[Grimnir]

Does anyone know of any "alternative heating" strategies for apartment dwellers? Obviously seal up everything that can be sealed, but is there anything like a "portable" wood stove out there with a chimney you just stick out the window?

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grimnir', 'D')oes anyone know of any "alternative heating" strategies for apartment dwellers?

[retiredguy]

I made a failed attempt to find a fireplace insert in 2004. Hearth is too small. In August, I finally decided to go with a small woodstove to be placed in the fireplace entrance. The company will be here on Monday to do the install.

Certainly not cheap, but I have a ready source of wood, years worth, and expect a payback within five years.

[GrizzAdams]

The hardest part of installing a wood furnace, is the building code, I think. I know the code varies from location to location, but if it is anything like mine, then it is like doing hard tax work.

[dooberheim]

I installed mine myself, and I just followed the manufacturers instructions and read the city code. The big deal is clearance to combustible materials (walls, ceilings, roof), and there sometimes the manufacturers directions and the code can be at variance.

If getting official approval for insurance or selling your home is important, follow the code. My house is paid for and I will take the stove when I move, so I followed the manufacturers instructions. I fired the hell out of the stove for several hours last weekend, and checked all the chimney and pipe for leaks and high temperatures repeatedly, and everything was fine, better than code says it should be. I have confidence now that I can build a roaring fire in the thing and go to bed, and the house won't catch fire, and that's all that really counts, right?

Of course it has been so warm that maybe I shouldn't have bothered???

DK

[WisJim]

We have heated with wood, usually with only solar back up, for 30 years or so, and were thinking of buying a new furnace this year. But, with the increased demand for wood-burning furnaces, we may wait until next spring to do it. I hope our old one can make it through the winter. We have central forced air heat (with the wood burning furnace), plus a Jotul 118 space heater that we could use if necessary, and an old wood kitchen range that we usually just use in the winter. It is only about 60 or 70 years old and should last another generation or two.

I remember that when I was a kid my grandfather heated and cooked with wood in Norther Wisconsin, and didn't cut trees for firewood, but used only dead or damaged trees on a 20 acre parcel of land. With a well insulated house, you don't need to add much heat. Our previous home was built from the start to be as energy efficient as possible, and was off grid and super-insulated. We used about a pickup full of wood to heat for a winter. It would stay above 55 degrees in the house if we were gone for a week in January, and it was below zero outside. Body heat took care of most of the heating load when we were home. Good housing design, modest solar gain, and smaller home sizes would do away with most concerns for winter fuel shortages--but of course that is a very long term goal for a nation.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WisJim', 'I') remember that when I was a kid my grandfather heated and cooked with wood in Norther Wisconsin, and didn't cut trees for firewood, but used only dead or damaged trees on a 20 acre parcel of land.

[Ludi]

Oil-filled radiator style space heaters are very safe and fairly efficient, if you're not trying to heat the whole house. But for a small room, they work very well. You'd need to compare electricity to other costs, though.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grimnir', 'D')oes anyone know of any "alternative heating" strategies for apartment dwellers?

[nocar]

Obviously, the smaller space you need to heat to be comfortable, the less heat energy you will need.

Thermal blankets etc are good, if you are not worried about the electric bill. A hot water bottle wrapped in a towel (to prevent burning yourself) is good to, for heating the bed. In a small room, a couple of candles can make a big difference.

[NeoPeasant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grimnir', 'D')oes anyone know of any "alternative heating" strategies for apartment dwellers?

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nocar', 'I')n a small room, a couple of candles can make a big difference.

[retiredguy]

The guys installing my new wood stove told me today that there is a huge run on pellet stoves in this area. One manfacturer has actually stopped taking orders until it can figure out how to meet the surging demand.

[Leanan]

From Ask the ConsumerMan:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]We recently replaced our 35-year-old home furnace with a new 93-percent efficient gas furnace. It cost $1,500 more than the standard furnace but the claims of saving money on our utility bills made the offer attractive. We got quite a shock when the electric bill came – this energy-efficient furnace drove our electric consumption up 20 percent! That more than offset the savings on our gas bill. What’s going on here?

...When I asked the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association (www.gamanet.org) about your situation, I was surprised to learn that the AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) rating used to compare models does not directly factor in electrical usage. According to Chuck Murray at the Washington State University Energy Extension Service (www.energy.wsu.edu) the efficiency of those motors can vary greatly. “A high-efficiency motor might use 300 kw/hr a year,” Murray says, “while a low-efficiency motor could use 1,200 kw/hr a year.” That’s quite a difference.

If it makes you feel any better, your new furnace is probably 40 percent more efficient than the old one you replaced, which means it will burn less gas for the same amount of heat. I think it’s a safe assumption that natural gas prices will keep heading up in the years ahead. Also, your new furnace puts a lot less pollution into the air.

[Merlin]

And, when it breaks, it will cost much more to repair. If your new furnace is like ours, it has a variable-speed, direct current motor that is controlled by a circuit board with on-board computer. If your motor fails, the manufacturer forces the repairman to replace the motor and its controller together at a cost in excess of $850. Who would have thought that the electric fan on a furnace would cost so much?!

[tawnybill]

This is a coppy of my posting under "Energy Technology" in regard to "fuel" energy efficiency;

The Waste

The first thing that comes to my mind is the question that I have about most hydrocarbon combustion. Why continue the waste?

Although the following example uses diesel fuel (because it and heating fuel are nearly the same thing), I see the problem as universal and it applies to any vehicle/ home heating fuel used today, including gasoline, methanol, natural gas, propane and even hydrogen.

In both a diesel engine and home heating furnace, 50% (plus or minus) of the fuel energy is wasted, on a continuous basis.
In the engine, the explosive power of the fuel is used and the heat is discarded, while in the furnace, the heat is used and the torque producing explosive power is defeated.

The specific value for which the fuel energy is purchased to do in one application, is discarded as worthless in the other, and vice versa, is it not?

In terms of efficiency then what is needed is a method to capitalize on the heat to produce additional torque in the vehicle which would increase fuel mileage, and a method that would make use of the torque production potential defeated in the furnace to produce heat would increase its heating fuel efficiency also, right?

How about a similar system that improves both?
I have posted further information on how to achieve this on my website at:
< http://tawnybill.tripod.com/a2zefficenc ... index.html >

This will not solve our hydrocarbon usage, only increase our fuel efficiency and buy us more time, meanwhile reducing GHG pollution and Acid Rain production almost immediately, and on the very vehicle you use every day, or on the furnace that heats your home!

Concepts

"Concepts which have proved useful for ordering things easily assume so great an authority over us, that we forget their terrestrial origin and accept them as unalterable facts. They then become labeled as 'conceptual necessities,' etc. The road of scientific progress is frequently blocked for long periods by such errors." - Einstein

Engineering

A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.
Freeman Dyson (b. 1923), British-born U.S. physicist, author. Disturbing the Universe, pt. 1, ch. 10 (1979).13

Cheers,
Tawny Bill.

[frankthetank]

If this winter would have been "normal" temp wise, i think NG would still be above $10...

If i was in the market to replace a furnace, the last thing id put back in is something that burns gas. I have doubts on the ability of utilities to get enough gas to customers during heavy use periods down the road (say next Jan)...

[kjmclark]

Hmmm... Seems like our high efficiency furnace lowered our electric and gas bills. The old furnace was quite old, however.

There are industrial combined heat and power (CHP) systems out there that use the expansion of combustion gases to spin a generator and use the heat for space heating. The heat could also be used for dessicant dehumidification in the summer, though I haven't seen any systems that did that. I also haven't seen CHP systems for residences yet, probably because the electric companies frown on decentralized power.

Capstone microturbines are often used in CHP systems. I read about the concept back when I owned stock in the company. I'm sure there are others.

[capslock]

We dumped our central heating system (build late 70s) for a Rinnai direct vent this year, and are using 2/3 less fuel. There's a kooky guy that sells heaters and has some interesting thoughts on his website:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hen 95% of the heating company companies claim 80-90% efficiency - they are both right and wrong as ALL fuels burn 80-90% efficient At the Flame and that is called the Heat of Combustion - which is 350-600 degrees. BUT...it is where that heat really goes and how well it is utilized that is more important than anything else.

The ONLY Reason for the different sized vent pipes/stackpipes/chimneys is that each different sized vent is designed to carry away the waste-heat of combustion (350-550 degrees) for that particular heater - Heat that does not go into heating your living area. The bigger the pipe...the more heat goes up & out the chimney (350-550 degrees of wasted dollars) and the less HEAT going into going your home = (BIG dollar$ wasted year after year / after year / after year - ad infinitum and you are still not warm)!

[0mar]

Back when I lived in Chicago, I almost never turned on the central heat.

Just wear a sweater/full sleeves and maybe a small space heater for the room you are in and I was good for 80-90% of the winter. The only times I turned it on was for company, and for when it got really frigid outside.

Here in Cali, I haven't even needed the space heater yet.