How do you heat your home?

[Baldrick]

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]

coal stove.

[lordsmurf]

Room with couple of computers does the trick.

[Constant Gardener]

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]

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]

Good ole natural gas furnace for me here in Midwest USA. Much better than electric furnace.

[vhelp]

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

[fritzi93]

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. :P

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.

[johns0]

I would have added coal heaters but i thought they went out like last century :P ,can you add coal heaters and others to the list Baldrick?

[aedipuss]

I would have added coal heaters but i thought they went out like last century :P ,can you add coal heaters and others to the list Baldrick?

no they never went completely away. it's still a very cheap efficient way to heat a house. the exhaust flue temp is only 150f and there is no creosote to worry about.

[fritzi93]

I would have added coal heaters but i thought they went out like last century :P ,can you add coal heaters and others to the list Baldrick?

no they never went completely away. it's still a very cheap efficient way to heat a house. the exhaust flue temp is only 150f and there is no creosote to worry about.

Yeah, it can be cheaper than other alternatives and usually is by a good bit. I use hardwood with coal to keep the temperature up in the firebox (more efficient), and because the coal is reduced completely to ash with no "clinkers" to deal with. People who have creosote buildup (and consequent chimney fire risk) almost always are burning softwoods like pine. I check the chimney every year and it's always clear with only the slightest bit of soot on the inside of the terracotta flues.

I use anthracite (hard coal) and except when starting the fire, have almost no smoke showing from the chimney. You have to look for heat waves to tell it's burning.

Just one thing, you do get a very fine dust in the house, but if careful when removing ashes, it's not bad.

[gadgetguy]

Natural gas furnace.

[aedipuss]

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.

[dLee]

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]

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]

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

[Bjs]

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

[dLee]

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.

Pellet stoves are popular here, near your former home. They work well and, as you say, are economical and very low maintenance.

I didn't put one in my granny flat because I didn't want to get locked in to a proprietary fuel source - but after seeing them in operation, I wouldn't hesitate to put one in. The bags of pellets haven't gone up as much as many other fuel sources.

[Des]

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

[redwudz]

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]

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

True, and there is also the problem of increased maintenance, ie.; Liter boxes, cat hair and hairballs, but there is an ambiance like that of using an open fireplace, it's a more wasteful heat source, but it helps set a tone.

For me the tone is that my father-in-law is allergic to cats!


--dES

[edDV]

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.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

sexual magnetism

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

Florida baby yeah!!

Now, ask me how do I COOL my house though.....

[lordhutt]

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

[marscanoe]

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]

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

[hech54]

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

Same here.

[Ethlred]

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]

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