My two person household lives in a 3800 Sq Ft detached home with heating provided by an efficient boiler that circulates hot water through pipes in the slab to radiant heaters. While the boiler is at least 80% efficient (perhaps more,) the slab is not insulated and I am limited in my heating area choices by the 3 zones in the home. I currently heat one zone that includes the boiler room (as a side effect), the adjacent unused bedroom (uninsulated pipes in the wall), the kitchen, dining room and living room.
It occurred to me today that the main area we want to heat is the kitchen. So that said, why not use the stove gas burner ? We can heat up the kitchen as we heat up water and cook breakfast. If there is excess hot water I'll put it in a thermos for later use, use it for dishwashing, or just let it cool off since a little heat buffer for the area will always be welcome.
I gather that a stove burner consumes about 8,000 btu an hour of natural gas, equal to about 1/12th of a therm. One hour is quite enough to heat up the kitchen until the sun takes over, and amounts to a very modest 2.5 therms a month. Unresolved for now is the uber wasteful DHW.
Comments ?
It occurred to me today that the main area we want to heat is the kitchen. So that said, why not use the stove gas burner ? We can heat up the kitchen as we heat up water and cook breakfast. If there is excess hot water I'll put it in a thermos for later use, use it for dishwashing, or just let it cool off since a little heat buffer for the area will always be welcome.
I gather that a stove burner consumes about 8,000 btu an hour of natural gas, equal to about 1/12th of a therm. One hour is quite enough to heat up the kitchen until the sun takes over, and amounts to a very modest 2.5 therms a month. Unresolved for now is the uber wasteful DHW.
Comments ?