home heating solutions 3

[barry71]

Greetings

i live in knoxville tenn. i have a older block house with aprox 1800 sq feet. my house is well insulated. now i am presently using heating oil ( diesel fuel) to heat with and i have been very happy with the warm air provided by the btu stored in diesel. for years i have used this system with just maintiance twice yearly with the change of seasons. now with the rising cost of fuel i am rapidly moving away from a favorable cost/heat ratio. i am very intrested in converting to a heat pump. my wife is asian and raised only 300 miles from the equator. my wife will not be happy with the cold air flow found with most heat pumps. i would very much like to find info / contacts to go with a system that will use the heat / cold from underground. i am intrested in burying a series of pvc pipes in my yard and running water / gylcol thru them and using this water on the outside evap / cond coils. if you know of a source of products / info on determine size and flow requirements / enviromental issues. or you would like to converse on the subject please contact me.

best regards barry

 

[alexit]

Try:

http://www.waterfurnace.com/

or

http://www.alliantenergygeothermal.com/stellent2/groups/public/documents/pub/geo_001407.hcsp

The contractors just did here one with each room individually controlled.

 

[MJR2]

I did a ground source heat pump system for the home I built 9 years ago. I'm in a snow belt region (+/- 250 inches) and it's about 92 out there right now. House is 4000 sq feet with R21 walls R45 ceiling R10 foundation. Raised heel trusses. NG was not a real option. $9k for a propane/electric system, $17K. Estimated savings of $1500 per year. I've hit the numbers or better. I use a pellet stove to supplement (it was going in with either system). I'm sure I acheived or beat the projected savings. Somewhat tough to find a qualified contractor.

 

[barry71]

thank you for the response. i will check out the web sites later. however MJR2 got me to thinking and i wonder if the pellet system will start and stop on a thermostat or is it a constant burn as long as fuel is present. please tell me about this system and what it is like living with it. is it hard to feed and what exactly will it eat??/ thank you all barry

 

[pennpoint]

My brother inlaw had a pellet stove in Idaho. He loved it, but then they had a power outage and the pellet feed was dead. He decided to dump the pellet stove and went propane. I do not know why he didnt just by a generator to handle the short duration power outages.
Power disruptions ARE something to think about.
I do know the heat pumps typically use electric heat to supplement when the compressor cant keep up.
After you do your research you may find you have the best system now.
Buy you wife one of those parabolic radiant heaters (at COSTCO)turn it on her so she'll feel the "heat" it's great for the satisfaction value. The rest of the house can be cold but she'll feel warm.

Good Luck
pennpoint

 

[MJR2]

The pellet stove runs on compressed sawdust. Pellet stoves are available for coal and corn as well.

The power is an issue. But I bought a ups intended for the stove and use my boat batteries during the winter. Good for the batteries as it keeps them topped up. It lasts in excess of 13 hours. Thats when I hook up the generator to pump water for the cattle and I run the stove and refrigeration equipment then.

Pellet usage is 40 lbs per day down to about 5F. 80 lbs down to -30F. The house is well designed for a central heat system such as a pellet stove. I am all electric except for pellets. Counting pellets and electric I am using less dollars to live in twice the house in a much colder environment than my last home of 10 years ago. My last home was gas and electric.

 

[barry71]

thanks for the reply. i find the idea of a pellet stove really intresting. i live in knoxville tenn and the avaiable coal here is good. the winters here are very mild and we get little or no snow. the power issue is not much here the power is never out for long. i could use coal in a pellet system and use my fire place for emergencys. i looked into the ground water system on the web sites. the local cont called me at work yesterday and we talked some his price ws 18 thousand dollars and that is way out of line for a heat pump no matter how fancy. he also was very opposed to allowing me to do any of the install myself. and this really upset me. well i willkeep looking for a source of ground water equiptment and some kind of pellet burning system. barry thank you

 

[MJR2]

For the pellet stove a UPS is recommended. Even short outages shuts off the stove. And then you will probably have smoke in the house. Each fuel type uses a special stove. You cannot use the wood pellet stove with coal. And you need closely sized hard coal. You only need some 400 watts for a pellet stove and a generator is overkill and noisy.

My system was for 48,000 and 27,000 BTU's (split) and had 4-100 foot long 5 feet deep 4 foot wide trenches. Cost installed 8 years ago $17,000. So 18k is not out of line. NG pipeline to the house was $20k plus the system. Propane electric was quoted at $10k. I broke even a few years ago on the excess costs.

If you have forced air you may be able to use the duct work. But GSHP uses larger ducting to handle the air flow.

 

[SACAN]

I live about 3 hours north of Toronto, Ontario. It gets quite cold here in the winter, with a considerable ammount of snow.
I use a wood stove primarily. We do have electric baseboard heaters, but I never once turned them on last winter.
Our home is 2200 sq ft and the stove which is an old Ashley Imperial (obsolete) managed to keep the house at a comfortable temperature all season.
We did have pellets as well as about 14 cord of hardwood. I found the pellets to work ok but I prefer the hardwood.
A good air tight wood burning stove can put out some nice heat and be very efficient.
I also burn on occasion wood pallets from our manufacturing facility as they get scrapped anyways. Cheap and easy source of wood.

 

[alexit]

What cost is 14 cords in Ontario? Here we see 4'x4'x8' cords go for ~35USD unless you cut your own...makes 500USD for 6 mos = to electric company (when they work.)

 

[SACAN]

I get my firewood off of our land. We have several acres. Typically wood here goes for $65-80(Can) a cord.
Wood stove for us makes most sense as it helps keep the property free of deadfall and nicely spaced. Due to the frequent power outages we experience it makes it preferential.
There are some really efficient wood burning stoves and furnaces around. The heat from a wood stove is very nice. Drawbacks may be increased insurance premiums, having to keep it stocked and cleaned of ashes.

 

[19720105]

Try also

http://www.kensaengineering.com

from UK
They have good WSHP and also good prices
Good luck

 

[barry71]

hey people thanks so much for the response. these letters and tips really are of a lot of help. i have been very busy the last few weeks and havent had a chance to see the new responses. i have checked many sources and it seems that the cost of pumping a btu is much less than buying them in fossil fuels. so i have found a local source from a retired a/c and heat man and he found me a new seir 12 , 3 ton for 3100 dollars. so i am really busy now getting ready to install the system myself and trying to get my old well as a source of water. after much thought and research and considering all the costs and benifits this is the best way to go in this part of the country. thanks again so much barry