An Alternative Heat Source for Your Home

Okay, so heating costs are way up this winter AGAIN! We knew it was coming but some of us are still in a bind trying to keep warm in our homes.

There are many good alternative methods to warm your home available. We use a wood stove in our living room to augment our propane furnace. Believe me, any time we can cut down on propane we do. The wood stove certainly helps.

I have thought about adding some other alternatives. If I were to build again I would want to have one of the systems that put the fire box outside the home. Just the hot air or hot water is moved into the home. Some of these systems say that you can burn anything in them (hay bales, railroad ties, etc.) Others boast the ability to store heat so that a fire is required only every other day or so.

Last month we became aware of another alternative means of warming a home while visiting the home of some dear friends. Their youngest son had become engaged to marry a lovely young lady at age 31. It was cause for great celebration!

The celebration took place on a cloudy afternoon when the outside temperature was in the low forties. A brisk wind made it feel much cooler. There was no fire in the big wood stove and the ground-source heat pump was not operating.

At one point in the afternoon, our hostess asked her husband to open some of the windows as it was getting too warm. Since she is in her late fifties, some others teased that only she felt too warm. The fact is the house was getting quite warm. This home was being heated very effectively with an alternative source of heat.

My wife and I were two of probably seventy people who had come to commemorate the occasion. Most of the folks gathered there had known either the young man or young lady for years. We had known his parents for years before he was born, attending church with them for nearly two decades. We had shared many life experiences, some precious and some difficult, with them. We and so many of the others there were like family to our host family and to each other.

You see the alternative heat source that we were all benefiting from on that blustery afternoon was the crowd of people who had gathered to celebrate with, to share with, and to encourage one another.

I recommend you give it a try at your home. One day soon, when the weatherman says it’s going to be cold, dreary, and blustery invite over several friends. Keep the food simple, the conversation lively, and the thermostat turned down. Be warmed!