Is your furnace on

[curtthegreat]

Bought our pellet stove 2 years ago, found out we needed a new furnace, after the stove was installed. We worried about what we would do about replacing the furnace, because of the money we just shelled out for stove, no money for a furnace. After the house warmed up and warmed up even more than it ever had before, we forgot that we needed to replace our furnace, until this thread came on the forum.

 

[hoverfly]

I planed my pellet stove to supplement the furnace as I need something to heat the house if I gone for more than a day. I live in a leaky mobile home and so far the furnace has not had to come on do to the lack of heat form the pellet stove. However I do use the furnace on warm days as the pellet stove will cook us out of the home if left on HIGH/LOW and it cycles on and off to much in my book so I don't wear out the igniter.

 

[mark2m]

Unfortunately yes. 1916 house with no insulation and cathedral ceiling. I also get a wicked cold wind off the lake that I swear I can feel the breeze in the house.

 

[Xena]

For hot water the furnace is on. Pellet stove is main source for heat
and does a dandy job even when temps go down to single digits and below zero. (broken image removed)

 

[pelletkrzd]

furnace set @ 60 degrees just in case. Have turned on an ran for a few minutes in beginning and end of season just to make sure everything is running ok, Other than that furnace has not kicked on in 3years. Unfortunately we still use oil for our oil fired hot water heater. When that goes i'm thinking of switching to an electric water heater. Home is always comfortable now not like before with the forced hot air. We heat a 2900 sq. ft. colonial and burn almost 5 tons a year.

 

[briansol]

I have a boiler, so it still runs for my hot water. Plus, my stove is on level 3 out of 4 (i have a split level... 1 = basement, 2 = bottom living space 3= main living space w/ stove 4- bedrooms) so level 2 doesn't get any heat from the stove. I keep that room at 55 most of the time when not in use though. My other zones are set at 55 in case the stove goes out/etc while i'm gone so the pipes won't freeze just in case.
Either way, the stove is still saving me a couple hundred bucks a month over oil... and oil is back on the way up. well over $3 here now.

 

[BadDad320]

Furnace thermostat is set at 62..... Rarely does it come on....... The pellet stove does 95% of the heating......

 

[Ralph 44]

To heat the hot water. Pellets and wood does the rest.

 

[vgrund]

We do run our propane furnace a bit. Our house is an extended cape and it is large. Our stove does an admiral job with a large portion of the house and we can keep it much warmer than before, but there is no way it's going to cover the bedrooms. We'd have to add a second stove for that (not out of the question). The bedrooms are on two separate zones and have programmable thermostats. They are at 55 when we aren't using them. The amount we save versus propane is dramatic. Last year was our first year running the stove for a full season. Our propane company does not adjust mid season. We had so much credit on our account at the end of last season that we will have no propane bills this season.

 

[sweetsncheese]

The pellet stove only runs 8-12 hours unmaintained in the colder months. If the stove runs out of pellets, the inside temperature drops and I would be forced to live in a cold home while the stove fights to recover to the set 70F. So, given the choice of running the furnace, spending hours in the cold waiting for heat or staying home to feed the stove pellets, I run the furnace.

 

[mtalea]

Sold mine for scrap metal

 

[smalltown]

Up until 2 weeks ago it was 100% pellet heat. We finally turned on one zone in an addition. Other than that it's for hot water only, and it's a cold start boiler. An oil delivery was made this week and it took 67 gallons and the trucker wrote by hand on the receipt that the take was full. The previous delivery was in Sept 30. I don't think we used all that much fuel oil, but wonder if the tank was not filled completely in Sept.

 

[nosaudioil]

Is your furnace running? Well, you'd better catch it!
Ho, ho, ho!
Merry Christmas!

 

[snowleopard]

Temps been pretty steady at -20F around my house for the last week; this a.m. it warmed up to almost 0F outside. Not my usual practice, but I let the fire burn out last night around ten. I had my thermostat set at 61; when I went downstairs to light a fire this morning, the temperature was within a few degrees of kicking on the boiler. Got a nice blaze going, then cranked the thermostat up to 64 to warm up the tile floor in the sunroom and kitchen. The downstairs door is at the end of the sunrooom, and it can run a bit cooler in there. Within twenty minutes, the temperature had climbed past the point that I set the thermometer at.

My boiler comes on to heat the garage and my hot water, but I've only used 100 gallons so far this heating season, compared to the 800+ a year I usually use. My goal has been to cut that 800 in half this winter; my wishful thinking is that the 190 gallons I have left and the firewood I'm pulling in on my property will get me through until the end of March.

I bought one of those little `as seen on teevee by those who watch teevee' thing-y's that fit under the length of your door and have insulation tubes on either side. I beefed mine up by slitting a piece of foam pipe insulation lengthwise, pulling out the standard insulation, and reinserting it with the extra insulation wrapped around it, and put it under that exterior sunroom door. It's made a big difference out there. I've started to picture an arctic entryway there, a three-season, unheated workshop that will be a buffer zone between inside and outside. I think I need to put some of my time and yarn to good use making up a box of grandma slippers. And I moved my floor plants to a warmer location. Your simple little question is causing me to rethink the level of comfort that I take for granted. Maybe it's not my Constitutional right to go barefoot in Fairbanks in the middle of winter. Might be downright unpatriotic. And dumb.

 

[esuitt]

I have ours set at 70*. The stove keeps downstairs 75 day/ 72 night. So usually the only time ours comes on is when I forget to fill the pellets or am cleaning it.

 

[tractorman100]

My furnace is broken.
Glad I have my stove!

 

[vgrund]

That's one of the many advantages of owning a pellet stove.

 

[opus74]

Mine ran one day last season. Couldn't keep the pellet stove going for anything.
That was before I knew that the 30 mph wind out of the south was causing the old Whitfield to panic.
Now that I know that, and how to calm it's nerves. I don't forsee another episode. Or using the furnace either.

 

[teetah222]

No furnace... only electric wall heaters, so have been really happy to have put the stove in last year. Have only run the wall heaters this year when I left for Thanksgiving for 4 days. Otherwise my house is 100% pellet heat.

 

[twojrts]

My furnace is on as back-up only. I have to leave it on, Skeeter is here during the day and I can't come home to a frozen puppy!! My little stove heats my whole place. If it's really bitter cold out, the furnace may come on when I shut down to clean the stove.

I'm sure Reybold is not happy only billing me $4.00 a month for propane cuz I didn't use a cubic foot. I only cook w/propane, besides the furnace.

Love this stove and the heat it puts out!! Best $$ I've spent in a long, long time!!