How do you heat your house?

[signman2007]

My hydroponic grow lamps put off some pretty good heat.....oops did I say that out loud :angel: :anon: :greensmok

 

[SwiftShot]

I dropped electric base board put in forced air because I had natural gas line in front of the house. I had just purchased the house and pulled the last 3 years electric bills. The guy was paying 400 a month during the winter. He spent tons of money adding insulation to the house. Well jerked out the base board, put in forced air with a free standing gas fireplace. Did that because if I lost power the fireplace would still burn and provide heat just no power to the blower. Had programable thermastat put in automaticly drops the temp at night to 62 and warms up 30 min prior to us getting up in the morning. While we are at work drops it back down to 62 and warms it up again before we get home. Its has a weekly schedule so on weekends it doesnt get cold. Replaced the hot water heater, stove and dryer with gas to. Total cost was 3600 but my gas bill was 35-40 dollars and my electric was well below 100. I saved the cost of installing it in about a year. This was up in Washington state, whidbey island area. The house is now a rental but that was the best thing I freaking did saved the hell out of some money.

 

[85Chief]

Corn stoves
http://www.goldengrainstove.com/

We've been burning shelled corn for about 3 years now and it has helped significantly with our bills. One of our friends allows us to buy shelled corn off of him so we usually get a truck and get 60 bushel at a time and store them in 50 gal containers in the garage.

 

[8Mud]

I've tried a different approach. The heating is natural gas (efficient burn) boiler, piped to a heat exchanger in every room. The heaters (heat exchangers) all have thermostatic valves in them. At night when the wood stove burns low, the heaters kick in if needed. I burn almost exclusively Beech, I spread the ashes in the garden. Occasionally burn Pine, in the early morning or early evening to heat things up fast.
I removed most of the doors in the house and put in a wood burning stove, ground floor center and heat the whole house as a unit. It's a brick house (two floors)with thick walls and a basement ( a giant heat sink). I've found it is cheaper to keep it warm (fairly constant), than to heat it back up again daily.
I also put in some air convection floor vents to help the heat move upwards in the house (upper floors).
Whatever I'm doing has worked, the price of natural gas has doubled in the last five years, my heating bills have been steadily falling. I'm getting better at the routine and timing with the wood stove.
The gas company came out recently and replaced my gas meter and checked for gas theft.
Next step is to install a heat exchanger for the wood stove and an insulated water storage tank, to store some of the heat that goes up the chimney at night, for the daytime when nobody is home and to preheat the supply lines for the water heater. I may also install a heat sink around the stove, likely stone. Maybe a couple of celling fans, to help with air circulation.
I've also made a humidifier for the wood stove. It took some trial and error, bur I've finally gotten the size (surface area) right.
One cubic meter of wood is roughly equal to 55 gallons of heating oil.
All of my windows are double pane insulated and I have roller blinds. The top floor ceiling and the roof is insulated well.

 

[Captain Ron]

...
What do some of you use to heat your houses?
I am looking for alternatives......

--ron

 

[scoobyxj]

I burn almost exclusively Beech, I spread the ashes in the garden. Occasionally burn Pine, in the early morning or early evening to heat things up fast.

Good lord those are two of the worst woods you can burn in a stove! Definitely make sure you are cleaning your chimney out at least two three times a year burning that crap. You should be burning Ash, Oak, Walnut, Cherry, hard woods. They will burn allot longer, allot cleaner, and be much less of a hassle. Soft woods burn fast, put out less BTUs per cubic foot, and create a lot of dangerous creosote. Good way to burn your house down with a chimney fire burning that crap.

 

[8Mud]

Good lord those are two of the worst woods you can burn in a stove! Definitely make sure you are cleaning your chimney out at least two three times a year burning that crap. You should be burning Ash, Oak, Walnut, Cherry, hard woods. They will burn allot longer, allot cleaner, and be much less of a hassle. Soft woods burn fast, put out less BTUs per cubic foot, and create a lot of dangerous creosote. Good way to burn your house down with a chimney fire burning that crap.

Beech is what we got, whole forests of it. Some Birch, Pine and Spruce, other odds and ends.
The ashes when you get done burning Beech are pretty clean, they make good fertilizer. I typically dry for two years, it really doesn't leave much creosote in the chimney, I clean twice a year. The trick is to give your fire plenty of air and let it burn fairly hot.
Oak has to dry for a long time (2-3 years or more), or it leaves a lot of residue. IMO it has more Creosote than any white wood. I have a glass front on my oven, I can tell pretty quick what burns clean and what doesn't.
Ash burns well, but hard to come by. I favor Apple when I can get it, not only does it burn for a long time, it smells good
The bad part about burning wood is the storage. I typically store 30 cubic yards cut and split at the house. And have that much again cut in 15-20 foot lengths in the forest. Wood thieves are a problem here.
One good thing about Beech, it is easy to split when it's green.
I once cut and split 15-20 cubic yards of Chestnut, that was a mistake. It splits hard, burns really dirty and has a lot of creosote in it. Once tried a Willow, that stuff is really hard to split, but burns well enough.
I've been thinking about trying some Birch, easy to split, burns clean and plentiful. Has more heat energy and burns longer than Pine.
Oak, Ash and Beech have the same amount (+/- 5%) of heat energy (kWh) per cubic yard of wood.

 

[RichP]

Pallets, they are generally nicely dried and aged oak. When I lived in NJ and had a real wood stove I used that to heat with. The only work involved was pulling the nails and staples out, few quick passes with the hand saw and done.

 

[MudDawg]

If you burn pallets, make sure the stove or fireplace aspirates very well...most pallet wood is treated with anti fungal agents.