UPDATE ok. here’s the low down… i live in a very small house. the living room and kitchen are a combined room that measures about 15’x24’ and a bedroom that measures about 10’x15’. that’s it. there is a bathroom off the bedroom which is not of major concern at this point. in the past i have used wood stoves but the duty of 3 jobs has me very tied up to be fussing with one. currently, i am heating with LP which, as many of you may know, is SERIOUSLY expensive… it is now december 16 and i have used almost $400 in propane keeping my thermostat at 65. now, i understand that insulation is key and that is pretty well taken care of. i am now running two electric ceramic space heaters… one next to my thermostat (to keep the furnace from running) and one in my bedroom. i have my thermostat set at 65 and the furnace has not ran in almost 10 days… so those little heaters are doing pretty good. temps have been in the teens and twenties, and my pipes aren’t freezing or anything… so that’s good. i’d say my house is about 63 degrees all over and about 72 within 7 feet of the space heaters… pretty acceptable… but the wife wishes it was a little warmer… so fill me in here, guys. looking into alternative heat sources… i’m particularly drawn to pellet stoves. i was just at a co worker’s house and could not believe how burning hot her pellet stove was… i mean, WOW. she says she goes through about 40 pounds a day which is around $4-$6 a day… of course, i’d be heating a MUCH smaller area. any suggestions, guys… or am i doing the best thing with the space heaters? let’s open this up and maybe we can get some good info out there!
I had a wood pellt stove a few yearsa back but I switched back to regular wood. Pellets are too expensive in my book.
bump with updated and still digging for info.
I have a outside wood burner, I’ve been using it for 5yrs now, So far it’s paid for itself (I used to have fuel oil heat) I’ve been getting my wood for free, and I usually burn about 15 cords a winter. The stove itself is fairly simple, It needs stoked about every 12 hrs and pretty much takes care of itself, when the water temp goes down to 155degrees, the blower motor comes on, and brings the fire up, and it will burn until the water temp reaches 165, (you can of course use different water temp settings, 155-165 is what works for me) The water is circulated via a small circulating pump, that pushes the water into my house and into a coil in the plenum of my furnace (backup furnace is electric) I have the furnace wired up so that all I’m using is the blower motor, it’s also set up so, in the event the fire goes out, the electric furnace kicks on and takes over. power wise, the stove uses about as much electricty as a 100 watt bulb. I usually keep the house at 75 degrees, I would however do some research on outside wood burners, Like AR’s, they’re not all the same, and some use quite abit more wood than mine does… The brand name on mine is “Woodmaster” I installed it myself, (I’m a pipefitter) so for me installation was’nt too difficult, Nor do I think it would be for anyone else, that’s handy around the house. It’s capable of heating 5000 sq ft, (my house is about 1500) they also make a model that is smaller, that would probably be perfect for the size of your house, Anyway if you have acess to wood, these things are something to think about, mine’s paid for itself the third year I used it, and it is nice to keep the heat in the house as warm as you like it and not get a huge bill at the end of the month…