Heating options for new build (Fairbanks, Homer: rental, second mortgage, houses)

[6.7traveler]

Planning a new build as soon as the snow melts. I've decided to upgrade from my highly efficient barrel stove which is excellent at keeping the place either 40 or 120 degrees and boasts an impressive 2-3 hour burn time .

The place will be approx 1100 square feet with a 500 square foot loft, open floor plan and heavily and tightly insulated with massive amounts of closed cell spray foam if that helps. I have only burned maybe a cord and a half of wood this year as it's been warm and my place is insulated well.

Here are my options I'm thinking of:

1) Sell a kidney and take out a second mortgage to buy a Blaze King Princess wood stove. Everyone that has one seems to love them. The only downsides I know of is the high price tag and I have read that they can be finicky depending on what kind of wood you have (which wood stove isn't finicky? ) and that you have to replace the CAT from time to time. Supposedly you can get up to a 20 hour burn time with hardwoods (of which I have none) and a 12+ Hour burn time with softwoods (which I have a lot of).

2) Order a wood stove off Amazon Prime and get it delivered right to my door. They have quite a few EPA certified wood stoves in the $600-$1000 with free shipping, that got pretty good reviews. The pros of this option are the low price tag and convenience of being delivered. Obviously they won't get the burn time of a Blaze king, but I really only need it to have an 8 hour burn time, which would be a huge improvement over the barrel stove I have now.

3) Get a cheaper wood stove and add a Toyo oil heater just to maintain the temperature at night. The pros are less attention needed to run the oil heater and possibly easier to maintain consistent temps when used in conjunction with the wood stove. The cons are the extra price and that I think it will make me lazy on my wood cutting duties. The plan would be just to run at night to conserve oil, but knowing that I had the option to skimp on wood, I might use it more than I think . Also oil is cheap right now, but could very easily go back up and the price is out of my control. I have plenty of free wood.

4) Get another type of woodstove somewhere in fairbanks that I don't know about yet. That's why I'm asking for recommendations on here .

I don't know about pellet stoves as I am on solar/battery power and would prefer to have something that uses no electricity to operate.

Thanks for any insight or recommendations.

[Music_Man]

Should be able to get a used blase King in Fairbanks. That is about your best option. I recently installed an oil stove to supplement the wood stove, but haven't formed a opinion yet as the weather is to mild here. I wouldn't trust a pellet stove, what if the company making the pellets there goes out of business and they have to come from lower 48?

[Metlakatla]

Do you build houses for other people? I need someone decent to build a cabin on my property on POW. Local builders...pfft.

[Music_Man]

If you are asking me, no.

[6.7traveler]

Thanks, I don't have any experience with an oil stove so have no idea if it will do what I want or not without burning massive amounts of oil. I wouldn't want to go through anymore than a gallon of oil each night.

As for the used blaze king, that maybe my best option. One of my friends has a 20 year old blaze king in a rental house of his that he said he would sell me for real cheap as he no longer uses it. I haven't seen it, but he said he's burned 200+ cords through it to the point where a black metal panel inside in the back is bowed down and needs to be cut out and welded back in place somehow. He says it still works fine this way, except you can't load as much wood in it and he isn't sure what kind of damage, if any, is being done behind that panel. I think it's old enough that it doesn't have the cat, but I'm not sure. It also weighs a million pounds and is in a basement so that will be fun to remove . I'll definitely check it out though.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by Music_Man

If you are asking me, no.

LOL, I'm asking anyone. I need a cabin built. Maybe I'll just get some of those prefab tiny houses.

[6.7traveler]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Do you build houses for other people? I need someone decent to build a cabin on my property on POW. Local builders...pfft.

If you're asking me; I have built houses for other people in the past but this "house" I'm building is a geodesic dome. Depending on the size of the cabin, I could frame it out pretty easily but I'm more of a rough carpenter than a finish/trim kind of guy . However I won't be able to spend any significant time on POW this summer as my summer is filled to the brink with this build and lots of outdoor trips.

I'd be more than happy to build anyone a dome though . All my domes are made of galvanized steel and have monolithic coverings so no seams to leak or rot like the old wooden shingled ones. I cover mine with closed cell spray foam for insulation which makes it a permanent structure but if you opt for a vinyl yurt like cover it would be portable and all the pieces are less than 4 feet long for easy shipping. Check out pacificdomes.com (not my company but I build the exact same way) for pictures of the vinyl covered domes. Very nice. I can build anywhere from 16 footers to 45 footers which are huge. A 20 footer would be 300 square foot and the frame would cost around $1500 not including the covering.

A very good friend of mine is an excellent carpenter down in homer who builds nice tiny homes and smaller cabins for people. His finish work is what really shines, he makes his own doors and trim and used to work as a finish carpenter for the yurt company in Homer, before going out on his own. I could put you in touch with him if you're looking for some high quality work. Without talking to him, I'm sure he would be able to travel somewhere for work as he's into that kind of thing. He's also pretty reasonable price wise.

[Metlakatla]

How does he feel about camping? Lol, every last indoor space will be employee housing, unless we build in May. Maybe that's best anyway. Not sure if it will be this year or next because I haven't really planned it out yet. But yeah, I would be interested in talking to him when I know more about what I'm doing.

[6.7traveler]

I'm sure he wouldn't mind camping, he's a younger rugged type dude that's traveled and camped in a lot of places. He lives in a yurt and his tiny house on wheels he built. Maybe he could ferry it down to POW and stay in that. PM when you figure out what you're doing and I'll get you in touch with him. I was thinking about hiring him myself to build me some cabinets and doors and do some finish work on my place and I never hire anybody for anything, he's that good .

[Dakster]

6.7 and Met - Good luck with your builds this summer... Making me jealous as I really want a cabin (or geodesic dome) to go to. But I have sooooo much other stuff on my plate right now it isn't funny.

6.7 I do have one question or thought for you. Let's say you get a Blaze King and something happens to it and it doesn't work. What is your backup plan for heat? In other words, wouldn't a Toyo be a good thing to have regardless? (or some other form of backup heat?)