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| Hi, my husband and I purchased a old house that was 85% gutted at the time we purchased it. We got the house in to a semi-liveable condition in order for us to move in. We have some places that are insulated and some places that are not. We do not have a heating source and we have to revert to using space heaters in the winter. We live in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and it does get very cold here. We can not afford to do ductwork in our home at this time. We have about 2000-2200 sq. ft. of living space on 3 floors. Does anyone have a suggestion about a heating source for our home? I was thinking about a ductless heating system, but how big would the unit(s) have to be do heat my home to a not so cold state?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, Ann U. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Any HVAC company will gladly come to your home and give you a quote for whatever type system you want. If you have a working chimney, you might consider a wood stove. |
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- Posted by slateberry51 (My Page) on Thu, Jul 30, 09 at 17:03
| I don't know the heating/cooling hours where you live, but one consideration would be to only heat the areas that have plumbing in adjacent walls. Just shut off the other rooms and live cozy this winter. Or, get an HVAC person to show you a mini-split AC system, including a heat pump. Mini-splits are ductless. I believe heat pumps are only cost effective to use down to about 35F, but that would cover you a lot of the time, and then you could use the space heaters only in the cold snaps. i have no idea if this is good advice or not for your situation, but it may be something to consider. And you'd get AC to boot, who-hoo! And the system might be eligible for some sort of green tax credit. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Dept. of energy on ductless heat pumps
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- Posted by energy_rater_la (My Page) on Sun, Aug 2, 09 at 17:39
| mini splits can be up to 3 tons with 3 seperate air handlers, still going to cost a pretty penny though. have you thought about heat pump window units or heat pump p-tacs, p-tac is thru the wall install whereas window units don't require any capentry work. best of luck. |
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- Posted by sombreuil_mongrel (My Page) on Sun, Aug 2, 09 at 19:12
| Hi neighbor! I'm in jefferson County, myself. If you are looking for HVAC contractor reccomendations for this area met me know. I have an old house with oil boiler(s) and hot water heat. It's an old system that's been upgraded throughout the years, it once was coal. The old rads give a very even heat but the oil prices lately are killer. IMO, having lived with a) forced air/oil, b) forced air/natural gas, and c) Hydronic/oil, I prefer what I have now. It is the quietest and most dust-free kind of heat due to there being no air being blown about. For AC, I have been using widow units, and take them back out every fall. My plan is to eventually add a gravity AC in the attic to cool the bedrooms individually and dump a lot of cold air down the stairs. There would be no decicated/installed ductwork for the first floor. A house I'm working on has a high-velocity system installed; when it gets powered-up, I'll let you know if it works. Casey |
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| I had a wood stove in a three-bedroom 1000 sf cottage with virtually no insulation. Toasty warm on sub-zero F. weeks on end; and a thousand-year supply of free fuel on the two uncleared acres surrounding it. |
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| if you don't need such a big space, consider closing off rooms until you have the money to work on them/heat them. We have a 2600 2 fl house, and one of our rooms doesn't have a heat run (it's my bedroom, and I like it on the cool side!) but it doesn't get COLD. You will need to heat any walls with plumbing in them, as well as the "wet" rooms unless you run pipe heat tape on the pipes. We have a heat pump and the ductwork utilizes existing chimneys for the runs. If you have inexpensive electricity (we do here in S. Indiana, I assume you do in W Va) the heat pump is a good option. Our house got instantly toastier when we blew in cellulose insulation for our attic. You can get a tax benefit this year as well! |
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| These suggestions are only for temporary / work envirnments and not meant to be for a habitable house What do you think of wood stove heating? I would suggest that you try this for your 1st step. 1. Go to Google's Alerts. It gives you 3 fields to fill. A What to look for - In the what to look for I would suggest you use a trick site:houston.craigslist.org "wood stove" Type that into google and test it to see that it works. Make sure you then actually go to craigslist.org and find Once you figure out the right Clist address for your location then type that into the Google alert for the * site:houston.craigslist.org wood stove would find hits on the ads that aren't necessarily selling Try other combinations of words. If your local people Ok . That will get you on track for locating a wood stove Wood in your area according to your neighbor(above) Re: ducting. Let's say you find some kind of heat source and want 1. You could use , for $60, the following. A. A 4" plastic drain pipe without holes Connecting the 4" pipe ($20 / 100 feet home depot) I sense you are working in a temporary environment I say input or output because the blower will work better Note: I have built this for myself and it works fine. - 2nd idea Small gas stoves were used everywhere in the 1900's. And you can vent many of them to the outside as the Most are about 2' high or less and have a metal burner. Buy a CO detector if you go that route. Get one with a Use blankets with the heater OFF when you go to sleep. Good luck These suggestions are only for temporary / work envirnments and not meant to be for a habitable Last point - Don't kill somebody. |
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