How many heat with wood, no backup....

[hemlock]

How many of of you heat with wood, be it a wood stove, pellet stove, wood furnace, etc... with no other "backup" - 100% wood or wood products? How do you find it? What do you do if you leave the house for any amount of time? Just curious. Thanks.

 

[basswidow]

Well,

we have the propane furnances that came with the house, but we turn the thermostat's off and heat all winter long using only wood in our wood stove. We scrounge the wood for free and split and stack it a year or more ahead of time like others here.

It's not work at all - it's enjoyable. I love the $$$$ I am saving. You can leave the stove all day long after loading it in the morning and it's fine. No issues.

If we go on an extended trip, we turn the furnaces on low.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

It has been over 30 years since we had a furnace. The wood and the Fireview are our only sources of heat. It has never been a problem. We did go to Arizona for 5 winters and all we did was blow out the water lines and put anti freeze in the traps, lock the doors and head southwest. One other time we were gone a few days and I had someone come in twice a day to put wood in the stove. All was well as the weather was not bad. It did turn cold before we got back though as it was about -10 when we got home. We had no water so I took a hair drier out to the well pit and had the water going in less than 5 minutes. We caught it just in time.

 

[TX-L]

I have a forced air furnace; I guess it's a backup since it is operational. However, I turn the switch off and it never runs. Might be good to have if I go away for a few days in the winter...

I grew up with wood heat only, there was no other source of heat.


Me like all wood!

 

[certified106]

We have a propane furnace and a full tank of propane however the valve on the tank has been turned off for years.

 

[PapaDave]

We have a couple backups. Wall furnace in the living room, and the direct vent wall unit in the laundry room at the back of the house.
However, the gas and elec. for both have been turned off for the past few years and we use the wood stove exclusively. I was very tempted this past winter, to turn on the direct vent unit when the outside temps went below zero for days on end. Wood stove struggled when that happened.
We don't usually leave for for than a few hours, so the stove just gets a refill before we go. I make sure it's burning well, turn down the air, and away we go.
Much more comfy doing that now than when we first got here.

 

[Highbeam]

We have electric wall heaters as backup. Individual stats of course. Everybody needs a backup, can't even get a home loan without a non-wood heating system here plus the obvious issue of injury, getting sick, burn ban, whatever.

So we have used nothing but wood for the last three winters except for the forced burn bans. When we leave the house for a trip, vacation, etc, the house gets cold. Not so cold to freeze pipes but so cold that I immediately start a fire when I return.

We burn wood because we enjoy the intense "free" heat. Plus we're cheap.

 

[Got Wood]

Oil back up for me. Oil is used for DHW. Rarely kicks on for heat as thermostats are set in mid 50's. Every once in a while I catch one of the females in the house turning it up on a very cold morning before the fire gets cranking heat out.

 

[SteveKG]

37 years with only wood heat. Heat stove at one end of house, wood cooking range at the other. Very cold days, we have both going. No back-up. Can't imagine why we'd want it.

 

[NH_Wood]

100% wood here. Oil furnace for back-up, but turned t-stats off for the winter - DHW only for oil consumption. If we did leave for a few days (which we very rarely do in the winter), I'd put the t-stats on ~ 60* until I returned. I also scrounge all of my wood, and with oil prices the way they are, I save a bundle (heating 3000sqft). Cheers!

 

[woodsmaster]

the only thing I have for backup is an elec wall heater in my livingroom and a elec. baseboard in the kitchin. I don't Know if they would keep the house much above freezing and dont want to find out. I use them some in the shoulder season if I want to just take the chill off. I installed a woodboiler and am converting my house to radiater panels and I will have 1000 gallons thermal storage So I should be able to go away for the weekend and come home to a warm house. If I want to leave for longer I would probably have a friend come by and fire the boiler every couple days.

 

[RRJ22]

No back up heat source here, and in the new home addition going in this summer there will be no provision for any backup heat source except for a baseboard heater in the utility room so I can go on vacation in the winter if I wish without having to blow out so many pipes or worrying about freezing. Of course, with only 1500 sq. ft. that will be super insulated and as air tight as possible I don't imagine the summit will have to much of a problem keeping us warm!

 

[jeff_t]

I've got a propane furnace, but it hasn't worked for a couple of years. Does that count?

 

[snowleopard]

I didn't plan on no backup when I put the stove in--the stove was supposed to be the backup. Installed in September, climbed the slippery slopes of the learning curve w/a lot of help from my friends here, and in January experienced the Great Greening of the Garage when the boiler controls failed and blew glycol purty much everywhere. That puppy was fried. Got on here whining big time, and was told, "Simmer down, we've been heating with wood for years, just keep putting wood on the fire." I did, and got through winter with no pipes freezing and lots of learning, and this was the warmest winter I've spent in this house.

Planning on replacing the boiler when I get around to it, but only as a backup. Isn't life funny?

 

[summit]

I try to keep a few gals of oil in the tank if i AIN'T HERE FOR A DAY OR TWO, BUT CHECK MY SIG.. ITS BASICALLY 99.9% WOOD all winter, except for holiday times and kid's school vacay when we ain't here to throw wood into the Summit... in fact I got a little fire goin right now... couple small splits and some cardbard boxes to keep the damp out.

 

[BrotherBart]

The heat pump died from lack of use some time in the late nineties. We had been heating with wood for years and don't know when it went belly up. There is a oil filled radiator heater in each room of the house on thermostats in case I grab my chest and fall over some night in winter. One in the basement set for 40 degrees for the pipes but it stays in the fifties down there in the coldest weather we get even down to zero.

But after all these years I am starting to dream of just setting a thermostat and letting something heat the joint. :smirk:

 

[xman23]

When we are not there our cabin heat is electric baseboard. Not the cheapest heat to run, but maintenance free and reliable. We keep the house at 45. Yes we have a backup but never use it when we are there. Since 2000, on the weekends we heat the only with wood. My wife doesn't sleep well so she keeps the stove feed through the night. She wanted a fireplace. I convinced her to get the Oslo when I showed her the screen that could replace the front door. She loves the stove, and now says it would have been a big mistake putting in a fireplace. I don't think we ever tried the screen.

 

[tfdchief]

We have a gas forced air furnace but haven't used in much in almost 40 years (turn it on once early in the winter just to make sure it still works) We just prefer wood heat. I warms the soul as well as the body. In fact, the older we both get, the more we like wood heat. I always did, but now my wife does too. As of this winter, she has her own stove in her newly remodeled kitchen! We don't go anywhere for very long, so that is not a problem. By the way BB, I sure hope you don't have to use your back up 'cause you grabbed your chest and croaked. :-S

 

[rdust]

We have forced air feed by propane for back up. I'm not going to be tied to this joint when I want to get away for a week or two in the winter time. I have family in other states and tend to visit them during the holidays/winter. I'm not going to ask someone to come feed the stove to keep the place warm. Now if the furnace died tomorrow I wouldn't be in any hurry to replace it.

 

[BrotherBart]

We have forced air feed by propane for back up. I'm not going to be tied to this joint when I want to get away for a week or two in the winter time. I have family in other states and tend to visit them during the holidays/winter. I'm not going to ask someone to come feed the stove to keep the place warm. Now if the furnace died tomorrow I wouldn't be in any hurry to replace it.

That is what I had to look at. Ten thousand for a high efficiency heat pump to be waiting for me to leave town would buy a lot of firewood. Not to mention it would use electricity while I was out of town. Sure the heaters will too but not ten grand worth. And it would be sucking juice too. Just something less.

Not to mention that going from using it to using two Energy Start window units, one upstairs and one down, cut our summer cooling bills by two thirds.