Home heating options

[pghllew]

Hello, I'm fairly new to the forum but have been spending a lot of time here lately. It's a great resource so far!! I've been looking into the indoor wood furnaces. I have a wife who is always cold and hell if I gonna pay for her to keep at 75 degrees in the winter time her in NH. (BTW...the high today is 0 degrees F)

We just bought home and the heating system is subpar. It consists of a rusted out 50 gallon propane water heater to heat the bathrooms and a wood stove for the rest of the house (2500 sq ft.)
Whats nice is a on demand water heater suplies DHW. I was thinking of expanding the baseboard heat and replacing the water heater with a very efficient propane boiler to heat during vacations and a couple hours during the day until I get back from work. I cant expect the wife to keep a woodstove going.

I was then thinking of adding a wood hot air furnace and some ductwork to the first floor from the unfinished basement. The Hotblast 1950 looks real nice but I saw some can heat water also. It would save me some energy to heat some hot water before it goes to the ondemand hotwater heater.
Anybody have any suggestions on a good efficient wood furnace. The only one that I've seen so far is the Fire chief. I'm open to any suggestions I just want to know what out there before I make a decision

Thanks in advance.

 

[whiting-5]

us stove hot blast or 1600 series

 

[ericjeeper]

Are you sure the Demand water heater will work that way? I was thinking they worked better with a colder incoming temp.. But It does not make any sense.

 

[AOD]

The wood furnace would be a good choice. Most can burn for up to 8 hours and leave you a bed of coals to restart it with when you get home. Train your wife how to add wood to the stove, its not hard!

 

[dingeryote]

Wow!!!

You have LOTS of things going on for heating.

It really sounds like you simply need to update and simplify the entire thing.

Why is there a seperate water heater for the bathrooms?

Older house without ducts and gravity heat for the upstairs?

If I had to do it all over again, I would have simply gone with a air to air heat pump to cover AC in the summer, and heat in the spring and fall, and then either run the hybrid Fireplace/stove like we do now, or add a woodburning furnace.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[pghllew]

Are you sure the Demand water heater will work that way? I was thinking they worked better with a colder incoming temp.. But It does not make any sense.

I'm not sure if it will work. I do know that the on demand water heater will use more energy if there is a bigger temperature change. A lot more energy use if water goes in at 50 degrees and comes out at 120 vs going in at 90 and come out at 120. It also will slow down the flow rate because it takes more time to heat the water.

 

[pghllew]

Wow!!!

You have LOTS of things going on for heating.

It really sounds like you simply need to update and simplify the entire thing.

Why is there a seperate water heater for the bathrooms?

Older house without ducts and gravity heat for the upstairs?

If I had to do it all over again, I would have simply gone with a air to air heat pump to cover AC in the summer, and heat in the spring and fall, and then either run the hybrid Fireplace/stove like we do now, or add a woodburning furnace.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

Supposedly the water heater to the bathrooms keeps the pipes from freezing when they went on vacation. If I expand the baseboard to the entire first floor and the bathrooms I'm afraid a water heater won't be enough.

Currently there is no duct work at all. It has an overlook so heat can move to the second floor though. I can cut vents to the first floor too.

The house should be pretty tight, the former residents heated it with just 1 woodstove. However he was a farmer and was home all the time to feed it. I don't have that luxury, although I'm thinking about training the wife

 

[dwinch53]

I have firechief 500 wood/coal and i like it very much...check out their web site and even call the pros at firechief...I burn wood and a little coal at times. Good luck and do your research...DW

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Yukon is good too...

 

[pghllew]

I have firechief 500 wood/coal and i like it very much...check out their web site and even call the pros at firechief...I burn wood and a little coal at times. Good luck and do your research...DW

I'm glad you like it, thats what I was originally thinking of buying. Of course then I started looking into everything and found this site to help research and then found some other options. I like that it has the option for the water coils. If I'm going to be burning wood to heat the house might as well heat some water in the process.

 

[Zodiac45]

I'm glad you like it, thats what I was originally thinking of buying. Of course then I started looking into everything and found this site to help research and then found some other options. I like that it has the option for the water coils. If I'm going to be burning wood to heat the house might as well heat some water in the process.

I think you're going in the right direction with the water heating capability. You add the ability too add on baseboard and you can plumb into the existing on demand unit. I'd assume that if the water's hot enough you could just pass it through and not use any propane? Water is more effiecient too for heat storage (versus air). Get a furnace heating water and a taco pump and you're in business.
PS: Train the wife. It's not rocket science.

 

[jwfirebird]

my wife likes being warm so she learned how to use the wood furnace. that was pretty easy.

 

[cityevader]

I could have sworn my Rinnai manual stated a max incoming water temp, but couldn't find it. However, it shows a recirculation setup where heated water flows right back into the cold inlet side, with residential unit having 140° output...commercial unit having 185° output.....those being the limit as to programmable output temps.

Should be no problem running preheated water from wood heat to save as much propane as possible.

 

[dwinch53]

I'm glad you like it, thats what I was originally thinking of buying. Of course then I started looking into everything and found this site to help research and then found some other options. I like that it has the option for the water coils. If I'm going to be burning wood to heat the house might as well heat some water in the process.

Yep like i said do your research...lots of good stuff out their...main thing is to really check out the warranties...like the firechief, lifetime warranty on all cast parts...that is great....see yukon,harman,energy king and big jack wood and coal furnaces...One thing I would recommend is a combo WOOD/COAL that way you can burn both and if you just stick with wood you will never burn out or warp the grates....enjoy your research...DWopcorn:

 

[Labman]

I would do some real looking into the on demand water heaters. I think a lot of the figures they use to justify them are phony. I looked into one several years ago hoping to be able to locate it closer to where we use hot water. Instant hot water is at at outlet, not at the sink at the far end of the house. I found the the claimed savings exceeded our summer time gas bill with both the hot water heater and gas dryer. They heat the water up not to a temperature, but by a fixed difference. The hotter the water goes in, the hotter it comes out. I don't think preheating will work very well.

 

[cityevader]

"Instant systems" are different than on-demand/tankless. Instant is right at the point of use, eithere recirculating hot water continuously, or with a heater and/or reservoir right at the point of use. On demand/tankless simply means no gas used until hot faucet is turned on, so as not to use gas throughout the day when no one is home. Every single unit I looked at while shopping had outlet temp control, meaning fixed (often selectable) final temp regardless of inlet temp. I think you may be confusing the heating capacity measurements. They standardize the heating output so while shopping, one can compare apples to apples...not like shopvacs where each is rated differently, one is in amps, another in hp, or mph airflow or units of suction, etc.....so that with a given standard of temp rise of 50°, the spec is max gallons per minute. Same rise and more gpms has more capacity than fewer gpms with same rise in temp. E.g. My Rinnai has 6.5gpm at 50° rise which is considerably more than a "typical" unit with around 4-5gpm.
I haven't been able to determine if gas savings were made, as it was installed right when wife moved in, which increased use of all, water, stove, supplemental heat....actually, the bills seem about the same, so maybe it did help!

Regarding the OP, I think it's a fabulous idea to preheat water with wood heat and store in large water heater that is unplugged which then supplies the tankless heater.

WAAYYY off topic, but tank style heater have a major advantage during major catastophe in that one has a large supply of uncontaminated water stored on-site, simply drain as needed.