[bottoj]

Originally Posted by jnm988

I'm totally screwed. I have no choice but to buy oil. Its going to cost me $1300 to start

A little body heat goes a long way

[jnm988]

Originally Posted by bottoj

A little body heat goes a long way

LOL. Its no joke dude... My roommate and I may end up putting the heat on 60 and sleeping together for warmth. I looked at those silly electric fireplaces, but they don't put out enough heat to make it worth it. I wish I didn't have vaulted ceilings.

[bottoj]

Originally Posted by jnm988

LOL. Its no joke dude... My roommate and I may end up putting the heat on 60 and sleeping together for warmth. I looked at those silly electric fireplaces, but they don't put out enough heat to make it worth it. I wish I didn't have vaulted ceilings.

Is your roommate female?

If so, an extra body could never hurt.

If not, what the hell, you can stay in the middle.

[jnm988]

Originally Posted by bottoj

Is your roommate female?

If so, an extra body could never hurt.

If not, what the hell, you can stay in the middle.

I just KNOW I'm going to get in trouble for that...

[bottoj]

Originally Posted by jnm988

I just KNOW I'm going to get in trouble for that...

How so?

Oh, yeah, I forgot, I am God's gift to woman, you cannot resist.

[/threadjack]

[RandyO]

Originally Posted by Honclfibr

PSNH is charging right around 15 cents a kwh for electricity right now.
One KWH = 3413 BTU.
One gallon of heating oil = 140,000 BTU

140,000 / 3413 * .15 = $6.15

We're paying the equivalent of $6.15 a gallon for our electric heat.

you should consider changing from a residential service to a general service

I only pay 15¢/kw for the first 500, then my rate drops to around 11¢, but there is a demand surcharge, if you can limit your demand to 5kw/hr there is no surcharge

[R7]

Originally Posted by nt650hawk

I'll burn about 3 chords of wood.

I completely disassembled my 1978 Vermont Casting Resolute and re-sealed it. It was at the point that I would shut all the dampers and it would burn at 800-900 degrees. Ouch. Now I can control it to a nice 500-600 for 4-5 hours.

I am in a wood deficit. I'm heading to the cabin in NH this weekend to haul out some dead wood. Anyone need a downed tree or anything removed. Preferably close to Boston and points south. I NEED WOOD.

I know some people don't like to burn it but I've got a few downed pine trees and still a good cord of pine all cut up you can have. I was burning pine in my woodstove towards the end of March and into April. If you're burning at 500-600 degrees, you will never have a build up problem burning pine.

I've also cut up some of the downed trees that have been down for several years, usually some rot at the base section and all the tops/branches have rotted away, but somehow there is a solid core of wood under the mess that burns VERY hot. I've got unlimited amounts of that kinda stuff, cut it up and get it out of the woods and it's free for the taking

[GNTurbo6]

I'll have to fire up the wood stove this year. I really wish I had a wood stove in the garage so I could work on the car or bike in the winter.

[beet]

They cut down a beech grove in back of my house. I made a shit load of cash off. Week ends & after work I cut it & tractored It up split .

You can heat your house off wood on the side of the road. My brother inlaw does you just need to take the time.

[sandman]

if you have to buy your wood it's cheaper and easier to heat with coal.

if your wood is free and you have a lot of free time.
you should sell your split wood and buy coal with it.

for the past ten years iv'e felled, limbed, cut and split 6-8 cords a year.

from a log pile i can cut and split a cord in about an hour.

i put in a coal boiler last year. i'm hoping this cuts down on the amount of wood i need to process and make it so the only time i burn oil is from june -august to make hot water.

with the coal boiler i have to put coal in it and take the ash out every three days.

with the coal stove i fill it once a day and empty the ash every two days.

with wood i fill it every 6-8 hrs depending on how cold out it is.

right now per btu coal is the cheapest thing you can heat with other than free wood.

[beet]

The price of coal will be moving up you can bet your ass Coal prices may triple as supply crisis deepens | Energy Bulletin

[Nikon]

Originally Posted by R7

By the math numbers, I can fit a little more than 4 cord under the roof. I'm guessing I have just over 3 cord stacked now. 4 cord "should" heat my house for the winter.

So you're planning on burning about 10 cord? That's a lot of fucken wood

yup

[RandyO]

Originally Posted by sandman

if you have to buy your wood it's cheaper and easier to heat with coal.

I have to disagree

mostly cause of the hazardous ash that coal produces, wood ash is ok yo put in a garden.. coal ash turns the groundwater into sulfuric acid

[Fitz]

Our boiler died about a month ago.. so we upgraded. That'll be an ROI of about 2 years if the efficiency numbers plan out. Last year we kept the house warm since our son was only 4 months old in December and liked to kick the covers off. This year all bets are off - 55 degrees at night. I'v ealready started ripping and tearing at the walls and installing new insulation. I'd like to do enough solar panels to get us off the grid ($1,200 per year) but we'll see. For now I locked in at $3.89 a gallon for oil.

Fitz

[sandman]

Originally Posted by beet

The price of coal will be moving up you can bet your ass Coal prices may triple as supply crisis deepens | Energy Bulletin

the price increase comes from the increase in the cost to transport it.

one of the nice things about coal is it will never go bad and you can keep it just about anywhere

[sandman]

Originally Posted by RandyO

I have to disagree

mostly cause of the hazardous ash that coal produces, wood ash is ok yo put in a garden.. coal ash turns the groundwater into sulfuric acid

while i wont be putting any ash in my garden, i doubt what little i burn will do anything to the ground water

[sandman]

Originally Posted by Fitz

Our boiler died about a month ago.. so we upgraded. That'll be an ROI of about 2 years if the efficiency numbers plan out. Last year we kept the house warm since our son was only 4 months old in December and liked to kick the covers off. This year all bets are off - 55 degrees at night. I'v ealready started ripping and tearing at the walls and installing new insulation. I'd like to do enough solar panels to get us off the grid ($1,200 per year) but we'll see. For now I locked in at $3.89 a gallon for oil.

Fitz

how many kwh's per month do you use?

if it's around 250 or so plan on spending around 25k to get off the grid.

[rmbbikes]

So what are the specs for installing a wood stove? Can I use my exsisting chimney? How much space is needed around the sotve? Do I need to install fire resistant material around the stove? I have a friend that has a wood stove that he will give me that was used to heat his 1500sq foot house. Mine is 1000. I don't know the details yet but it's got it's own flue out the basement now.

we had one when I was a kid but don't know shit about installing one. I don't want to burn the place down. I remember having the fire dept out to inspect so the old man could get it on the insurace.

HELP!!!

KB

[Stoneman]

Originally Posted by rmbbikes

So what are the specs for installing a wood stove? Can I use my exsisting chimney? How much space is needed around the sotve? Do I need to install fire resistant material around the stove? I have a friend that has a wood stove that he will give me that was used to heat his 1500sq foot house. Mine is 1000. I don't know the details yet but it's got it's own flue out the basement now.

we had one when I was a kid but don't know shit about installing one. I don't want to burn the place down. I remember having the fire dept out to inspect so the old man could get it on the insurace.

HELP!!!

KB

You'll hafta get your existing chimney lined. Plan on $500-$1000 for that. You'd also be wise to have a brick surround hearth & pad installed. Plan on another $1000-$1500 for that. If you go the surround path, clearances won't be an issue. If you're putting it in your basement, you won't need the hearth & pad though. You'll most likely need to cut some decent sized registers in your floors, which is no big deal. You'll wanna get ceiling fans on every floor too...

I'm no expert, but I'm fairly well schooled on the subject. There's far too much to get into here. I could stop by sometime, take a look and give you an opinion...

[Stoneman]

We heated with coal for a coupla years when I was a kid. Remember the embargo? Messiest shit I can remember ever using. While the heat output was enormous, it was a nightmare to clean & load. Never, NEVER again...

[mikeb]

i heated with coal for a winter in my old house. fly ash sucks, friggen mess! heated well though.... less upkeep that a wood stove. my stove was 20 years old so you had to shake it down twice a day atleast. once you lite a coal fire it burns and burns just add coal once in awhile.

[jnm988]

I'm trying to figure out if I have any alternatives to oil, but its looking like I don't. We have no chimney and its a condex, so putting one in isn't an option. We've looked at electric, but as expensive as electricity is in NH, that's actually more expensive. This whole thing just sucks. Perhaps I should quit my job and have a bastard, then the state would pay for my oil.

[sandman]

Originally Posted by Stoneman

We heated with coal for a coupla years when I was a kid. Remember the embargo? Messiest shit I can remember ever using. While the heat output was enormous, it was a nightmare to clean & load. Never, NEVER again...

most of this comes from not spending enough time getting dialed in.

like just about everything there's a few great sights with a lot of info.

Anthracite Coal Forum

most of the coal i'm burning is rice in a stoker boiler.

as too the ash it can suck, if you do anything other than carry it out of the house and dump it.

iv'e got several containers with covers, so no ash problems for me.

the best part is the even, long and adjustable heat output

[sandman]

Originally Posted by jnm988

I'm trying to figure out if I have any alternatives to oil, but its looking like I don't. We have no chimney and its a condex, so putting one in isn't an option. We've looked at electric, but as expensive as electricity is in NH, that's actually more expensive. This whole thing just sucks. Perhaps I should quit my job and have a bastard, then the state would pay for my oil.

you can power vent a stoker stove. no chimney needed

Anthracite Coal Forum

[Stoneman]

Originally Posted by sandman

you can power vent a stoker stove. no chimney needed

Anthracite Coal Forum

Her being in a condo, ANYTHING that shows on the outside of the building COULD be a pain in the ass to get approved by the condo assoc...