heating the house

[farmerpsv]

hey gang,
am getting closer to building the new house, going to be a modular with a third floor build out and a basement. i've considered corn, pellets, waste oil, vegy oil...well, you get it. corn looks really neat, but i have 32 acres of wood, so wood wins. i am amazed that wood still delivers the btu output when compared to everything but joan of arc /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. i like the soap stone stoves. sadly my house design just doesn't accommodate an internal chimney, so i'll have to tack it on the outside of the house. my idea is perhaps a bit strange, accept i know i'll find some takers and more ideas from y'all, not that y'all are strange, just not conventional. my idea is to build the mantel with hollow sides and top plate so that i can connect a return from the hvac handler in the basement ( the idea being to circulate the heat to as much of the house as i can, i'll still be limited cause i'll have 2 zones) so any ideas? help me pick this appart.
thanks
paul

 

[PineRidge]

<font color="blue"> i've considered corn, pellets, waste oil, vegy oil...well, you get it. corn looks really neat, but i have 32 acres of wood, so wood wins. i am amazed that wood still delivers the btu output when compared to everything but joan of arc </font>

Most any solid fuel will give you more BTUs for your buck than fuels like natural gas.

 

[penokee]

Wood is the way to go - the exercise, associated with cutting, hauling, pileing, etc. not to mention the clean air and enjoyment of managing your own woodlot makes it all worthwhile. (assuming you have the time). A few years back one of my friends had a wood pellet stove with a large hopper. Power went out over the weekend when no-one in the building, and the fire worked back up the auger into the bin and just about burned the place down. Would hope they have that problem solved by now.
penokee /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[rswyan]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My idea is to build the mantel with hollow sides and top plate so that i can connect a return from the hvac handler in the basement ( the idea being to circulate the heat to as much of the house as i can, i'll still be limited cause i'll have 2 zones) so any ideas? help me pick this appart )</font>

1. Put the wood stove in the lowest level of the house (warm air rises /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) - this works well if you have a walkout basement. I just moved the woodburning insert from the fireplace in the living room to the fireplace in the family room in the basement. This got rid of a logstics nightmare (getting wood to the insert when it was in the living room) and my natural gas consumption decreased this past month by about 30% over the previous year and we kept the house pretty warm (comfortable enough for t-shirts)

2. Plumb in return line at the highest point in the room that the woodstove is in (warm air rises /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) In my case, the family room in the basement has a low ceiling (7') with two returns and two hot air registers in the ceiling. The hot air registers are closed off and I leave the door to the back basement where the hot air furnance is open since there is a big vent in the return there. We also leave the door at the top of the basement steps open for convection. The room gets very warm when there is a fire in the stove (keeps the living room floor toasty)

My gas cost this past month was still alot higher than I wanted ($175) so I'm going to move a wood furnace that's up in the shed down to the house (it's just too nice for the shed) and replace it with a barrel stove. Hopefully this will reduce my gas cost to less than $30 month (water heater only)

 

[Egon]

The furnace fans can be run continuously to help distribute heat throught the house.

Egon

 

[farmerpsv]

hey all,
thanks for the input.
pineridge, i believe you're right. for example, electricity seems to be the least efficient when it comes to btu output. where i'm at, one can reasonably use a heat pump, but i'm not thrilled with heatpumps as an only source.
penokee, yep wood is keen for many reasons, you really don't get the same exercise making pellets and it's very tedious.
rswyan, yeah, my brain gets a wee bit too creative sometimes. my air handler will be in the basement, so it's not as practical or efficient to place the intake over the stove (all things considered, even though heat does indeed rise). since the intake will be pulling air in, i figure if it's in the proximity of the stove, it'll be effective. probably would be much easier (and just as effective) to put the return under the stove (legs straddling a grate perhaps?) that would put the stove right over the handler with very little ductwork to impede airflow
egon, yep, that's the idear. i will have heat pumps because i will have ac and it's pretty cheap to include the heat pump, so running the fans is my thought too. i just want to pull it in in the most efficient way while staying as simple as i can.
paul

 

[EdK]

I believe you're on the right track. I have a forced air return as high as possible in the room with the wood stove and re-distribute the heat from a single stove to heat an entire house. The electricity to run the blower is minimal.

Don't forget, pellets and corn may be relatively cheap but when oil is $5/gal the will go up and your trees will not /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[dmccarty]

Paul,

See if you can get a pipe through the wall to bring in outside air for the stove's combustion. I put in a 6 inch PVC pipe under my slab that goes from the outside to the back of the stove. Some stoves allow a direct connection for the combustion air. Some dont'. Mine does but it ain't really worth the trouble to go from a 6inch to a 4 inch pipe so I did not connect the stove. The stove's air supply connection was nothing more than a hole on the back of the stove that allowed the air into the bottom of the stove.

When the fire is burning I can feel the air being pulled from the pipe. When no fire I don't feel any air movement.

Hope this helps.
Dan