Simple, forced air wood and coal burning furnace

[brenndatomu]

Well, I didn't know the Kuumas required so little electricity.
But the price tag still isn't very attractive.

Buy once cry once...it'd be the last one you'd need! Seems like it would be inconsequential in the grand scheme of building a new home!

 

[Stoker_]

Just to be clear, they are no longer made, so you'd have to find a used one, but they sold a bazillion of them...PSG Caddy. (They made a larger Max Caddy too, but that would be WAY over kill for 2k ft)
A well insulated/air sealed home would be easy to heat from a walkout (for easy wood supply) basement with either a wood furnace or even just a decent sized stove...either could be non electric if you designed the house for gravity flow heating right off the bat. Gravity heat from a coal furnace used to be really common.
If you would consider the stove route, a large unit like the BK King or one of the large Woodstock stoves would do it nicely.

Where would I find how to design a house for gravity heat?
We haven't started building yet, so changes can still be made.

 

[Stoker_]

Buy once cry once...it'd be the last one you'd need! Seems like it would be inconsequential in the grand scheme of building a new home!

That's true!
Call me cheap, but if I can save a few thousand dollars here and there, I'm all for it!

 

[brenndatomu]

Where would I find how to design a house for gravity heat?

Hmm...good question! I'ma hafta ponder that a bit! Many HVAC "pros" struggle to design/install the stuff that they were actually trained on correctly!
Any thoughts on gravity heating design @bholler ?

 

[brenndatomu]

This is the jist if it, and I think a lot of the Amish do it this way, but it can be in a more common "ductwork" manner too, just need to make sure to have good rise on your runs (or fall in the return runs) and it needs to be oversized vs forced air heating.
It done correctly it could/would be pretty darn simple though!


Or it could also be as simple as installing ductwork in a normal manner (following all best practice rules for wood heating) and just put an emergency heat dump in the plenum that opens when the power goes out...that could either dump to basement, or be routed upstairs in some fashion...either floorplan design/well placed stairwells, or some sort of duct or trap door.
I have an emergency heat dump door to the basement, just in case the power goes out and we aren't here, the door pops open the supply plenum when the fusible link melts, dumps heat to basement...mainly to protect the furnace, and limit the fire hazard of 200* (+) ducts near all that 80 year old framing! (Although it is treated with flame retardant in the furnace room)
You can do similar with a spring loaded damper motor too...set for power closed/spring open.
Lots of possibilities when building new! I'm a little jealous
Although if I were building new I'd go with a wood fired hydronic heater with 1000 gallons of hot water storage, feeding heated floors and old school cast iron radiators!

 

[Stoker_]

This is the jist if it, and I think a lot of the Amish do it this way, but it can be in a more common "ductwork" manner too, just need to make sure to have good rise on your runs (or fall in the return runs) and it needs to be oversized vs forced air heating.
It done correctly it could/would be pretty darn simple though!

View attachment 339854
Or it could also be as simple as installing ductwork in a normal manner (following all best practice rules for wood heating) and just put an emergency heat dump in the plenum that opens when the power goes out...that could either dump to basement, or be routed upstairs in some fashion...either floorplan design/well placed stairwells, or some sort of duct or trap door.
I have an emergency heat dump door to the basement, just in case the power goes out and we aren't here, the door pops open the supply plenum when the fusible link melts, dumps heat to basement...mainly to protect the furnace, and limit the fire hazard of 200* (+) ducts near all that 80 year old framing! (Although it is treated with flame retardant in the furnace room)
You can do similar with a spring loaded damper motor too...set for power closed/spring open.
Lots of possibilities when building new! I'm a little jealous
Although if I were building new I'd go with a wood fired hydronic heater with 1000 gallons of hot water storage, feeding heated floors and old school cast iron radiators!

So many options!
Options I didn't even know existed!
I'll have to check out all of those options. I was originally thinking forced air, but you've given me some new things to check out.

 

[brenndatomu]

Welcome to the rabbit hole!