lower cost energy source

[presley2]

We will be starting to build our new house soon. We are looking into ANY sources for lower utility cost. Solar panels, thermal, and etc. Anyone know of a source? I would really like to find some place that maybe would be cheaper if we were a model home of this kind of thing. May not be anything like this out there but worth a try.

 

Thanks, also we live in West Tennessee.

[nat1jen]

What about a woodburning stove/fireplace? I thought that they were great to heat an entire floor of a house.

[racerfan]

What about a woodburning stove/fireplace? I thought that they were great to heat an entire floor of a house.

We had our house built and moved in last year. We had a wood burning stove inserted into our fireplace with a blower and it heats our entire house both floors. We are about 2500 sq ft. It is supposed to heat up to a 3000 sq ft house. We were very happy nlast winter and this winter we have been able to cut down on the amount we have to spend for propane.

 

I have heard there are even stoves that can connect to the duct work to heat that way.

 

Before we started building my DH checked into having solar panels etc, but for us it would not have been cost efficient since we are in a very wooded are.

[kren]

Have you looked into outdoor wood furnaces? I'm not a fan of the wood-burning stove indoors, mainly because it's so huge and intrusive, unless you're decorating in the rustic style, it really looks out of place (at least to me; don't mean to offend anyone).

 

http://www.woodmaster.com/

 

We built 10 years ago, and while we were ahead of our time in terms of looking into all the alternative energy sources, we were *not* ahead of our time in terms of the money we had to build with <g>. What I mean is that the alternative sources are EXPENSIVE. Geothermal would've been about 20 grand back then. Solar wasn't an option for us (we're also in the woods) and wind wasn't at all an option because we get little wind in the mountainous ravine where we live. This outdoor wood furnace, which can hook into existing forced hot air ductwork, is not that expensive, and we're seriously considering getting one this season.

[Lynn53]

We built a new home last year. It's 1650 sq ft and we have an all electric house with an above=ground heat pump. Keeping our house at 72 (middle of Missouri), our electric bill has never been over $ll5. Our other house had an in-ground heat pump, but that would have cost us about $18,000 now. The above-ground unit with a dual thermostat ran $6,000.