Home heating (I made a bet with DH....)

[tortoise]

What would you do for home heating/comfort if you are unwilling or unable to use a propane furnace? We have wood furnace, but it gets the house too hot when outdoor temps are >30 degrees.

Do I have any hope of winning a bet with DH that I can manage without the propane furnace? Keep in mind we have DS10 and DS2 .... and indoor plumbing. And I have something messed up with my autonomic nervous system that affects my temperature regulation, so I get painfully cold extremities starting about 65 degrees.

If there was an emergency, we'd have to cope somehow.... what would you do?

 

[tortoise]

I expect to see temps <30 degrees in November.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Can you make a way to dump excess heat outside when the room you're in is too hot? Set a thermostat and when it goes over that temp, the vent can dump heat outside? This is assuming the issue is that it will overheat if it doesn't dump heat somewhere.

We have the same issue with our pellet boiler. It's amazing in the dead of winter but spring and fall when you need just a little heat it's way too hot in my house, and we have to turn it on and off (a giant pain)

 

[tortoise]

I don't mind being warm! I'd probably use it during the day. Maybe with the patio door open.

 

[tortoise]

During the day so DH doesn't know.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Lol we have heat battles at our house. DH likes it hot, he wants to wear shorts inside all winter. I die of heat all winter.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

DH loves it cold...he wears shorts all winter. I don't need too much heat, but I refuse to shiver inside!

 

[Beekissed]

I'd be exploring why the wood furnace cannot be regulated well. I had a wood stove like that at my last place and it would run us out of house and home some days. I had replaced the seal on the door but to no avail.

Mom came for a visit and decided to replace the seals in all the other joints and replace the damper in the flue. Miracles! No more running us out of the house, kept a better fire all night, no more having to sleep with my windows open upstairs while the snow drifted in on my bed.

If it's been examined and all seals replaced and it still runs away with you, then I'd just opt for opening windows to regulate the excess heat. No way would I resort to a propane furnace if there was any other way to go about it.

What we use here for those odd times of year when a fire in the stove is too much but the electric can't be used is to just light a few of the burners on top of the cooking range(it uses propane) until the house is comfy. We used to use electric space heaters in a couple rooms for those times but this old electric service had the heaters flipping the breakers all the time, so until that's fixed we can't resort to the space heaters.

 

[tortoise]

We are seriously considering having a new wood furnace put in. This one is on it's last legs. I don't think it will happen this year.

 

[Chic Rustler]

Off topic but related:
If you can keep the humidity up you won't need to run the heat as much. Try getting a couple humidifiers so you won't have to run the propane heater as much.