Supplement heat

[farmer]

My son has a 2 story old house. 1800 sq ft.
The house has a lp furnace. There is an old 12 by 16 chimney going through the middle of the house and has no clay liner in it.
Looking for something for supplemental heat to take half the heating bills off or more if feasible. He just doesn’t want it to be where he has to having it running it all the time and if the lp has to run for a few days a week is fine.
Just wondering everyone’s thoughts.

 

[FixedGearFlyer]

Will he buy or cut his own wood? If his interest is in reducing cost, but he's going to have to buy his wood, I'd say he should put the money he would have spent on a biomass heat source and chimney liner into improved windows, insulation, and air sealing. Wood heat if you have to buy your fuel won't even come close to saving half the cost on LP (at least around here).

If he has access to free wood and the time to cut, buck, move, split, and stack it (staying at least a year ahead), a wood stove or add on furnace could be a good option, though he should still button up and insulate the house as much as possible.

We love our Drolet Heat Commander forced air furnace, but run it as our primary heat source (not as a supplement to an LP furnace). We also have a PP130 pellet stove that has been great in our 1400 square foot shop, which could also be an option for your son if he wanted to buy fuel.

 

[farmer]

He has access to enough wood to heat his house. Just would have to get ahead so it could dry for a year or two.
I have a owb so he grew up helping take care of that. He likes the wood burning but I don’t think he wants something where once the heating season starts he has to tend it everyday just Incase he’s gone for a weekend or two during the winter.

 

[hedge wood]

One of the first things I would check on is will his home owners insurance company let him put a wood burning appliance in the house and what will that do to his rates. In the last five years in my area I have done quiet a few LP and natural gas furnace up grades to 96 percent furnaces and the wood stoves have came out because of the cost of insurance. Money spent on a wood burning appliance may be better spend on insulation new windows and a furnace up grade with maybe a air to air heat pump for the shoulder season. A lot of electric company's have rebates that cover the cost of a up grade from a standard AC unit to a heat pump unit.