Hi this is my first post. I just bought an older victorian house about 1600sqft. It needs quite a bit of work and it does not have heat at the moment. It has radiators and a oil boiler that needs replacing. I would really like to heat mostly with wood but not sure which way to go. I am thinking of installing a new direct vent gas boiler and then some type of wood heat. I would really like a wood add on boiler so i could only use the gas when i have to but i dont want to spend a fortune on a stove. Would a regular wood stove be better? Also this wood boiler would have to be in the basement. Thanks alot for any help.
Just bought a house wondering how to go with heating.
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Nofossil
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jb4020 said:
Welcome to the forum. I think that you're in the right place ;-)
I have a section on my own site that discusses some of the decisions that you're facing along with explanations about what we did and why. I expect that you'll get plenty of other advice as well.
Good luck!
DBoon
Minister of Fire
Congratulations on your new purchase. I too bought an older house (craftsman bungalow) and have been fixing it up. It was while researching all my options for upgrading the house and heating system that I first found hearth.com. I have found the information here to be invaluable and the people extremely helpful in helping me to understand all the heating options available. In fact, the advice here steered me away from what my initial research inclined me to purchase.
Cast iron radiator heat must be the nicest form of heating ever invented. I hope you plan on keeping that. You will surely regret it if you let somebody talk you into "ripping out those old radiators and replacing them with more modern baseboard radiators".
First, before upgrading your heating system, I would highly recommend that you understand what efficiency improvements can be brought to your house first in terms of storm windows and insulation (wall, attic, and basement ceiling). By just installing wooden storm windows on the house (note: not replacing any windows - perhaps the worst investment you can make unless your windows are completely shot), my oil usage dropped by about 75-100 gallons. By beefing up attic and basement ceiling insulation, and sealing my attic hatch really well, I brought my oil consumption down another 150-175 gallons per heating season. Then, by insulating the wall cavities with dense pack fiberglass, I cut another 150 gallons off my oil usage. So I am down to 600 gallons per season now. This is the best investment that you can make, and it's far cheaper than a new boiler.
The next thing I did was update the burner in my 1970s oil boiler to one that vaporized the oil better. I replaced the 1750 RPM burner with a 3450 RPM burner and I estimate that saved another 50 gallons of oil per season. The higher RPM burner vaporizes the oil better and you get a more efficient burn. This cost me about $300. I have done nothing to the oil boiler since then.
As much as I wanted a wood boiler, my lack of a separate chimney flue (separate from my oil boiler chimney) meant that I would not be able to locate the wood boiler in my boiler room in the basement without extensive modifications that I was not willing to perform (for aesthetic and financial) reasons. I would either have buy a wood boiler that also burned oil as a backup (there are not many options available, and the oil boiler backup on them is pretty old-fashioned and inefficient) or convert the oil boiler to a direct-vent (not really practically given that my boiler room is in the center of the basement and too much direct vent pipe would be required, plus would cost extra money). So I went with a wood stove inserted into my fireplace opening instead - this is not perfect, but it does a pretty good job of heating the whole house.
If I had access to natural gas, I would replace the oil boiler with a condensing, direct-vent natural gas boiler first, then add the wood boiler back-up later. I'd really, really like to do this (I really want to enjoy my cast iron radiators again full-time!), but the financials are just not there for me right now. If money were no object or I had two flues, I would have done this by now. I'm hoping to make the oil boiler last until maybe there is a natural gas service sometime in the future.
So, if I could give you any advice (and without knowing any of the particulars of your house), it would be to insulate and weatherize first, then replace the oil boiler with a condensing natural gas boiler IF the oil boiler is 30 years old or more, then add a wood stove (but get your wood cut, split and drying now, so when you have a wood stove you'll have dry wood ready to go).
Hope this helps and good luck in restoring your home.
that was very very informative thank you! I will definately have to replace the oil boiler but i'm afraid if i ad a wood boiler that the size of the house (~1600 sqft) would be to small and the wood boiler would end up smoking alot. Is this house too small for a wood boiler to run efficiently? Thanks again
Gooserider
Mod Emeritus
jb4020 said:
As others have said, one option (which will have it's own challenges given the size of the house) is to use storage, and size the boiler to fit the storage, rather than the house... Given the sizes, I'd go with the smallest boiler, and a 500 gallon storage setup, unless your heat load calcs indicate needing more... However, as stated above, weathersealing and insulation will do more for your heating bill than anything else you can do for the money... I would also consider that most mortgage and insurance co's will get antsy if you don't have SOME kind of fossil fuel backup heat, so it might make sense to look at a small direct vent gas or oil burner to use as your main heat for now, and just plan to add the wood boiler later.
Gooserider
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