1.5 cords of wood won't go too far in a house your size, but it will help. I use at least 3-4 cords each year for my heat and hot water.

Have you considered coal? Probably $600-800 per year for heat is average for the whole house.

There are high quality coal furnaces out there.

Thanks baymee

Right now (before buying) I am trying to get a "payback" time for the new furnace. Sure, coal is an option, and this stove burns coal as well. But I am trying to use up the hardwoods that otherwise rot in my woods.

If 4 cords would heat my house for one year, then payback for the furnace would be less than 2 years. The furnace cost is approx $3500, everything, installation, tax, etc. I am just trying to get a ballpark on it. That's the number that I am looking for.

I actually have 4 cords of fresh hardwood stacked this past winter. I may be able to harvest 4 cords for a few years, but after that, it will dip slightly.

Cost is more but much more convenient and safe and if you fully utilize ie multiple buildings or such payback is quicker.

I have 2 One heats house another heats at another location office, one bedroom apt. and 4 bedroom house

Hope this helps

Dale

Here is a link that might be useful: Central Boiler

pelletman, thanks for the note about the exterior furnace. But I'm probably going the wood furnace in the basement.

I think my description of this add on furnace as "in parallel" is wrong. It is probably really "in series".

My local HVAC guy says definitely need a cold air return. But not necessary to get the dedicated 110v blower on the wood furnace. Just use my existing 220v blower in the electric furnace. Also, the wood furnace can use existing hot air ducts, but it will need its own dedicated cold air return. If I don't do that, the HVAC guys says the wood furnace will run backwards. (I don't understand it, but that' what he says).

If I don't use a cold air return
1) I will be heating very cold air from the basement
2) I will be "pressurizing" the living space upstairs, forcing more air leaks, out the windows, etc.

He says that once I have a wood fire going, I just need to set the T-stat for the electric heat slightly under what I want (say, 60 degrees). Set the HEAT option on the Honeywell T-Stat to 60 degrees. Then start the 220 blower, by selecting FAN on the T-stat. If the wood fire cannot maintain 61 degrees, the 2 ton heat pump plus heat strips will run in conjunction. That's why I guess, its all in series, not parallel.

Does all this sound correct??

The dangers of not piping a cold air return to your wood furnace, in addition to what you mentioned, are that you will create a low pressure enviroment in your basement. That means your wood furnace will be drawing air from places like gas fired appliance vents, attached garages, to name a few. A very dangerous practice not to mention a code violation. A "dedicated cold air return" by that I think your heating guy intends to tap into the cold air piping on your existing furnace which is perfectly fine. As for not using the furnace blower(s) supplied with your unit, I think you will be disappointed with the performance and possibly create a saftey issue. The supplied blower is sized by the manufacture to distribute the heated air from your wood furnace, but more importantly, it is sized to cool the wood fired unit thus preventing warping of the metal liner and excessive stress on the weld joints. There is also the issue of temperature rise across the unit which is spec'd out by the manufacture. Depending on your existing furnace blower to accomplish this is a bit risky in my opinion, you need to be certain to provide enough air flow thru the unit. This is accomplished by a properly sized return air system and a blower motor capable of moving enough air to keep temperatures in check. The blower on your existing furnace will not "push" air through your wood buner, it will be creating a vacuum in the warm air plenum of the wood furnace thus drawing air across the unit, thus cooling it. Whether or not that will properly cool your wood furnace remains to be seen, make sure you check the temp. rise when you finish, with a large fire going. Also the supplied wood furnace blower(s) help push heated air into the warm air plenum of your existing furnace, improving performance quite a bit. As for thermostat set up, using your existing furnace thermostat to operate two appliances is not the way to go. I am somewhat suprised this was recommended to you. The new appliance should come with it's own thermostat.....use it. Wiring as recommended to you would manually activate your existing furnace blower regardless of a call for heat or temperatures in the furnace plenum. Your wood furnace should come with a damper that is activated by the room thermostat in conjunction with a limit control. Your instruction manual should detail this set up. Do not use your existing thermostat to control both units, and if your guy tries to talk you into this, find a new guy.......just my humble opinion. If I were you I would download as much information as I could from your wood furnace manufacture and educate yourself as much as possible on installation and operation. Most of it is common sense, but there is alot more to it than meets the eye. Take no shortcuts and know what you are doing.

I am hooking up a wood burning add on. Was wondering what happens when you hook the heat duct from the wood burner to a heat duct from the furnace and it is 20 feet from the plenum. When the furnace and blower starts will that cause a back flow to the wood burner?