How do you heat your home?

Baldrick · Administrator Joined: 09 Aug 2000 Location: Sweden

My apartment is connected to district heating, water filled radiators with warm water from the district heating system.

Thanks to johns0 for the poll.

aedipuss · aBigMeanie Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Location: 666th portal

coal stove.
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lordsmurf · Posted: Nov 15, 2009 16:37

Room with couple of computers does the trick.
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Constant Gardener · Member Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Location: Canada

Big south-facing windows for sunny winter days.
Gas furnace for days like today. http://text.www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/forecast/city_e.html?bc-74&unit=m
Enough electronics to make a significant heat contribution - fortunately our hydro is under six cents a kilowatt-hour.

redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

I have a electric heat pump HVAC (Heat/Ventilation/Air Conditioning) system. It's very efficient and the house has good insulation. There's only a few days a year that I need heat. It's about 68F (20C) outside at present. But it does get to 117F (47C) in the summer.

freebird73717 · Man of Steel Joined: 09 Dec 2003 Location: Smallville

Good ole natural gas furnace for me here in Midwest USA. Much better than electric furnace.
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vhelp · ..Semi Neutral.. Joined: 31 Mar 2001 Location: New York

Well, my apt is all electric so I have no choice. But, I only use a 600 watt heater under my desk, only, because that is where I mostly stay. computer geek i guess. At bedtime, I use a 700 watt heater, except for rare cases when its a realy realy realy cold night, like in the low teens because 700 watts won't be enough then, I will use the baseboards--I try to stay away from them because they are 2000 and 4000 watts each, and you should see my electric bill then..sheesh!!

EDIT: oops, I just realized I voted incorrectly, I ment to vote for "Fan forced electric heaters", not baseboards..oh well.

-vhelp 5254
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fritzi93 · Member Joined: 01 Nov 2003 Location: U.S.

I voted "log fireplace", but only because it's the least wrong choice.

We have a coal burning insert (in a huge stone hearth, our house is a former hunting lodge). It takes ~4 cords of wood and a ton of coal to get through the winter. A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet, it takes a while to amass 4 cords of hardwood with just with a chain saw, 15 lb maul to split it and pickup truck.

Backup heat is a propane furnace and electric. Since we can count on some outages every winter (some as long as a few days), I have a generator as well. A furnace won't run without electricity for the controller and blower. Even the coal burner has a blower, but naturally, I can heat the house without the blower, if less efficiently.

I see a hydraulic splitter in my future. Getting firewood is starting to be real work, and I'm pushing 60.

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johns0 · Puppet Master Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Location: canada

I would have added coal heaters but i thought they went out like last century

,can you add coal heaters and others to the list Baldrick?
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aedipuss · aBigMeanie Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Location: 666th portal

fritzi93 · Member Joined: 01 Nov 2003 Location: U.S.

gadgetguy · Contestant Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Location: Michigan, USA

Natural gas furnace.
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aedipuss · aBigMeanie Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Location: 666th portal

with an airtight coal stove there is no dust. ashes are deposited into an internal catch bin and left for a day to burn out the clinkers and removed without opening the burning coal portion of the stove.

creosote is a problem for airtight wood stoves even with hardwood(oak, maple, etc.), they "cook" the wood at a temperature too low to burn it off. not a problem for open fireplace hearths or russian type chimneys.
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dLee · Member Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Location: Northern Pacific SW

For the last fifteen years, a woodburning stove. 1 -2 cords of wood per year. Firewood is a lot of work, but on optimistic days I know it's keeping me in shape.

Currently installing a boiler system that will supply hydronic heat and domestic hot water from propane.

Passive solar house with a solarium that, on sunny days, is 20º warmer than the outside air. Move the air into the main house with ceiling fans.

redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

Wow, lots of variety here.

I love forced air heating, no matter what the source of heat. No mold or mildew and the air moves through the whole house. I also have 52" ceiling fans in most of my rooms and that helps to move the air around. Humidity here is low, usually below 30%, often below 20%. Where I lived before on the North California coast, the humidity was 80%+ year around. I had natural gas heating there, but with forced air. Fortunatelly on the coast, it rarely got down close to 0F.

I'm wondering if anyone here is using pellet wood stoves. The system is fairly economical and easy to maintain if waste wood products are available locally.

Grain · ImgBurner Joined: 15 Oct 2005 Location: Canada

Just put a new hi-efficient nat. gas furnace in my house.

Bjs · RoadKill Joined: 09 Feb 2004 Location: Australia

Solar alternative ... wood when it fall's below 2 degrees, its a big house

dLee · Member Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Location: Northern Pacific SW

Des · Zillagod Joined: 07 Oct 2001 Location: USA

We have steam heat and replaced our ancient gas furnace a few years ago with a high efficiency one. I grew up with steam heat and still feel that it gives a house a bit of life and character, especially when other things are quiet, I enjoy listening to my house 'talk' to me a bit.
We also have a dual zone, in wall Heat-pump/AC system and and we use that when the outside temp is around 40 or so as it tends to be a bit more efficient since it only needs to heat the areas we are using. An additional benefit is that we have a small house.
The combination of the two systems has cut our heating bills by nearly 40% since we moved in 7 year ago! (well that and new windows)
And everything is on timers so it's pretty much only in use when we are actually home.
For additional efficiency we also have 4 cats, any two of which will also be sleeping on us.

--dES
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redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

The main problem with cat heating is you still have to feed them, which should be factored into your energy costs.

It does make a big difference to replace leaky old single pane windows with modern double insulated panes, and to insulate at least your attic. Even with wood heating a couple of fans to move the air around help. My new place is rated high for energy effeciency and that does reduce my monthly heating/cooling bill quite a bit compared to where I used to live.

Des · Zillagod Joined: 07 Oct 2001 Location: USA

edDV · Posted: Nov 16, 2009 13:34

Base load heating or air conditioning is by an electric heat pump with forced air distribution including ceiling fans. This gets assist from good south and west solar exposure (curtains open) during the winter. The upper floor gets heating assist from my computers and a/v equipment. When the temp drops into the 20-40 degree F range I supplement with a wood stove burning oak. The wood stove can heat the entire house down to about 15 degrees F ambient. It also provides heating backup during power outages.

In the summer, surrounding oak trees partially shade the south side of the house thus assisting cooling. I've also installed exhaust fans in the two attics.
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Xylob the Destroyer · Melkor Joined: 18 Sep 2004 Location: Earth, for now

sexual magnetism
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MeDiCo_BrUjO · Comfortably Numb Joined: 21 Mar 2002 Location: Tampa, FL

Florida baby yeah!!

Now, ask me how do I COOL my house though..... :p
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lordhutt · Member Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Location: United States

If my gas bill isn't paid up I just burn one of my pets.

marscanoe · Member Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Location: Canada

I couldn't see an option for Geothermal - we just had it installed. It's a geothermal lake loop. We also have electric backup - which I hope not to use!

Video Head · Member Joined: 10 May 2007 Location: reality

Thermastat controlled hot water radiators for general heat...natural gas fireplace to curl up in front of...

hech54 · CONFUSED Joined: 26 Jul 2001 Location: Yank in Europe

Ethlred · Member Joined: 10 Feb 2008 Location: United States

A single PC is more than enough for me. In fact I have my window open right now. That is at 3 AM. When it gets really cold I will have to close my window and maybe even put on some pants.

Now the cooling situation is altogether different.

Ethelred

cal_tony · Member Joined: 14 Jun 2004

Propane furnace. 15 min. first thing in the morning will do the job.
However, mostly just use space heaters.
Yesterday at 6am it was 27f outside. By 10am it was 65 and by 1pm it was 75. This is typical of winter central coast Calif. weather.

Tony