Your Furnace Just Died, Whats Your Back Up?

First the chairs then the table........................

 

I don't have a furnace. I only use electric space heaters. If the power goes out, I have natural gas drops I can tie my old heaters to that are in the attic. If NatGas and electric are out I have a wood stove, two cords of split wood, and all the piping to put one in the front room just waiting its turn in the barn. There are also a couple of Buddy heaters in the preps and an RV with bottles full of propane.

But seriously? My house is well insulated and although it does get cold as hell in Dallas sometimes it isn't for long.

 

No. 1 Electricity
No.2 generator
No.3 propane
No.4 wood enough for at least 3 winters
No. 5 My dogs and a blanket
No.6 a big fat woman (my wife)

 

Bandages when the wife reads #6.

 

Don't have central heat or a furnace. Built the house in 1985, went super insulation (walls are 10" thick for example). Have a couple of 'mini-split' heat pump units (2 1/2 tons total), but generally only use them for some occasional summer AC, or on heat mode maybe to knock off a chill in late spring/early fall. 15kBTU propane wall heater on sun room sees some occasional use as well. Main heat is a wood stove that does the living/dining/kitchen area (all fairly open to each other, about 900sqft) very well, master bdrm on same level not so well, but we like it cool to sleep, so that works out fine. Another wood stove in half basement under master bdrm end it fired up when temps hit mid teens or below.

We use 4-6 cords of hardwood/year, I keep 12-16 cords cut at any given time....little overstocked right now at 18, two cords left in basement from last year. (move the contents of one or two '4 cord sheds' into the basement each year, which results in about half a shed's worth being left every other year....depending on use that winter.

Two of my sheds



Fill dates marked


From shed to wagon, cord at a time


Stacked in basement


Loaded on homebuilt dumb waiter car in basement, lifted to main floor, fed into stove over 4 days to a week or more (weather depending).

 

TnAndy,looks like you are set for a cold winter.

 

I have a generator and heater. That is it. It is a horrible back-up for long term but it is what I have at the moment. Living in a rental limits what I can do. I know enough to seal an area, sleep in tents when one is limited on heating. It will be real cold but it is what I have where I am at now.

I have a friend who just spent $40 thousand on a new whole house back-up generator. It runs on natural gas. I wondered why they would do natural gas, not propane.

 

I would imagine because they already HAVE natural gas at the house where propane would require setting a tank with no purpose (nat gas already running furnace/water heater/stove) other than to feed the generator.

 

My furnace is a wood stove, it can't die but if it did not function for whatever reason the house is mostly underground so it is not too bad even with no heat. I also have a small (9,000 btu) heat pump that runs off my solar panels, it won't do much but it is next to the kids room and should help.

Last winter when we were building the house and living in the bus we got back from vacation about midnight and the power was out. It was 30 degrees inside the bus and 50 degrees in the house so we grabbed some blow up mattresses and sleeping bags and stayed in the house. I started a fire in the wood stove but 50 in a sleeping bag is not bad.

 

Always.

First year we moved in, late fall, didn't have time to cut wood, and I was out in the snow cutting and trying to burn dead green wood, cussing myself at the time. I resolved right then THAT wasn't gonna ever happen again, and managed to stay at least the next winter's ahead from then on. Wasn't until about 10 years ago I built the first two '4 cord' sheds....after an experimental version of about 2 cords some years earlier. Then added two more sheds few years after the first two. Now I have about 3 years capacity, give or take, and feel like that is the right number. It would allow for at least one year of no cutting assuming something like a health issue pops up (had triple bypass heart deal 2011, knee replacement 2015) or some other reason, and still keep us in wood.

Also, God forbid I should ever have to start buying wood, I'd have a way to measure it.....buy 4 cords....it fills one shed...just measure the floor space and stack height, do the math and there is no arguing.

 

When I lived outside Tokyo, our Japanese house had no insulation. It got below freezing regularly during winter, but not sub-zero. We had kerosene heaters that were fired up when people were awake. They had spring loaded cut offs in case of earthquakes. (Yeah, and we had several big ones). Worked like a champ, along with thick quilts. Had one on the wall in the living room, a portable one in the bedroom and bathroom. Lots of mornings you could see your breath inside when you got up.

When we finally settled down post military days in the Northern upper Midwest where it can hit -30f, we have a NG fireplace, a 98.5% efficient NG furnace, and 3 small platinum catalyst propane heaters, plus 2-3 electric quartz heaters. So, we're prepared to keep the pipes from freezing, and heat a few rooms of the house. I have enough propane to last several days, and the means to refill the bottles. We have both propane and NG back up stoves for cooking, although the NG grill doesn't work all that great outside in winter.

 

Oil furnace hot air heat, if the power is out I can pigtail the fan and burner off the 3600W inverter and heat the house if I had to, failing that light the woodstove and failing that fire up the big buddy and shelter in place (ie make one room the living room and let the rest of the house cool off a bit).

 

I have a electric furnace,my backup is 1.fireplace with insert,2. Propane wall heaters. 3.close one room off,the smallest and use portable propane heaters. I have over two years firewood and hope to save the high dollar propane for cooking and the water heater.

 

As mild as this winter has been I could just add a blanket and a couple cats and be cozy.

 

Been there.
1996 , frigging cold -10-15C , Our woodstove at max couldn't keep the house warm as we like . So it warped from us overheating it . Got a split , I pulled in the welders and patched it in the house.
Next break i bought the largest summit and converted it with a water jacket !! "NO WARRANTY "" I was screamed at !!

Wood is in the wood shead for 2021 year were loading .

I live in mommy's world and full of BS.

Sloth

 

One thing I've learned is that cutting to short the wood looses it's gasses faster and what does not get used but held over for years eventually dries out so far the wood has little energy left in it.
I have wood that is over 20 years old that is not worth putting in the stove if I need heat .
Logs I have processed a few years ago are still quite potent but I left them 10' long logs .I drag one up and chop it into useful portions and split and burn strong .( Eucalyptus)

 

Depends on wood cell type , and where from .
Im wet coast rain forest