First Year Heating With Wood Fiasco

At what point do you move a modular home in next to the place you’re living in? Having done a complete gut remodel of a place on a solid foundation, you’re biting off quite a chunk. Ours had a solid basement, and good siding. We did all the rest over...windows, insulation, wires, bathrooms, moved walls new plumbing, new hvac, and roof. Came out good on it, but was a lot of work.

I’ve seen quotes from $100-250/sq foot for additions. I’m still waiting on a guy to get back with me on it all, but he already told me I’ll have $35/sq foot of addition just in lumber in ours...a basic living room on a slab.


I guess I find having my house on fire a lot less funny than you do...even if it is little bits at a time. Best of luck to you. It will warm up one of these days.

 

I have time, and planned on all of this when buying. The true value of this property is in the barns. 5 of them, all metal sided, and all but one metal roofed. As I keep logging I am stashing timber in my back barn for the mill, and ill be milling the vast majority of the lumber I will need for the house and the barns (3 more planned). Ill undertake the additions myself and pay a friend or two with beer. I am a carpenter and equipment operator, built buildings and poured foundations, am a pipe fitter and underground trench-man, and have experience in electrical and roofing. Perks of growing up in the rural Midwest on the farms I suppose. I also hold a degree in aerospace engineering, so I have the design side covered. I am actually getting ready to install the new septic and leach field this summer as is.

I bought the only house and property I ever expect to own, so I am ok with the work that needs done. It allows me to build everything the way that I want it to be for myself and my future family.

 

Friend/neighbor is going through this. We refer to it as being the local Winchester mansion. They remodeled then built up on over and under. Last part of the original house comes down this summer (maybe). Pay as they go so they stay out of debt but progress is very slow.

 

My sister and her husband bought a REALLY old "1800's" farm house that needed a lot of attention, a lot I say.

And guess who they called ?
I ran out of excuses until finally they got they're hands dirty.

I'm glad you have the energy and skill to accomplish this endeavor but in my case....knowing how lazy my BIL is, I ran.

 

If this is your forever home then I would get my pencil sharpened and look at an outdoor boiler. Put it between the house and wherever you are going to build your shop because someday you will want to heat it too. I bought a used over sized unit 7 years ago and wish I had done it 20 years ago. I heat 2 houses and a 24x 55' shop with mine. I cut my wood to 32" long and split with a homemade 36" splitter with 4 way hydraulic wedge. Realistically there isn't much price difference between the smallest and the biggest ( within reason) outdoor boilers. I used to heat the one house with a Hotblast and it did pretty good considering the investment. I still have it sitting there in case I ever need it again.

 

Talking to people here, outdoor boilers use more wood than a fireplace insert, and a fireplace insert uses more wood than a free standing wood stove.

I'd recommend insulation, insulation, insulation. The more the merrier. Ceilings, walls, windows, doors, etc. Stop any cold air from coming in and you will be much better off, If you can, see if there was an outside air for combustion kit for your stove. Add one if you can. That way you aren't sucking cold air into the house to be sent up the flue. I saw my heat bill drop in half when I added insulation to this pre 1900's farmhouse. Then I replaced the aluminum triple track windows with insulated double pane windows and saw another drop in energy used. Still have problems with keeping the pipes from not freezing in the crawlspace when running just the fireplace insert, but it keeps the house warm, I have seen 100°F above outside ambient temp inside.

Change the water supply pipes to pex if you can, they won't bust if frozen. I keep all faucets open to trickle about a pencil lead thickness of water when it's below zero. I'll run the forced air furnace (ducts are uninsulated and run in the crawlspace) when it's below zero out too to put some heat down there in addition to burning the insert. I'll go thru 4-5 cords per year and this house is right at 2,000 sq. ft. with 2 bedrooms upstairs.

 

As others have said, Insulate tour home and fix those issues first. I moved into Our family homeplace after my grandmother passed. I installed an OWB and was doing upgrades. With her prior heating bills it would pay for itself in leas than 4 years and that was without heating the 36' x 50' attached garage I was building + hot water. First year I used 28 cord WITHOUT heating the garage. We cut everything so everything from willow to hardwood comes into play.

If your home is an energy hog BEFORE an OWB, it will be after as well. Don't expect it to be more "efficient". You have longer burn times because of shear volume that you can stuff in there. My stove was an early Central Boiler Stainless so it isn't as efficeint as the newer catalytic. After working my but off the next year on a complete house redo while working a full time job, I cut it down to a 13 cord usage(with the garage as well). It has averaged that now for 15 years. I can do one load a day on most days but tend to light load twice a day. Extreme cold naturally eats more and you adjust accordingly.

If you want some ideas and tips, look at my house redo in the below picture album. Album 12

http://imageevent.com/kevininohio?n=0

I'm happy with my boiler.

 

Juat another note, see if the local utility company can do a fan test on the house. That is where they install a false door with a fan in it. They turn the fan on, and find all the places where outside air is doming into the house. The tighter the house, the less it will cost to heat it. I forget what the correct name for that test is, but that is my next step to reduce the heat loss in this old house.

 

Blower door test.

 

Great story and life experience.