User:Jabbott/New Construction
From Cornburning
Test of a sandbox subpage? Or, at the very least a subpage.
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New construction
You should design in maximum efficiency up front. Shoot for EPA EnergyStar 5+ rating; you should need the equivalent of at most 400 CCF natural gas to heat 2700 ft2 in your climate, probably less. (Several 3100 ft2 ICF (insulated concrete forms) near me use 350-375 CCF/yr and my own 3800ft stick built house (2X6 with extra rigid foam) uses about 500 CCF/yr for heating, water heating, cooking, and clothes drying).
Check that your mortgage lender is OK with a corn boiler as the sole source of heat. Some lenders get nervous about anything that is not on their standard list.
Best Option
Radient Floor Heat
Consider using solar thermal to supply your radiant system. It would cut back your boiler requirements. Sometimes there are decent financial incentives at the state level for systems like this. There is a federal tax credit for 2006/2007 of up to $2K for residential solar hot water systems (and other systems as well).
Outdoor Corn Boiler
Advantages
The major advantage of an outdoor boiler system is that all the mess, dirt and dust of a biomass burning system is outside of the house.
Disadvantages
You have to go outside to service the outdoor corn boiler. You have to check the fire in it every day. You have to clean it server times during the heating season. To do all this stuff, you have to go outside.
