Inexpensive Heating Options to Replace Expensive Hydro

I sympathize.

Throwing out wood and coal stoves throws out some pretty good options--have you actually talked to your insurance company about the extra costs?

You haven't said anything about how well insulated your house is (other than "older") or what temperature you try to maintain.

Whatever temperature you try to maintain, cut it down. I aim for 68 degrees during the day, and let it drop off to 60 at night. Use electric blankets (would that be a hydro blanket in your neck of the woods? ;-), dress warmly, wear a hat, try to be physically active.

Consider improving the insulation on your house. Consider covering your windows with at least one additional layer of glass or plastic.

Northern Ontario, hmm, what's the situation with wind and solar up there? If you can build your own solar collectors, the most cost efficient first step is using solar to heat your hot water. (In my area, from what I've seen, calculations assume getting a max of 6 good hours of solar heating without clouds--if you have clouds it's worse.)

You use propane, so I guess that's your furnace. I sort of doubt that a geothermal heat pump would save you money in that area, but I could be wrong--it's a fairly big capital expense.

Propane, probably central forced air heat--probably not easy to selectively heat some areas, but if you could, you might reduce the heat in most of the house even more and maintain one or a few rooms at a higher temperature--either to do most of your living in, or as a warmup room when your chilled from being in the colder parts of the house.

Is the house occupied during the day--I guess you're home if no one else--but if you're not, turn the thermostat down during the day (and at night while you're snug in bed).

I don't have any super suggestions just trying to think out loud and maybe spark some ideas.

thanks for the help wind and solar would be a go up here i haven't any trees surrounding my house insulation is another factor the basement has a crawlspace 3 ft away from nothing but soil and its not insulated therefore the floor is very cold ( we didn't have the $ to insulate it when we bought the house and still don,t ) I'm just trying to keep it reasonably warm without spending so much on hydro we have a 2yr boy old also i keep everything turned down all day and the sun does a great job heating up the living room but alas the nights go down to -30c or colder here and it takes longer to heat up in the morning if it gets too chilly during the night im looking around the web for some plans but its hard to find anything thats free id just like to be able to get a dollar figure on building somthing here

oh yeah i did look into geothermal and almost had a stroke it is a great source but my god its expensive would be great though perhaps in the distant future

I put in a wood stove and insurance didn't go up, you may want to call them and check.

Before I got the wood stove, propane prices were killing me........and that was 7 years ago. My solution, (before the stove), was an electric blanket on the bed at night, and warm clothes during the day.

It was just the wife and me. Warm the house a little after work, eat dinner, turn heat way down, lay in bed under electric blanket and read or watch TV. The next morning turn up heater enough to take the chill off and get ready for work, and back down right away. Repeat daily.

ill call them and check but my neighbour put a wood stove in his work shed and the insurance company almost yanked his house insurance this is canada they want money every time you do anything on your home i just paied almost 1000$ for a permit to replace 4 pipes in my septic system and add a distribution box on top of the materials we had to buy it almost cost 3000$ glad my father in law came to the rescue on that one

haha nothing like waking up on a hot summer morning to a front yard full of crap!!!!!!!

These external wood burners are great from several different angles. You keep all the bugs and ash outside, you preheat your hot water with the coils so you will use hardly any propane for hot water, all fire hazard is outside and you get to be comfortable at a cheaper rate. There are many commercial units made or you could build your own if you are so mechanically inclined.

You do have to either cut the wood yourself or buy it and keep the fire box loaded every 8 or 10 hours, depending on how big the fire box is and what kind of wood you burn. Here in central Kansas we have what is called Osage Orange and it is an awesome fire wood for BTU's and burn time, plus, it never rots so it keeps for years.

Another option is a pellet stove which doesn't require expensive chimney pipe. The pellets can be purchased for a pretty reasonable cost in quantity.

Different problems here. It's just gone 10pm and the thermometer has dropped to 33C. (For your southern neighbours that's 90F) I'd really like to swap a few degrees, but that's not currently feasible. (It might get down to 29C tonight and that will be the coolest for 7 nights.)

You mention a 3' crawl space underneath the house. Do you have perimeter wall to slow the air movement (heat exchange) through that area? Your "handyman skills could construct a simple wall to enclose the crawl space if that's not already done. (Or utilise a better thermal resistance like brick instead of timber siding etc. (You know your exact details.)

How would your hydro kit work at the temperatures you describe? Doesn't the water get kind of solid?

Local experience is that unless you have ready access to timber supply, to achieve the same comfort level it is cheaper to use the pulic energy supply. If you don't cost your own time and effort and consider the wood fire a "lifestyle" decision, then it could result in lower out of pocket outcome.

I presume that since you have own septic system you are remote from city central with some "dirt" available. I've seen calcs that a 25,000L digester can provide relatively constant 1kW methane supply with around 4 hours per week service, but I would think that's getting a little exotic for what you want.

The only side note that I add is that whatever you burn to get your heat, make sure adequate ventilation in your living space, as you need Oxygen too.

Sorry to here of your back injury and your high gas bill to boot.

A fast and relatively inexpensive fix would be to somehow insulate the perimeter of the crawl space if your floors are cold.

Where I live, I have seen folk use bales of hay or straw placed against the exposed crawl space wall.

In cases where there is no wall on one or more sides, they still stack bales to close off the open area.

On two feet of exposed crawl space, I typically see two bales high, two bales deep at the bottom course of the bales.

Some even cover the bales with Polly-tarp to further the insulating effect.

As far as a fire place, I installed a UL approved unit. I live in a log home and my insurance only went up about $65.00 a year. (I always assumed - WHOA - Log Home + Wood Burner = $$$$$$$$$$$$$)

You mentioned your neighbor and a wood burner in his shed and his insurance company having a freak-out. I ran into the same problem when I wanted to put a wood burner in my milk house after having installed one in my home with no objection from the Ins Co. My agent almost soiled himself on the spot. Something to do with a wood burner in a home is attended closely, a wood burner installed in an outbuilding tends to be left un-attended or some such insurance speak.

If you have not already done so, double check with your insurance provider, the fire place rider may not be as bad as you think.

Hope this helps and Good Luck!

The cheapest would be to insulate your home properly. Get somebody who can point where to insulate the parts of your home and insulate those.

If you look around, there is a ceramic and water based coating out there that can make a huge difference in heating and cooling requirements in a home. It is applied and looks just like paint.

I have been working with it for 25 years now. They will not let me post a link anymore on this forum.

My contact information is on my profile.

Hal Skinner

thanks Kevin Ive been looking at some of the grants but I'm not sure inspections are 300 bucks for the first one then i think its 150 for the second like always money is the problem lmao

Most people don't realize that they can use the same cash set aside for propane to make the home equity loan payments for an evacuated tube solar thermal hot water and heating system. No extra cash up front! In a few years the system pays for itself and then you are free from the tyranny of fuel hikes. It depends on the incentives and fuel costs in your area. In my neck of the woods, there is a consistent 5 year payback, and very likely a 30 year life before any major maintenance. You keep your existing heating system in working order for extended heavily inclement weather, and the solar preheats the feed to it. If it is set up right, the primary system will hardly ever operate. Flat panel makers & installers will try to tell you they work just as well as evacuated tubes in winter in your neighborhood. Don't believe it. Find a NABCEP certified solar thermal installer.

Three things to look at..

1. Polyurethane foam insulation. You can by kits and insulated as you have the cash. I am not sure how large they come right now as they continue to grow every year. The last home that I built in Florida was insulated this way we had 7200 sq ft under roof and in the middle of summer the bill was under $300.00. Made me a believer.

2. Outside boiler unit.. These work really well and can be either wood supplied or pellet fired. This not only heats but takes care of your hot water needs.

3. Thermal.. I am not sure what your ground temperature is but, if you can dig a hole deep enough you can install what you need to control your situation by size and quantity. I have seen this done in florida for cooling and after the initial set up it really paid for itself.

Start with insulation, than upgrade your furnace/ heating system by a competent contractor.

Last year I changed out a very poorly designed heat pump, with back up electric heat. The bill went from $700.00 per month for electric to a little over $1000.00 for propane, for the year. This included he hot water tank.

Note: This was a R2000 house.

The location was north east of Bobcagen.

Have you looked at building a solar heater using pop cans?

See examples here:

http://hackedgadgets.com/2008/09/18/pop-can-solar-heater/

http://www.cansolair.com/

Very easy to build, inexpensive and will definitely help everytime the sun is out. The output on those is pretty impressive.