Home Heating without power

[Lloyd Danforth]

Me likey STEAM. 

Hiss, Hiss, Rattle, Rattle..........Boom!

[Pat K]

No Boom. Boom no good, Me no likey Boom.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Sorry....Steam and Boom go hand and hand.....always have

[Pat K]

Not on my watch.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I have a memory of steam heating systems in buildings as being too hot and hissing. I remember they smelled hot!  Do they make steam home heating systems anymore?

[slim]

I can tell you as a fact steam boilers are still manufactured but mostly for replacement of older steam boilers. The steam boilers that I have seen are less efficient then the current water boilers.

[MaineShark]

I have a memory of steam heating systems in buildings as being too hot and hissing. I remember they smelled hot!  Do they make steam home heating systems anymore?

Yes, they still make steam boilers.  A properly-designed system shouldn't be too hot, and shouldn't hiss much, if at all.  But steam is definitely not as good as hot water.

On the other hand, steam will work without power circulation, as it is a gravity system.  So if someone wanted heat without power, a wood-fired steam boiler is an option.

I can tell you as a fact steam boilers are still manufactured but mostly for replacement of older steam boilers. The steam boilers that I have seen are less efficient then the current water boilers.

Steam (with the exception of vacuum steam*) is definitely less efficient.  The combustion efficiency is a measurement of how much heat is transferred from the combustion to the heat transfer medium.  If your flame is at a particular temperature, and you extract enough heat to bring your hot water to 180-degrees, and the flue gas is exiting at 350-degrees, that's pretty efficient.  Now, if you are boiling the water, you're never going to get that kind of efficiency.  Trying to generate 210- to 220-degree water means that your flue gas must be hotter as it exits, because heat transfer requires a difference in temperature.  And, realistically, that difference needs to be a good bit, unless you build yourself a copper boiler, which isn't going to last particularly long.  So the hotter exhaust temperature means that less heat is being extracted from the hot gasses produced by the flame.

*vacuum steam systems operate below atmospheric pressure.  If you are way up on a mountain, you'll notice that water boils at a lower temperature due to the lower atmospheric pressure.  So, you can actually make steam at that 180-degree point, just like the output of a hot water boiler.  But the system needs to be sealed very well, and needs a vacuum pump to keep up with the inevitable leaks.

Joe

[Mikehz]

I recently retired after 35 years as a boiler operator at a large central heating plant. Steam is still widely used, but newer installations prefer hot water circulating for heat. This is because water holds more heat than steam, provides a more even heat, and is not as prone to leaking. It also doesn't require the use of steam traps. Further, the same circulating water system can be used to cool in summer by running the water through a chiller.

The old gravity feed systems are a nightmare to work on, and are not very efficient. You have to make sure the system remains clean at all times, or it will plug up.

A good wood stove makes for pretty good back-up heating. Sticking a wood stove insert into a fireplace will produce enough heat to handle most of a small home. A good free-standing stove can almost cook you out!

Solar heating is not a good choice for northern climates. In winter, when you need it, the days are just too short, and on many days it's too cloudy. I live about as far north as NH, and a guy I know who tried solar said that the only time his house stayed warm was on really cold days--when the gas furnace kicked on to supplement the solar system.

[Vote Tyler Stearns]

We heat our 3,000+/- SF 3-story home (1 level is walk-out basement) with 2 woodstoves.  We go through about 5-7 cords of wood a year, which costs about $600 (we buy tree length and cut/split ourselves), plus we've been cutting a couple trees each year on our 2-acre property for past 21 years .  We have back-up propane heating unit in basement that works without power.  We also have a super insulated house that's south facing, insulated shades on the northern windows, and we all wear flannel jammies and have down comforters!

[Mikehz]

Oh, I forgot to mention my own back-up heat system! We have two fireplaces, one upstairs and one down. If needed, these will provide just enough heat to keep the place from freezing up. I'd like to stick a stove into one of them, but for now, we rely on a simpler system--a pair of catalytic kerosene space heaters, which are safe for indoor use, provided you leave some opening for outside air. Not ideal, but okay for emergency use. I keep enough fuel on hand for a couple of weeks.

When you live in cold country, you need to expect the occasional power outage. This will usually come during the worst winter weather. If you have not yet been in sub-zero temperatures, you will eventually learn what I mean!

[mvpel]

When my roof is redone in the spring I am going to look into Solar tubes.
http://www.solatube.com/

I installed one of those my house back in Michigan many years ago, in the garage we built.  I'm thinking about another one at the top of the stairs in my house here in Merrimack, with the optional light fixture. They're pretty nice.

[coffeeseven]

At the Illinois Regional Energy Association's fair this year a German firm came in and showed us pictures (graphs, flow charts, etc.) of houses they had super-insulated and could be comfortably heated with a hair dryer. The WHOLE house. They were of course based in Europe. Could happen here. Don't let the cold in, keep the heat in. Why not?

[Kat Kanning]

Check out the air-flow on this one!

http://www.hollowtop.com/cls_html/do-it-yourself/masonry_stoves.htm

[Russell Kanning]

That is pretty cool ... just missing amazing external airflow.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Airflow is important