I've been reading here for the past couple months or so. Trying to learn what I can for our new house which we plan to start in ~2 yrs. We have a nice site of 10 ac that is fully wooded. I spent the past year doing a lot of preliminary clearing to sort things out on the land and have it pretty well under control now.
My question relates to our heating situation. Heat supply will be by in floor radiant tubing. But the source is still a bit up in the air. We have nat gas piped to the site, which is a nice bonus as it is unusual for properties like this around here to have nat gas. But I also have good access to a lot of firewood. We will have a smaller masonry heater in the main floor open area, but that will be somewhat supplemental as we need central HVAC also. So rather than just a simple gas boiler I have been thinking about a wood heat boiler, but it would be good to be able to use the nat gas as backup/vacation source. So far I am only finding the Tarm as an option that uses both, and a few others that use oil for the backup.
Are there others I am not finding? Is this set up a sensible one?
I have also read enough about not having the wood boiler in the house but in a garage or nearby building to avoid the mess. It might be possible to rearrange the design slightly to push the boiler out into the garage (it will be radiant heated in any case). I'm looking for more thoughts on this from folks who may have seen both types of installations.
Thanks for any info you folks provide. This site is a great resource.
My question relates to our heating situation. Heat supply will be by in floor radiant tubing. But the source is still a bit up in the air. We have nat gas piped to the site, which is a nice bonus as it is unusual for properties like this around here to have nat gas. But I also have good access to a lot of firewood. We will have a smaller masonry heater in the main floor open area, but that will be somewhat supplemental as we need central HVAC also. So rather than just a simple gas boiler I have been thinking about a wood heat boiler, but it would be good to be able to use the nat gas as backup/vacation source. So far I am only finding the Tarm as an option that uses both, and a few others that use oil for the backup.
Are there others I am not finding? Is this set up a sensible one?
I have also read enough about not having the wood boiler in the house but in a garage or nearby building to avoid the mess. It might be possible to rearrange the design slightly to push the boiler out into the garage (it will be radiant heated in any case). I'm looking for more thoughts on this from folks who may have seen both types of installations.
Thanks for any info you folks provide. This site is a great resource.