I do not have a very small house. Though it is fairly new and well insulated.
We go through 3 1/2 cords of firewood each winter for heat.
There are homes here that use only Solar-Thermal for heat. It is their only heat source.
For our home, we hope to simply reduce our firewood use by half.
I do understand that up in the North things may be different. But down here in Northern Maine, we do not require that much heat to heat our homes.
50kBTU/hr is a lot of heat. A bit more than most homes have. Even older uninsulated homes do not have that much heat available to them.
I have seen many homes here use a water-heater looped with radiant flooring for their heat system. Those things use a 40kBTU/hr burner in them.
In fact, that is exactly my back-up system now. A 40kBTU water-heater is the back-up heat source for my radiant floor system. The primary heat source is our woodstove.
It gets cold up North. But down here we rarely see anything below -20F. Just last week, and for a couple weeks there we had temps between -5F and -20F. That is all, nothing terribly cold.
Certainly nothing that requires so much as 50kBTU/hr.
My house is 2400 sq ft and is insulated at R-60. We go through 3 1/2 cords of firewood each winter. We intend to reduce that to around 1 to 1/2 cords.
We do have homes here that are 100% solar heated.
We go through 3 1/2 cords of firewood each winter for heat.
There are homes here that use only Solar-Thermal for heat. It is their only heat source.
For our home, we hope to simply reduce our firewood use by half.
I do understand that up in the North things may be different. But down here in Northern Maine, we do not require that much heat to heat our homes.
50kBTU/hr is a lot of heat. A bit more than most homes have. Even older uninsulated homes do not have that much heat available to them.
I have seen many homes here use a water-heater looped with radiant flooring for their heat system. Those things use a 40kBTU/hr burner in them.
In fact, that is exactly my back-up system now. A 40kBTU water-heater is the back-up heat source for my radiant floor system. The primary heat source is our woodstove.
It gets cold up North. But down here we rarely see anything below -20F. Just last week, and for a couple weeks there we had temps between -5F and -20F. That is all, nothing terribly cold.
Certainly nothing that requires so much as 50kBTU/hr.
My house is 2400 sq ft and is insulated at R-60. We go through 3 1/2 cords of firewood each winter. We intend to reduce that to around 1 to 1/2 cords.
We do have homes here that are 100% solar heated.
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