Those of you in cold climates - do you heat with only wood?

[dharmama]

Do you all only heat with wood or do you use gas back up?

We're in a 2000 sq ft home (all one level) with high ceilings in great room - do you think its possible to heat our whole house with a PE summit insert or freestanding?

 

[Dunadan]

I've got about 1400 sq. feet between my main level and the split level that's up about 3 steps. I also have a finished basement, but we'll leave that out of the picture.

Last season we heated this area 100% with wood with our Lopi Revere insert (with blower). In the middle of winter, we burned 24*7 and during the day, the temps in the main part of the house were mid to upper 70s (low 80s on warmer days), and in the upper split level were low to mid 70s. After an all night burn, with no re-loads, temps would drop to about 70 in the main part of the house, and upper 60s in the bedroom area, which was fine for us.

I would consider the Revere a medium size insert - 2.2 cu. ft. firebox.

The biggest factors I think in your case will be how well insulated your house is, and how open the floor plan is (and where the insert stove will be in it). We have a sun room off one side of the main level that is poorly insulated, and that room never gets very warm. Not a fault of the stove, a fault of the room itself.

I'm not familiar with the stove you're looking at so I'll let others answer, but the answer is yes, a stove/insert can heat your entire house, if the conditions are right.

BTW...the downstairs I mentioned? I have to use burn oil to keep that area warm using baseboard heat because there is no way my insert will heat a downstairs area. Down the road I plan to put in another insert down there, but for now, except for that area, I'm 100% heating with wood.

 

[rdrcr56]

Were going to try it this year, our furnace was on its last leg in the spring so we had the furnace guy out this fall and he said it's kaput, so I just shut it off and we'll see what happens. I am going to get one more oil filled radiant heater for a total of two, just in case. Last year the furnace only came on maybe ten times.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Am I in a cold climate?

If so, no! :lol:

I have a NG furnace. I use the woodstove as a space heater.

Matt

 

[njtomatoguy]

Absolutely will not turn on furnace this year-last year was my first year burning, so now i feel a little more comfortable/confident.

 

[hfjeff]

Last year we had a cold streak of 9 straight days where the high never got above 0 deg F! There is no chance my insert is going to be able to bear the full burden of this 2,200 sq ft 50's ranch. But I will be pushing it. If it cuts my heating bill noticeably I will be happy.

 

[BrotherBart]

Not in the Tundra but it seems cold to me around here in the winter. The heat pump died years ago and we never got it fixed since we never used it anyway.

We burn wood or we would freeze.

 

[jpl1nh]

Seacoast of New Hampshire, inland about 15 miles, we heat with only wood though we have a perfectly good oil fired forced hot air system. Ironically we use it only in spring and fall when we need just a touch of heat. Home is 1200 sq ft first floor, 600 sq ft loft area on second floor though our house is set up with wood stove dead center in home with masonary chimney, open concept so it heats very effectively, and good insulation as well though lots of glass and little sun.

 

[n6crv]

We burn about 15/7 and the furnace does not come on with the wood stove running. The only time the furnace runs is at night. The house is 2000 sqft. Our heating bills are about 1/3 of the neighbors and our house is alot bigger.

Don

 

[Eric Johnson]

I'm just down the road from Dunadan. Heat the whole place with wood. Hot water, too.

 

[DriftWood]

Southeast Michigan wood heat 24/7. Gas forced hot air seldom used. 1800 sq ft long ranch.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/3106/

 

[oregonrider]

yes, whitfield profile 20 pellet in the diningroom ( if I ever dined) schrader smoke dragon in the livingroom.roben.

 

[Vermontster]

Last winter I went about 80-90 percent during the winter (Nov-March). I have a 1700 sq ft two story house built in 1864, I heated with a VC Madison. I have to have back up heat, unfortunately I work 15 hours a day some days, and this winter might be more like 70% wood, as the other half is not going to be home much, Double negative. Though, I am heating this year with a Lopi Leyden and I am crossing the fingers for a little more fire power and a much better burn time, Lopi made claims of, "a 12 hour burn time, and 18 hour times have also been recorded". It's my goal this winter to prove they are not liars.

 

[MrGriz]

Last year was the first year with the insert, other than that it's electric baseboard heat. I turned the baseboards down to 60* (except for my daughter's room), lit the fire and I don't think the temp dropped below about 67 -68* all winter. I did keep our bedroom cooler for sleeping.

 

[MrWinkey]

Before I switched to pellets I have letric in wall heaters I used to turn down to 45 deg or so and burned the old fisher the rest of the time. When there was more people home or the wife and I worked split shifts it worked out better as we could throw a few logs on the fire all the time and burn 24/7. It heated the whole house no problem. Heated a 1800 sqf rancher that has 2x6 construction. I have a large clear story and high roof so it worked out well.

 

[Jimbob]

Our stove, a freestanding Summit, provides ~ 90% of the heat for our 1000 S.F. bungalow. Stove is installed in basement, and is vented though a stainless steel lined outside chimmney. The remaining 10% is heated with electric baseboard heaters. We go through ~ 5 cords of mixed firewood (Poplar, Tamarack, Ash, spruce, Manitoba Maple).
Outside temps can go down to -45 F (-60 F with wind chill) in January and Feb.

 

[Gooserider]

Our furnace only came on when we were away from home longer than the burn time on the smoke dragon plus the time it took to cool down. - about 12-18 hours... I'm hoping the new Encore will keep us burning longer / hotter this year so the furnace stays on even less.

Gooserider

 

[DiscoInferno]

Ultima heats 2000sqft 2-story full time, unless we are out of town or temps get down to single digits (infrequent in DC area). Then I light the pilot on our fairly old but reliable gas furnace.

 

[buildingmaint]

I heat 900 sq ft home with pellet stove only. Had to run vent less ng heater in basement in February when my water pipes froze. It was the coldest Jan/ Feb in ten years up here in NW PA . Have an old forced air natural gas furness that has not been run for the last two years . I don't even leave the pilot light on because it cost me about $20 .00 a month to leave it lit.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

house was conveyed with baseboard electric when we moved in in 1993, moved in in october , mid month, ran baseboard until i got my first electric bill, bought englander woodstove next day while at work , baseboard has been cut off at breakers since, and has been removed from each room i have redone over the years, i currently run a 25-pdvc for primary heat with a 24-ac woodstove for backup. electric bill dropped from 425 month, with babseboard, to about 60 a month, which i figure isnt a bad "hotel load" for a 1200 sq ft house

 

[youngstr]

I'm in New Boston,NH and plan on 1 propane tank fill(400 gal) between now and summer. House is a 2600sf colonial and we burn wood with a Fireplace Xtraordinair 44 Elite.

 

[Nofossil]

We're in Vermont - I assume that counts as cold. We heat almost exclusively with wood (house, hot water, and hot tub) during the cold months. We have our system set up to automatically switch to oil as needed. We average 5-10 gallons of oil per winter.

The house is 3500 square feet. For a larger house, it gets difficult to maintain even heat with wood unless you have some way of moving and controlling heat. We have a wood boiler hooked up in parallel with the oil, both heating via hot water baseboard.

During the summer, we heat the hot water with solar panels backed up by oil. Our oil consumption during the summer dropped from 20 gallons per month to less than 4.

 

[babalu87]

Boiler comes on twice a year for heat. Once in the Spring and once in the Fall just to make sure it still circulates, other than that its all wood heat.