Actually, the install was fairly easy. The furnace company just installed a plate in one of the basement windows for the air intake and heat ducts, and then I ran additional ducting to the middle of the house ductwork, with a diverter to bleed some of the heat into the basement and garage....and take the air from the basement as intake. That way, 80% of the heat goes upstairs, and 20% down...on a single digit temperature day, I can keep the upstairs in the low 70's., the basement in the mid 60's, and the garage in the mid 50's. The furnace uses a 110v blower at about 1800CFM, so its kind of like having baseboard heat....with just a gentle flow of heat coming out of the registers. It takes awhile to heat up the house from a cold start, but once the furnace has been going for 4 or 5 hours, the heat is great. And, like you say, it is handy if we lose power...which doesn't happen very often...but the 6500 watt generator has plenty of power to run the furnace, lights, TV, and the Well pump. About the only thing we lose in a power outage is the stove, hot water heater, and washer/dryer....but our worst outage in over 13 years has been 5 hours....no big deal. At the rate I am harvesting the forest, I figure I'll run out of firewood in about 135 years. About the only time the electric furnace kicks in is if we leave for a couple of days, and set the thermostat on 65. On a really cold night, the main furnace may kick in about 5AM until I finally get out of bed and go out to put more wood in. From an environmental standpoint, it does generate a little smoke....but probably less pollution than the electricity that would be generated at a coal fired plant. So...it's a win/win deal all around, and saves us a fair amount of money every year.
