Fireplaces are inefficient and expensive, poolute a hell of a lot, and a lot of effort. Heatpumps are simple effecient and the cheapest to run and maintain.
Woodstoves are nice as an option but I’ll just take backup power any day. Gas pressure is normally still fine for a long time durring most outages and it takes very little power to just run the blower fan on a gas furnace. I’ve run mine off my vans inverter using an extension cord and some farmer grade wiring practices at one point with no issue. Plus I can also power other things with backup power. If it’s an extended outage then most gas furnaces can easily be converted to run on propane and swapping out tanks is much easier than dealing with fueling a woodstove.
As you reach city limits in a lot of cities, it is increasingly likely that you will no longer find gas lines, city water, or sewers. Having a backup heat source is pretty comforting. Much like you, I used to rely on just gas with a generator for backup, but I’ve experienced frozen gas mains, so I like having a woodstove and a couple cords of wood to burn as a backup source of heat. Plus it’s very cozy on damp, cold days, and nicer than the fireplace channel on Christmas.
At least in my area, propane is the goto if you have no city gas hookup. If you want to go oldschool then you have a fuel oil furnace. Keeping enough wood on hand to heat a house over the winter just isn’t practical for most. Even just heating his wood shop just while he is using it my dad can burn through 3 full cords of wood every winter. My grandpa used to heat his trailer house with wood and he often went through 4-5 full cords in the winter.
I 100% agree that wood is cozy but it’s way easier to just keep a tank of propane or fuel oil on hand.
For sure, most use oil or propane as a primary heat source when gas isn’t available. But those rely on both expensive fossil fuel and electricity to run, so a backup that doesn’t depend on either is handy, especially with all these once in a century storms we get every year now. Wood makes for a cheap, effective backup. Used to be so common in housing too. Now we just get gas furnaces and gas fireplaces for show. Still, I wouldn’t go out of my way to get a woodstove. I agree that a backup generator is plenty for most situations. But if you have an older home with a fireplace, keep a half cord around and make sure the chimney is clean.
Unless you have an old system with a pilot light, you are probably dependent on an electric ignition system. Those have been the norm for a couple decades now for propane and natural gas furnaces.
How about not living somewhere where this is even a possibility in the first place. 🥲 2 Weeks, wtf…
I’d also argue for solar panels / a small consumer wind turbine and a battery backup (which can power the heatpump) instead of architecture from the last millenia.
Solar is not great for heating in winter because solar produces very little energy in winter (which is literally the reason why winter is cold in the first place: less solar radiation).
So even if you have solar, unless your installation is massively oversized you generally don’t have spare every in winter for heating.
Small consumer wind turbines make sense only in limited cases, and I say that as someone who had been building some. Because places with a strong constant wind are limited and generally this is not when houses are built.
In my country its usually required for new builds to have 2 methods of heating. People usually have gas or heat pumps as primary but almost all of them puts a fireplace as well in the house, so chimneys here are very common.
I also have a fireplace additional to a heat pump, but I would only use it if there was a power outage for multiple days during winter.
Fireplaces are inefficient and expensive, poolute a hell of a lot, and a lot of effort. Heatpumps are simple effecient and the cheapest to run and maintain.
I’ll never live somewhere without a woodstove again. Two weeks without power, and 20F/-6.5C inside the house will change a person lol
Woodstoves are nice as an option but I’ll just take backup power any day. Gas pressure is normally still fine for a long time durring most outages and it takes very little power to just run the blower fan on a gas furnace. I’ve run mine off my vans inverter using an extension cord and some farmer grade wiring practices at one point with no issue. Plus I can also power other things with backup power. If it’s an extended outage then most gas furnaces can easily be converted to run on propane and swapping out tanks is much easier than dealing with fueling a woodstove.
As you reach city limits in a lot of cities, it is increasingly likely that you will no longer find gas lines, city water, or sewers. Having a backup heat source is pretty comforting. Much like you, I used to rely on just gas with a generator for backup, but I’ve experienced frozen gas mains, so I like having a woodstove and a couple cords of wood to burn as a backup source of heat. Plus it’s very cozy on damp, cold days, and nicer than the fireplace channel on Christmas.
At least in my area, propane is the goto if you have no city gas hookup. If you want to go oldschool then you have a fuel oil furnace. Keeping enough wood on hand to heat a house over the winter just isn’t practical for most. Even just heating his wood shop just while he is using it my dad can burn through 3 full cords of wood every winter. My grandpa used to heat his trailer house with wood and he often went through 4-5 full cords in the winter.
I 100% agree that wood is cozy but it’s way easier to just keep a tank of propane or fuel oil on hand.
For sure, most use oil or propane as a primary heat source when gas isn’t available. But those rely on both expensive fossil fuel and electricity to run, so a backup that doesn’t depend on either is handy, especially with all these once in a century storms we get every year now. Wood makes for a cheap, effective backup. Used to be so common in housing too. Now we just get gas furnaces and gas fireplaces for show. Still, I wouldn’t go out of my way to get a woodstove. I agree that a backup generator is plenty for most situations. But if you have an older home with a fireplace, keep a half cord around and make sure the chimney is clean.
Propane doesn’t need electricity to work… The tank is pressurized, and opening a valve allows it to flow.
Unless you have an old system with a pilot light, you are probably dependent on an electric ignition system. Those have been the norm for a couple decades now for propane and natural gas furnaces.
Yeah, I thought I was missing something as I was read that and thinking, “ok, fair, but where does the gas come from?”
My in laws have a massive tank on their property for their natgas powered backup generator (which apparently kicks on a few times a month…
Gas isn’t an option here unfortunately
How about not living somewhere where this is even a possibility in the first place. 🥲 2 Weeks, wtf…
I’d also argue for solar panels / a small consumer wind turbine and a battery backup (which can power the heatpump) instead of architecture from the last millenia.
Solar is not great for heating in winter because solar produces very little energy in winter (which is literally the reason why winter is cold in the first place: less solar radiation).
See https://pvgis.com/fr
So even if you have solar, unless your installation is massively oversized you generally don’t have spare every in winter for heating.
Small consumer wind turbines make sense only in limited cases, and I say that as someone who had been building some. Because places with a strong constant wind are limited and generally this is not when houses are built.
See https://globalwindatlas.info/en/
No, what we need is seasonal batteries. A way to store the surplus or solar energy in summer to use it for heating in winter.
Wood is exactly that, solar energy stored in a stable chemical form that is easy to use.
Pretty sure most people just use fireplaces for vibes these days.
In my country its usually required for new builds to have 2 methods of heating. People usually have gas or heat pumps as primary but almost all of them puts a fireplace as well in the house, so chimneys here are very common.
I also have a fireplace additional to a heat pump, but I would only use it if there was a power outage for multiple days during winter.
So yeah, fireplaces are mainly for the vibes :)