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[Jwood]

So I'm trying to figure out the heat load on my house, maybe Slim can help!
Ok so the house is 2500sq ft two story walk out with 1 basement wall buried maybe 3-4 feet into a hill the rest slopes down to the walkout, upstairs is forced air and the basement is all radiant in floor. The house is layed out 30x40 with a small 10x10 mud room addition. So far I tried to use a free heat load calculator online and came up with around 55,000 btu per hour, how accurate that is I have no idea and and how much insulation in!the ceiling is a mystery. I also want to heat a 30x30 two car garage domestic hot water , and in the near future a hot tub. Now it gets very cold here talking many nights of -20 to -30. Any recommendations on what BL model I would need?

[Jwood]

Can you help point me in the right direction Slimjim?

[slimjim]

Sorry Jwood I just saw this one, the small B-L would do your home easily, we would rather you run them than not have enough load on it, what do you have now for heat and what quantity of fuel do you use, this will give us a pretty accurate number of your BTU requirements.

[Jwood]

Slim we just bought the house last Sept. this was our first winter in the new house so my fuel amounts are based off of since we've moved in. There was 30 percent in the old propane tank,  we used that right away ordered propane from a different vendor due to price shopping used 500 gallons in 2 months roughly. Now here is my favorite part, basement radiant heat is heated using the old water heater trick, not efficient and not to code around here so I didn't heat the basement this winter so that stayed at 40-45 degrees. It's cold up here in MN and I'm done with going to gas company and having them tell me to use electric heaters cause their propane went up to 5.59 also want to heat the garage and leave it at 65-70 degrees

[Jwood]

I forgot to mention the furnace is a Heil 90+ efficient 75,000 btu

[slimjim]

WOW, are you fairly certain about the gallons and time frames? did you close the windows, seriously, that's a lot of heat, where the the heck is it going.

[Sloppy_Snood]

WOW, are you fairly certain about the gallons and time frames? did you close the windows, seriously, that's a lot of heat, where the the heck is it going.

My guess is a chminey and floor joist end caps.    Sure does seem like a bit high on usage.

[Jwood]

Yes I'm still sitting at 20% in the tank but that is only due to running space heaters so I didn't have to fill up at 5.59! Can't win with space heaters either because out electric went from under 100 up to $300 I think the house is fairly well insulated we just had so many days of -15 highs and -20 to -30 lows, I'm talking probably over 30 days like that. Oh and the house located in a pretty open area lots of wind, I don't have a chimney either.

[Sloppy_Snood]

Nope.... you just have what we call in Indiana "damm cold!"   

[Jwood]

Haha exactly sloppy! My brother in law has an indoor wood boiler outside in a shed, his only for of heat, and he's well over 10 cord probably closer to 12 and his neighbor has an outdoor boiler(not sure what brand) he had 2 semi loads burned up at least a month ago from what I've heard. I guess that's why I want to make sure I don't go to small on the boiler and I will be building another garage/shop, nothing huge but maybe 36x40.

[slimjim]

I still think something is off on the load, if what you say is true then upsize to the bigger unit and get that garage on line as soon as you can to get the load on it.

[Jwood]

I just did some quick load calculator off my phone probably definatly off but ya the garage would be hooked up when the house is so your thinking the 34-44?

[slimjim]

yes, driving, can,t talk

[TheBoiler]

When it was cold was your Furnace running all the time?

The Garage could take a lot of heat by itself, is it well insulated.

[Jwood]

New place to us garage in unfinished inside so I will be insulting in the next few weeks 2x4 constructed garage so of course walls are limited. As far as the furnace goes it ran for quite a long time and probably shut off for 5-10 mins at a time between calling for heat.