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Retrofit radiant floor heating
Ken
We have a fireplace but I blocked the chimney off and put in propane vent free gas logs.
Our house is 3,500 sq ft and the logs heats it pretty good. When it's really cold, the heat pump for the back part of the house will run on occasion. The heat pump for the front part of the house doesn't come on all winter.
A couple of years ago, we had an ice storm and was out of power for 9 days. Sure glad we had those gas logs.
Billy
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Retrofit radiant floor heating
Ken;
I also put in a geothermal system. For back up I have a pellet stove. Modern pellet stoves are quite efficient and also have the self light feature. With the costs of the pellets I can heat 4000 sq ft for about 2 dollars a day. I like the idea as I have no flue except a small vent out the stone wall.
I have a outside wood water heater and thought about the radiant system as a back up but the cost slowed me down. I also looked at the in plenum option and the coils are in the 900$ range. I still have not ruled this option out as the outside wood boiler is unused at present.
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Ken, I have hot water floor heat in my house. It is very confortable to have the floors warm, but will probably want to have a number of heating zones to keep from overheating some interior rooms. This is done with thermostats controlling hot water solenoid valves. I have six or eight zones in my house.
I use a separate hot water boiler for my heating. With having some heating zones that might be off, the original warning about stagnant water in the heating system is a good one. I would not want that stagnant water in my regular hot water since I use well water and it is not treated with any chlorine or anything like that.
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Thanks, guys, for all the good suggestions.
Blizzard, I hadn't considered direct-vent propane heaters. Are those the wall-mount heaters? One problem is that for such a big house we have an incredible lack of available exterior wall space. We have a lot of floor-to-ceiling windows in all living areas. Might be able to put them in one or two bedrooms or the basement, though, and circulate some air. I know what you mean about in-floor heat being a project. I'm not sure it would be a whole lot worse than trying to get propane to the bedrooms though 
Billy, when we built we plumbed and stubbed out gas to both fireplaces. Do gas logs put out that much more heat? When we stoke the fires with wood and turn on the circulation fans (generator powered) it feels like we get a lot of heat out of them, just not quite enough to keep the whole above 60 degrees. Of course in-floor heat in the main floor won't heat the bedrooms either.
Peters, a pellet stove sounds good but again a lack of wall space would limit where we could locate it. The hearths are raised and are too short to hold a stove. Our neighbor has one and doesn't like it and I sort of dismissed the idea due to that. Maybe he just doesn't like the fact that it doesn't work when power is out. It seems it would be convenient auxiliary heat though. A hot water coil in the supply air would probably be cheaper, assuming we could run it off the water heater.
AC, if we do the radiant floor it will only be done in the living spaces on the main floor. Maybe two zones at most. You have reaffirmed my desire for a heat exchanger - we're on a well too with no chemical treatment. Our main living space is vaulted and we have problems with stratification anyway, so in-floor makes sense from that perspective.
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Ken
Since my chimney is blocked off, ALL the heat from the logs stays in the house. It looks just like real logs burning. Pic #4
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Gotcha, Billy. I didn't think about "vent-free" when I read it. There are no combustion by-products to worry about?
Beautiful fireplace by the way - love the stonework and the curved hearth. I won't show it to my wife
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Ken,
Yes, the heaters I referred to must be mounted on an exterior wall, the center of the vent 16" or more from any outside obstruction or corner. There are many 'modern' (efficient) propane units, but for my application I needed a vented, thermostaticly controlled, electricity independent heater. That effectively eliminated anything with a pump, circulating fan, or modern combustion chamber technology.
It seems you have less restrictions, good luck with whichever method you choose.
bliz
PS- you may want to look here. Lots of info on heat exchangers, solar heating, off grid living, etc..
Link:
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Ken,
FYI, from my (limited) experience, the catalytic radiant propane heaters are odor-free, the blue-flame type (unvented) not completely so.
No problems with smoke detectors with either, so long as the air near the detector is below about 105F
bliz
More specific link for heat exchanger-
Link:
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Ken, if you are thinking of adding radiant coils as occaisional heat only I would add a word of caution which would probably not be a concern if it is full-time heat.
When you are adding radiant coils beneath a WOOD floor you heat the wood before anything else, this means you will drive the moisture out the wood when the heat first comes on. Conversely, as soon as the heat is removed the drying stops and the absorbtion begins again. If this only occurs at the beginning of the heating season it is not as much of a concern.
If however it happens on a more frequent basis you may experience some prblems with warping, checking and finishes, especially hard clear coatings, cracking or peeling. If it continues for any length of time it can lead to excessively large spaces in the joints and an increase in the squeaks and noises when someone walks across it.
Best of luck.
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Blizzard, thanks for the links and info. I need to do more research on the propane heaters or log sets, it sounds promising.
We were actually thinking of retrofitting radiant floor heat on our main floor anyway, and using it as emergency heat was an afterthought. Our main living area is vaulted with a 24 foot ceiling and it's hard to keep it comfortable, so in-floor heating seemed like just the ticket. Then the snow fell and it clicked that it could provide some heat when the power is out as well. If we went that route it would provide heat all winter, not just when the power goes out so cycling of the wood floor shouldn't be an issue.
The best setup might be a combination of in-floor and auxiliary heaters (heatpump most of the time and gas heat when power is out). Not all of our outages are short - it was out for a week last year.
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