This Old House, this man's hell. Water Stove issues.

WARRIORWELDING

WARRIORWELDING

Owner opperator Of WarriorWelding LLC.
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Location
Chillin, Hwy 64 Mocksville NC
Welcome to TOH. If it's not one damn thing it's another..

May I present Medusa.
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She's a big noisy aggravating dollar eating whore.
 
She's old worn and a jig saw assortment of additions.
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Behind the oil furnace is a air handler.
Behind the air handler is a water exchanger for the solar/water stove.
In front of the furnace is the air conditioning unit.
Water. Oil, Air. Lovely.
 
Now that's just the vitals she extends her reach through numourous passage ways. All narrow, crooked and painful to access.

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So here is the skinny. House is old big and drafty. Original foot print 1890. Has 8 different chimneys and none are useable.

Water stove is 20 plus years old. No one has ever kept chemicals in it so it sprang a leak in the box. Already fixed the in-laws this last year. Same problem same owners, duh! Now the system over here is even older. All the plumbing is subject. Box is most likely shot, as in rebuild entire stove. Leading to plumbing overhaul throughout.

The air conditioner is also about the same vintage. Also gets a yearly tune up. In other words they keep patching at it too.

And last this here furnace is being irregular. Main control went last year.....replaced with....you guessed it something laying around. It's current tantrum has me, purplexed. It will cycle 5 Times maybe 8 but sometime another kicks out. Has a rumbly start and both motor and main control trips. Most concerning is some oil coming out from unburnt deposits. I've baby sat this thing for hours and she want kick out for me.

I do know the tank is buried and not a strainer or antisiphon to be found. Gravity drain. Strainer, nozzle, and points are going to get cleaned next. Furnace is by far the oldest piece.
 
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The entirety of the house is a result of three or more generations patching and adding too. All with the least expenditure possible.
The whole house has 30 plus hand made jacks supporting the floors. The interior of the conditioned living space is actually quite nice.
However me and the wife agreed no amount of money will make it right for us.
Literally the old front porch is now our only restroom and living room. Its so arbitrarily arranged we can't have more than 3 or 4 guest without over crowding. A large portion of the house still isn't heated or cooled.

So we intend to build......luckily for me a shop comes first.

BUT WE HAVE MEDUSA.
 
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So, we still need heat. Will definitely need air. Projected build for our home......estimated 10 years. Realisticly maybe 15.

So what in the hell do I do with this big ugly monster.....
Does anybody have a cleaner simpler solution?
Keep in mind a heat pump will spin for ever and not keep up. When the water stove is right one load in the unit a night keeps us toasty.

Would a gas pack be better? Conditioned air and heat back up?

As a note we intend to possibly restore this Old girl back to here 1890 luster. Meaning all modernist updates and additions removed.

So anything added would be great for the new house or shop.
 
Waaaay out of my area of expertise but here goes.WHat about a outside wood furnace?? My fil has one and its tied into his central air someway.He runs central air in the summer and the wood furnace w the central blower in the winter.
 
I have looked at a wood furnace. Have not ventured or thought of it being external.
I really like the simplicity of those units. I could build one....just that EPA thing nowadays.

If you look close everything under the house is basicly tender. All of the old floor beams are hand hewn stripped pine logs. Several suffured infestation. Everything else is rough cut add ons and bracing of all sorts and efforts.

This is why I haven't considered a direct mount unit in the crawl space basement.
 
A friend of mine is in the logging business.When he poured his garage floor he put plastic pipe in the concrete and ran it to a pump that pumps water in and out of his wood furnace outside.He built his own furnace and just pieced it together w a steam genie pump and new piping.In the middle of winter you can work in his shop w a short sleeve shirt on.He basically heats for free all winter since he has tons of wood and his furnace will hold a 34 inch log.
 
Have you thought about mini-splits...can easily do some zones that way, as you live in or renovate parts of the house.

Do you have the wood source to feed an outside boiler? How about pellets? They have them now with a hopper and screw feed, iirc, will last a couple of days at least.
 
I would think the simplest thing to do is gut it all out. Put a heatpump in it and add an outdoor stove to the system. Basically free heat in the winter and then you have ac in summer

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I also have an oil furnace, but mine is just a backup for the heat pump.

When i was having it serviced this yr, i asked the tech about replacing. He suggested to not go gas unless you have NG service. Propane is too troublesome. I also have a wood stove in the basement. He suggested elec backup and just run the stove during the colder days.

I have researched infloor heating. They make retrofit setups, but it isn't cheap.

None of the systems are going to be easy to move, so i would consider it staying with the house or just scrapping it after. 10+ yrs is a long time to get by with heat and air.
 
You should post a pic or two of your run down old timey shack. Its beautiful. I've always loved that old house, especially the ivey.
 
kaiser715 said:
Have you thought about mini-splits...can easily do some zones that way, as you live in or renovate parts of the house.

Do you have the wood source to feed an outside boiler? How about pellets? They have them now with a hopper and screw feed, iirc, will last a couple of days at least.
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Mini splits I have considered, but the old home is nearly 1800 square on one level. And high ceilings. Would they be economical. I understood they were small space oriented.
Wood, plenty. We burn a bunch every year, except this year was mild to start and then the water stove went to leaking. I have a years supply already split and dry. Renovation is limited to imediate savings on utilities. We wanna build a smaller home for just us.
 
Loganwayne said:
I would think the simplest thing to do is gut it all out. Put a heatpump in it and add an outdoor stove to the system. Basically free heat in the winter and then you have ac in summer

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I think gutting too. Is this sort of stacked on air flowing through several devices common??? I can't see how it's efficient at all.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
I think gutting too. Is this sort of stacked on air flowing through several devices common??? I can't see how it's efficient at all.
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Outdoor stoves are basically outdoor boilers. You but a radiator inside the box for your heatpump. As long as the radiator is hotter then what is needed the heatpump won't turn on but the fan will turn on and circulate the air threw the house. That may not be explained right I'm looking for a picture

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Dylan W. said:
You should post a pic or two of your run down old timey shack. Its beautiful. I've always loved that old house, especially the ivey.
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You and my mother in law must be kin. Trimming that mess 3 times a year is something I could spend my time doing anything else. I have to use the loader and raise it all the way up like a portable scaffold. If it doesn't get trimmed quaint gonna be the little house of horror.
Honest the front used to have a Italian styled front porch grotto with hand laid patio brick.
Same as the path in the side yard that was to the hand dug well.
 
Loganwayne said:
Outdoor stoves are basically outdoor boilers. You but a radiator inside the box for your heatpump. As long as the radiator is hotter then what is needed the heatpump won't turn on but the fan will turn on and circulate the air threw the house. That may not be explained right I'm looking for a picture

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
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I have one of those, it's listed in the broken.....
Water radiator exchanger, oil furnace, then air conditioning condenser. All in one trunk line. With one air handler trying to blow through all that stuff.
 
You could add mini split systems to the part of the house that isn't heated or cooled currently. And if wanted to return to all original later there would only be a couple 2-3" holes to fix in the walls instead of vent holes in the floors or ceilings

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WARRIORWELDING said:
You and my mother in law must be kin. Trimming that mess 3 times a year is something I could spend my time doing anything else. I have to use the loader and raise it all the way up like a portable scaffold. If it doesn't get trimmed quaint gonna be the little house of horror:)
Honest the front used to have a Italian styled front porch grotto with hand laid patio brick.
Same as the path in the side yard that was to the hand dug well.
Click to expand...

Other than privacy..blah blah..you should post a pic. It is a great house.
Well, maybe the heat/air is bad..rooms too big, too many chimneys, etc...:) still, pics worth a thousand words.
 
I can do that. Maybe some of the graveyard too. It's still segregated....

Place does have a lot of history. At one time a post office was ran out of one room. I have an old ledger and the crude desk they used.
 
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Loganwayne said:
You could add mini split systems to the part of the house that isn't heated or cooled currently. And if wanted to return to all original later there would only be a couple 2-3" holes to fix in the walls instead of vent holes in the floors or ceilings

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He, he, I forgot to add the walls are 16 inches thick in those areas. All non fired hand made brick.
 
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