Reccomendations on new heat source

[kcblosser]

I currently live in a two story 2,400 SF house that was constructed in 2007 and has a Heat N Glo 42" Royal Hearth which is I believe is prefabbed. The HVAC unit is all electric and is inefficient to say the least. I am looking for ideas to improve heat efficiency, i.e. wood stove insert, pellet stove insert, free standing pellet stove, etc. I plan on using the heat as my primary source however I'm only home on nights and weekends. I don't know much about this and would like your input.

 

[NH_Wood]

First = wood vs. pellets. Do you want to deal with the work involved in burning wood? Most of us like the process of burning wood - soup to nuts. If you don't like the idea of working with wood, pellets might be for you. Wood, of course, is the only fuel that you can potentially gather for free (minus time and costs of saw fuel and other tools/materials of the trade), which is a major draw for a lot of us. For example, in the past 2 years, I've gathered 4.5 years of wood for only time and misc. costs of working the wood. Certainly a lot cheaper than any other fuel source, I get exercise, spend time in nature, etc., etc. Pellets might be a good option if you are looking for 24/7 burning. You stated that you'd only be able to burn wood nights and weekends - there goes the 24/7 idea of wood. With pellets you can easily burn all day while you are away. But, you'll still be stuck with unknown pricing for fuel - for example, here in NH, a ton of pellets cost me $330/ton two years ago (used to burn pellets - glad I don't anymore!) and I used 4.5 ton per year - not cheap - + it was hard finding suppliers. Those problems seem to have gone away for now - prices are much lower (I think about $240/ton or so, and pretty easy to find. I think the big pellet bubble of 3 and 4 years ago burst as oil became less expensive. Regardless, as oil goes up, the pellet suppliers follow right behind, making the benefits of burning pellets less and less (from a financial point of view). Just a few thoughts. Cheers!

 

[raybonz]

I currently live in a two story 2,400 SF house that was constructed in 2007 and has a Heat N Glo 42" Royal Hearth which is I believe is prefabbed. The HVAC unit is all electric and is inefficient to say the least. I am looking for ideas to improve heat efficiency, i.e. wood stove insert, pellet stove insert, free standing pellet stove, etc. I plan on using the heat as my primary source however I'm only home on nights and weekends. I don't know much about this and would like your input.

Electric heat is very efficient as in 100% however depending where you live it may be expensive such as here in Mass. Seeing that you are not home much perhaps pellets would work for you especially if you have a large hopper along with a thermostat so you can set it lower when you are not home.. Just something to consider.. Wood has the advantage if you have power loss (pellet stoves require power at all times) and you can find wood anywhere.. I do get an 8 hr. burn if the damper is set low enough and the draft doesn't get too high as on a windy day..

Ray

 

[woodgeek]

KC,

This is a major decision, and I suggest you do plenty of research. Compare fuel costs using this site's tool:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/
this will require you research your local costs for fuels/elec.

You say you have electric heat. Is it a Heat Pump (fan blowing on the unit outside in cold weather), or electric
baseboards? If HP, have you had it checked/serviced to make sure it is working properly? If malfunctioning,
most default to a mode that uses more than 2X the electricity.

In Georgia, I would expect natural gas (if available) or a new, properly adjusted HP would be by far
the cheapest options (unless you were going to gather all your own firewood).