Do it Yourself: Re: [DIY] Supplemental Furnace

23 January 2013

Re: [DIY] Supplemental Furnace

You need to also look at the rated BTU of the unit as compared to the size of your home. I'm not sure where "UP Here" is but we have been having some pretty mild winters in Central Kansas the past few years. A lot also rides on how much of your home you are willing to live in with out heat. We never heated our upstairs and the first floor bedrooms got pretty cold at night. I've noticed some of the units are 20,000 BTU or less and that in all reality is not much heat. How much wood you will use is again dependent on the type of wood, hard woods being the best. You can spend a bunch of money getting ready to heat with wood before you even strike a match. There are besides the stove or stoves, chain saws, log splitters, trucks or trailers for hauling, chimney either installed or serviced as the case may be, not to mention that cutting wood can be very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. I love it when people are willing to use their ingenuity and muscle to survive, but I also know that many also wind up missing fingers, feet and other body parts in the process, not to mention burning themselves out of house and home.

Dale in the Flatlands.

opinicize wrote:

Okay Dale,

Maybe you can re-visit this topic if you decide to install one at home. I did a quick web search to see if the brands available at the local big box stores are well respected. I didn't find reviews, but what I did find was a list of manufacturers put together by, and rated by HVAC (I think) guys. They used a 1-5 star system - 5 stars being the best. The locally available brands did not rate well according to the criteria used, but that is their opinion only, not based on experience with the product..

$600.00 for a winter of heating would not be bad up here, but I would have to factor in the cost of the furnace, as well. Also, I would use wood which at this point I have quite a bit of. Don't know how fast it would burn through, though. And, wrestling the unit in place might be a bit of a task.

Christine - Mpls