what should I heat a house with? (Sparta: heat pump, new construction)

[vacation bound]

Good morn. all. I am curious. I hope to build a house in the next few years on my property. The question I have is what should I heat it with. My sister has a gas fireplace that works great but the price to run it seems very expensive to me. I will definitely put a fireplace in, and central air. My main concern is about the heating (I know plenty about air cond. since I live in Fl) I am looking for something economical. My place is in Sparta and I am not sure what type of house that I am going to build but I am leaning towards a log home.And that is going to be a thread as to What type of home to build. Any sugestions would be greatly welcomed.

[alleycat]

My first choice would be an electric heat pump (which would also be your central air unit) with a backup wood stove (or wood stove insert in a fireplace). I'm assuming that natural gas may or may not be an option where you plan to build.

I seem to recall another thread similar to this one where the main debate was about electric vs. propane. A lot of people like propane, and a lot of people don't. I happen to be one of those who doesn't (I dislike it so much that if I had a house with propane heat I would rip it out and replace it).

[Grizzlybear34]

What is a wood stove insert for a fireplace? Why would you need it in addition to the fireplace?

VB - Good thread starter as I begin to make my list of things as well.

[bbkaren]

I would go with a woodstove instead of a fireplace. A fireplace is known to let the heat go up the chimney and defeat your purpose.

A woodstove insert is a woodstove that fits into an existing fireplace. I haven't heard about it being used with new construction, because I've always heard it used to convert a fireplace to a woodstove...

With a woodstove you can use an exterior chimney or run the stovepipe out of the wall and up outside of the house...but we chose to run the pipe straight up through the room out the ceiling so we have the additional benefit of the hot pipe heating the indoors rather than the outdoors.

We heat exclusively with wood and LOVE it. We're in NJ and if we can do it here I can't imagine it not working out great in TN! It's what we plan to do when we move down in a few years as well.

[FLtoVA]

We built a log home several years ago in SW Virginia. We have a heat pump and a propane fireplace.

I agree with you on the expense of running the fireplace but it does throw a lot of heat so when it is on, the heat pump doesn't run much.

We are happy with the heat pump. The only thing that I would suggest is that if you do build a log home, and have a heat pump, you may want to look into adding a humidifier to it. We just did this a few months ago and wish we had done it at the beginning.

[vacation bound]

Wow, Great information. Thanks everyone. I am going to start my planning now and by the time I am ready, I will have everything in place of what I want. I have never heard about the fireplace insert. That sounds interesting. I will have to look into that.

[TN Tin Man]

Electric A/C Heat Pump like several people already said, plus for supplemental.........

Pellet stove - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[JoAnn5]

Wood heat is messy with the ashes and the bark and leaves, etc.... but is sure does warm the house like nothing else! I love to back up to ours and get toasty buns just before going to bed...

[TN Tin Man]

Originally Posted by JoAnn5

Wood heat is messy with the ashes and the bark and leaves, etc.... but is sure does warm the house like nothing else! I love to back up to ours and get toasty buns just before going to bed...

Check out the pellet stove......... no mess no stacking wood very little ash!

[bbkaren]

But...pellets don't grow in the woods behind your house!

And, I don't mind the mess--it's worth it to have that wonderful, organic interaction with my heating system. I really love heating with wood.