Water-stove vs. Heat pump vs. Propane

[ponytug]

Newer heat pumps function much, much better in the cold than models even five years ago. For some models, supplemental heat does not come on until -40F.

That said, plan accordingly to how cold it does get where you are. Not every model has the same performance!

All the best,

Peter

 

[dlctcg]

@stuckmotor ... If you read his first post he states:

The woodstove is pretty expensive ($20k for boiler, splitter, and all that goes to make it happen) guessing 5 cords/year in NC mountains.

We are in New England & I converted our 3500+ sqft home to radiant floor heat & we love it but we have a soapstone stove that provides the majority of the heat for the house... we use 3.5 - 4.5 cords per winter... House has been very well insulated since we remodeled it, 2x6 walls with 2+ inches of closed cell foam & the remainder filled with Roxul insulation (with multiple days in a row of 100+ degrees heat index or 1st floor will stay in the low 70's with no A/C running) . If you build it right (tight) your 1600+ sqft of heating & cooling load will be very small...

I think you are on the right track to supplement your indoor / outdoor (wood) boiler with heat pumps... with a standby generator & some remote monitoring (for while you are traveling) you should be covered....

 

[ruffdog]

Was the OP thinking about a outdoor wood boiler instead of a indoor woodstove?

 

[4570Man]

Putting aside how financially sensible it is or isn’t nothing beats sitting in front of a wood stove on a cold day.

 

[ericm979]

Mini splits work really well, and they both heat and cool so you don't need an additional A/C like with propane. If I was planning a new house now in an area with reasonable priced and reasonably reliable power (ours is neither) I'd go with mini splits or the versions where the air handler goes in a central air system, depending on the house layout. Even with our expensive unreliable electricity I'm going with mini splits for the shop I'm going to build.

I like having a wood stove for supplemental heat. It gets rid of wood I'd have to find another way to dispose of, and warms the house better than the forced air propane furnace. I don't mind cutting and splitting wood. It works when the power is out. The wife and cats love it.

 

[travisbb]

If you are committed to using a wood boiler anyways, how heavily are you intending on using it? If it's only a few days a year, then adding electrical resistive heat to the boiler system would probably be the cheapest overall.

All the useful away-from-home options are going to require electricity to run. So if you have electricity anyways, why not continue to run the boiler pumps? Resistive heat won't be especially cheap to run, but you'll be travelling so the thermostat will be down low anyways. Installation and equipment should be pretty cheap.

Heat pumps are good for everyday heat, but don't work so well when it's very cold. If you plan on using the boiler for most of the heat, heat pumps are relatively expensive equipment which will see little use.

 

[mikester]

I'd go heat pump as primary with a wood stove backup. Propane stove backup is getting more attractive the older I get.

 

[Sigarms]

As stated, a heat pump is the most cost-effective here but I cannot control it.

I'm not certain what you mean by you can't control it?

 

[Root Cause]

I should have said, I cannot control whether the electricity is on or off. And when it fails, I have no control as to how long it will be off. I think it is fairly dependable but I have a family and a 88 yr old in-law to consider. Thanks for asking.

 

[Sigarms]

I should have said, I cannot control whether the electricity is on or off. And when it fails, I have no control as to how long it will be off. I think it is fairly dependable but I have a family and a 88 yr old in-law to consider. Thanks for asking.

We live at the base of the foothills in NC. We're on LP (over $3 a gallon), but I run heat pumps for primary heating and cooling.

My 89 year old dad lives with us, and honestly, in the 17 or so years we've lived here, we might have been without power for maybe 7 or 8 days in all those years (longest stretch without power maybe 3 days). Point being, I can't justify the cost of a whole house generator.

I did take a couple of classes from Generac and I thought I'd buy one at an employee discount, but after I learned about the fuel consumption on those puppies running full load (i'm not putting a whole house generator in to only run the fridge or some lights LOL), I said no way.

You can't beat a boiler for heat IMO, and at that point, seems after that, it's not worth it for "back up heat" because you won't get any better heat.

That said, you could run mini splits for spot cooling in the house because if you were to look at a boiler and mini splits for the whole home, you may be approaching Geothermal pricing.

If you're worried about power going out without a generator, look to a milivolt fireplace (what we have, complaints), it will run without electricity (ensure your CO detectors have battery back up).