Last week during the polar vortex that kept us here in south central Indiana below 0°F for over 24 hours and below freezing until maybe later today, we realized that our heat pump wasn’t producing much heat. Wood is our primary heat source but one part of the house get’s chillier than we like so in really cold weather we use the heat pump too. So later today or tomorrow, or … we will be having a service call to figure out what is going on with our 7 year old heat pump. I hope that it will be some minor problem. Keep your fingers crossed for us.
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Please let us know the outcome! We have 5-year old Mitsubishi mini-splits in our home. We use oil heat primarily during the winter and really only use the mini-splits during the summer. Our electricity rates are so expensive that oil heat is less for us then running the mini-splits during the cold weather. We just added a new one this past spring in an area of the house that was formerly heated with a propane stove (which after 25 years kicked the bucket) so we do use the mini-split for heat in that room. We’re still trying to get used to regulating the heat from it.
'38Packard
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You may do better with this under the building/maintaining a home board, where it would be on topic: Building / Maintaining a Home - Motley Fool Community
With the lower level bedroom used, we were cranking the woodstove this week. Good thing we had it with our gas heat condensation drain freezing and shutting off the heater as it is designed to do. We have dual heating systems, with a heat pump that switches over to gas at 40F, but temps were in the single digits here.
I love the woodstove for the radiant floor heat it provides, as well as the exercise provided in splitting the wood, and the consolation that the trees we are cutting down to improve our view are not wasted in some landfill. Don’t know that I would buy wood for it.
IP
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We’ve used wood primarily for over 40 years. I will keep cutting, splitting, and stacking it as long as I can. It is great exercise out in our woods. I try to limit it to spring, fall, and some in winter. The bugs and heat of summer make the work unpleasant.
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I agree. We do much of our own work, shrugging off the guys trying to get our business or even just help out, telling them if we stop doing for ourselves, it leads to no longer being able to do for ourselves, not to mention making a gym membership unnecessary!
IP
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I also love woodstove heat. DH installed ductwork and a distribution fan over the stove to distribute the heated air around our small ranch house. We have electric heat but our main heat source is the wood stove.
I have bought wood for the past 3 years since DH stopped bringing in trees. But the tree that was uprooted by the windstorm (and crashed through the back of our garage) will provide plenty of wood. DH will split it…or I will hire someone. I don’t split wood.
Wendy
I split the most wood during our kids’ teen years. Was a great way to vent the desire to hit something!
IP
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Until the arthritis in my hands began to strenuously object, I split our wood with a maul and wedges. 5 or 6 years ago I got a hydraulic splitter, and every time I use it I kick myself for not getting one years ago.
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What make did you get?
I am trying to talk DH into buying one. He hates change of any kind.
Wendy
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@WendyBG - That’s great for your marriage!!! 
'38Packard
=> Loves change - but not when it comes to DW!
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I bought a Dirty Hand Tools splitter at Lowes. Unfortunately the company, DHT, went belly up early during the pandemic. Fortunately all the parts are off the shelf. There is a lot of vibration in this beast. Nuts and bolts need to be checked and tightened. Hoses and clamps need to be checked. Engine and hydraulic oil need to be routinely checked and topped off. Filters need to be cleaned or replaced. It is both the most complicated piece of machinery I have and, so far, the simplest to work on.
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How right you are, @38Packard ! DH hated to change his familiar old chair, computer, ripped up old curtains, etc. and strenuously objected when I replaced them with high-quality new items. Fortunately, I expect he would strenuously object to replacing the familiar old wife who has fed him for 35 years. 
Wendy
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I have just over 1300 sq ft of condo. I put in 13 inch of blown in insulation three years ago just before the pandemic. There was a 6 inch bat of insulation already in the attic. Now I have 19 inches or in other words an R61, a total block.
The problem is I have sloping ceilings in the living room/dining room and master bedroom. I have electric heat in the ceiling. The condo is 1968 construction where no one cared about energy costs. In fact it is in New England but the architect was from California and had no clue about NE winters.
The flat ceilings with insulation over them are in the spare bedroom and the kitchen/hallway. I use the zone heat in them to even the heat out and take out some of the draftiness.
Must add the sloping ceilings have heat in them that drifts up and out easily if I turn on those zones. In every zone the heating coils are in the ceiling. Really in the attic on top of the ceilings.
In the master bedroom and living room I am using two space heaters because they heat the air more efficiently.
In the last three years I keep the heat at just over 70 F…perhaps 72 F in the flat ceiling zones. Prior I was keeping the heat at 63 F to save money. The insulation has made the cost of 70 F plus the same as 63 F with limited insulation.
I just turned up the space heaters to 1500 W from 750 W. The cold outside demands it. My bill will be about $650 in January.
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I suspect I might be hankering for the woodburning stove I left behind back East. After a few days of milder temperatures, the weather forecast called for rain and snow showers yesterday evening. Well by the time we went to bed we already had about 3 inches of wet snow per pictures. Just got up (2am) to let the dog out and we have another 2 or 3 and no power.
There’ll be a few downed limbs tomorrow, I bet.
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Still no power but some lucky folk escaped apparently. Oh for a news station that over hyped this snowfall…
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The photos are beautiful! Thanks for posting them.
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Not for nuthin’ but I ran our last house mostly on a wood stove in the basement one year, and it significantly degraded the air quality around the house. It was an experiment, and I did not repeat it except when the power went out (all electric neighborhood) and there was no other way to heat the house.
After the fact I googled whether a wood stove does degrade the air quality and found that it does; I noticed it because I am on the verge of COPD (not quite there yet) and notice any change in particulate matter in the air. Mrs. Goofy is not so vulnerable, but even she remarked on a couple of occasions that her breathing was strained.
It wasn’t just inside the house. Even if all the particulate smoke goes up the chimney, it remains around the exterior until some good healthy winds blow it elsewhere; it did not help that the house was shielded by trees on all four sides.
In our current house we have two propane fireplaces and a propane stove, so in the event of power failures (same neighborhood) we rely on that instead.
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Stunning pics, but my condolences on the outage.
I hope you don’t mind a personal question for your daughter. Was wondering what tends to be an appreciated token of appreciation to a vets office, for many years of taking care of a fur baby. Sorry for the OT, but you are the best person I know to ask.
IP
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Thanks for the reminder: when buying a home pay more attention to the construction and utilities than to cosmetics (e.g. the countertops in the kitchen).
Yikes!
Wendy
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@VeeEnn where are you located?
Wendy