for the big city life. Last winter was a killer and after spending $3,000 on LP I decided I needed to try something different. The house came with a Kickapoo Home Furnace that burns wood or coal and wasn't hooked up, so I had a friend get the ductwork and fan in the right places and it's working well. There's a wood stove in the family room that's mostly decorative, although it does warm up the room. We are also installing electric baseboard heaters as backup/zone heat when necessary, such as being out of town, etc. And I"ve added 15 inches of new insulation in the attic, 5 new windows (so far), plastic on all the windows, new front and back doors, etc. Needless to say, I"m NOT buying any LP this winter and even traded my gas stove for an electric one.

However, I'm such a novice at this.............I've been working on cutting wood and getting it stacked by the back door for a couple years now. I'm somewhat pathetic at starting fires, but I'm getting better. This site looks great and I'm reading and absorbing as fast as I can. Any tips and helpful hints would be much appreciated!

 

[pybyr]

when I bought my 180+ year old farmhouse about a dozen years ago, the wind very literally blew through parts of it, including the kitchen... so I know from whence you speak

not specific to wood, but have someone do an "energy audit" including a blower door test and maybe an infrared camera exam of the house on a cold day

at least in this part of the country, there are lots of folks who can do that, and if you get a good/ experienced/ honest energy auditor, they and the few-hundred-dollar-cost of their work, and the suggestions that they give you of where to get the "most bang for the buck", can be _invaluable_

look out for buying windows- they're heavily marketed, but have a way more questionable payback curve than most of the other places you could put $$$ You will get more results and return on $ by re-doing the glazing/caulk and using some stuff called "seal and peel" to stop the drafts during winter

"air sealing" especially if you can do it yourself, is way most cost effective. insulation next (check out dense pack cellulose, which is easiest to work into existing construction without ripping everything open everywhere- and it works really well not only at insulating, but also at stopping or minimizing drafts.

then, eventually, look into some more advanced wood heat technologies- the choices will depend in large part on the size of your house and your lifestyle; if you are or can be home often, and if you don't mind cutting and handling a lot of wood, simple technologies can work OK. if you are away for extended workday job/ commute and don't want to go through immense amounts of wood, then some significant investments in some of the higher tech stuff can let you burn less wood and have more comfortable and consistent temperatures.

hope that's a helpful start- lots of people around here have helped me, so I try to pass along what help I can

 

[dbjc364]

I don't know what you get for sun-on your house on your property, but here in Maine- on ours- all winter long- we get alot of sunny days. This morning, finally-we start building our 1st "Solar Air Heat Collector", the first of 4. These instructions are basic, and if your fairly handy, I'm sure you can do this too. "Build it Solar".com is an excellant site. With these air collectors, we wont run the pellet stove or oil on any sunny day, regardless of temps outside. Plywood-styrofoam sheets-aluminum flashing-used glass or plexiglass or even poly plastic can make a sunheater. So far our cost for materials for the 1st one is $100.00-depends on what you use. They'll last 30 plus years,little or no maintenence. We are planning on adding a small computor fan to blow the air, cost less than $30.

 

[CowboyAndy]

I’m somewhat pathetic at starting fires, but I’m getting better.

Ayuh,....

I'm a Boy Scout from Waay back....

Get yourself a trigger fired propane Torch, like a plumber would use...
It beats the 'ell out of Matches,+ paper...

Or get some fire starter bricks/packets/logs. I spent 2 hours trying to get mine going the first time... got so frustrated i went out and bought those little bricks and voila!