[Pops]

Not much moisture in the air in the winter if it's cold but I see your concern. I'd think it might still be a good idea to drain and blow out the pipes and pour a little 50/50 antifreeze in the traps. The whole place would be be a loss if it's that old and gets water damage to boot.

[M_B_S]

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/a ... /homepage/

Retail prices for propane for heating homes hit an apparent record of $2.25 per gallon this week in North Dakota, up 65 percent from a year ago, according to local dealers and the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and not accounting for inflation.


A year ago, the residential price of propane in North Dakota was $1.47 a gallon, the EIA reported this week. Local dealers corroborate that price.


Nationally, propane prices are near $2.80 a gallon, a level reached only a few times since 2008, but not seen before then. Going back to 1992 they mostly were around $1, according to the EIA.
****************************************

So the Propaganda of plenty seems to be wrong if the US is in 2008 modi again.

PEAK OIL!



M_B_S

[argyle]

I keep a expenses sheet (over every expense we do) over the last year.. and only 2.6 of our expenses is allocated to heating.. (need to calculate what that means % of our income, but it's lower as we still save a lot)

So I'm not really that worried about it.. of course, less would always be good, but we could reduce some by turning the thermostat lower..

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GHung', 'D')o what the Ingalls did in "Little House in the Big Woods". Bake potatoes and shove them down in your underwear. When the potatoes cool down, eat'em.

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GHung', 'D')o what the Ingalls did in "Little House in the Big Woods". Bake potatoes and shove them down in your underwear. When the potatoes cool down, eat'em.

[ROCKMAN]

Sub - I can trace it back to 1973 when the joke focused on Agro-Americans (students at Texas A&M). But it wasn't potatoes but gym socks.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GHung', 'D')o what the Ingalls did in "Little House in the Big Woods". Bake potatoes and shove them down in your underwear. When the potatoes cool down, eat'em.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'T')he house is lathe board and plaster all through the interior with part of the basement being dirt floor and the remainder concrete. Having seen what frost does to lathe board and plaster walls my fear is if I shut the heat all the way off the damage to the walls will make the house unsaleble. It was built by my great grandfather in 1911 and electrified in the 1920's with knob and tube wiring, most of which has been upgraded over the years. Plumbing was not installed until the 1950's and draining that would be no problem, it is almost all galavanized pipe so disconnect from the pump tank and open the taps floor by floor and it will drain. The house is balloon frame construction so the humidity from the dirt floor third of the basement rises up the interior walls between the frame spaces full basement, two full floors and attic above. We used to play when I was a kid dropping stuff down between the uprights where there was a loose board from our playroom on the second floor straight down into the basement. It made rewiring a breeze when the upstairs was rewired, but it doesn't allow much moisture isolation.