You don't say one way or the other, and no one else has brought it up -
where are the ducts? Are they running under the floor, through the crawl
space? Are they insulated?
If you need a new chimney for a wood burning stove, you need a new chimney
for the fireplace insert - don't fool around with this, the last thing you
want is a house fire. In any case, a wood burner will heat a ROOM pretty
quickly, depending on the size of the room and the size of the stove, but
after living with one for 10 years in a 2000 square foot house, my
experience leads me to doubt it'll heat the HOUSE quickly. If you want to
use wood to heat the whole house (as opposed to just one room) unless you
get your wood for free it's almost certainly going to cost more than gas.
Not to mention that heating with wood is work - a lot of work - you have to
really want to do it.
You don't say what kind of windows you have. If they're not the real
efficient double or triple glazed type, nice and tight, you should have
either storm windows or failing that, cover the windows with clear plastic -
kits should be available at the local hardware or big box store.
Even if the heater is working right and the ducts are either in the heated
space or insulated, it sounds like the system could/should be balanced to
direct more of the heat to the main living area and reduce the heat
delivered to the bedrooms. At the very least, you could close the vents in
the bedrooms and keep the doors to those rooms closed.
Another possibility is that some of the ducts are partially blocked with
construction debris - maybe you should have the ducts cleaned.
Your local utility may have an energy audit program - they come out and
check out the house and make energy conserving suggestions. It may even be
done at no cost to you - give them a call and see.
Do your neighbors heat the same way? Have you compared notes with them?
How does your propane usage compare with theirs? How does your comfort
level compare with theirs?
"Don" wrote in message
om...
I have a 1700 square foot house on a crawl space foundation with the
bedrooms on one end of the house and a living room/dining room/kitchen
on the other. I have propane water and heat.
To make a long story short the living room/dining room/kitchen area
stays colder than the rest of the house. I have had the system looked
at and it is working fine.
I have a fire place "insert" with chimney. The house is about 6 years
old. Wanted to put in a gas log but my gas bill is crazy. I have to
get my tank filled up 3 or 4 times a year.
Debated putting in a wood burning stove as I remember having one when
I was younger and they heated a house up quickly. But someone said i
would probably have to change the chimney pipe ot the "double
insulated kind" Not sure what that means. My chiney is at the end of
my house and outside and covered with vyinle as is the entire house.
Is changing the pipe something I could do myself?
What other options are there for me? I have even debated putting in
those fake electric logs that put out heat but how much heat do they
put out? Would it warm a small living room?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
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