New Construction Wood Heat, help

[Benjamin Morrison]

Although I'm not new to wood heat, this will be quite different than my past experiences with stand alone wood furnaces.

I'm nearing design completion of a 1625' two story home with 24x32 garage, heated workshop in the back of garage, 8x24.
I sell Real Estate, 90% new construction, in 8 years, 100% forced hot air by propane. I don't want fossil fuels in my home, except to cook with
Initial thoughts on small interior wood gassification boiler with three head mitsubishi mini for back up, head in shop, first and second floors. Flat panel radiators in house. House will be insulated to code except R49 blown into the attic.
I've always wanted hot water because of the ease and cost effective nature of solar adding to the system.
I'm also considering resale, so even though one or the other may be overkill in conjunction, not everyone wants to deal with wood. I love it.
I'm really just looking for feedback from good people that are not trying to sell me something.
Thanks in advance.

 

[sloeffle]

House will be insulated to code except R49 blown into the attic.

I'd spend all the money you can on insulation and exterior sealing. It is a one time expense vs the yearly expense ( time and money ) of having to split, stack and dry more wood on a yearly basis. This is a good place to start on getting that information. I can't help you much on picking a gasification boiler, but I'd steer away from forced air if you do not need air conditioning. In my perfect house, I'd have heated floors and only use forced air for AC'ing. I'd assume you could use the mini-splits for AC'ing.

 

[Bad LP]

I would change out my central AC only with a heat pump if I was doing it over and one day I will do so. Indoor gasifaction boiler with storage works great for RFH and my LP boiler works seamlessly with the Tarm.

Think about getting older before you work a system around wood. At 57 I'm wondering what I may do in another 20 years. 23 years ago I was full of big ideas. LOL

Most insurance companies I'm told shy away from alternate only heat source but your splits my satisfy that.

When I built this current house 13 years ago I wish I had the money for closed cell spray foam. One day I will rip out the FG in the attic and spray foam what ever can be done. On new construction it's pretty hard to not seriously look at spray foam and dense pac AKA flash and pack.

 

[maple1]

I can't see where you are from on my phone.

If I was doing radiant (hot water) with wood I would also want to be able to heat that water with another source - electric, gas or oil depending on local fuel situation. There are also air to water heat pumps in their early stages. But, if AC was also a consideration, I might only do the splits, with wood stove to supplement. Unless in a real cold climate, hot water heating might be a bit overkill with modern construction methods and design considerations - but it sure makes good heat.

 

[sardo_67]

if you add in some radiant floor heat in the rooms you can go even lower on your heating water temps and longer before firing the boiler which will result in less wood used.

if resale is a concern have you looked at a pellet boiler? they are more automated than wood and if you are reselling it that may appeal to more people since cutting, splitting, stacking then loading/moving the wood won't scare buyers away.


depending on what i do in the next 10-15 years i may end up with an automated pellet boiler when i get to the house/shop that i will be at for decades, sure i will need to spend $$$$ once a year on probably 4,000-6,000lb of pellets but i'll save the time/effort and some cost of getting and processing wood.
current pricing now is $205-250 per ton so $820-$1000 on the low end to $1230-$1500 on the high end where as i now at 32/33yrs old get free wood or log length at $100-120 a cord which was around $600-$900 a truck load plus all my labor to process it.

 

[jebatty]

One of the best ways to stay "young" is to stop talking about getting "old." So it goes with a wood heating system and the healthy effort to get the wood from a tree to splits in the stove or boiler.

At age 71 heating with wood is my club membership, workout routine, walks in the forest, elimination of fossil carbon for energy use, and importantly understanding and appreciating where our heat comes from: felling trees, bucking, hauling out of the woods, splitting, stacking, air drying, and then finally moving the dry splits from the stacks to the Tarm in the shop or wood stove in the house. And what else would be as healthy? Certainly not sitting in the easy chair, watching TV, munching on snacks, bemoaning aches and pains, and waiting for the end time. So it takes a few days each year ....

 

[sardo_67]

hahah yes that is true, on my post i wasn't just referring to getting old and going to pellet fuel but just wanting to spend the time doing other stuff than processing wood. or how a potential buyer of a house may be turned off by the need for wood fuel due to them being lazy or possibly just ignorant.

 

[peakbagger]

Interesting I am in Northern NH and have been told a couple of times that wood heat is negative for most buyers.

NH does (or did) have a very generous rebate for installing pellet boilers. There is a company in the area that does bulk deliveries so pellet boilers are regarded the same as oil furnaces and can be regarded as primary heating sources.

Sadly wood boilers are generally regarded as supplemental heat sources by banks as someone has to be there to feed them. I prefer a wood boiler with storage as I have access to wood and don't mind processing wood because I don't use much.

I will second the suggestion to build an energy efficient home. NH has an energy code with some fairly aggressive insulation requirements but the state doesn't enforce it and most towns also do not. This should be regarded as a minimum build. The "pretty good house" standard advocated by Green Building Advisor (In VT) is a really good standard that avoids the hard to get esoteric materials used in Pasivhaus designs. Design and build a house right and a source of heat becomes trivial. Get the thermal mass right and most of the time you don't need supplemental heat. Add in some PV panels with net metering and a cold source minisplit can heat the house except for the coldest days. Add in small woodstove and a cord of wood and you should be set.

Note most builders do not have the skills or interest in building an energy efficient home. It requires a change in attitude from conventional construction. he framing is different to cut back on thermal bridges. They should be able to build a house with minimum air change spec and the only way to do that is lot of extra sealing.

Be aware there is lot of hype about geothermal heat pumps, they are expensive to install and apparently seem to require a lot of service that is not readily locally available.