Folks: In my long, checkered life, I’ve heated with oil, propane, natural gas, electricity, and been in housing with forced air, hot water, and radiant heaters. Further, had a great uncle I was quite close to, who was a mechanical engineer doing heating system designs for many buildings from houses to large factories and offices.
If I was the gentleman from Maine building a new house with a natural gas line out front, I’d definitely heat with natural gas. BUT, being a penny-pinching CPA, I’d check out the pricing also.
I grew up on a turkey farm in Iowa, and my dad had the crazy habit of starting the babies in February, and they had to have 90 degree heat their first few weeks. Had to set up these rusty old fuel oil burning brooder stove, complete with soot-filled stove pipe to fiddle with every winter, chip the caked carbon out of the firepot, bleed the copper tubing we used to get the oil into the stove, etc., etc. We jumped at the chance to switch to propane, which burned clean, and very little maintenance compared to oil.
Heating pros I’ve talked to, all comment about the extra hassles of oil when it comes to maintenance, compared to either propane or natural gas.
Do look at solar, heat pumps, etc. Do the math on any system you consider, and weigh the initial cost vs. fuel and maintenance costs. Whatever system, go for high efficiency. You can get both forced air and hot water systems with fuel efficiency above 90%, and saves the cost of a chimney or metal stack out the roof. My 92% gas hot air furnace has 2, 2″ PVC pipes supplying cold air for combustion, and exhausting the cool fumes. Both simply go out the basement wall between 2 joists.
As one commentator says, hot air allows easy air conditioning addition, a lot of air filtration possibilities, and easy humidification. Also, you set the thermostat, and can then ignore it until spring when you shut it off, if natural gas. I run my fan continuously to obtain continuous air filtration, and maintain better circulation. For extra money, one can add a heat exchanger to bring fresh air in, but heat it with the air you exhaust to keep inside air fresh even when cold. Especially important if you follow others’ wise advice, and seal your house with good doors, windows, housewrap, and insulation.
But, if you spend more money, and put PEX tubing in your floor, and run hot water thru it, nothing beats walking barefoot on a warm floor in the winter. However, then if you air condition, that is a whole separate business. Again, look at the what you can afford, and think seriously about what you want.
For hundreds of years, Korean peasants simply had their kitchens at a lower level than the rest of the house, and then ran the smoke and fumes from the fire through a crawl space under the rest of the house with a chimney on the other end. Fortunately, most were drafty enough, carbon monoxide was not an issue, but the floors were certainly cozy warm.
Whatever you do, make the rest of the house extremely energy efficient. You will only pay that cost once; you will buy fuel for the life of the house.
One commentator certainly spent a lot of money on wood and electricity to heat his house. My 4-apartment building in Chicago costs less to heat, using a 50-year-old steam boiler running on some of the country’s more expensive natural gas. And, each apartment had 2 bedrooms, bath, living room, dining room, and enclosed back porch to heat, too. But, I admit we have either 6″ of fiberglass batts in the walls, or foot-thick brick walls, and more than a foot of fiberglass blown between roof and ceiling, plus Velux skylights and 44 double-glazed Andersen windows with argon between, and a reflective coating. With a new boiler, should cost even less to heat.
Building also has 10′ ceilings throughout, and the windows are mostly 5′ high, so there is a LOT to heat.
Woodstoves are neat, IF you don’t mind hauling your fuel in, cutting it up, splitting it, hauling out ashes, etc. If you grow your own, cost can’t be beat, but takes a lot of time and effort. Also, not very warm when you get some distance away.
Good luck! Goose
Replies
Good post Goose!
Thanks for sharing.
You are most welcome.
I've read a lot from http://www.heatinghelp.com, listened to, and watched my great uncle a lot as a kid, and analyzed a lot of what I saw and heard. One of my most prized building trades types in Chicago, is a guy my age (60's), who has been putting together steam, hot water, hot air, A/C and other such systems for 30+ years. Doesn't say too much, and when he first encounters an old steam system, he does like Dan Holohan advises, and just stands around for a while, figuring out how the thing works. He spent several hours unscrambling 39 years of botched tinkering when he first came to our 4-flat, and I still gladly pay his $100/hour rate, rather than chance a screw-up with someone else.
Took a while to get him to talk, but he finally realized I understood what he was about, and he proudly shared his analyses. Fortunately, I've found another like him here in Galesburg, IL. Our latest project was figuring out how to safely vent the fumes from my natural gas blacksmith forge in our attached garage with a combustible ceiling! (Most blacksmiths use coal, but I hate the soot and the ashes.)
Besides, I want all those jokers using fuel oil in the northeast to switch to something else, so diesel fuel prices come down, and jet fuel prices come down.
Glad you appreciated my rambling. Cheers, Goose
...my natural gas blacksmith forge in our attached garage...
Well, you know I can't let you get away without asking what you produce in your blacksmith forge.
(Visions of crafted gate hinge and...)