Searching for alternative heat source

[CGoodman]

Hi all,
I have been searching around this site and have found a lot of good information but I wanted to see if I could get it all in one place instead of through many different articles. I live in south eastern PA where we have about 4 months of heat needed and temps in the teens and 20's are not uncommon. My home is a ranch with a finished basement. I have about 1100 sf on the first floor with a somewhat open concept aside from a hallway to the bedrooms and about 850 of finished basement. Basement and first floor have insulated walls and the ceiling of my first floor has about an R-19+/-. I have installed all new windows and doors which are spray foamed in. I have been trying to decide how best to get away from the oil heat and being on 2.5 acres its not likely I will see natural gas any time soon and propane is too expensive. I have been going back and forth between wood and coal but there are so many options. Wood or coal boiler tied into my existing hot water baseboard system, wood or coal stove in the basement, wood or coal stove on the first floor. I ultimately want a heat source upstairs in my living room that will hopefully do the entire upstairs, possibly an insert with power take-off piped into bedrooms? but then I think I will need a second stove in the basement. I'm not opposed to 2 different heat sources either such as one wood and one coal. I should note that I will be adding a second story in the future so if the insert upstairs is a little big that's ok. I plan to build something like this around the insert on the first floor. Also how many cords of wood do you expect I will go through in a season with planning to burn as a primary heat source. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to thoroughly explain what I am deciding between.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. Can you tell us more about the house and future plans? How open is the 1st floor plan or is this room closed off from the rest of the house? Will the upstairs addition have an open staircase that starts in the area of the fireplace? What are the fireplace dimensions?

A concern could be the proximity of the woodwork surrounding the fireplace. It may be too close to many inserts.

 

[CGoodman]

Welcome. Can you tell us more about the house and future plans? How open is the 1st floor plan or is this room closed off from the rest of the house? Will the upstairs addition have an open staircase that starts in the area of the fireplace? What are the fireplace dimensions?

A concern could be the proximity of the woodwork surrounding the fireplace. It may be too close to many inserts.

The fireplace would be a zero clearance to combustibles so I didn't think there would be an issue with woodwork, but either way the final design is somewhat flexible. The unit I was looking at was the Napoleon NZ3000 for the overnight burn, the blower to transfer heat and I really like the way it looks. Unfortunately that unit seems to be close to $10,000 which is a lot more than I wanted to spend. I did find the Excalibur EX90 for around $5000 which is more in my budget, but I dont like the way it looks. It's looking like I may have to just install a stove and adhere to the clearances on either side and pipe it as usual. The basement stove will be somewhat straight forward if I go to wood.

The coal unit I liked was the Harman super magnum stoker. It's expensive but versatile in my opinion and I felt like I could make the trip one day a year to get coal, fill the bins and be done for the season which is a lot less work than wood. It seems easiest to go the route of the boiler but I want the experience of a fire.

 

[CGoodman]

The bedrooms are currently on the other end of the home from where the stove on the first floor would go and directly under where the basement stove would be located. One stove on each end of the home. However, I doubt the basement stove will heat upstairs due to a sheetrock ceiling and not being located close to the stairs. The future renovations will be designed with the stove in mind so I feel like I can make adjustments when it comes to that time. for that reason I want to design something to maximize what I have currently.

 

[begreen]

Take a look at the Pacific Energy FP30 and the Flame Monaco for more affordable ZC fireplaces. You can download the manual from their sites to check clearance requirements against the existing mantel opening.

 

[BIGDADDY]

Coal is plentiful in PA. My first home I had an EFM stroker worm feed boiler which also provided me with hot water. Thermostat controlled heat in a home is nicer then the hot to cool radiant heat of a wood stove

 

[blades]

Having grown up with coal- I much prefer wood. Course the wood it self is free (labor fuel tools of course cost) but then I am not spending any thing on gym memberships either. Coal has advantage of long cycle and the auto feeders( when they work) ect, but that all requires power input - power out leaves a bit of a problem- wood stove no power needed and can cook on it in a pinch as well. As far as the mess I guess about a horse apiece. I enjoy the wood stove scent , coal don't remember but hate oil stench. same furnace went from coal to oil to gas just a big old octopus gravity unit. hated cleaning that thing and the coal bin as well. Besides the EPA is on an anti coal binge( and they not ignoring wood heat either) and no one knows where that is going to lead to except to make everything more costly- SOP for EPA regs.