Looking to change from gas heat to something a bit more economical. Don't know where to begin!?

Question

With rising cost of natural gas, I'm researching ways to heat my home this winter and use as little gas as possible. I'm considering a coal or pellet stove, or something that can make my current gas system more efficient. Also solar panels. I don't know where to begin to find out what would be most economical and environmentally friendly. Anyone out there have any ideas?

Answer 1

You should get an A/C system.You can turn on the air when you're warming up too uncomfortably,and the heat can be turned on while your cold.

Answer 2

I have an amazing pellet stove, I have a multilevel 2000 sf home and use it as my primary heat source. I also save a little money buying by the pellet. I used cheap pellets a few years ago and used about double what I usually do, so the the actual pellets make a difference.

The only negative thing about the type of type of stove I have is it won't work without electricity. We rarely have power outages here, but the one time I did, it was a problem, when the fan shuts off it started smoking a lot. I was able to add it to my computers battery back up and solved the problem.

Answer 3

Get a heat pump. It will not heat your home, but it will reduce the amount of work your heater needs to do. A heat pump will also help cool your home when you use the A/C.

Additionally, you can use a wood burning stove if you so choose, but that can be a lot of extra work (getting wood, splitting wood, drying wood, keeping it dry and chimney maintenance).

An tankless water heater wouldn't help your heating, but it could lower your gas bill.

The best solution is to turn the heat down and wear a sweater. It won't cost you any more (assuming you already own sweaters and jackets) and will save you money and gas.

Answer 4

The best way to save is to insulate and change your house heating habits, setback thermostats, more unshaded windows in the day facing south, etc.

A solar water heater will help cut your gas hot water system, it gets a little more expensive to add water storage and pump systems to move hot water around to heat the house.

Your next best is to look into a heat pump if you have a forced air heating system.  The trick is to get a heat pump that uses deeply buried lines instead of a condenser fan.  This is called a geothermal heat pump or geothermal heating system.

the price of coal and pellets moves to be equal to the price of natural gas.  If natural gas goes up, pellets go up too.  Two years ago pellets were $200/ton, they are now $300/ton.

Bottom line here, natural gas is about as cheap as you can get.  If you want to get off grid and be energy independent, the rule of thumb cost is, take you home energy bills for 1 year and add them up.  then multiply by 20, that's how much cash you will have to have to convert to 100% energy Independence.

Answer 5

passive solar tubes in a southern exposure....you can thank me later