Supplimental heat opinions to reduce oil consumption

15 years ago

Currently live in 1600sf ranch in NJ and have oil heat. Plenty of wood available.

- EK System 2000 oil fired furnace (primary heat) -Hot water baseboard

- 60 year old heatilator masonary fireplace (secondary heat)

-open firebox without doors.

- 3.0 ton air conditioning.

My 3 options I think are:

Heater coil installed into air handler in attic (approx $200 my cost)

Wood insert in the fireplace (>$1k)

Fireplace doors installed on fireplace (100)

I am thinking that the biggest return would be to put in the doors and the 34k btu heater coil in. Does a 34k btu heater coil put out enough heat? I assume I can get buy with another month without having to use the furnace for heat. Does this make sense to you guys?

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Comments (13)

davidandkasie
15 years ago
i would get a blower insert for the FP. we don't get the kind of winters you do, but on a 20 degree night by itself my blower insert can bring the temps up over 90 in my 14x19 den with a 12' ceiling! the heat flows well into other rooms around it too. my heat pump never even had to kick in the aux heat strips last winter due to the FP putting out so well.

oh, and i had electric strip heat, you will pay thru the nose for it. sure, it is 100% efficient, but that just means that 100% of the electric to it is converted to heat. it is expensive!
brickeyee
15 years ago
Oil is burned to create electricity.
Not likely to be a good option.

Diesel is used for peaking power in many places.
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The 2.5 ton heat pump condenser is a Comfort 13 Puron and that coil match is ARI# 1294794: 30,000 btu cooling (a full 2.5 tons), 13 SEER, 10.8 EER, 30,000 btu heating, 8 HSPF. This is a basic economy heat pump. It will still reduce your oil consumption by a significant amount depending on climate. Compared to $4 per gallon oil w/80% efficient furnace, a new heat pump with 14 cent/kw-hr electricity costs about 300% less to run at 45F ambient. Savings decrease with decreasing outdoor temps. What is your electric rate? What State? A co-worker in PA did the same thing you are considering and reduced his oil consumption significantly. This was when at oil was $3 per gallon. He's ahead of the oil wave. Good luck.
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Here is what I think is going to play out best for you if you are going to be in the house long enough and will heat primarily with wood. Keep in mind that I am an amateur with absolutely no experience in duct systems. I decommissioned mine at the first opportunity and installed mini splits. I'll gladly accept all criticism from anyone that actually knows something. Berto, you've already said that you are going to have ducted AC, (I'd look at mini-split heat pumps, but that is me and I don't have the time to split wood.) It ought to be pretty simple to make a dual furnace system with a wood furnace first in series with the (second) propane or electric furnace. Your thermostat turns on the AHU blower (for me, ideally, a variable speed blower with a proportional thermostat). If the wood boiler is supplying sufficient heat the secondary furnace does not run. If the duct temp between the furnaces falls below a set temp (which might slide depending on outdoor temperature) the secondary furnace fires up. If the day comes that you tire of cutting and splitting wood, you pull out the cheap furnace and put in a mod con furnace. It is no biggie to toss that first furnace because it was inexpensive to start with. The duct system has to be designed to support both heat sources and cooling. The furnace that you choose will have to be just good enough to run a cooling system well which might be more costly than the least expensive that you might use for (back up) heating alone. Keep in mind that a (complicated) super efficient furnace or boiler is not going to be a good investment in a well-insulated and sealed house that is primarily heated with wood. The ROI time will look like infinity.
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janedibber
15 years ago
i'd invest in the house envelope...yr round savings
garyg
15 years ago
A good wood insert provides outstanding heat if you are willing to fuss with the wood. If you have access to cheap wood, it's certainly a plus. Additionally, you will have an emergency heat source.

Improvements in insulation are a must.

Good luck.
dgb49
15 years ago
Don't listen to the nuts on this forum.

Go with the oil. It's less than 7 yrs old - it should be efficient.

You'll never get a payback!
zl700
15 years ago
Excuse me DGB; the question was about what to go with.

The wood insert, assuming you wish to deal with the ash, enjoy the fruits of your labor (handling wood) and have the wood is the cheapest BTU here to supplement the oil boiler.

Of course tightening up the envelope and shutting down the draft going up the open chimney should be addressed.

I donÂt understand the hot water coil though, why ad a coil and give up the duct loss when you already have baseboard convection?
janedibber
15 years ago
I'd heed dgb49's advice and not listen to him/her.
zl700
15 years ago
Does anyone read and comprehend here?
It was not about abandoning the oil, it was about conserving energy and supplementing.
chester_grant
15 years ago
I have bought a couple of mobile Italian heaters - simple enough to have one in the main room and one in the masterbedroom as a spot heat boost - along with cashmere sweaters.....it will be back to the days in South Africa when no-one had central heating but had chilly winter evenings.
janedibber
15 years ago
zl700...i'm w/ you, my comment was an attempt to humor, and a bad attempt at that.
garyg
15 years ago
"Don't listen to the nuts on this forum.
Go with the oil. It's less than 7 yrs old - it should be efficient.
You'll never get a payback!"

- Someone is not understanding the post. Supplimenting/reducing the oil heat is the idea, not replacing a 7 year-old oil furnace.

Stop hogging the nut cracker.
sonny300
15 years ago
Yes go with the epa certified wood-burning insert. Make sure it has a temperature actuated blower, and firebox size 2.0 cu.ft or larger (3.0 cu.ft. will give you that overnite burn). If it is too warm you can always build a smaller fire.

Only downside to this is that you will have a "dickens of a time" trying to get dry-seasoned wood for this winter at this time of year. fyi, I have cut our oil bill by 80% with my wood insert.
daft_punk
15 years ago
Posted by janedibber on Tue, Sep 2, 08 at 19:20

zl700...i'm w/ you, my comment was an attempt to humor, and a bad attempt at that.

Hey jane...I got the joke :-)

Supplimental heat opinions to reduce oil consumption

Comments (13)

davidandkasie

brickeyee

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