When you want to know how to stay warm in the Winter, ask people who live in places where they need major warmth ... New England ... Bavaria.
Here's what Cat uses and she's way up in Bavaria:
Küchenofen Rosa Petra Speckstein
The name seems formidable but it translates, literally, to kitchen oven. The units are expensive at about €1500 but they serve multiple purposes and you can see it will last longer than most houses. Heating for the house is provided by heating water with this oven but I'm not sure how she has that rigged.
Cat said it is not so good for frying because it's difficult to clean but she often uses it for keeping food warming after cooking it on a gas stove. As you see in the pic, likely this one would be good for cooking stews or other food which would need continuous heat for hours ... and they don't spit oil all over the cooking surface while they do it.
Keep in mind this takes more than the happy glow of a Bavarian postcard because someone has to bring the wood in from the snow outside and someone has to clean out the ashes.
In New England, many houses are heated by oil-fired boilers and this is the cozy warmest I have ever felt. Electric heat just laughs at you, costs a lot and doesn't do much.
Cat also mentioned room unit oil-burning heaters but these aren't so clear to me. She said some vent to the outside to exhaust the fumes but she said not all. I don't yet understand how that works without, well, everyone in the room dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. However, they don't and this type of unit has been used all over Germany for years.
Whoops ... did some further translation and all require a flue pipe connection, most for 120 mm. So, end of carbon monoxide problem.
Ölofen Naxos
Here's what Cat uses and she's way up in Bavaria:
Küchenofen Rosa Petra Speckstein
The name seems formidable but it translates, literally, to kitchen oven. The units are expensive at about €1500 but they serve multiple purposes and you can see it will last longer than most houses. Heating for the house is provided by heating water with this oven but I'm not sure how she has that rigged.
Cat said it is not so good for frying because it's difficult to clean but she often uses it for keeping food warming after cooking it on a gas stove. As you see in the pic, likely this one would be good for cooking stews or other food which would need continuous heat for hours ... and they don't spit oil all over the cooking surface while they do it.
Keep in mind this takes more than the happy glow of a Bavarian postcard because someone has to bring the wood in from the snow outside and someone has to clean out the ashes.
In New England, many houses are heated by oil-fired boilers and this is the cozy warmest I have ever felt. Electric heat just laughs at you, costs a lot and doesn't do much.
Cat also mentioned room unit oil-burning heaters but these aren't so clear to me. She said some vent to the outside to exhaust the fumes but she said not all. I don't yet understand how that works without, well, everyone in the room dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. However, they don't and this type of unit has been used all over Germany for years.
Whoops ... did some further translation and all require a flue pipe connection, most for 120 mm. So, end of carbon monoxide problem.
It's an attractive unit and much smaller than the Küchenofen. This one sells new for about €350 and has sufficient output for one room.
All of these units have the problem of efficiency insofar as burning things is not such an efficient way to make heat. The less the efficiency of burning, the more pollution and, at least some while ago, there was report of substantial pollution in Colorado, Alaska, etc due to wood-burning fireplaces and the like.
Unresearched but possibly oil burns cleaner than wood or coal and natural gas burns cleanest of all. That's my hypothesis but I do not know if it is true.
Wood-burning fireplaces are, by far, the worst because they offer some radiant heat to the room but mostly the energy goes up the chimney and it sucks the warm air out of the house with it. There's nothing quite so romantic but they're worthless, at least in my experience, for heating.
All of these units have the problem of efficiency insofar as burning things is not such an efficient way to make heat. The less the efficiency of burning, the more pollution and, at least some while ago, there was report of substantial pollution in Colorado, Alaska, etc due to wood-burning fireplaces and the like.
Unresearched but possibly oil burns cleaner than wood or coal and natural gas burns cleanest of all. That's my hypothesis but I do not know if it is true.
Wood-burning fireplaces are, by far, the worst because they offer some radiant heat to the room but mostly the energy goes up the chimney and it sucks the warm air out of the house with it. There's nothing quite so romantic but they're worthless, at least in my experience, for heating.
2 comments:
My first house had an oil burning furnace
By far the dirtiest smellest heat source available.
Easier than a wood stove or fireplace bith of these are incredibly inefficient as most heat goes up the flue
Natural Gas or propane by far the clwanest easiest and warmest out there.
As,always if the house is void od drafts the warmth stays put and the source works less.
As you likely know, anywhere the weather gets really cold and people get exceptionally good at sealing drafts. The dirt wasn't my experience with oil and it was a relatively-new unit which stayed good and clean.
As you say, the biggest consideration after warmth is what it pumps into the air and I think natural gas burns results, when burned most efficiently, in carbon dioxide and water. Anyone who has ever cleaned a fireplace probably won't want to do it more than once.
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