The office I work in has electric heat in a place where the rates are around 15 cents per kwh and it gets mighty cold in the winter. The building is a two-story wood-frame office complex with about 2,500 square feet of heated space on the main floor and another 750 on the lower level, which is basically a walk-in basement (i.e., cut into a hillside). Because there is no heat other than electric, the only access to the basement from the first floor is through a narrow stairway. No vents or any other way for air flow from bottom to top. The annual share of our electric bill devoted to heat is around $3,000, and going up steadily every year.
Last year we put programmable thermostats in the offices, since some of us only come in a few days a week, usually on a predictable schedule.
While I wish the building, built in 1970, had hydronic heat, it doesn't. I'm sure it was insulated up to the standards of the time. That doesn't leave us many options for alternatives to electricity.
One we have kicked around is wood pellets. I've been hanging around Hearth.com for long enough to know that a pellet stove in the basement area is probably only going to be effective in the basement, and maybe not even that effective there. My boss seems to think that it would heat the floor of the upstairs, and thus might be worth doing.
So my question is: would it? And if so, what size stove should we be looking at. Rough price? Pellet consumption?
Our office manager asked me who is going to tend the stove. "The boss," I said, since he's about the only one enthusiastic about the idea. He's looking for a three-year payback on the investment.
Any thoughts or observations are more than welcome.
Last year we put programmable thermostats in the offices, since some of us only come in a few days a week, usually on a predictable schedule.
While I wish the building, built in 1970, had hydronic heat, it doesn't. I'm sure it was insulated up to the standards of the time. That doesn't leave us many options for alternatives to electricity.
One we have kicked around is wood pellets. I've been hanging around Hearth.com for long enough to know that a pellet stove in the basement area is probably only going to be effective in the basement, and maybe not even that effective there. My boss seems to think that it would heat the floor of the upstairs, and thus might be worth doing.
So my question is: would it? And if so, what size stove should we be looking at. Rough price? Pellet consumption?
Our office manager asked me who is going to tend the stove. "The boss," I said, since he's about the only one enthusiastic about the idea. He's looking for a three-year payback on the investment.
Any thoughts or observations are more than welcome.
