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A snow storm plus power outage makes me want to bed down, not flee. The idea of leaving your house for a community center during a power outage is odd to me on

A snow storm plus power outage makes me want to bed down, not flee. The idea of leaving your house for a community center during a power outage is odd to me on several axes (pipes freezing, digging out your car, driving on half-plowed roads), especially in the hyper-individualist US (do these centers even exist?) It's much simpler to obtain and fuel a small generator to power meta loads like thermostats/circulators/blowers than a large generator that supplies the thermal load. Fully committing to a heat pump as your only heating would likely involve a large gas generator fed by municipal gas or at least a large buried propane tank (for capacity and temperature). The straightforward backup heat answer is wood. It's easy to obtain and store, and the primary drawback of it requiring labor and attention isn't a big deal during an outage. Although if you don't do it regularly and make sure your stove is in good order, lighting a fire during an emergency situation might not be the best idea.

FredPret 4y ago
So true, I'd much rather batten down the hatches, put my frozen food outside, and make sure none of the pipes burst. I heard about a guy who had copper piping with water flow going around his chimney (on the inside) and then through the house. That'd be a cool system if you could switch out the heat source, electric and an indoor-safe wood stove. Just get a CO monitor!
- mindslight 4y ago
  Actually, I just got a wood boiler for this past winter. This is basically a stove that lives outside, surrounded by a water jacket (~200 gallons) and insulation. It modulates the fire to keep the water from boiling off regardless of how much heat you're drawing off. You then run pipes to your house and tie it into your hydronic heating system. I feed it wood twice a day, and it keeps my house as comfortable as burning oil did (actually even more comfortable since I can heat the unfinished basement when I want, and not feel bad). And since it's outside, I don't deal with any of the mess or work of bringing heating-scale quantities of wood inside. They do require power to run (automated dampers, blower, circulators), so I have a small backup generator as per my last comment. And they've gotten a bit expensive (especially now that the US federal tax credit has gone away), but my estimated payback period is around 6 years. You might wonder why I'm posting in a thread about heat pumps when I just got a different major heating source, but I see heat pumps and wood as two very complementary heat sources. Down the line I'm planning to add a water-to-water or air-to-water heat pump for the shoulder seasons (and summer DHW), so that I don't have to tend a fire (or burn oil) when the heating load is low. One four or five ton unit should take care of my heat loss most of the time, and I won't have to oversize the system to handle the dead of winter cold snaps.

FredPret 4y ago

So true, I'd much rather batten down the hatches, put my frozen food outside, and make sure none of the pipes burst. I heard about a guy who had copper piping with water flow going around his chimney (on the inside) and then through the house. That'd be a cool system if you could switch out the heat source, electric and an indoor-safe wood stove. Just get a CO monitor!

mindslight 4y ago
Actually, I just got a wood boiler for this past winter. This is basically a stove that lives outside, surrounded by a water jacket (~200 gallons) and insulation. It modulates the fire to keep the water from boiling off regardless of how much heat you're drawing off. You then run pipes to your house and tie it into your hydronic heating system. I feed it wood twice a day, and it keeps my house as comfortable as burning oil did (actually even more comfortable since I can heat the unfinished basement when I want, and not feel bad). And since it's outside, I don't deal with any of the mess or work of bringing heating-scale quantities of wood inside. They do require power to run (automated dampers, blower, circulators), so I have a small backup generator as per my last comment. And they've gotten a bit expensive (especially now that the US federal tax credit has gone away), but my estimated payback period is around 6 years. You might wonder why I'm posting in a thread about heat pumps when I just got a different major heating source, but I see heat pumps and wood as two very complementary heat sources. Down the line I'm planning to add a water-to-water or air-to-water heat pump for the shoulder seasons (and summer DHW), so that I don't have to tend a fire (or burn oil) when the heating load is low. One four or five ton unit should take care of my heat loss most of the time, and I won't have to oversize the system to handle the dead of winter cold snaps.