Wood stove and coal furnace heating
 

Most people want free home heating until they see what it takes to get free home heating.

Over this summer I installed my coal furnace and a wood stove.
The coal furnace out in the garage and the wood stove in where my fire place is on the opposite end of the house.

The most common types of wood in this part of new Mexico are pallets, scrap lumber and elm.

I figure the wood stove and coal furnace will save up to 2 mega watt hours on my power bill per month.
If it's a real cold winter they could pay for them selves this winter if I don't run out of wood.
If I can find a supply of coal then I will be all set.

You mentioned saving megawatts. What type of electric heat are you using?

I had a ductless heat pump installed in 2017. Last January the heat pump consumed 1008 kWh. That is a 1000 sq ft house with the thermostat set at 69F. The average daily temperature was 33 F.

Heat pump with backup electric resistant heating.
Last year's wasn't a really cold winter but it seemed like it just wouldn't go away.
And my wife would fire up a little space heater in the living room on the opposite end of the house that's not connected to the central heat and air.

A little OT but I get great comfort from small heat lamps under my desks shining directly on me even with the house thermostat set at 66F. My cat enjoys it also. 100 Watts under a desk or table goes a long way. Electric blankets on the couch or bed work well. Battery electric heated clothing is also an option. EV owners will want the plug in clothing I use on my motorcycle in the car if they have a long, cold commute.

I have one of those bed warmer things.
They have been keeping my heat turned down or off since 2006.

Now thats interesting. Almost every (older) house here has a coal furnace and wood stove and it is used as a primary heat source. And our goverment is working around the clock to force (well, to convince is official phrase) people go for gas or electric heating.
Is it just you, or is it trend in the US, to disconnect from (almost state controlled) network?

It depends on the area.
Europe seems to love to force people be dependent on other people. I saw an article about London banning fire places.
So goes London so goes the entire UK.

I am trying to disconnect from the state controlled utilities.
Already said no to natural gas.
Next will be water. I have a 45ish cm well on my property.
Only problem is its over 100 meters from the house.
If I had my way I would build the house around the well like a midevil keep.
My service charge for water is $47, going up to $53 in Jan of 2019.
Also the water service is becoming unreliable. Always air in the lines and there is a water line break every 1 to 3 weeks which causes the water be be shut off for at least a few hours.
I'm also planting fruit, fuel and nut trees and they are going to need water. The fuel tress, mostly elm are already there I experimented with watering a small group of them as spring started, the trees I watered grew more leaves faster than groups I didn't water. Not really any surprise there. How much the difference between the cultivated and purely wild trees is what surprised me.

Building resilience and self reliance.

I had a small wood stove, but the insurance company didn't like it and was hitting me with $300 a year to keep it. Only used it on the weekends so wasn't worth it.

I have apples, blueberries, strawberries, pecans, apricot, cherry and pawpaw trees plus a small garden. I started a city (250 population) orchard a couple years ago about 2 blocks from my house (I'm on the city council) so will have 11 other fruit trees to get some harvest from in a couple years. Need to replace one that didn't make it.

No, it is not common to heat with wood in the USA. Only 2% of household in the USA use wood as their primary heat source while another 8% use wood as a secondary source of heating. That compares to 39% that heat with electricity and 48% that heat with natural gas. That is still millions of houses but a small percentage of the total population. Most of the homes heating with wood are in rural areas. Wood does seem to have a resurgence in the Northeast with people removing oil boilers and replacing them with pellet stoves.

There are also some regulatory changes that make heating with wood less economical but that is on a state by state and even city by city level. In the state of Oregon where I live you cannot sell a house that has a non-certified wood stove. The stove must be removed and taken to a disposal area in order to sell the house. Without a certificate of destruction the house sale cannot be completed.

However, a current homeowner can continue to use a non-certified wood stove and my county has a $1500 - $3500 rebate to replace an old non-certified wood stove with a new one. There is also a $300 federal credit for installing a certified wood stove. It is an effort to get rid of old polluting stoves not an attempt to ban them.

It can also be hard to find an insurance company that with insure a house with a wood stove. My parents used to have a wood stove in the basement for secondary heating but the insurance company kept raising their rate because of the stove. Finally they couldn’t even find a company that would insure the house with the wood stove so they removed it.