What's everyone use as supplemental or main heat?

[Pete Judd]

Heat pump central heat, and a pellet stove. Cost still to high, but if I installed a wood stove my insurance bill would cost more than the savings in the heating bill.

 

[LJH]

Main heat is wood, burned in a masonry heater. Toe-kick heaters in the two bathrooms and for backup an electric wall unit w/thermostat that was required by the stooopid insurance company before they'd cover us. We never turn it on, I suppose it still works. Fugly thing defaces one of the living room walls. Oh, and a 100 yr. old Wedgewood range in the kitchen. That's good for quick heat in the immediate area.

One day when we're really old & decrepit I suppose we'll have to hire out the wood cutting & hauling or at last resort, install an HVAC system. Got plenty of room for it but so far, no need.

 

[71bronco]

How much is the initial cost of installing geothermal in an existing home?

About $21K. But I got 30% back from the government. It replaced a 15 yr old heatpump that was shot that we used for air conditioning and backup heat.It also included 2 80 gal hot water tanks hooked in to the geothermal. The wife has allergy problems and is much happier now whitch is priceless.
The company we went with used a line boring machine so the outside mess was minimal. I'm very happy that we changed to geothermal.

Jeff

 

[Ken45101]

Primarily wood (Pacific Energy Summit), we love it. We tried a pellet stove and that was a total disappointment (Harman Advance). We do have a heat pump that we use when it gets above 55 or so.

 

[Gunny]

When I bought this house it had an oil furnace, but fuel oil got so expensive I installed an LP furnace, then LP skyrocketed in cost! This old house doesn't have any ducts in the living room, it's too close to the ground to install any, so I put in a PTAC unit with heat pump to keep the living room heated and cooled. When it's in use, it keeps the room with the furnace thermostat warm enough that the furnace doesn't run, which means the back rooms in the house get kind of cold, but not cold enough to worry about freezing anything. I've got a pretty good fireplace insert downstairs but I don't trust my old chimney. Hopefully I can get a liner installed this year to I can burn wood in the real cold months.
We've got pretty cheap electricity here so I guess electric heat would probably run the same as LP

 

[sam5570]

we have a wood stove in the living room that burns from oct till april. we have a brand new heat pump that we had installed last summer for the ac in the summer and some heat in spring and early fall. got to have a heat sorce here that don't plug in or you going to get cold. we have lost our power 3 times so far in january. wife and i love our wood heat.it' cost about $200 a winter saves us alot of money.

 

[mehig]

How much is the initial cost of installing geothermal in an existing home?

My wife and I built our retirement home with about 1500 sq ft and installed a 2 ton Geo-thermal Water Furnace(brand) the cost was right at $12000. Last month we spent $50-$60 to run the furnace. In July or Aug we spend around $70 per month to run the AC and it's the best air conditioning ever, blowing cold air in the neighborhood of 50 degrees from the floor vent. It's our second Geo-thermal unit as we had one in our previous home. Our 1st system had the ground loop installed in vertical wells and the second system was installed in a trench around 6' deep and 300' long. Trenching is a little cheaper

 

[dex3361]

I installed a 14SEER split system heat pump that's used till it gets cold enough to fire up the Harman coal/wood stove that's in the downstairs family room. My house is well insulated but not super insulated. If I fire up the wood burner on above 40 degree nights it gets too hot.

 

[IgroRockwell]

I live in a large barn-style house with a garage on the first floor in the land of ice and snow. Heated with wood, oil backup for years. Always burned 10 to 12 full cords per year along with 300 gallons of fuel oil (big place, leaky garage doors). Then I found a lightly used Madawaska brand gassifier boiler (circa 1980). I bought it, brought it home and rebuilt it, made a storage tank to store lots of water and fired it up. Wood consumption dropped to 7 full cords, with no oil usage at all. Paid for itself the first year. I must clean the boiler thoroughly every two weeks because it needs to breathe. Never have had to clean the chimney, even burning off-the-stump green wood, since I started gassifying 4 years ago. After it gets up to temperature (2000 degrees) it burns all of the secondary wood gasses and gets heat from them. Mostly water vapor and co2 left to go up the chimney. Definitely not for everyone, and probably not even for me when I get older, but for now it works.

 

[cobb71]

We have a hitzer amish made anthracite upright stove, runs 24-7 and keeps the house cozy and warm. I like the fact that it will run for 12 to24 hrs on one tending.There no soot, smoke or creasote. This winter has cost 360.00 bucks to heat. It is also ultra clean.