Questions about heating with natural gas.

[Magus]

I can't cut or carry wood anymore, so when I get moved back to my old digs, I'm hooking up gas, any advice?

 

[Peanut]

I use Lp, a ventless wall mount heater. I heat 950sqft with 1 heater. I had it on it's lowest setting all winter until last week when I had temps in the teens. Then I'd turn it up to medium in the evening but turn it back down when I went to bed.

What kind of heater are you looking to buy? Ventless Dyna-Glo heaters are less than $250 for a 30K btu rated unit. My 50yr old ventless is slightly smaller but I need to replace it so I've been shopping. Gonna get a Dyna-Glo, the 30K btu wall mount. They come in 12K and 20K also, some models less than $200.

I'm hoping in spring the prices will drop a little bit. I'll get a new heater and have it hooked up and ready for next winter.

Edit to add... the natural gas ventless heaters cost a lot more. You using Ng or Lp?

Also, the new ventless heaters have several sensors including Co2, automatically turns off when a sensor trips. You can buy a fan accessory which is nice for quickly heating up a large area but it's not necessary.

 

[Caribou]

I would only use a vented heater, where the exhaust gas vents through the wall or ceiling. Better yet, where the combustion air is drawn in from outside. This way you don’t pay to heat the combustion air. Historically, as the weather cools people close up their homes to stay warm. Where there was plenty of ventilation in warmer weather the tighter home causes the O2 to be uses up and the appliance starts giving off CO. The department I worked at had a handful of these deaths every year.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I have a non vent Dyna Glo propane heater in my pump house. Its plumbed to a 500 gallon tank. It has a thermostat that I keep on the lowest setting. Even in zero temps it keeps the building around 45 degs.
When I built I my house I installed a propane forced air central heat and AC with a heat pump. I also installed a propane tankless water heater, propane dryer and stove, all plumbed to a 500 gallon tank. We primarily heat with wood and only use the propane furnace if we're going to be gone all day, then I set the thermostat to 61 degs.

 

[Morgan101]

Are you talking about natural gas that comes from a utility company into your dwelling, or something external like propane? We have natural gas in our house, and have never had any problems. In fact we have had natural gas in all three homes we have owned. Our heat and hot water heater are gas. All of the other appliances are electric.

I'm not sure what else there is to tell. The cost is reasonable. The thermostat is easy to use, and the only thing we have ever had to replace. We change filters on the furnace twice a year. Never had any problems.

 

[Magus]

What kind of heater are you looking to buy? Ventless Dyna-Glo heaters are less than $250 for a 30K btu rated unit. My 50yr old ventless is slightly smaller but I need to replace it so I've been shopping. Gonna get a Dyna-Glo, the 30K btu wall mount. They come in 12K and 20K also, some models less than $200.

The place I'm heating is kind of small. I'm starting with a dual-burner Mr. Heater, which should be more than enough for the area. I will likely bump it up a notch as repairs continue. It seems capable of running either gas, but I'll likely stick with propane since the supply is readily available. I'm probably going to have a safety shroud made for it as well. It's a pretty basic rig, but for the price, I can swallow it.

Caribou:
I would only use a vented heater, where the exhaust gas vents through the wall or ceiling. Better yet, where the combustion air is drawn in from outside. This way you don’t pay to heat the combustion air. Historically, as the weather cools people close up their homes to stay warm. Where there was plenty of ventilation in warmer weather the tighter home causes the O2 to be uses up and the appliance starts giving off CO. The department I worked at had a handful of these deaths every year.

It should not be much of an issue, the flu from my wood stove is still in place, I may need a venting fan, however. the damn place has so many cracks anyway, if it was any holier a pope would live there.

I'll only be using it when things drop below freezing anyway. it will be supplemented with electricity unless the power goes out anyway. About how much gas should I store?

 

[UserNameTaken]

Many people seem to be using the elect mini-split heat pumps. Is that an option? We have a central NG furnace.

 

[Mountain trapper]

The place I'm heating is kind of small. I'm starting with a dual-burner Mr. Heater, which should be more than enough for the area. I will likely bump it up a notch as repairs continue. It seems capable of running either gas, but I'll likely stick with propane since the supply is readily available. I'm probably going to have a safety shroud made for it as well. It's a pretty basic rig, but for the price, I can swallow it.

Caribou:
I would only use a vented heater, where the exhaust gas vents through the wall or ceiling. Better yet, where the combustion air is drawn in from outside. This way you don’t pay to heat the combustion air. Historically, as the weather cools people close up their homes to stay warm. Where there was plenty of ventilation in warmer weather the tighter home causes the O2 to be uses up and the appliance starts giving off CO. The department I worked at had a handful of these deaths every year.

It should not be much of an issue, the flu from my wood stove is still in place, I may need a venting fan, however. the damn place has so many cracks anyway, if it was any holier a pope would live there.

I'll only be using it when things drop below freezing anyway. it will be supplemented with electricity unless the power goes out anyway. About how much gas should I store?

I guess the amount you store would depend on how much you use. We store about 1200 gallons here. If we needed to we could stretch that out to about 3+ years.

 

[Magus]

So how many a winter roughly?