The Furnace Quit - The Joy of Not Being Normal

[marty319]

Some of us here in cottage country still have an outhouse.you have to have a drum under it so it can be pumped out

 

[reaperman1]

Am I missing something, your furnace is out and you don’t have hot water. Don’t you have a water heater?

 

[stoveliker]

Thread wandering...

 

[MongoMongoson]

Am I missing something, your furnace is out and you don’t have hot water. Don’t you have a water heater?

We have hydronic in-floor heat and the boiler acts as our water heater as well. So, no boiler means no hot water for us.

In some ways, this is a good thing. Fewer things to break, and the boiler runs in the summer to heat water which seems better than letting it sit for 9 months. We only heat the floor for about 3 months of the year. We can make it through most of December with just the wood stove and after that keep the floor warm into early March. It is nice to have a cold slab when the warm weather starts in the spring.

 

[danham]

I've got a gas water heater and town water so when the electricity goes out I still have hot water and heat from the wood stove. Unfortunately my solar panels don't work during power outages, I thought about getting some batteries but my power does not go out often enough to justify the cost.

Two years ago we needed to replace our gas water heater. Like you, we have town water and so hot showers during semi-frequent power outages is a big benefit. So when the heater installer told me the new one would have a computerized thermostat, I balked and said why would we give up that benefit to run a computer that needs electricity. Well, it turns out this model uses the pilot flame and a thermopile to create just enough voltage to run that tiny computer. Amazing.

-dan