Northern Maine Heating (Augusta, Houlton, Mars Hill: houses, water heater, to buy)
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I'm new to northern Maine and was hoping someone might have some suggestions in regards to heating. We have a large old farmhouse which is currently heated by a steam boiler forced hot air through radiators. While I like the heat it puts out, it is very costly to heat. We spent around $1,300 per month last year (from December through March) for heating a house we weren't even living in. We had the thermostat turned way, way down too. Granted, the house needs much work, but we can only take on a little at a time.
We are considering pellet stoves, but we were just wondering if any others have similar experiences.
My grandfather lives in Mars Hill, and he's just bought a pellet stove last winter. He loved it, and said it saved him alot of money. On the other side of the fence, my other grand father owns a much larger house that he has had a wood burning stove put in, and it works just as good, only downside was that we had to get firewood and store it, and occasionally go stoke the fire . Theres a guy in Houlton area that sells the pellet stoves and could give you a great price estimate as well as telling you how well it'd work with your house.
hmmm....there are a couple of quick fixes you can do in the meantime too to try to save some $. First of all, how old is your thermostat? It may be worth it to replace it with one that is programmable. Frost King makes clear shrink plastic that adheres with double-sided tape to the interior of the windows. You shrink it with a blow dryer so that you have a nice, clear, smooth view for the winter. Also, "banking" around your foundation can also save some pennies. Some people use hay, others tar paper or heavy plastic and lathes, and some use pine boughs. Once the snow fills in around the foundation, it helps as well. And, are the pipes carrying the hot water to the radiators insulated? If they're in the basement, and uninsulated, you're losing temperature (heat) before it's even gotten to the radiators. We own an old house as well, and we closed it up last year. One pipe didn't make it, but it was cheaper to replace that then heat the place. It's 180 years old, and little or no insulation (my vote is no!). We're working on it room by room, so eventually we'll rethink our wintertimes, but for now, we drain everything and close it up til late April. Good luck!
... large old farmhouse ... heated by a steam boiler forced hot air through radiators.
Old drafty houses built before modern insulation methods will likely never be warm.
Consider knocking down the interior of the walls and filling them with insulation, and re-paneling. then replacing the outer siding. Get house wrap on it, and a modern siding.
You really need R-40.
Most folks seem to agree that the most comfortable and efficient system of heating is radiant flooring.
We are in the process of building our 2400 sq ft farmhouse. We decided to go with radiant floor heat. This past winter we got by with a 40,000 btu water heater feeding the radiant system.
We are looking at building in the next couple years and want the radiant floor heating as well forest beekeeper. They use it quite a bit here in Europe and it is indeed warm and nice when you get out of the shower or wake up in the morning. We are wondering if such a heating system needs to be identified in the intitial building blue prints or not as we are still trying to decide what final design to go with and modifications to plans can get stupid crazy in price. Also any words of wisdom on if it should be heated via oil gas or solar. Tks
We are looking at building in the next couple years and want the radiant floor heating as well forest beekeeper. They use it quite a bit here in Europe and it is indeed warm and nice when you get out of the shower or wake up in the morning. We are wondering if such a heating system needs to be identified in the initial building blue prints or not as we are still trying to decide what final design to go with and modifications to plans can get stupid crazy in price. Also any words of wisdom on if it should be heated via oil gas or solar. Tks
Buckle yourself into your chair, hold on tight and brace yourself. As you step through the time-space portal into the 'Maine culture of doing things'.
Each state is entirely different when it comes to building permits. Having owned homes in multiple states and nations, we have seen strict building codes and not-so-strict. Each township of Maine is like that too.
As I have spoken with people, the impression that I get is that as a town gets bigger, to support it's ever growing town budget they hire ever more and more inspectors. Each code enforcement officer requires permits and licenses, and to be inspected for compliance. Some are better trained than others. Some of these guys are just 'good ole boys' who insist that everything must be done the way that their grand-daddy did it, while others are literate.
One good example is automobile mechanics doing annual vehicle inspections. The state regulates the price at $12 and change [the state gets around $9 out from that $12] and the state has a check list of things the mechanic should look at.
If a mechanic is located in a bigger town, then he has more inspectors who will routinely come by and watch how he performs vehicle inspections. Or maybe the inspectors will run a car through with a hidden 'known' problem. The result is that if the mechanic is not thorough, then he gets fined. And the fines are BIG.
However; shop fees are $60/hour, to spend 45 minutes poking around the undercarriage of a car for $3, he will go broke soon.
Smaller towns hire less inspectors, who have no time to pester each business as much, so the mechanics do a quick look over your car, for serious safety problems, and put a sticker on for another year.
How does this relate to building your home? Well living here I do hear stories from others who do work in bigger towns.
I bought land in an unorganized township. We have no mayor, no inspectors, no Nada. The county and state provide services. For a building permit I file with LURC.
My building permit was four pages long.
Questions about how I acquired the land and if it had been part of a larger sub-division.
Questions about water-flow and the set-backs from each source of flowing water.
Questions about set-backs from each property line, and if my building would be visible from each property line.
Questions about my planned methods for combating soil erosion during construction.
Questions about whether any of the buildings would be taller than the tops of the trees in the surrounding forest.
Questions about whether a soil-science septic-design engineer had done a site-study and drawn a plan describing a projected septic system.
Then a grid where I listed:
how many buildings I planned to construct;
the exterior dimensions of each building;
and the method of construction [ie, wood, steel, concrete].
If I planned to construct more buildings than would fit onto that one form, I could attach more lined papers to list all buildings in the same format.
The permit cost $75 and is good for 5 years.
When I did mine, I had walked my property lines already with a GPS in hand. So I had loaded the La/Lo in my PC and I had a scale site plan. I printed it out a 'to scale' site-plan showing our future house, animal barn, equipment building, septic field and driveway. I included this as an enclosure to the building permit application.
The LURC office in Augusta called me back to complement me on my professional application. Their entire office could not get over how well laid out and easy to read my application was. He said that it was passed around their desks quickly as everyone enjoyed it, and everyone there had approved it. My permit was thus sped through their office and would arrive in the mail shortly.
He explained that they routinely get applications with drawings attached that were drawn on restaurant napkins with coffee stains.
My permit included:
A 'certificate of self-completion', when I am done constructing, I am to inspect it myself, to ensure that it complies with code, and I am to sign it myself and send it back to them.
If you decide to buy land in an bigger town, then you experiences in building a home will be different.
I designed our floor joists so that the frame-bays run parallel to the exterior walls. I was able to hang PEX tubing in each frame-bay [okay fine I am a sailor and that is what we call the open spaces between frames]. My lay-out is a large spiral. Running alongside of each exterior wall, for a loop around the building, then coming in one joist space and looping again. After the first two loops around the building were done then I began skipping frame-bays and I did every other alternate frame-bay.
In the center of our home we also have a large sunken living room. Twelve foot by twelve foot square, each corner has a set of steps leading down into it. Each of the four sides is an eight foot long bench seat with cushions. and the floor in the center of the living room is concrete stained black and sealed to look like slate. In the center of that floor is a propane line coming up, for a future open-flame fire-pit hearth, with an exhaust hood suspended down from the ceiling over it. The bench backs have radiant PEX in them, as do the bench seats, and the concrete floor. So these couches as we call them are heated as well by the radiant heating system.
Our radiant heat system currently flows through a propane water heater and then through an electric water heater [just in case the propane is no longer capable of maintaining the system at desired temp].
This year we are adding a 300 gallon thermal-bank and heated water coming from our all-fuel stove. Both the propane/electric heat sources will flow into this thermal-bank as will the heated water from our all-fuel stove.
Our circ pumps are currently one 120VAC and one 12VDC. So we have methods of providing heat both when we have electricity and when the electricity goes out. However I will be changing that over to two 12VDC circ pumps.
It would not hurt to include an oil furnace into the mix. It would be very handy to keep 500 gallons of heating oil on the property.
I'm new to northern Maine and was hoping someone might have some suggestions in regards to heating. We have a large old farmhouse which is currently heated by a steam boiler forced hot air through radiators. While I like the heat it puts out, it is very costly to heat. We spent around $1,300 per month last year (from December through March) for heating a house we weren't even living in. We had the thermostat turned way, way down too. Granted, the house needs much work, but we can only take on a little at a time.
We are considering pellet stoves, but we were just wondering if any others have similar experiences.
Thank you!
$1,300 a month? For heat? Wow!
First, this summer and fall: Buy multiple tubes of exterior grade caulk and a caulking gun. (Do not buy the cheaper interior/exterior caulk; it often requires two applications.) Walk around the house's exterior and caulk the window frames, the doors, the utility ports, the foundation, the trim boards --- caulk EVERYTHING that you even suspect lets in air. Then on a windy day light a candle and use it to detect interior drafts around baseboards, windows, doors, corners, wherever, and then caulk some more. This includes the basement BTW.
Weatherstrip around all exterior doors and windows. Apply the clear plastic window covers mentioned above. Even better, IMO, buy sheets of insulating foam board, the kind that has a foil facing, and cut it to fit snugly into the window frames inside the house. You can find plans online for movable shutters made from the stuff if you want to get fancy about it. Or you can make window quilts that have the same result.
When cold weather arrives, close down all nonessential areas of the house. Keep heat only in rooms that need it to keep water pipes from freezing, such as kitchen and bathrooms, and those you use every day -- such as the living room. If you have a separate living room and TV room, close off one of them and put the TV in the other. There's no need to heat the bedrooms; you'll sleep better and healthier in a cold room. Just add more blankets.
Pellet stoves are great if no one is home during the day to keep a stove stoked. They're also clean and easy to use, especially for older folks. If you get a wood stove instead, start stocking up on wood NOW -- look for tree trimming crews along the highway, check out the local landfill, let friends and neighbors and family know that you're in the market for cheap and free firewood. And don't be picky about what you get for free. Softwood and alder burn, too. Also, check out Uncle Henry's "Free for the Taking" column for fuel wood and coal that people are giving away.
Plus all the other advice in this thread.
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. Theres a guy in Houlton area that sells the pellet stoves and could give you a great price estimate as well as telling you how well it'd work with your house.
