What is your PRIMARY fuel source for home heat? (updated)

[Johann Koeber]

Biogas plant.

About 1 km from our little village (27 houses) there is a biogas plant run by a neighbor. 4 years ago he offered to donate the lost heat, if we install the pumps and the distribution system.

25 of us invested a total of 600,000 Euro (~800,000 $) for putting the pipes in the ground (4 feet deep). After this initial investment we are enjoying free heat.

Before that, I was burning oil. 2,000 gallons per year. I was searching for a way to get away from oil. To me it seemed to valuable to just burn it for heat. I needed it to drive!

Then two years ago came Tesla - the roadster.

Now you know the rest of the story.

 

[SteveH]

Natural gas

 

[Lloyd]

natural gas

 

[Zapped]

We generate heat with our bodies. During colder spells it sometimes gets exhausting. :redface: So, I guess that is 'other'. I'll assume, though, that you don't want me to go into details. :wink:

We do too. Snuggle to keep warm after the set back thermostat kicks in.
disclaimer: there's only 2 of us and we use natural gas... from the gas co.

 

[mnx]

Other - Natural gas. We have a forced air natural gas furnace, that is the norm in Ontario (as has been said before). Also use natty gas for our on demand hot water heater and clothes dryer.

 

[772]

Nat gas in one (primary), electric (grid) in the other.

 

[neroden]

Nat gas in one (primary), electric (grid) in the other.

Methane (nat gas) for primary heating here. Electric backup.

I haven't been able to justify replacing the natural gas boiler as it's less than 5 years old, highly efficient, and still cheaper to operate than straight electric heating. I have thought very seriously about getting off of fossil fuels completely. My house is so small that it's hard to justify the space necessary for solar or geothermal equipment, let alone the upfront cost. We'd have to do some sort of district heating thing to justify it and I don't think I could get enough neighbors on board.

- - - Updated - - -

Natural gas firing a Munchkin high efficiency boiler to make hot water for a hydronic radiant heating system (heats the subfloor, warms the people and objects).

That's my system. My house is small enough -- and so well insulated -- that I'm running it off one of the wall-mounted Contender series. I think it's actually the smallest one, the MC50. I've got a completely independent electric air-source heat pump, but it's much more expensive to operate for heating, so I mainly use it for A/C. (It was very useful when the boiler was broken, though.)

 

[techmaven]

Biogas plant.

About 1 km from our little village (27 houses) there is a biogas plant run by a neighbor. 4 years ago he offered to donate the lost heat, if we install the pumps and the distribution system.

25 of us invested a total of 600,000 Euro (~800,000 $) for putting the pipes in the ground (4 feet deep). After this initial investment we are enjoying free heat.

Before that, I was burning oil. 2,000 gallons per year. I was searching for a way to get away from oil. To me it seemed to valuable to just burn it for heat. I needed it to drive!

That's very cool.

 

[RichardC]

Passive Solar / Biomass (waste wood burnt using Vermont Casting inserts with catalytic secondary combustion chambers) / Air Source Dual Compressor (Hallowell) heat pump using renewable source electricity (PV solar and Bullfrog Power) - Fossil fuel free for over 30 years

 

[ChadS]

Primary fuel at our current house is natural gas

Changing my answer as we are buying a net-zero home (HERS score of 0). It uses an electric heat pump to heat water and store in a super-insulated tank, then move the water through radiant flooring. The home has 10kW of solar panels, which will produce more energy during the year than the house uses.

I can't really just say "solar" as sometimes I'll feed the solar in to the grid, and sometimes I'll use random grid power - and the grid has to be around and use its dirtier sources since mine isn't always available (although when I do that, I'm feeding my extra sunshine in to the grid and cleaning up somebody else's mess). Fortunately my electric provider offers a green option, so I can pay a small premium to ensure they add enough renewable production (solar, wind, biomass, low-impact hydro) to cover what grid power I do use. Again they will add production at their leisure, and I will pull what I get; but the electrons are fungible, what I care about is that the generation mix gets cleaned up the amount of my share. Which this option does.

I've been looking for houses like this on the market for 6 months. There sure aren't very many; in fact I found exactly one. And it was quite a bit smaller (fine by me; still plenty big for us!) and had a few less features than comparably-priced homes in the neighborhood; all this tech (there's plenty stuff I didn't list in the house) isn't free. If you're building a house of your own, try to plan for this sort of thing. If you are talking to a builder about buying a home, ask what their options are. As with EVs, they won't start offering it unless they know there is a market...

 

[RichardC]

Changing my answer as we are buying a net-zero home (HERS score of 0). It uses an electric heat pump to heat water and store in a super-insulated tank, then move the water through radiant flooring. The home has 10kW of solar panels, which will produce more energy during the year than the house uses.

I can't really just say "solar" as sometimes I'll feed the solar in to the grid, and sometimes I'll use random grid power - and the grid has to be around and use its dirtier sources since mine isn't always available. Fortunately my electric provider offers a green option, so I can pay a small premium to ensure they add enough renewable production (solar, wind, biomass, low-impact hydro) to cover my use. (Again they will add production at their leisure, and I will pull what I get; but the electrons are fungible, what I care about is that the generation mix gets cleaned up the amount of my share. Which this option does).

I've been looking for houses like this on the market for 6 months. There sure aren't very many. If you're building a house of your own, try to plan for this sort of thing. If you are talking to a builder about buying a home, ask what their options are. As with EVs, they won't start offering it unless they know there is a market...

Congratulations Chad - you are completely correct - we all need to vote for green alternatives with our wallets (as you are clearly doing)!