Re: What my brother did...

GeoThermal is becoming popular in my area. Kind of like someone stated earlier where pipes are put in foundation and water is heated for winter and cooled for summer. Works well but initial cost is high $10K - 20K.

If you have access to firewood and want to deal with cutting and lot of ashes, one way to go is those outdoor woodstoves that heat water pipes into the house. Very efficent and since stove is several feet from the house, no risk of house fire. Stoves will burn any kind of wood and some even throw old railroad ties in it. Stoves are large and you can fill enough for a couple of days.

Some towns are not allowing them in anymore though due to smoke and pollution. Also they are best for rural settings since they are not that feasible in city locations. Storing wood and not the stove is not the most pretty thing to have in the yard.

I think corn stoves are the cheapest way to heat and would work well if you can set things up correctly. I know a guy that has corn bin that he enclosed to go along with house look and has feed mill come out and fill it in the fall. Also has it set up so it augers right into stove. I didn't want to go that in depth so went with wood pellet stove and mix corn with it.

Mark

> It's called radiant heating, it is easier to do in new home buiding. It
> can be done in a remodel but you have to lay all new floors. A lot of
> peope put it in bathrooms and kitchen with tile so no more cold tiles.
> I used propane with with one unit in each end of the house,and a wood/coal
> stove in the living room. It worked well, then propane went up to over 2
> bucks a gallon. I just finished having a heat pump put in. My mother's
> house had gas and one month was over $250 and no one was liviing there.
> Just to keep it from freezing. I understand it is not going to get better.
> SO go

> water heat
> solor panels
> electric
> wood
> propane
> and alot of blankets
> \and layers of clothes>