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

[jyoutz]

They seem to have a tendency to plug up as well or at least the guys on Firewood Hoarders Forum say they do. I don't know, neither of my biomass units require one.

That can happen when you burn really pitchy or green wood with it dampered down. Many newer stoves and furnaces now use an upper combustion chamber to do the same thing as catalytic devices, and these don’t plug up. Kind of an improved next generation design.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I'm all electric heat here, both the house and the attached insulated garage. The "shop" building isn't heated, or insulated, or have a proper concrete floor. So I don't really call it a shop. More like a big storage building.

 

[deserteagle71]

They seem to have a tendency to plug up as well or at least the guys on Firewood Hoarders Forum say they do. I don't know, neither of my biomass units require one.

As others have stated, plugging up the catalytic converter is caused by not following the owner's manual instructions. DON'T use the stove as a burn barrel for your garbage, and get the stove hot before you flip the flow through the catalyst.

I used my Blaze King with catalytic converter for 24 years before firewood became impossible to find around here at a decent price with no problems with the catalyst. It is still sitting out in the barn and if the mindset of the bureaucrats ever changes and we are allowed to harvest those trees burned in forest fires, I'll reinstall the Blaze King and go back to firewood. Much prefer burning firewood to pellet stoves with their noisy fans.

 

[arto98607]

Large woodstove in the shop, geothermal system in the house with fireplace insert as a backup during rare electrical outage.

 

[5030]

As others have stated, plugging up the catalytic converter is caused by not following the owner's manual instructions. DON'T use the stove as a burn barrel for your garbage, and get the stove hot before you flip the flow through the catalyst.

I used my Blaze King with catalytic converter for 24 years before firewood became impossible to find around here at a decent price with no problems with the catalyst. It is still sitting out in the barn and if the mindset of the bureaucrats ever changes and we are allowed to harvest those trees burned in forest fires, I'll reinstall the Blaze King and go back to firewood. Much prefer burning firewood to pellet stoves with their noisy fans.

Interesting comment in as much as the room air distribution blower on either of my stoves makes very little 'noise' other than you can hear the air movement, but then I keep all the mechanical components serviced properly and lubricated plus my fans are insulated with silicone gaskets which isolate them and dampens any vibration. Certainly aren't any more 'noisy' that the central furnace blower.

My issue with a biomass stove is the room air they heat cannot be filtered prior to heating, unlike a central furnace with it's pre filter so the room are fans pull in airborne dust and require cleaning regularly.

 

[ericm979]

Even for the non catalytic EPA stoves you need to RTFM and operate it accordingly. It took me a while to get used to mine. But when you run it right and feed it dry wood it burns really clean. It smokes for a few minutes on startup or reload but after that there's no visible smoke coming out of the chimney. I like that I'm not polluting the neighborhood, even if my neighbors are a ways away and might not even care. I care.

If I were to do it again I'd consider a catalyst stove or one of the new hybrid types that combine a catalyst and reburn technology. The plain reburn types like mine can't be turned down as low, so a load of wood does not last as long. The catalysts aren't that difficult or expensive to replace.

We burn 2-2.5 cord of wood each winter. We leave the thermostat for the propane furnace on but if we keep the stove fed, the furnace does not run much. All the wood is from my land, from trees that fell, died and needed to be taken down, needed removal for fire safety, or were taken down by PG&E. I've yet to fell a tree specifically for firewood. Turning the wood into firewood for myself is a lot more satisfying than what I used to do which was cutting it up and giving it away.

 

[Cycledude]

I use homemade solar heat and Lpgas to heat 30x36 heated section of my work shop and my separate small house works excellent . Didn’t refill LP tank last year so this summer when they filled at the new much higher price I paid $185.00 , the house has a wood furnace in the basement which has been my primary heat for many years, wood heat is nice but there’s nothing cheap about it, I’m getting older and planning to cut back a little on the wood heat and burn a little more LP.

 

[kf4uda]

We just built a new house and will be heating it with LPG. We have a gas furnace as well as a non-vented gas fireplace. We invested heavily in insulation with 2x6 spray foam exterior walls and also encapsulated the attic. Hopefully that investment will pay off. I believe it has so far running the AC.

 

[deserteagle71]

Interesting comment in as much as the room air distribution blower on either of my stoves makes very little 'noise' other than you can hear the air movement, but then I keep all the mechanical components serviced properly and lubricated plus my fans are insulated with silicone gaskets which isolate them and dampens any vibration. Certainly aren't any more 'noisy' that the central furnace blower.

Didn't mean to imply that the fans on my pellet stove are excessively noisy. Its just me - older I get the more sensitive I am to any noise. When I am kicked back in my easy chair in the evening, reading, I can clearly hear the battery-operated clock ticking away on the wall 20 feet away. Most folks can't even hear it. But then I don't have the TV on, or any other noise. It is QUIET. So yes, if the pellet stove fan comes on I hear it loud and clear. If my central furnace comes on (I run it only to test it, propane is ~ $4 a gallon around here) it sounds like a jet plane taking off to me.

That's why I prefer the silence of a wood-burning stove. Silence.

 

[ovrszd]

We just built a new house and will be heating it with LPG. We have a gas furnace as well as a non-vented gas fireplace. We invested heavily in insulation with 2x6 spray foam exterior walls and also encapsulated the attic. Hopefully that investment will pay off. I believe it has so far running the AC.

Cheapest part of new building construction is insulation.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I'm planning to install some homemade panels on my shop/barn to heat it by solar gain, similiar to the link below.

Building a Simple Solar Air Heating Collector

 

[5030]

Might help so long as it's sunny. No sun, cloudy day, little gain.

 

[Skagit]

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

You might as well burn $100 bills in the middle of the floor to stay warm.

 

[ovrszd]

You might as well burn $100 bills in the middle of the floor to stay warm.

What a silly thing to say. House was all electric. Highest monthly bill we ever had was $425 in 2,000 sqft house. No drafty fan running. No noise except a rare "tink".

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Might help so long as it's sunny. No sun, cloudy day, little gain.

I appreciate your posts, in a climate with fog or overcast the solar gain would not work so well.
Where I live the documented days of sunshine each year is above 300 days.

 

[Cycledude]

Might help so long as it's sunny. No sun, cloudy day, little gain.

Interesting comment but on the coldest days where I live the sun is usually the brightest, with just solar heat it’s been 60 degrees inside my shop many times when it was -20 outside

 

[5030]

What a silly thing to say. House was all electric. Highest monthly bill we ever had was $425 in 2,000 sqft house. No drafty fan running. No noise except a rare "tink".

Per KWH cost varies from locality to locality and with zoned resistance heating it can be quite economical to operate. I would never have an electric central furnace however simply because you cannot control the heat to the degree you can with zoned baseboard heat.

Been having a slightly cold spell lately and the biomass stove is keeping the house at a nice 72 degrees and so far I've consumed less than 50 pounds of fuel. of course that will change as the weather gets colder.

 

[5030]

Interesting comment but on the coldest days where I live the sun is usually the brightest, with just solar heat it’s been 60 degrees inside my shop many times when it was -20 outside

Don't get that many sunny days here as a rule.

 

[ovrszd]

Per KWH cost varies from locality to locality and with zoned resistance heating it can be quite economical to operate. I would never have an electric central furnace however simply because you cannot control the heat to the degree you can with zoned baseboard heat.

Been having a slightly cold spell lately and the biomass stove is keeping the house at a nice 72 degrees and so fat I've consumed less than 50 pounds of fuel. of course that will change as the weather gets colder.

Yesterday I flipped the HVAC from "cool" to "heat". In mild temps it uses air to air exchanger. We'll use it until we see ice start forming on the pond. Then we'll crank up the propane fired floor heat.

When we built our house the HVAC guy said "I can heat your house cheaper with this propane furnace system than you can heat it with Hydronic Floor heat, but I can't make your floors warm".

We are very happy with our HVAC system for mild heating and AC. It's very efficient. Very quiet.

We are also very happy with our floor heat system. Not quite as efficient. Absolutely quiet with no air movement. Very, very comfortable. Radiant heat comfortable.

 

[5030]

Very, very comfortable. Radiant heat comfortable.

Why I like it in the shop. Hard to beat warm floors.