Wood Stove in a new highly energy efficient home

[hyacinths]

Hello all

I live near Burlington, Vermont in an average 1970's home and we burn about 2-3 cords per year and some propane to heat our 2,000 sq. ft. home. We are planning to build a highly energy efficient, very well sealed, highly insulated (R-25 walls, R-42 roof), energy efficient windows, and a heat recovery ventilator. We would like to use a wood stove for most of our heat and was wondering what size woodshed to build immediately adjacent to the room with the wood stove. I was considering a shed to hold 4 cords in two sectioned areas so we could buy green in the spring to dry for 18 months before burning and plan on burning about 2 cords per year.

I was wondering if anyone else out there is burning wood in a highly energy efficient home and how much they're burning.

I spoke with one guy locally that is in a tight home and he said he only burns about a cord per year.

Any comments would be appreciated.

 

[struggle]

While my house is not air tight like you are going to build (cira 1984) It does have the best windows and insulation of that time.

I am not sure how much we will burn for cords as we now use a soapstone stove.

My suggestion is to look at the soapstone stoves if you have not yet. We went from an older non-EPA Vermont Castings Vigilant to a Mansfield by Hearthstone and this thing seems like it uses at least a 1/3 less wood as compared to the other.

How much you will burn has a lot of varibles with temps and winds every year is different it seems around here in NW Iowa. Last Monday it was 80 degrees here and today as I type it is 27 out and was down to 20 last night.

I though I was done heating with wood.

 

[babalu87]

hyacinths, face as many windows as possible to the South. You will be amazed at how much fuel you can save when the sun is shining. A cord a year in Vermont................... I dunno, the house must be small. If you are burning 2-3 a year now (with some propane) plan on using the same in the new house, worse case scenario your woodshed is a little big. Wood doesnt really go bad either

Good luck with the new house.

 

[scfa99]

What size house, floor plan, where will the stove be located? need some more details.

 

[webbie]

two and two sounds real good for a home of that type. Of course, you will want a stove with an outside air intake. You might also consider having a high mass stove (stone/soapstone/masonry heater) to level out the fluctuations and store the heat. The ultimate would be a gasification wood boiler with storage - this would allow you to fire the thing perhaps once a day - and also provide DHW, etc.

Check out Erics thread in the Green Room - he is planning on installing such a boiler in a big old house...but the same concepts apply.

 

[elkimmeg]

Its one to produce energy but what about storing it? I use mu center field stone granite fireplace and facing to store the 24/7 running of the stove,
Even when the stove temps burn down imagine floor to ceiling 16" thick 12 ' long and that's a storage mass Most inportant energy saving measure would be to have4 a central interior location of a chimney I don't care how insulated your home is. A cord of wood is about equal to 150 /175 gallons of oil and you are not heating a home with 150 gallons of oil in VT.

I have a simmilar insulated home and square footage with Anderson windows 2 stoves 5 or 6 cords every year the past 30 My exterior walls are 2/6 R19 with R7.2 high R styrofoam then plywood and sheet rock A system r value of R 27 or 28. Problem is even super insulated homes have leaks people open exterior doors batf fans dryer vents recessed lights attic pull down stairs and every window compromises your envelope Even good windows when one calculates U value to r value are 2.1 to 3.0 r value thats a huge differnece to R28 side wall Add skylites to the mix and another huge opening loosing heat I basically figure a cord a month and VT one should add a month than near SE Ma, Another factor is to limit nothern exposure glass area and load up on the southern side to collect passive solar gain then a good insulated curtain shutter system to trap heat in and preventing heat loss once the sun goes down.

Then factoring the angle of the winter sun and working in an overhang to shade the windows in the Summer.. To get real productive heat out out of a modern stove,it needs 24/7 opperation

 

[tradergordo]

Well I think the 2-3 cords for your existing older home (assuming not so well insulated) for Vermont is low, of course you did say you use propane too, so that really tells us nothing. At any rate, I currently live in possibly one of the most "ideal" homes for heating with wood, around 2500 sq ft, built in 1999, good insulation and windows, interior flue, open floorplan, large south facing bay windows (very good solar heat during the day, covered up at night). I used about 3 to 3.5 cords this year (mild winter in Pennsylvania) - this was heating 99% with hardwood averaging about 24 million BTUs per cord. For vermont climate I would have used significantly more wood.

 

[Charlie Z]

I'd forget stoves and design the house around a Finnish-type masonry heater...

http://www.tulikivi.com/www/kotien.nsf/WWWTakka/Instructions%20for%20use!OpenDocument&id=TH0

 

[Reggie Dunlap]

Here's my feedback from north central VT. I built my house in 1999 and it is very well insulated with Marvin windows. I heat about 2200 sq. ft. with a Hearthstone Mansfield vented into a huge masonry chimney that goes up 22 feet through the peak of a cathedral ceiling. The chimney is in the middle of the house and acts as a great thermal mass. If I let the stove go out the chimney is warm for 2-3 days.

I usually burn around 4 cords per winter, with the stove going continuously from late November through April.

If you are committed to burning wood you may want to look into a wood gasification boiler.

Hope this helps,
Reggie

 

[Reggie Dunlap]

Also, the guy who heats his house with one cord either lives in a one room house or supplements with oil or gas.

 

[sparksalot]

I use 2 to three cords to heat my home 1300sq ft....built in 1920,,,,i did gut the upstairs and have spray foam on the ceiling and walls..and put in new windows downstairs..but i do let the house get cold at night 55 degrees by some mornings...i do have to open the front door to get the fire started because of the tightness...our stove dries our clothes and heats up our tea keatel for coffee....i went to our local museum to see the deppression exhibit..with my 5 yr old and she saw one picture of a family huddled around the stove with clothes all hanging around...she said hey that looks like us...i said yep and to quote Hank Williams "a country boy can survive"
Also the south facing windows help a lot.....they knew what they were doing when they built these houses.....no great rooms with vaulted ceilings
I heat with a jotul castine double doors

 

[johnsopi]

You could look into a wood furnace that ties into the ductwork of your house. I have a Big Jack made by Yukon/Eagle I am very happy with it. Heated a 2000 ft colonial in MD with 4 cords. Even the upstairs
bedrooms are are in the 70's. If it gets too hot in the house we open windows.
The big thing you have to do when planning your house is to have your chimney in line with the main
duct. If I knew what I do now I would have had a multifuel furnace put in. But as it is I have a oil and a
wood furnace.

 

[wg_bent]

Also, the guy who heats his house with one cord either lives in a one room house or supplements with oil or gas.

Nope. I know a guy who has a home here in Hyde Park, NY who heats on 1 cord of wood a year using a CAT Defiant. The house is SUPER insulated, and has what I'd call an Active solar design. The home stores solar heat in a huge sand mass below the concrete slab, then pulls heat from it all night. He only needs the stove once temps go below about 10 degrees, and the stove sits in the unheated basement of the home. Walls are like r60, same for ceilings all using that expanding foam insulation plus r15 board insulation. They also have a Rumsford fireplace that is part of the thermal mass of the home but they refer to it as the winter air conditioner.

The home is impressive, but not all that large.

They also have a PV system that overall ends up with them getting a check at the end of the year.

(and then they drive a big Mercedes SUV :roll: )

 

[Reggie Dunlap]

Warren-I assumed they were in Vermont. Hyde Park NY has a very different climate and it may well be possible down there.

Reggie