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Post by Woody Williams on Feb 16, 2006 17:19:52 GMT -5
"I've had geothermal (Water Furnace) for 20 years now and love it." My friend is an engineer for water furnace here in fort wayne. If I ever build a house I plan to buy a unit. Cheap energy and good for the environment. They have verticle units you can put in a small yard now. Mine are drilled straight down into the yard. I'm down in a valley and he hit water at 15 foot so that helps in heat transfer.
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Post by steiny on Feb 16, 2006 19:45:49 GMT -5
Those geothermals are very efficient, but the downside is, you don't feel that real warm air like you do coming out of a gas fired furnace duct. The air from geothermal ducts might only be 75 degrees, it's kind of wierd to get used to.
If I was building new, I'd simply go with a simple new high efficiency gas furnace / electric AC. The trick to efficiency and low heat bills is good insulation, doors, windows, etc. Insulation will pay for itself ten times faster than any heating system. It's cheap too.
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Post by RiverJim on Feb 16, 2006 19:50:18 GMT -5
Been heating with wood for 15 years now. I'm kinda over it. I also have my Grandads potbelly stove in the shed!
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Post by semisneak on Feb 18, 2006 18:10:39 GMT -5
Heating with wood positives. 1. Stickin it to the gas co. 2. If the power goes out you still have heat. 3. napping by the warm fire. Heating with wood negatives. 1. potential fire hazard. 2. Mess in the house. 3 . Some rooms hot , some rooms cold. 4. CUTTING , SPLITTING , STACKING , 5 . Keeping the kids away from the stove. 6. Cleanig ash , flu pipe and chimney. 7. DUST. Waking up to a cold house. If I were doing it over I would get a corn burner or a central boiler.
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Post by steiny on Feb 18, 2006 20:23:03 GMT -5
Properly installed and maintained,a woodstove is quite safe and really isn't a fire hazard. A poorly installed or maintained gas furnace / boiler, etc. is equally as hazardous.
How do people store all the corn needed for those corn burners. Out in the country, I could see that being a real mice / rat / rodent attractant.
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Post by semisneak on Feb 19, 2006 8:01:52 GMT -5
I think anything used to heat your house can be hazardous if not properly installed or maintained. I dont see how a central boiler can be as equally hazardous as a wood stove in your living room. The boilers are usually located a good distance from the house. Anything can happen. My buddies wife didnt get the door on their wood stove latched and a log rolled out onto the floor while they were gone. Luckily the house didnt burn down but they had lots of smoke damage.
I have only heard the positives of the corn burners but would like to hear some negs if there are any.
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Post by steiny on Feb 19, 2006 9:51:52 GMT -5
What are you calling a "central boiler" Semisneak? Is that one of those sheds that sits away from the house and burns wood / corn / pellets? One serious negative to those rigs is their chimneys are typically real lowand they basically "smolder" all the time,so you have the constant smoke an stink. Not good if neighbors are close.
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Post by solohunter on Feb 19, 2006 13:33:31 GMT -5
50# bag of corn at Rural King is $5, some buy a pallet and stack it. Put bait around it in closed traps. know one guy that got a used metal corn crib/silo and the auger brings it right to the hopper. Solohunter Properly installed and maintained,a woodstove is quite safe and really isn't a fire hazard. A poorly installed or maintained gas furnace / boiler, etc. is equally as hazardous. How do people store all the corn needed for those corn burners. Out in the country, I could see that being a real mice / rat / rodent attractant.
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Post by semisneak on Feb 19, 2006 14:08:16 GMT -5
Steiny, Yes a central boiler is a shed that sits away from the house . They recommend that the chimney be at roof level with your neighbors house if they are within 500 feet. www.centralboiler.com/home.html
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Post by solohunter on Feb 19, 2006 18:28:15 GMT -5
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Post by DEERTRACKS on Feb 20, 2006 9:42:53 GMT -5
Went home Friday after work to find our heat-pump down for the count. Had to use emergency-heat mode over the weekend. Still waiting on the repair parts. Good thing we have our fireplace insert.
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Post by hunter7x on Feb 20, 2006 12:03:14 GMT -5
Heat pumps have 90 - 100 degree supply so they don't feel as warm as the 120 or so temps a gas furnace has. But for the best deal on heating your home right now you can' targue with elect costs. I don't think it's going to be that way for long though. For the last 20 years gas has been the most efficient. Check out these stoves also. www.napoleonfireplaces.com/Webshare/wood_all.html
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Post by hunter7x on Feb 20, 2006 12:05:05 GMT -5
Went home Friday after work to find our heat-pump down for the count. Had to use emergency-heat mode over the weekend. Still waiting on the repair parts. Good thing we have our fireplace insert. deertracks, most heat pumps don't work when it's this cold anyway. They have an outside t- stat that either shuts them down usually when it's 35 - 40 degrees outside and you use the backup heat or it works with the back up heat to keep up.
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Post by DEERTRACKS on Feb 20, 2006 12:48:39 GMT -5
Went home Friday after work to find our heat-pump down for the count. Had to use emergency-heat mode over the weekend. Still waiting on the repair parts. Good thing we have our fireplace insert. deertracks, most heat pumps don't work when it's this cold anyway. They have an outside t- stat that either shuts them down usually when it's 35 - 40 degrees outside and you use the backup heat or it works with the back up heat to keep up. Our's is a York split system as you mentioned. I think it is a bit undersized (tonage ?) if the resistance heat is supposed to keep us warm when this happens to the outside condenser unit. I know that the heat-pump unit is not that efficent for Indiana weather, but I do not want gas heat. Almost killed once from propane explosion (30 days in hospital) & a near- miss in our first home 25 years ago due to faulty gas shut-off valve on water heater. Thank you very much for your input, much appreciated.
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Post by kevin1 on Feb 20, 2006 12:49:31 GMT -5
Heat pumps have 90 - 100 degree supply so they don't feel as warm as the 120 or so temps a gas furnace has. But for the best deal on heating your home right now you can' targue with elect costs. I don't think it's going to be that way for long though. For the last 20 years gas has been the most efficient. Efficiency isn't the issue , fuel is . Gas furnaces will always be slaves to petroleum one way or another , electricity can be generated in many ways . Gas furnaces have also pretty much peaked with regard to efficiency too , while electric models can only improve as time goes by . Most of the electricity in this region comes from coal fired plants , coal is a much more stable fuel source for the power companies to buy from so it has vastly fewer and lower price fluctuations than petroleum .
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Post by hunter7x on Feb 20, 2006 13:20:16 GMT -5
deer tracks, it depends on the weather out side. This weekend was extreme. Most systems are sized to heat a home 70 degrees above the outside temp. Which means if it was 0 with a wind chill of -15 the entire system probably isn't going to keep up. I don't know what you guys had here, I was in Missouri but from what I understand it was chilly !
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Post by DEERTRACKS on Feb 20, 2006 13:45:03 GMT -5
deer tracks, it depends on the weather out side. This weekend was extreme. Most systems are sized to heat a home 70 degrees above the outside temp. Which means if it was 0 with a wind chill of -15 the entire system probably isn't going to keep up. I don't know what you guys had here, I was in Missouri but from what I understand it was chilly ! 5 degree's ambient. Windchill had it down below zero in my neck of the woods. Thanks a bunch. Now maybe I can razzle-dazzle the heating air-conditioning guy with a little heatpump savvy.HA!!!
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Post by hunter7x on Feb 20, 2006 13:49:55 GMT -5
deer tracks, it depends on the weather out side. This weekend was extreme. Most systems are sized to heat a home 70 degrees above the outside temp. Which means if it was 0 with a wind chill of -15 the entire system probably isn't going to keep up. I don't know what you guys had here, I was in Missouri but from what I understand it was chilly ! 5 degree's ambient. Windchill had it down below zero in my neck of the woods. Thanks a bunch. Now maybe I can razzle-dazzle the heating air-conditioning guy with a little heatpump savvy.HA!!! LOL Good luck !
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