Heating Budget

[LouNY]

Well lets see I still have a nice double walled buried 1000 gallon oil tank,
as well as a few above ground tanks. I will have to get my last delivery for the year soon,
another 3-400 gallons. I use oil for my primary heat through a boiler which is also
my hot water through a boiler mate.
My auxiliary heat source is an insert in my fireplace for COAL, yep the dirty old American product
from PA. Between 3 to 5 tons a year of coal.
I looked at wood and outside boilers a great many years ago. If I had gone that route
I would be on at least my 3rd unit and I would be cutting 5-8 cords of wood a year.
While wood is "free" to me my time and the equipment is not. And the last few years with health issues
and surgeries and such it would have been difficult to impossible to cut wood and maintain that system
I am certainly glad I did not put in a wood burning system, I do wish that I had put in a coal boiler.
Oh, and for just general info when I grew up we were heating with wood, great big ol central furnaces in the basements
of my folks house and my grandfathers house. About 15-20 cords per year, cut in the winter and skidded out,
stacked in the wood yard, till time available between crops and the buzz saw set up on the tractor and that wood cut into furnace and stove wood lengths, then split and stacked in the basements and wood sheds, then all the kindling split for the stoves and wood carried in daily,
then ashes hauled out of the basements and stoves frequently.
Hell no I don't have any desire to burn wood even "free" wood.

 

[3930dave]

Oh, and for just general info when I grew up we were heating with wood, great big ol central furnaces in the basements
of my folks house and my grandfathers house. About 15-20 cords per year, cut in the winter and skidded out,
stacked in the wood yard, till time available between crops and the buzz saw set up on the tractor and that wood cut into furnace and stove wood lengths, then split and stacked in the basements and wood sheds, then all the kindling split for the stoves and wood carried in daily,
then ashes hauled out of the basements and stoves frequently.
Hell no I don't have any desire to burn wood even "free" wood.

That ^ describes my paternal grandparents farm, when I was a kid. When my last Uncle living there moved off the farm to the new bungalow he had built, I asked him if he was putting in wood heat.

Same answer as you "Not only No, but _____ NO ! Been hauling wood and ashes all my life, had enough" Do that much all the time.... Gets Old fast enough....

Your oil system serves you well (my sister has something similar), and you have an alternate source too.... always nice to have.

Might have been the first Winter in the new place, or maybe the second, same Uncle did laugh about No Wood later...... Ice Storm of '98 took down the grid, for something like 10 days.

Coal... I recently posted elsewhere... UK brought back a bit of coal-fired elec generation, as Natgas has spiked high there lately..... Increased Costs aren't that attractive, unless you can kick them down the road to somebody else......

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

This is too good to only see here once.

DzlBound brought up the topic, so I'll credit him .

Rgds, D.

 

[DieselBound]

This is too good to only see here once.

One of the first things that I'd mentioned to my wife when we first met was how lucky we were. I understood what things were like around the world. She grew up exceedingly poor, in the Philippines: she'd started a new life in Canada when I found her. I was a bit more fotunate, though my grandmother was once drug through a field over a barbwire fence by a team of plow horses: no silver spoons in our family tree.

I'm a big believer in folks traveling a bit to see that there's a big world: and no, not as a tourist!

Best book title: Want What You Have.

 

[DieselBound]

Heating with wood has helped save me money. Yeah, it's work, but here in the PNW I don't require as much wood as many others do. Hoping that money "saved" can go toward a more efficient home. I know that my trees will be out there in the future. No idea about any other fuel source in the future: yeah, there are concerns with firewood being banned; any such bans, however, won't last indefinitely (I'll spare everyone my dissertation on why I believe/expect this).

One of the bigger firewood headaches for me was all the stacking, having to handle the wood so much. I drastically improved on this with the introduction of wire crates. I now haul out crates to the field, cut and split wood and place in crates (and haul back) and never touch the wood again until I'm pulling it out for stoking the stove. Of course, this requires gasoline for the chainsaws and splitter, and for diesel for the tractor.

It's all about what's manageable.

 

[3930dave]

One of the first things that I'd mentioned to my wife when we first met was how lucky we were. I understood what things were like around the world. She grew up exceedingly poor, in the Philippines: she'd started a new life in Canada when I found her. I was a bit more fotunate, though my grandmother was once drug through a field over a barbwire fence by a team of plow horses: no silver spoons in our family tree.

I'm a big believer in folks traveling a bit to see that there's a big world: and no, not as a tourist!

Best book title: Want What You Have.

By Timothy Miller ?

Thanks for mentioning that, I'll check it out.

Rgds, D.

 

[DieselBound]

Dave, it is/was a small, side-table book. I don't recall anything between the covers. The title was sufficient in itself! Likely around somewhere, buried...

I've got a 21 year-old car that I "love" (as much as someone can love an inanimate object!). It does everything I need such that I have no interest in anything thing else: I keep it out of the landfill and it keeps me out of the poor house!

 

[3930dave]

Dave, it is/was a small, side-table book. I don't recall anything between the covers. The title was sufficient in itself! Likely around somewhere, buried...

I've got a 21 year-old car that I "love" (as much as someone can love an inanimate object!). It does everything I need such that I have no interest in anything thing else: I keep it out of the landfill and it keeps me out of the poor house!

Didn't get a direct hit on the title, but this one looked on-point:

How to Want What You Have: Discovering the Magic and Grandeur of Ordinary Existence: Miller, Timothy: 9780805033175: Books - Amazon.ca

Like exercise, one of the comments about it being irritating (therefore, of value) caught my eye....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Heating with wood has helped save me money. Yeah, it's work, but here in the PNW I don't require as much wood as many others do. Hoping that money "saved" can go toward a more efficient home. I know that my trees will be out there in the future. No idea about any other fuel source in the future: yeah, there are concerns with firewood being banned; any such bans, however, won't last indefinitely (I'll spare everyone my dissertation on why I believe/expect this).

One of the bigger firewood headaches for me was all the stacking, having to handle the wood so much. I drastically improved on this with the introduction of wire crates. I now haul out crates to the field, cut and split wood and place in crates (and haul back) and never touch the wood again until I'm pulling it out for stoking the stove. Of course, this requires gasoline for the chainsaws and splitter, and for diesel for the tractor.

It's all about what's manageable.

Wire-cages..... Having stacked wood, I like that approach. A lot.

Just do Us All a favour...... don't start a Wire-Cages in Fields thread on TBN, whatever you do !

Rgds, D.

 

[DieselBound]

Maybe not the same book but it sounds great (probably a better read)!

I've taught myself to accept things that I DO and that it's OK to NOT like something of what it is that one is doing, but that its good to step back and see the larger picture which almost always shows that it's all about context, context that you assumed self-responsibility for. Feeding my dog can sometimes be a grumbling experience, yet, I do it because all else about the dog and its existence in my life is a net positive. Not meaning to make it so so pedantic, but sometimes flowery stuff distracts from the core...

 

[DieselBound]

Wire-cages..... Having stacked wood, I like that approach. A lot.

Just do Us All a favour...... don't start a Wire-Cages in Fields thread on TBN, whatever you do !

Rgds, D.

This crate has been domesticated (no threat)! No violation as it's not in the field!

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[coobie]

We used to burn wood pellets for 12-15 years price was $99 per ton now the last few years $250 a ton.Propane in the last 2-4 years got down to 85 cents per gal(good choice at the time).in this part of the country now $2.09 per gal..Getting older not wanting to handle the 50 lbs bags of pellets we sold the wood pellet stove and went with a free standing 50,000 BTU propane stove for most of our heating needs.We have two 500 gal tanks that takes us most of the winter months.Might go back to wood pellets as a option.

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[Patrick Herd]

There are some really nice auger loading systems for wood pellets available in Europe. Literally dumped in with a truck, unload ash and heat at the other end.

Also +1 for keeping firewood in IBC cages, two winters here using the same method. All our friends are starting to see the merit of the idea too.

 

[3930dave]

We used to burn wood pellets for 12-15 years ago price was $99 per ton now the last few years $250 a ton.Propane in the last 2-4 years got down to 85 cents per gal(good choice at the time).in this part of the country now $2.09 per gal..Getting older not wanting to handle the 50 lbs bags of pellets we sold the wood pellet stove and went with a free standing 50,000 BTU propane stove for most of our heating needs.We have two 500 gal tanks that takes us most of the winter months.Might go back to wood pellets...

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Options.... nice to have options onsite.

Allows you to play the best pricing, and gives you some protection from specific shortages and equipment faults.

Rgds, D.

 

[Rustyiron]

100% firewood here, actually that is when the shop gets cold enough to run our indoor wood gasification boiler for the radiant heat that's in both the house and shop. A few years ago (for the shoulder seasons) we put in a ductless mini split heat pump and couldn't be happier with its performance heating and cooling and our electric bill is usually under $100 a month year round.
I stack right off the splitter into wood racks that hold about 90 c/f each, and like dieselbound it's basically only handled twice. All of this year's wood was cut well over a year ago and next year's (and probably part of the year after) is also in the racks. This winter I'll be c/s/s wood again for 24/25 season.
It's a source of great satisfaction for me and in December when we usually fire up the boiler for the season, another satisfying aspect is our hot water. That's from the boiler also and all the laundry is done with HOT water, wash and rinse. Normally 80* in the house in the summer is miserable to me, but in the winter, 80+* house, watching it snow, priceless

 

[3930dave]

There are some really nice auger loading systems for wood pellets available in Europe. Literally dumped in with a truck, unload ash and heat at the other end.

I've seen videos of some really slick Euro outdoor boilers, along those lines.

A while back (5+ years) I spent a bit of time looking at domestic sourced boilers. At the time, one of the best offerings I came across was from these guys out West here:

Portage & Main Outdoor Boilers - Ultimizer wood, coal models, auto-feed coal/pellet burners, automated wood chip burning systems , EPA approved gasification boilers

Noticed today, they now have a coal option too.....

Put simply, what I liked about their offering was really solid mechanical and thermal engineering, w/o a lot of what I'd call "bling".... just the way I like my major (or minor, for that matter) products.

Haven't bought one yet, but an electrician who used to get his truck serviced at my buddy's shop heard me talking about them, and checked them out. He built his retirement home in Northern Ontario and put in one of the P+M boilers - and really liked it.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

100% firewood here, actually that is when the shop gets cold enough to run our indoor wood gasification boiler for the radiant heat that's in both the house and shop.

That all sounds like a great setup Rusty .

Nothing like having a house full of kids/teens for going through hot water, but even with just a couple of adults, domestic hot water takes a fair # of btu's.

Rgds, D.

 

[Rustyiron]

I saw a pretty slick P&M boiler that burned green chips, the stuff the loggers make for biomass or pulp. It had a storage bin and auger (think grain bin) that fed the boiler. It's not as "domesticated" as 50# bags of pellets and it would seem to require a loader and a chip storage shed, but possibly only a weekly filling of the bin .
Maybe they have it figured out, but I'm pretty certain that a bunch of heat energy is lost pushing the water out of the green chips before it burns.
P&M has been at it a while and it looks like good stuff.

 

[zzvyb6]

Since dead people started to vote, the price of cold went down. Also you can burn all those extra mail-in votes if you need heat. Mail carrier brought us over 20 apiece last year. Called "Sample Ballots", they all apparently worked just fine.

 

[Rustyiron]

Since dead people started to vote, the price of cold went down.

You meant up right ?