I need to learn how to heat again

[Z33]

Beautiful place... would love to see some more pictures if you were willing to share.

 

[gregbesia]

10,000 sq ft ???! Holy cow batman! What are you doing on this site with us poor folks? You got one gorgeous mansion there. Hey, my house is only 1200 sq ft , and I can't imagine how much space you have there. Good luck. And more pictures please.

 

[HisTreeNut]

I was going to say, the place seems a little small to retire in. You might want to get something a little bigger...

Seriously, a real nice place there. +1 on the more pics if you are willing.

 

[Rockey]

Thanks everyone. As requested, here are a few more pictures. Ive always enjoyed the community help and atmosphere here and look forward to learning how to use the OWB and hopefully can get an insert or two in the house eventually. The wife wants to put an inground pool in but I keep telling her that we are pond people not pool people. The slide stays in the pond damnit!

 

[BrotherBart]

Be still my heart. A gorgeous place. Get an insert in that massive fireplace and fire the crap out of it and you will have a masonry heater that will radiate heat long after the fire goes out.

 

[Lake Girl]

Gorgeous place and BB is accurate about the heat sink of the fireplace. But, you forgot to show us the most important part. The wood stack!

More details on the OWB set-up?

 

[Simonkenton]

The fireplace may provide a great heat sink. However, in many cases the firebox is separate from the rest of the fireplace. There is an air space between the firebox and the surrounding masonry. Thus the firebox is insulated from the heat, and most all of the heat goes up the chimney.

 

[HisTreeNut]

So, like I am a long lost cousin from North Carolina. Once you are moved in, we will be coming in for a visit to introduce ourselves...
Totally gorgeous place...

 

[Ashful]

Purdy, but looks like most of the sq. ft. is that big garage wing? How much space are you actually heating?

 

[bag of hammers]

Cabin? Can't see it with that massive structure in the way . Seriously, that is a gorgeous home, I would kill for a place like that....

 

[Ashful]

I would kill for a place like that....

Note to self: no more questions about the bag of hammers.

 

[sportbikerider78]

Great place.
I never understood why people who have some disposable income would build a place without a view. It never made sense to me.

Clearly, you and I are on the same page.

 

[Poindexter]

Log walls should deliver (there is no tilde on my phone) about (nuther missing tilde) R 1.2 per horizontal inch of thickness.

If my phone is so smart why is there no tilde on the keyboard.

Nice joint. How many grandkids have you got exactly?

 

[tarzan]

What is your goal with wood heat, supplemental or totally dependent on wood?

 

[Kevin*]

Stabbin cabin? Was there a murder?

Don't know if that's serious or not but if it is then "stabbin cabin" refers to intercourse

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[Rockey]

Ok so we spent the past two days doing a full home inspection. Had to have a second guy come out to do the hvac and he said the OWB is in good condition. Its a central boiler 5648 good for 500k btu. I swear you could fit someone the size of Hillary in that thing and not know it. The goal is to heat primarily with that and only use the gas boiler when needed and hopefully never. Someone asked how much sq ft we are going to heat. The main part of the house is a lil over 10k per county records and that doesnt include the garages or apartment above, but they will receive some heat to keep the pipes from freezing. Ill be happy if the OWB will keep up with 15 deg temps.

 

[SCOTT S.]

Don't know if that's serious or not but if it is then "stabbin cabin" refers to intercourse

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Yep that was my vans name in high school

 

[tarzan]

Ok so we spent the past two days doing a full home inspection. Had to have a second guy come out to do the hvac and he said the OWB is in good condition. Its a central boiler 5648 good for 500k btu. I swear you could fit someone the size of Hillary in that thing and not know it. The goal is to heat primarily with that and only use the gas boiler when needed and hopefully never. Someone asked how much sq ft we are going to heat. The main part of the house is a lil over 10k per county records and that doesnt include the garages or apartment above, but they will receive some heat to keep the pipes from freezing. Ill be happy if the OWB will keep up with 15 deg temps.

Heating that place in your location with wood will be a huge undertaking. What kind of access do you have to wood?

From your description, the OWB sounds unbelievable. Do you have the means and the will to feed it?

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

You're going to need a bigger water slide to go with that place!

 

[Rockey]

Heating that place in your location with wood will be a huge undertaking. What kind of access do you have to wood?

From your description, the OWB sounds unbelievable. Do you have the means and the will to feed it?

Yessir I fully expect it to be an undertaking. There is a local tree service that regularly stops by to drop off more wood than you can shake a stick at. There are so many dead ash trees in SW Ohio that I doubt finding wood will be an issue for at least the next decade.

 

[Rockey]

Ok, a little update after we had our first real test last week. Temps hit the single digits about 3 nights last week with the lowest being 4 degrees. The cabin stayed warm, right around 70 degrees. It does require a lot of wood but only need to fill it twice a day. It is unbelievably convenient in that respect. Fill it in the morning, forget about it until I get home from work. I imagine I will end up using somewhere north of 10 cords this year. Only about half of that is seasoned. Ill be sure to get 20-25 cords split this spring.

The apartment/loft above the garages never had heat so I added heat because my daughter claimed it as hers when we moved in. She goes to tOSU and just got home this week and will be home for the next 3 weeks until she goes back. I spent a good deal of time running pex off a spare circuit and up to her room. Bought a 50K BTU hydronic heater and built a shelf in one of the dormers for it to stay. I was concerned that the little 1/25 hp pump that was on the circuit wouldnt have enough head to get it up to the apt which is about 20ft up so I bought a 1/6 hp Taco pump with 30 ft of head. I got it all plumbed and wired up and was extremely excitied to get it working. It was a pain to bleed but it puts out the heat!

Now to control the heat I didnt want to put a conventional thermostat in there because it is good deal of walking to get over there so I bought a Nest thermostat that you can control remotely via phone or laptop. The Nest then communicates wirelessly to a Belkin Wemo switch, plugged into the outlet where the heater and pump are plugged into. So far, we can turn the Wemo switch on and off via the app manually but it wont turn on and off via demand from the thermostat. We have tech support working on it right now.

Anyway, we are enjoying the view and looking forward to the Holidays. Merry Christmas All!

 

[Niko]

Very nice place, where is the man cave lol? Your gas complany ran a line all the way up in the woods? At least i think i read you have gas. We have oil here and the closest house is like 700 feet away and Central hudson (gas company) wont run a gas line!

On a serious note did you give em a call and ask what the it cost to heat the house on gas? Just in case you need a backup plan. Your talking a couple grand a month easy.

A long time ago Me and my wife looked at some Victorian houses in our area around the 4800 sqaure feet range. The house had 2 gas boilers and the bill was in the 1grand a month during winter time. I called Cetral hudson and asked for previos usage to get ideas of what we would be paying a month.

Your gonna need a nice tractor with grapple and a big ass chain saw! I think a excellent investmeny would be to make sure you have the best outdoor wood boiler that money can buy, Im sure they make ones that can get 24hr+ burn times.

As far as indoors you need to make some good calls amd pic stuff thats gonna get you some awesome burn times. I dont think your gonna want to be feeding wood to you boiler and inserts all day.

Congradulations on such a nice place and Merry Christmas!

 

[Rockey]

Very nice place, where is the man cave lol? Your gas complany ran a line all the way up in the woods? At least i think i read you have gas. We have oil here and the closest house is like 700 feet away and Central hudson (gas company) wont run a gas line!

On a serious note did you give em a call and ask what the it cost to heat the house on gas? Just in case you need a backup plan. Your talking a couple grand a month easy.

A long time ago Me and my wife looked at some Victorian houses in our area around the 4800 sqaure feet range. The house had 2 gas boilers and the bill was in the 1grand a month during winter time. I called Cetral hudson and asked for previos usage to get ideas of what we would be paying a month.

Your gonna need a nice tractor with grapple and a big ass chain saw! I think a excellent investmeny would be to make sure you have the best outdoor wood boiler that money can buy, Im sure they make ones that can get 24hr+ burn times.

As far as indoors you need to make some good calls amd pic stuff thats gonna get you some awesome burn times. I dont think your gonna want to be feeding wood to you boiler and inserts all day.

Congradulations on such a nice place and Merry Christmas!

Thanks! Yes, there is gas with two NG furnaces and a NG fireplace in the master bedroom. No idea what it would cost to heat with NG and hope I never have to find out. I enjoy burning firewood and will probably put an insert in the downstairs fireplace someday and hopefully like Brother Bart said, the entire hearth will give off some radiant heat. Even we we burn wood in the fireplace downstairs the hearth up in the greatroom raises a few degrees according to my IR temp gun.

As far as the tractor, that will be my springtime purchase. I just got done buying a 60 ft Genie manlift this week to do all the maintenance on the cabin. Besides I need time to research which one will fit the bill. Any suggestions?

 

[begreen]

As far as the tractor, that will be my springtime purchase. I just got done buying a 60 ft Genie manlift this week to do all the maintenance on the cabin. Besides I need time to research which one will fit the bill. Any suggestions?

Best to ask that question in the DIY forum here and on the tractor forums.

 

[Niko]

Thanks! Yes, there is gas with two NG furnaces and a NG fireplace in the master bedroom. No idea what it would cost to heat with NG and hope I never have to find out. I enjoy burning firewood and will probably put an insert in the downstairs fireplace someday and hopefully like Brother Bart said, the entire hearth will give off some radiant heat. Even we we burn wood in the fireplace downstairs the hearth up in the greatroom raises a few degrees according to my IR temp gun.

As far as the tractor, that will be my springtime purchase. I just got done buying a 60 ft Genie manlift this week to do all the maintenance on the cabin. Besides I need time to research which one will fit the bill. Any suggestions?

I am a research freak amd will look into everything, like what i notice about one of your pics is why would somebody build such a huge hearth fireplace and not have a insert in it already? If your just drooping forewood in it and burning that is totally inefficeint. Its looks awesome but if you wanna really heat the place not the way to go.

Yea you have a outdoor wood boiler but can you check on the date to see when it was purchased. Like maybe the previous owner tried heating with inserts and it didnt work as far as heating, bringing in too much dirt, storage etc, so they decided to keep all the wood outside and get a OWB. So buying a insert might not be worth it. Grab yourself a flashlight and get in that big hewrth you got and look up that chimney. See what you got and the use it has gotten.

Me personally would get stoves vs inserts and strategically put it near doors that have easier acces to your outdoor storage of wood. So your not dragging firewood threw out your whole house.

I have my main pile cords about a acre away from my house about once a week or longer I use my tractor with my utility cart and bring abiut a 1/4 cord of wood right next to my house about 10 feet away. I have a nother small storage area just for this 1/4 wood. From their i have a small wood cart that and bring into my patio room. Once every 24hr i fill my King Ultra with this small cart. It takes a about a week maybe longer or shorter to empty my 1/4 cord of wood that right outside of my house. Everytime i empty that small wood cart i get debri on the ground i have my broom amd scoop ready to pic up the dirt.

I cant imagine bringing that cart threw out my house like your and dirtying verything up eveytjme I fill it up. This is what i mean about being strategic and efficient. You house is roughly 3 times the size of mine so i assume you have alot walking to do to get from fuel to stove

sorry if this long just trying to help as others have helped me. I also seny you a provate message if you wanna chat more.