Scup
New Member
Being a newbie to this site, I quickly became overwhelmed with the core knowledge of this form, and how quickly members are willing to offer their experienced advice on various subjects. No question about it, I would be a fool not take advantage of this free but very valuable service.
I am 75 years old and know I am going to have to redo my entire heating/cooling system since it is well past its useful service life. What I wish to know from members what should I consider as a replacement for use in southern New England.
This is what I currently have: A 37 year old Williamson Five in one hot air oil fired Furnace, air conditioner, humidifier, electrostatic filter, and dehumidifier. I quickly disconnected the humidifier 37 years ago since it continuously fed a trickle of water over a grid in the duck work. Perfectly happy with a standalone humidifier for winter use! The electrostatic filter failed ten years ago, but left a gap large enough that regular throw away filters inserts have worked out fairly well. The burner, air conditioner, and dehumidifier all still work although after a few mice ate up some of my wiring and a few electrical components failed, I had to rewired it up as a single high speed air conditioner. It probably was one of the first two speed air conditioners out there.
The oil burner is so obsolete I do not wish to talk about it, and the air conditioner, while it still cools the whole house down quickly, it is on its last legs.
Next to the Williamson furnace is an independent wood fired Bison furnace tied into the duck work. While it was designed as an auxiliary add on, it has become my primary heating unit and is still very functional.
All of this is in a very cramped area with no room for an oil tank. Having an outdoor oil tank in Connecticut is a major liability; hence, after periodically replacing oil tanks as not to push my luck, I decided to give up on oil. Cost is a major factor and oil is not the bargain it was in the seventies.
Now here is the $64,000.00 question: what would you replace my heating/cooling systems with?
Natural gas is not available. I am sort of in love with my wood furnace and plan on retaining it, and if necessary replace it the future. A new air conditioning system is needed and I am thinking about the use of a heat pump to supply both heating and cooling. While the electric rates are high, and likely to go even higher with Obama closing down coal fired electric generating plants (we just lost one two years ago), I know my auxiliary wood fire furnace is definitely going to be needed to offset fuel costs during those cold winter nights. Another problem with an electric heat pump, if we lose power, which seems to be happening more and more, and the down time can be measured in weeks rather than days, there could be a serious problem trying to make do with small emergency gasoline generator and keep warm at the same time. In addition, even though I winterize my 3500 watt generator, and it has always started up for me, I have little trust in anything that uses our mandated E10 crappy fuel.
The electrical load to operate a wood fire furnace and its associated blowers is around 15 amperes at 120 VAC. Even without power the wood furnace could be operated as gravity unit with a greatly reduced output. Not sure what that really means but I suspect its 50,000 BTU rating would have to be reduced to something around 10,000 BTU at the most.
I do have a Chinese made kerosene heater (I wish I had a kerosene heater made in Japan but they have given up on the USA with our insane libel suits) that can provide 30,000 BTU but really do not feel very comfortable about its use in an emergency and consider this to be a last resort procedure.
The only other heat source I can think of for consideration is an outside propane tank. Have no experienced at all in propane heaters, and propane is expensive, but considering the liability one could run into with a leaky oil tank, it is up for consideration. I do not know if it would be possible to tie into the heating propane tank a whole house emergency electric generator using propane as a fuel to keep things going if the power lines should go down.
Once I get rid of the lovable Williamson monster, two large units, burner and fire box alongside the blower cabinet, there should be plenty of room left to stick anything else in the space that I desire.
Please help me out here; should I go with just a heat pump, or a heat pump combined with propane heat, perhaps just air conditioning and propane heating, or even just a heat pump with a propane fueled whole house generator. In all cases, my wood furnace will still be there. Cost is important, but something has to be done, and I do need some advice as to a plan of action.
For the solar types, please, my life is complicated enough right about now and the payback for solar will likely never come for a 75 year old.
I am 75 years old and know I am going to have to redo my entire heating/cooling system since it is well past its useful service life. What I wish to know from members what should I consider as a replacement for use in southern New England.
This is what I currently have: A 37 year old Williamson Five in one hot air oil fired Furnace, air conditioner, humidifier, electrostatic filter, and dehumidifier. I quickly disconnected the humidifier 37 years ago since it continuously fed a trickle of water over a grid in the duck work. Perfectly happy with a standalone humidifier for winter use! The electrostatic filter failed ten years ago, but left a gap large enough that regular throw away filters inserts have worked out fairly well. The burner, air conditioner, and dehumidifier all still work although after a few mice ate up some of my wiring and a few electrical components failed, I had to rewired it up as a single high speed air conditioner. It probably was one of the first two speed air conditioners out there.
The oil burner is so obsolete I do not wish to talk about it, and the air conditioner, while it still cools the whole house down quickly, it is on its last legs.
Next to the Williamson furnace is an independent wood fired Bison furnace tied into the duck work. While it was designed as an auxiliary add on, it has become my primary heating unit and is still very functional.
All of this is in a very cramped area with no room for an oil tank. Having an outdoor oil tank in Connecticut is a major liability; hence, after periodically replacing oil tanks as not to push my luck, I decided to give up on oil. Cost is a major factor and oil is not the bargain it was in the seventies.
Now here is the $64,000.00 question: what would you replace my heating/cooling systems with?
Natural gas is not available. I am sort of in love with my wood furnace and plan on retaining it, and if necessary replace it the future. A new air conditioning system is needed and I am thinking about the use of a heat pump to supply both heating and cooling. While the electric rates are high, and likely to go even higher with Obama closing down coal fired electric generating plants (we just lost one two years ago), I know my auxiliary wood fire furnace is definitely going to be needed to offset fuel costs during those cold winter nights. Another problem with an electric heat pump, if we lose power, which seems to be happening more and more, and the down time can be measured in weeks rather than days, there could be a serious problem trying to make do with small emergency gasoline generator and keep warm at the same time. In addition, even though I winterize my 3500 watt generator, and it has always started up for me, I have little trust in anything that uses our mandated E10 crappy fuel.
The electrical load to operate a wood fire furnace and its associated blowers is around 15 amperes at 120 VAC. Even without power the wood furnace could be operated as gravity unit with a greatly reduced output. Not sure what that really means but I suspect its 50,000 BTU rating would have to be reduced to something around 10,000 BTU at the most.
I do have a Chinese made kerosene heater (I wish I had a kerosene heater made in Japan but they have given up on the USA with our insane libel suits) that can provide 30,000 BTU but really do not feel very comfortable about its use in an emergency and consider this to be a last resort procedure.
The only other heat source I can think of for consideration is an outside propane tank. Have no experienced at all in propane heaters, and propane is expensive, but considering the liability one could run into with a leaky oil tank, it is up for consideration. I do not know if it would be possible to tie into the heating propane tank a whole house emergency electric generator using propane as a fuel to keep things going if the power lines should go down.
Once I get rid of the lovable Williamson monster, two large units, burner and fire box alongside the blower cabinet, there should be plenty of room left to stick anything else in the space that I desire.
Please help me out here; should I go with just a heat pump, or a heat pump combined with propane heat, perhaps just air conditioning and propane heating, or even just a heat pump with a propane fueled whole house generator. In all cases, my wood furnace will still be there. Cost is important, but something has to be done, and I do need some advice as to a plan of action.
For the solar types, please, my life is complicated enough right about now and the payback for solar will likely never come for a 75 year old.
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