Type of Heat

[ChetMC]

What kind of heat do you have (electric baseboard, hot water baseboard run off an oil fired furnace, etc)?

What do you like about it? What do you not like?

What kind of heating would be your ideal?

[confustication]

We have an outdated forced air natural gas furnace with vents in the floors. I use that some of the time- this time of year when nights are chilly etc I run it for a few minutes before bed, and I run it again to take the chill off in the mornings. Once things get consistently colder, I will use the woodstove more often and augment if necessary with the furnace.

My ideal heat would be much more passive/solar and possibly radiant/floor, but that would not work in this home.

[staceychev]

We have radiators with a somewhat old but still oddly efficient oil-fired boiler. I actually really like them. They warm really nicely, actually, and because they're hot water and not steam, they're not noisy. Plus, they look good in our circa 1880 Victorian house!

[HeatherAtHome]

Electric baseboard heaters. We like them because it's cheaper than oil. Also it's easy to heat specific areas and close off others. And I like the digital thermostats that tell the temperature of each room. Dislikes: can be a bit dry but that's easy to fix. Have to watch out that nothing gets in the heaters (make sure curtains are way, furniture not too close or that little plastic toys aren't wedged inside...)

[bezark]

We have oil heat and right now I'd settle for just about anything else.
Our house is really old, every window needs to be replaced and it's in desperate need of insulation, but our oil bill is $350 a month on a 12 month budget.

We're adding 2 electric fireplaces as soon as our budget allows so I'm really hoping that we'll be able to cut the oil bill down next winter.

[Marissamom]

we have electric baseboard heating (apt). don't have anything I really like about it. the heaters stink when they're first turned on for the winter because they get dust on them and then the dust burns. they take up way too much wall space. and I worry about curious little fingers.

[yeahwhat]

We have electric baseboard and just added electric convection heaters in the kitchen and hallway. They take up slightly less wall length but a lot more height. I only turned one on for about 15-30 minutes so far so I'm not sure how I like them. I like being able to choose the temperature of each room with the baseboard heaters, but I hate the dryness. We have had one little plastic person melted into a heater, so you need to watch little kids and their toys.

[ParisApril]

We have an old mid efficiency natural gas furnace that we do not use 98% of the time.

Two years ago we bought a high efficiency wood fireplace insert which we use to heat with. With limited oxygen the wood burns slower and cleaner therefore saving you money and you have to stoke less often. It is exactly like a high efficiency wood stove only it fits into your existing fireplace.

Pros - Toasty warm heat and a nice fire to look at. It's cheaper to heat with wood than with gas. I'm allergic to dust and whenever we turn on the furnace my symptoms are horrible. Stuffy nose and sneezing all the time. With the insert I don't have any problems.

Cons - It's time consuming to heat only with wood, stacking, chopping and making and stoking the fire take time and I have to be here to do it. In the mornings and when we get home after being away all day in the winter the house can be as cold as 12C.

[Arduinna]

If you really want to heat with wood a wood stove is much much more efficient than a fireplace. A fireplace really doesn't put off much heat compared to a wood stove.

I love wood stoves and I've used them for the only heat source in winter before and I like them a lot but my ideal is a natural gas central air unit with ceiling ducts which we have now. I've never had radiant heating but I hear it's wonderful.

[ollyoxenfree]

We use a forced air system with a natural gas furnace. It's efficient and relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of fuel.

I like a wood-burning fireplace or a wood stove. It helps if you have a good source of wood.

I'm intrigued by geothermal heating systems. I'd want to talk to a few people who used them though, and I don't know anyone IRL who has/had one.

[Drummer's Wife]

We have natural gas for heat, and a gas fireplace (that is more for looks, it doesn't seem to generate much warmth, to me, unless we are sitting right up against the glass). That's really all I know about our heating, to be honest.

[Katie T]

We have a forced air gas furnice but mainly heat with our wood burning stove. I love the heat it produces although it is work to heat with wood.

I am interested in the heated ceiling fans, we just started using our upstairs and have unhooked the ducts from the bedrooms up there and am wondering if between those fans and warm air rising if that would be enough. It isn't too cold up there even when we used to put a blanket up on the stairs. Hmm something to look into...