I've got a geothermal system. It has 3 150ft wells that has a pipe looped through them and the furnace. The furnace has a heat exchanger. This way, the furnace only has to heat the air from 55 degrees (ground temp) instead of starting with the outside air temp.

This is pretty efficient in the winter (especially compared to a heat pump), but the real savings come in during the summer. It blows 55 degree air without an outside unit.

This system was about 5k more than a standard furnace, but we were told it pays for itself in 5 to 8 years and we plan on being here the rest of our lives.

 

Our insert has the stainless liner and a fan that blows air under and back over the top. We went through about 7 cords of mixed wood. some oak, fir and cedar. So far all our wood has been free but has come from cleaning up my Father-in-law's property and really has been a pain. I cut about 12 cord last year to stock up but there's to much clean up for what the wood was worth. I'm checking into Forest service permits or buying a log truck load of misc.

 

Electric is insane! Our electric bill is over $250 without using heater or air conditioning. All we have is electric here, so we use our woodburning stove for the living room, or if it's really cold, we'll fire up the fireplace/insert in the family room. Our thermostat is set for 55 degrees during the night

 

Have any of you looked into a waste oil fueled BOILER for heating? Most garages/farms etc are more then willing to give you waste oil so they dont have to deal with it. Have heard of ,although never actaully seen, set ups where a boiler is used to produce hot water which is then circulated through a radiator thats inserted into the conventional heating ducts in a house. Might be an option although Im not sure if waste oil boilers are legal for residential use, I know that waste oil furnaces arent.

 

geothermal heat also!! I have to agree summer time is when its at its best, it blows some cool air..
Winter has a little to be desired. because out of register air is only around 90 to 95 degrees. And to our human body that feals like cooler air.

what system do you have? mine is a water furnace brand with a closed loop system that was installed in 1996 and other than normal stuff its been great! We heat our single story ranch home for no more than 60 to 80 dollars a month and cool it for about 30 to 70 a month, it also heats our hot water. and this is total amount , our home is all electric. However a couple of kerosene heaters are in the garage just in case the power fails.

 

It sounds like our systems are pretty similar. I don't remember the brand or the furnace, but the technology is the same closed loop system. We built our house in '97. It's about 2500 Ft^2, 1.5 stories and all electric also. Our electric bills are a bit higher then your's though. Our's range from about 60 to around 130. But it seems like my wife is running the danged dryer and vacuum all the time (two small kids).

We went with the wells for the loop, but I also know a guy that looped his through a pond. I can't imagine that working as well, but I guess it does.

We have ours looped through the hot water heater too. I don't understand the physics of the heat exchanger, but it works pretty well.

RSeb

 

Our biggest save was to put a timer on our hot water heater. it stays off from about 10 pm until next morning when we are ready to get up. and also shuts off while we are at work. Yes you do have to schedule around it a bit on the weekend but nothing major. And you can always bypass it when you have company.

This little trick took me 5 years to finally figure out when our service man came for the yearly check.
He asked me if I had been just "turning off my hot water heater in the summer while the air was running" I said no i had not. He said for greatest efficency and ease on the unit.... it will run much better if you let your hot water heater take all the heat instead of the unit doing extra work putting the heat back inthe ground. So now along about july when it gets hot and I turn on the ac... I just kick the breaker to my water heater and let it totally heat my water... and it will. Good luck with that tip

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll try it next summer. I'm curious though, by that logic, it would make since to close the loop valves going to the hot water in the winter. Do you do that?

Thanks

 

I used to use 1200 gallons a year to heat my 1700 square foot ranch. Bought a Buderis Furnace with a 42 gallon hot water tank below. This unit has a circulator that constantly circulates the hot water through the pipes (about 192 gallons of water). Never run out of hot water, use 700 gallons of oil a year. The house stays a constant temperature in every room. The furnace is quiet as a church mouse. The oil burner service man loves it because when he comes to clean it, the whole front opens up to clean areas a conventional furnace will not allow you to clean. The thing is 6 years old now and the last efficiency rating was 88%. Because of the circulation, it runs about half as much as it used to, maintains constant heat much better. The unit comes with an electronic unit that you can shut off automatically when you leave for work, turns it on an hour before you come home. Can set for 2-7 day vacation, where it will shut off for 2-7 days, turn itself on the day you are coming home, so the house is warm when you come home. The diagnostic unit has a phone modem in it so that the technician can dial in to the system to see what the error is (oh, yeah, I have not had to use this feature yet). The thing is German built (think Mercedes) as far as dependability. The unit cost me 12% more than a conventional furnace, installed. It paid for itself 4 years ago, with the gallon savings. As far as going with gas, they all have their benefits, but you need to weigh in the cost of converting from oil to gas. If I had to cut wood, I'd have no time to ride my Polaris. How much fun would that be? I don't feel like coming home from a long day of riding to flick on my light switch and have the house explode. Gas prices in NH are not that far from oil prices. My Buderis is like a Polaris....Dependable, awesome styling, keeps me warm all over. Oil.... the other way out.

 

OH, yeah....the next time you complain about the price of oil or gasoline, take a look at the price of that big SUV or truck you just bought. If you hadn't paid $40,000 plus for your rig, you'd be able to afford the gasoline and home heating oil.... just my thought.