What and how do you heat your home and possibly shop during the cold winter months??

[techman]

A friend has a large pole building for car repair. He has a waste oil burner for heat. A year ago I put in a 3 ton 18 seer heat pump in his shop. In the summer he keeps it at a reasonable temp and moderates the humidity inside. In the winter he keeps the temp in the low 60's and fires up the burner when he is working in there. This goes a long way to prevent rust from forming from moisture condensing on metal items. Great combo plus it makes distilled water for batteries !

paul

 

[Oaktree]

Wood with oil furnace for backup in the house, wood for my shop. Since I only use the shop for specific projects in the winter, I'll just burn the "junk" wood (pine, spruce, poplar) there...not really concerned with creosote since I never bank it down.
On average we use 3-4 cords/year. This house is reasonably tight, especially given that it's almost 200 years old and isn't that hard to heat.

 

[ovrszd]

House is propane fired hydronic floor heat, 2,400 sqft. Propane fired Domestic hot water. Thermostat on 72F.

Shop is propane fired hydronic floor heat, 1,900 sqft. Thermostat on 68F.

We use 1100-1200 gallon of propane per year.

I contracted for $2.15 p/gallon this year. $1.79 p/gallon last year.

I'm in the process of installing a 1,000 gallon tank. I probly won't need to contract then.

 

[oldballs]

"Country Boys know how to survive".....so the song goes.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[dodge man]

We have geothermal for the house, during normal operation it uses about 1900 watts of electricity. It has electric grid also but it doesn’t usually run. Also a fireplace which more or less heats the house if it’s above 20 degrees outside. My 28 by 30 shop has a propane heater hanging in the corner up high and I normally keep it at about 45 degrees.

 

[oosik]

I'm talking about when we first built here in 1982. We heated the house with our wood stove. All the firewood was harvested from the property here. That lasted about ten years. The wood brought in too much dirt, dust, bark and bugs. My big 'ol pine trees still had Mt St Helens ash in their bark.

Then we went to a pellet stove. That lasted about twenty years. Then pellets got expensive and it was a real PITA ferrying them from the storage area to the house.

The last ten years its been baseboard electric heat. Clean - nothing to cut/split - nothing to haul AND electricity is very cheap around here. After thirty years - the pellet stove still decorates a corner of the living room.

My shop is heated with a propane fired salamander heater.

 

[JJT]

The house is heated by fuel oil, $3.99/gallon last week. We burn 600 gallons in a mild winter, closer to 1000 gallons if it's a bad winter, (multiple weeks of -25F with a 25 mph wind). The shop is heated by kerosene, less than 50 gallons a year.

I grew up heating with wood, and will never go back. The next upgrade to the heating system will be geothermal.

 

[Paddy]

Electric boiler radiant heat in slabs. Costs $100 a month per 1000sq-ft of house in winter. house is larger than 1000 sq-ft

 

[not2old]

Open loop geothermal in 4600 square feet on two floors plus 650 square foot attached garage. Keep house at 68 in winter and 76 in summer. Garage at 56 in winter with construction electric heater for a few minutes when I want to work out there. Annual electric bill is a little over $2500.00. Shop isn't finished yet, but has pex in floor and plan to use electric home made boiler initially and hope to be able to afford a waste oil boiler when done. Don't know how much it will cost in the shop over a whole winter.

 

[ovrszd]

I'm talking about when we first built here in 1982. We heated the house with our wood stove. All the firewood was harvested from the property here. That lasted about ten years. The wood brought in too much dirt, dust, bark and bugs. My big 'ol pine trees still had Mt St Helens ash in their bark.

Then we went to a pellet stove. That lasted about twenty years. Then pellets got expensive and it was a real PITA ferrying them from the storage area to the house.

The last ten years its been baseboard electric heat. Clean - nothing to cut/split - nothing to haul AND electricity is very cheap around here. After thirty years - the pellet stove still decorates a corner of the living room.

My shop is heated with a propane fired salamander heater.

My previous house was heated with elec baseboard. Very comfortable with a thermostat in each room. Very cost effective to run.