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Home heating questions - looking at various stove types. Thoughts? Input?

Jeff7

Jeff7

Lifer
I, the Internet guru of the house, have been tasked with finding information about stove types. And so I turn to the many users of Anandtech for help.
We've been considering wood pellet stoves, kerosene stoves, and propane heaters. We're currently using electric heat, which is quite expensive. There is a wood stove here, but there's a few problems with it, mainly that the smoke doesn't like to go up the chimney, and the other issue that the chimney quickly accumulates this black, crunchy, oily residue, the name of which I can't remember right now. It's been cleaned, checked, etc...a multitude of things done to try to get the smoke to go up, but it just doesn't want to; it'd rather come pouring out into the cellar the second the front is opened for refueling. So an alternative is needed.

What has been found is that any of the 3 potential options will need a constant power source, which is a negative. The power went out last Christmas for almost a week, and it was only the POS, smoky wood stove that kept most of the house warm. Buying or building a backup power system shouldn't be too difficult. I'd think that a charging circuit, some sealed lead-acid batteries, and an inverter hooked to a relay should do the trick. But it depends on the price of a pre-built backup system too.

In any event, I need information on the various kinds of stoves. Owners with pellet, kerosene, or propane heaters are invited to post their thoughts on each kind. This is to be a permanent fixture in a basement, and we don't need (and can't afford) any of those multi-thousand-dollar fancy things, just something that puts out heat.
 
Sounds like you have some ventilation issues with your wood stove. Something blocking the flue or ventpipe? Can you find someone to take a look at it?

Don't know much about the others. I lived in a wood-heated house for a long time and I know that they need a lot of TLC.
 
Originally posted by: sciencetoy
Sounds like you have some ventilation issues with your wood stove. Something blocking the flue or ventpipe? Can you find someone to take a look at it?

Don't know much about the others. I lived in a wood-heated house for a long time and I know that they need a lot of TLC.
Click to expand...

Did already. Spent a few hundred dollars on various people and devices designed specifically for this kind of problem. Nothing helped. The chimney was cleaned a few times, inspected thoroughly....we tried a few special caps for it too...nothing worked.

Our neighbor uses propane, and he says that it uses a small, separate pipe as the chimney. It just goes right outside through the nearest wall.

The house I lived in until I was 4 yrs old had a coal stove, and an UPdraft so strong that it'd snuff out fires quickly. I don't know what we did to lessen that. This house now is the lowest thing around. The driveway slopes down to the house, and there's trees behind the house. We did try a chimney extender. It too did nothing.
 
if you can get that wood stove working right id keep it

if not wood pellet stoves are nice. a friend of mine had one and it put out alot of heat
 
Originally posted by: Anubis
if you can get that wood stove working right id keep it

if not wood pellet stoves are nice. a friend of mine had one and it put out alot of heat
Click to expand...

If is the problem. 🙂 And I don't think it'll happen. We could probably have bought another stove with the money we put into trying to get it working.
How often do wood pellet stoves have to be refilled? The only other person in the house all the time is my mother; she's on disability, and is unable to make frequent (more than one a day) trips up and down the stairs.


Kranky - thanks for the links; I'll have to read over that. They should prove helpful.
 
Originally posted by: Ornery
Unvented heaters are 99.5% efficient and have the added benefit of putting moisture into the air, so you don't have to bother with a humidifier during the winter.
Click to expand...

Where exactly does the exhaust go then?
The one page said that it burns "LP or natural gas." I don't know what LP is (Propane?), and natural gas - doesn't that come through underground pipes, like in a city? We don't have any pipes like that out where I live.
 
Yep, you'll need a big propane tank. The gas is completely burned, so it doesn't need a chimney or stack. There is NO cheaper way to heat your home.

I have both here in my house using natural gas. They can keep a large area VERY warm. You aren't supposed to use them for the main heat source, but they handle a good 50% of our winter heating. I have to use the gas furnace to keep it dried out. I actually have condensation on the windows if the unvented heaters are doing most of the work.

I have two CO detectors, so no worries there. The heaters themselves have oxygen sensors to cut them off if the oxygen level goes too low. The space heaters are dirt cheap. The fireplace logs vary in price, so you can spend as much as you want on those. I opted for a remote controlled set.
 
Originally posted by: Ornery
Yep, you'll need a big propane tank. The gas is completely burned, so it doesn't need a chimney or stack. There is NO cheaper way to heat your home.

I have both here in my house using natural gas. They can keep a large area VERY warm. You aren't supposed to use them for the main heat source, but they handle a good 50% of our winter heating. I have to use the gas furnace to keep it dried out. I actually have condensation on the windows if the unvented heaters are doing most of the work.

I have two CO detectors, so no worries there. The heaters themselves have oxygen sensors to cut them off if the oxygen level goes too low. The space heaters are dirt cheap. The fireplace logs vary in price, so you can spend as much as you want on those. I opted for a remote controlled set.
Click to expand...

It seems to put out something though, at least the propane power equipment at Walmart does. The floor buffer and the forklift are propane powered. I can't be around the exhaust of that for very long; it stinks, and it gives me a good, long-lasting migraine.
 
Your forklift's engine is NOT 99.5% efficient.

I think you're confusing these with Coleman camp heaters or something. There is NO oder.

Hell, speaking of oder. You're using a wood burner now? Talk about oder!
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Originally posted by: Ornery
Yep, you'll need a big propane tank. The gas is completely burned, so it doesn't need a chimney or stack. There is NO cheaper way to heat your home.

I have both here in my house using natural gas. They can keep a large area VERY warm. You aren't supposed to use them for the main heat source, but they handle a good 50% of our winter heating. I have to use the gas furnace to keep it dried out. I actually have condensation on the windows if the unvented heaters are doing most of the work.

I have two CO detectors, so no worries there. The heaters themselves have oxygen sensors to cut them off if the oxygen level goes too low. The space heaters are dirt cheap. The fireplace logs vary in price, so you can spend as much as you want on those. I opted for a remote controlled set.
Click to expand...

It seems to put out something though, at least the propane power equipment at Walmart does. The floor buffer and the forklift are propane powered. I can't be around the exhaust of that for very long; it stinks, and it gives me a good, long-lasting migraine.
Click to expand...

think of it like a gas stove. basically the same thing. you don't get much gas coming off a stove do you?

 
Originally posted by: Ornery
Your forklift's engine is NOT 99.5% efficient.

I think you're confusing these with Coleman camp heaters or something. There is NO oder.

Hell, speaking of oder. You're using a wood burner now? Talk about oder!
Click to expand...

It's not the odor so much. It's the chemicals. And no, we're not using the wood stove now. We used it, briefly. But not again.
My dad said he was to a heating convention or something like that, and the people there selling the "ventless" things even were recommending that the systems be vented. A search on Webmd for the word "propane" gave a fun result - first 3 matches were "Carbon monoxide poisoning." :Q We do have a CO detector though.



Update (termed such, because it's been about an hour since I first hit "Reply" and typed the above paragraph):
I think I'll be going with a wood pellet stove. I have easy access to wood pellets, plus they're more environmentally friendly. What I've found says that the pellets are made from waste sawdust, which is good - less waste in landfills. And it means no burning of fossil fuels/explosive gases or liquids.
And I've been given command of this project, so I've got more flexibility. It's my project. My own. My preciousssss. 😀

Time to shop for a pellet stove, unless anyone here has anything terrible to say about them. Anyone?
 
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