Time to turn to the ones "in the know".Would like to pick the brains of any interested parties on the subject of a secondary heat source. Have a propane fired boiler / hot water heat now as eventually would like to convert to an external wood fired boiler for heat and domestic hot H2O. Hit me with your thoughts on these. Anyone got pellet stove stories? ventless propane stove? wood as secondary heat? any ttype of hot water heat that could be tied ultimately to the whole system? Talk to me folks, I don't trust salespeople anymore,I want honest testimonials from those getting their hands dirty with the stuff!!

-- dan (dcbaker@2ki.net), January 25, 2001

Answers

We bought a ventless propane heater (looks like a woodstove with logs and has a thermostat and needs no electricity) as a back up for our propane furnace which needs electricity. It did such a good job heating our downstairs (more efficient than the furnace too) that we have used it exclusively and this year we opened the door to the stairway and heated the upstairs too. We have been amazed how well it works. We've had very cold temperatures this year - most days around 20 degrees and 0 nights. Downstairs stays around 69 degrees and upstairs around 66-67 depending on the wind outside. We are surprised at how little propane we have used. Our house is around 1800 square feet.

-- Terry (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), January 25, 2001.

Terry, I had a neighbor with some sort of propane fireplace deal you mention. I don't know how old it was. Whenever I visited her, I always got a headache that would clear immediately when I got into fresh air--I always worried about them and CO poisoning as I know headaches can be a symptom. Have you had any problems with headaches? Do you have any sort of CO monitor? We need something in the west end of the house as our furnace is forced air--no electricity, no fan, no heat. Thanks for your input.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), January 25, 2001.

Marilyn - No, we haven't noticed any headaches. We do, however, have a carbon monoxide detector in the room - always want to be on the safe side. We also had our plumber come out at the beginning of this second season of using it to check it out and clean it. Will do that each year - well worth the $50.

-- Terry (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), January 25, 2001.

We have a ventless wall-hanging propane heater as well as a small Scandanavian-type woodstove..no headaches, no problems...the propane heater puts out a great deal of heat in a very short period of time..Problem for us is our dogs going by the heater...our Kuvasz has all this nice curly white hair..she's a big girl and her back is level with the heater, not to mention her tail .....I worry about her brushing up against it, so we never have it on overnight or when we are not right there to supervise...I do not think I would like this arrangement with small children either...We plan on looking into converting our small woodstove to a propane one as soon as we get the BIG wood cookstove installed....God bless.

-- Lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), January 25, 2001.

my back up heat is a wall furnace my primary heat source it a 30 year old j.c. penney wood stove. i have it built into a wall that goes out on a glassed in front porch. after you learn how to work a wood stove you cant beat them for good cheap heat. but when you buy get a good one. maybe not the one that cost the most. Bob in se.ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@hit.net), January 26, 2001.

We replaced our wood heat with 2-Vermont casting, (15-25,000 Btu) Ventless propane heaters just before thanksgiving. We love them, I doubt that we will ever go back to wood, (in the house, I heat my shop with wood) Our winters are quite mild, so we can turn the heat off at night,in the morning I get both units going, then turn one off around 9:AM. My wife went south for 2 weeks, when she was gone I turned the heat off all day, as I was outside working. The down side of it is, we are paying $2.45/9 per gallon, as of yesterday, the price has increased from $2.00 in the past two and a half months. Electricity is still $.06 per KwH. Firewood is $160 per cord.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweg.netm), January 26, 2001.

We have a wall mounted ventless propane heater that we use to supplement the heat pump / power outages, and it does work great! Throws off a lot of heat quickly, and we've never had any problem with fumes from the heater itself.

2 years ago we did have problems with fumes though after we painted the boys room. Smelt like we had a propane leak in the house. Gas company came out, checked everything out, found out we had just painted, and told us the propane heater was pulling the fumes from the new paint. It went away eventually, but we couldn't use the propane for the rest of the winter.

Am adding a wood stove now to be my main heat source, though the more I think about it, the more I'd like to add an outdoor furnace if I had the money to get one.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), January 26, 2001.

I have had a few ventless propane heaters and have had great luck with them.I also have serviced them. Almost all ventless heaters come with an oxygen depletion sensor which will turn them off in conditions of low oxygen which would create carbon monoxide. They have been used in europe for decades with an excellent safety record. The only complaints i have heard are slight odors which are usually caused by dust or hair in the air which settles on the heater. Another one had a set of fake logs which gave off an odor. One other consideration which I might mention which might be of concern with an unvented propane heater is moisture buildup. If you have an extemely tight house you may find the humidity levels raise to the point where it is a problem. This of course depends on what part of the country you are in and the time of year.

-- jz (oz49us@yahoo.com), January 30, 2001.

We have an outdoor wood boiler and if I had to do it again- I wouldn't. It heats the basement floor and does a good job of it. We have a side-arm heater that heats our hot water when the furnace is running and the water is hotter than when the water heater is doing it. The problems are: it was VERY expensive to put in- more than twice what the salesman said it would be. We needed more and more parts to make it work. It still needs electricity to run the pump and fan so we're still held hostage by the power failures or use the generator. It is very difficult to load because it is built to take 3-four foot unsplit and often green logs. They weigh a heap. The older I get the more I resent that stove, especially when my husband is gone and I have to do it. If you burn only dry wood you get too hot and fast a fire. When you load it the draft is terrible, so you get a face full of smoke no matter what you do.( We have tried everything).

I would go back to smaller wood stoves in the house if I were to do it again. A friend put in a wood boiler in her basement and they like it a lot. They slide the wood down a chute like coal was loaded into the coal bin in the old days.

-- Peg in NW WI (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), January 30, 2001.

We've heated with wood for over 20 years and I was raised in a home that had only wood heat. We do have an electric furnace/heat pump but choose not to use it. If you have a source for wood, it just can't be beat. It is economical and radiates a very bone-warming heat. The only drawback that I can think of is the mess in carrying the wood from the backdoor to the stove but it's pretty easy to sweep up the mess.

We've had to use our woodstove several times over the years to cook on when in the midst of a power outage. You can also heat water and dry clothes near it.

-- Bev Hansen (rdklandbev@aol.com), February 01, 2001.