MFennVT$5.50/gal for #HeatingOil next winter, at least!? Yeah, we're going to be burning more #firewood for sure. Once the house is paid off, we'll be switching to some kind of #HeatPump, I hope. Can you hook #geothermal up to already installed baseboard radiators? https://vtdigger.org/2026/05/18/after-a-long-cold-winter-energy-costs-are-soaring-some-vermonters-are-reevaluating-their-options/ #Vermont
john lehet@MFennVT Air to air heat pumps, mini splits, designed for cold weather will keep their rated capacity in the coldest weather, but as it gets cold you need more and more capacity. So to rely on mini splits in real cold, you need to both oversize the unit ($$$) and then pay a bit more to run it. I’m all for wood in real cold, as I said. With the current oil prices though a good mini split even in the coldest weather is about half the cost of oil in cold, wood 1/4 the cost.
@MFennVT This is a cool heat cost calculator. You have to fiddle with all the costs and efficiencies. For a heat pump and electric, you up the efficiency. So my heat pump I’ll call 600% efficient at 50 degrees but 150% at zero F. I keep this tab open and look at it all the time to decide which heat to use. https://woodheat.com/fuel-calculator
@johnlehet Thanks for all the info. There's definitely a learning curve, sorting all this out.
@MFennVT There definitely is. I geeked out really hard when I got my mini splits, and still I feel it’s taken some years to really get a good handle on the situation. My new woodstove is like that too. The installer, a sweep, has a similar stove from the same company. He said it took him two years to figure it out. I had been geeking out hard on stoves and figured, “It won’t take me two years…” But, maybe. Hybrid stoves are different.
@johnlehet They are. We bought a Hearthstone a few years ago. In general, we like it a lot, but it's hard not to let any smoke out of the box when you're feeding it. Our old non-hybrid stove didn't have that problem. I think it's getting better with practice, but still annoying.
@MFennVT Smoke out of the firebox is a known issue with many hearthstone stoves. My Woodstock does not do that, but it has a smoke catcher which doubles as a hand-burner. I have almost never worn gloves for woodstoving for the last million years, but I have to remember now. My hands were a mess for a little while, just awful ugly burns. I really had to adapt to that.
@johnlehet Ooh, I wonder if you can add a smoke catcher to a Hearthstone. We already have to wear gloves with the Hearthstone, so we're set there. ;)
@MFennVT It’s like a flexible flap. I can push past it with a log, but it seems to be there to keep the smoke at the top of the firebox in.
@johnlehet Huh. Interesting.