Hi everyone. My first post but surely won't be my last. Been lurking around here reading for the last week or so and learning more than I ever dreamed.
We live in a farm house that was built in the 1890's. The 1st floor is roughly 1800 square feet and the upstairs is around 1400. Wife inherited the house in 2000 and we put in a 5 ton 12 SEER heat pump in the same year to replace a 30 yr old oil furnace. At the time she inherited it, it only had the lower level and we built the upstairs on about a year later. When we built the upstairs, we framed it out of 2x6's and put in R19 insulation. The lower level had very little insulation, as it had not been invented at the time the house was built. About 25% of the lower level walls were insulated by her dad, and that was only because of rooms he had added onto. I am proud to say it is framed out of oak sawmill 2x4's (the good stuff).
We have had an original Buckstove insert (28000 I think) that we have used every year to heat the front half of the house during the day. The stove burns everyday during the winter from around 9AM to 9PM to save on heating. After letting the stove shutdown at night, we always let the heat pump run to keep the back half of the house warm so we can sleep back there. After we first moved in, we would nearly freeze when we left the living room during the day due to lack of insulation all thru the lower level of the house. Over the past few years, we have added insulation to all exterior walls and it has helped, but is still nowhere close to airtight.
During the first week of December, the compressor locked up on our heat pump. I found it had a 10 year warranty and we still had 9 months remaining. I called a friend who does HVAC and he told me to check at a local supply house and see if it could be replaced under warranty. To my surprise, it was fully covered. I picked up the compressor and called the friend back to install. He said he was busy and would try to get up here some afternoon to change out compressors, pump it down, and then regas. I was scared to death of what my electric bill would be since we were now using the emergency electric strips in the furnace to heat with at night. Before I knew it, a month had passed and we got our electric bill. I was scared to open it as I knew it would be very high, since this December had been much colder than recent ones. Much to my surprise, my bill was less (KW/h) than the one a year ago. When we ran the heat pump and it was cold, it would nearly run all night. Most of the time, it would run for an hour or better, then the electric strips would kick in and within 10 minutes, it would be up to temp and shut off. About 10-15 minutes later, we would repeat the cycle. Since the heat pump has been out, the heat will run for about 10 minutes, shut off and not come back on for 20-30 minutes or sometimes longer. I should be getting my electric bill for January in the next few days, but am already considering not installing the new compressor and just selling the complete heat pump/furnace when spring gets here. Even though I have a couple of registers in the upstairs addition, the heat pump is primarily for downstairs only. I have a propane wall heater up there that seldom comes on due to the insulation. If you use the heat pump for A/C in the summer, the bill is very high. We quit using it and instead started using small window A/C's with digital thermostats in about 4 rooms. The bill is much cheaper that way.
Because of my eyes opening up to the heat pump vs. electric strip issue, I have been reading up on wood furnaces. I saw a Yukon Eagle wood furnace that uses propane as a back up and also to light the wood, should it go out. The only problem is it costs over $5000. I like the Englander 28-3500 wood furnace that is closer to $1000, but would like to have a built-in backup in the event we are gone for an extended time and the fire goes out. I have even considered building my own, as I understand the concept/principle and can weld. I looked into outside wood boilers, but don't really want to have to go outside to keep a fire going in all kinds of weather. The current ducting in the lower part of the house is galvanized 6" round duct and the air distribution is horrible as some rooms barely have any airflow and others will run you out. I would like to run new ducting and duct the furnace into it to distribute the heat.
The biggest problem I see is that the current location of my Buckstove/masonary chimney is at the end of the living room and is a good distance from the center of the house. Wife doesn't want to run stovepipe thru the upstairs area to vent the wood furnace. Because of this, I am considering tearing down the masonary chimney that is on an outside wall, putting the new furnace there, and installing the stainless triple wall pipe. We are basically a creosote breeding ground with the current setup. The only problem with trying to run new ducting is ground clearance. Where the furnace will be located, we have about 2 feet of crawlspace. On the back side of the house, there may be 10". I have thought about running the ducting under the house on the front half then running it up the wall where the current furnace is and ducting to the remainder thru the ceiling by installing a drop ceiling. My hearth is made out of concrete and I don't know how I can go about ducting from the top of the wood furnace thru the concrete hearth to get under the floor. I have thought about tearing out the hearth when the chimney comes out, but would still have to take the duct from the top of the furnace, over the side and under the floor. I can't install a drop ceiling in living room so I can't run ducting above the ceiling anyway and would have to go under the house.
Can someone please give me some suggestions on how to do this? Also, I appologize for the long post.
We live in a farm house that was built in the 1890's. The 1st floor is roughly 1800 square feet and the upstairs is around 1400. Wife inherited the house in 2000 and we put in a 5 ton 12 SEER heat pump in the same year to replace a 30 yr old oil furnace. At the time she inherited it, it only had the lower level and we built the upstairs on about a year later. When we built the upstairs, we framed it out of 2x6's and put in R19 insulation. The lower level had very little insulation, as it had not been invented at the time the house was built. About 25% of the lower level walls were insulated by her dad, and that was only because of rooms he had added onto. I am proud to say it is framed out of oak sawmill 2x4's (the good stuff).
We have had an original Buckstove insert (28000 I think) that we have used every year to heat the front half of the house during the day. The stove burns everyday during the winter from around 9AM to 9PM to save on heating. After letting the stove shutdown at night, we always let the heat pump run to keep the back half of the house warm so we can sleep back there. After we first moved in, we would nearly freeze when we left the living room during the day due to lack of insulation all thru the lower level of the house. Over the past few years, we have added insulation to all exterior walls and it has helped, but is still nowhere close to airtight.
During the first week of December, the compressor locked up on our heat pump. I found it had a 10 year warranty and we still had 9 months remaining. I called a friend who does HVAC and he told me to check at a local supply house and see if it could be replaced under warranty. To my surprise, it was fully covered. I picked up the compressor and called the friend back to install. He said he was busy and would try to get up here some afternoon to change out compressors, pump it down, and then regas. I was scared to death of what my electric bill would be since we were now using the emergency electric strips in the furnace to heat with at night. Before I knew it, a month had passed and we got our electric bill. I was scared to open it as I knew it would be very high, since this December had been much colder than recent ones. Much to my surprise, my bill was less (KW/h) than the one a year ago. When we ran the heat pump and it was cold, it would nearly run all night. Most of the time, it would run for an hour or better, then the electric strips would kick in and within 10 minutes, it would be up to temp and shut off. About 10-15 minutes later, we would repeat the cycle. Since the heat pump has been out, the heat will run for about 10 minutes, shut off and not come back on for 20-30 minutes or sometimes longer. I should be getting my electric bill for January in the next few days, but am already considering not installing the new compressor and just selling the complete heat pump/furnace when spring gets here. Even though I have a couple of registers in the upstairs addition, the heat pump is primarily for downstairs only. I have a propane wall heater up there that seldom comes on due to the insulation. If you use the heat pump for A/C in the summer, the bill is very high. We quit using it and instead started using small window A/C's with digital thermostats in about 4 rooms. The bill is much cheaper that way.
Because of my eyes opening up to the heat pump vs. electric strip issue, I have been reading up on wood furnaces. I saw a Yukon Eagle wood furnace that uses propane as a back up and also to light the wood, should it go out. The only problem is it costs over $5000. I like the Englander 28-3500 wood furnace that is closer to $1000, but would like to have a built-in backup in the event we are gone for an extended time and the fire goes out. I have even considered building my own, as I understand the concept/principle and can weld. I looked into outside wood boilers, but don't really want to have to go outside to keep a fire going in all kinds of weather. The current ducting in the lower part of the house is galvanized 6" round duct and the air distribution is horrible as some rooms barely have any airflow and others will run you out. I would like to run new ducting and duct the furnace into it to distribute the heat.
The biggest problem I see is that the current location of my Buckstove/masonary chimney is at the end of the living room and is a good distance from the center of the house. Wife doesn't want to run stovepipe thru the upstairs area to vent the wood furnace. Because of this, I am considering tearing down the masonary chimney that is on an outside wall, putting the new furnace there, and installing the stainless triple wall pipe. We are basically a creosote breeding ground with the current setup. The only problem with trying to run new ducting is ground clearance. Where the furnace will be located, we have about 2 feet of crawlspace. On the back side of the house, there may be 10". I have thought about running the ducting under the house on the front half then running it up the wall where the current furnace is and ducting to the remainder thru the ceiling by installing a drop ceiling. My hearth is made out of concrete and I don't know how I can go about ducting from the top of the wood furnace thru the concrete hearth to get under the floor. I have thought about tearing out the hearth when the chimney comes out, but would still have to take the duct from the top of the furnace, over the side and under the floor. I can't install a drop ceiling in living room so I can't run ducting above the ceiling anyway and would have to go under the house.
Can someone please give me some suggestions on how to do this? Also, I appologize for the long post.
