THE Winter Heating Thread (merged)

[lotrfan55345]

Maybe school can be cancelled this winter...

[mgibbons19]

Speaking of which. BP how do you like your "grate wall of fire" after a year? I'm not installing a fireplace or insert into this home. at least not yet. But I wouldn't mind increasing the efficiency of the fireplace somewhat. Esp if we have a cold winter.

[nocar]

Mcgibbons, I do not know if it applies to your case, but we have a very simple gadget that increases the efficiency of a fireplace, i.e. an open fireplace where we burn wood, logs and sticks of different size. That is the type that is mainly meant for looking at, as most of the heat goes right up the chimney.
The efficiency gadget is a hollow iron pipe, that is, the pipe is rectangular in cross section, about 7 by 15cm. (3 by 6 inches). This pipe is open in both ends, and bent in a U shape, with sharp corners. It sits permantently in the fireplace, both ends facing the room, over each other. In other words, the U shape is actually more like [ , but with the horisontal parts longer.

When you make a fire in the fireplace, the metal heats up, and the air inside the pipe on top gets hot and expands and blows into the room. Replacement air at room temperature gets sucked in at the bottom, from the room, gets heated and blows back into the room from the upper part. No moving parts, no fan needed, it is using just the natural expansion of hot air to heat the air in the room. Just a bent pipe in an open fireplace. Makes a big difference.
nocar

[mgibbons19]

I've thought about those too. This is a 40s house, so it'se a good fireplace, but I'm not ready to committ 2k to a good insert. Just get a little more out of it this winter.

I don't know how long we will be in this house. Although I do like it a lot.

[Dukat_Reloaded]

Waste Oil: Heat your home this winter with free oil.
A waste oil heater can heat your home for a fraction of the cost it would normally cost, so if you live in an area that has little wood, then try using waste oil for heating. I don't believe in peakoil, but I do believe in saving money and is a better investment than using wood pellets. link

This site has information on where to get the free waste oil and out to build one for only $36, and is like a pellet stove that you don't need to be constantly tending to the fire. Enjoy

[azreal60]

I'm confused.

You posted 328 times on a website who's topic you don't believe in?

That's .. strange...

[dooberheim]

Used motor oil contains significant amounts of lead (from bearing materials in engines). Some of this will volatilize when burned and spread through the local environment as fume. Better to burn veg oil or similar - or just wood .

DK

[Dukat_Reloaded]

Too many people who believe in PeakOil also care too much for the environment. I showed an option for heating that uses old oil that would be landfilled or dumped somewhere, and the best that you have to say is, that would work but too polluting. The amount of lead in the oil would be minimal, and remember we used to add lead to fuel. You people are causing the problem, Nuclear power is a good energy source, but you have to say thats too polluting as well. The fact is, any new technology that is used to harness energy, you people will try to deny any benifical use of it. It's because of the environmentalists that we have a percived energy shortage, there is still plenty of oil untapped, but it's surrounded by red tape environmetalists have put in place.

[aflatoxin]

Here is a really cheap, low tech way to burn waste oil:

Take a five gallon bucket. Put about a quart of diesel in it. Add about 3 gallons of waste oil. Put a couple of pieces of dry firewood in there. Let it soak until the oil wicks up to the top of the firewood. Wrap it in polyethylene film (saran wrap) so you don't drip oil on the floor of your house. viola! Carbon-Enhanced firewood.

Now start a fire in your AIRTIGHT wood stove. When It gets stokin' hot, close the dampers and toss in a piece of the above engineered product. It will burn for hours.

1st caveat: airtight stoves can regulate the amount of air that goes to the modified log. Once I did this with a bad door gasket, and the wood burned like the fury of hell for about three hours. I was really glad I had a relined stainless steel chimney. Otherwise, I might have had a chimney fire. Next day with a new gasket, all was cool. Log burned for about 7 hours. I would not do this in an old style wood stove or a fireplace unless I was living in a cave and there was nothing to burn down.

2nd caveat: A lot of people believe that waste oil is full of all sorts of metals and hazardous stuff. Oil is mostly carbon and hydrogen. Tree bark is full of metals (Pb, Zn, etc). Oil is probably a cleaner fuel if burned completely. I wouldn't sweat the enviro issues with doing this.

[Frank]

Too many people who believe in PeakOil also care too much for the environment. I showed an option for heating that uses old oil that would be landfilled or dumped somewhere, and the best that you have to say is, that would work but too polluting. The amount of lead in the oil would be minimal, and remember we used to add lead to fuel. You people are causing the problem, Nuclear power is a good energy source, but you have to say thats too polluting as well. The fact is, any new technology that is used to harness energy, you people will try to deny any benifical use of it. It's because of the environmentalists that we have a percived energy shortage, there is still plenty of oil untapped, but it's surrounded by red tape environmetalists have put in place.

Well... I care about the environment because I like to breathe air and drink water - don't you? These are all part of the environment aren't they?

Motor oil doesn't wear out but can be cleaned and renewed with additives which is what most responsible recycle centers do with their collections. If you are disposing of oil in landfills, then you're part of the problem.

"Perceived energy shortage"? Sorry, "environmentalists" aren't responsible for physics and geology. I don't think you're being fair - or realistic.

[Ludi]

There's no such thing as "waste oil." It can be cleaned and reused. How irresponsible to just burn it.

[shakespear1]

aflatoxin

Love the ingenuity of this method. Thanks :>)

[untothislast]

Too many people who believe in PeakOil also care too much for the environment.

In fact, if you think about it, it's the environment that's the cause of all our troubles. It won't accommodate nuclear waste . . . the ozone layer thins out whenever we try to pump our CFCs up there . . . the ice caps are in meltdown . . . What a bastard! Let's give it a good kicking!

[Dukat_Reloaded]

Yes it's important to look after the enviroment, but it gets to a point when we are just being silly. If there is something we want in the enviroment, there's no reason why we can't extract it resposibly. It's abit like a child, you can over care too much for the child, and it's not healthy for the child. My point is I believe the environment is less fragile than what many enviromentalists make it out to be. The ozone layer regenerates itself, cfc's do not cause any damage, the hole is natural, it expands and contacts every year. I have also explained many times on this forum that co2 does not cause global warming, with proof and infact co2 is good for the environment and us. People say look at all the hurricans, we I say thats natural, and if infact there weren't any hurricans this year, I would have been very suprised as the scientist say that the US is an a hurrican cycle period and is not out of the ordinary.

[azreal60]

My child is not responsible for weither i can breathe the next year.

I'm not worried about "destroying the planet", like so many evironmentalists have said. That's just a way to get chicks.

I'm worried about making the planet uninhabitable for humans. Kinda eliminates the point if we make it impossible for us to live here. Alot of the caculations we make on this board assume that the environment won't get worse. People make statements like

My point is I believe the environment is less fragile than what many enviromentalists make it out to be

without any support whatso ever, and it's like, why do you believe that? What possible reason do you have to believe that other than it's inconvient for what you want?

The planet is going to be around alot longer than we are. So stop pretending it's about saving the planet, and start being selfish only with the blinders off. It's about keeping humanity alive damn it, not the planet. But if you soil your nest enough, pretty soon it's kinda hard to live in a pile of shit, to use a vivid analogy.

[Guest]

Yes it's important to look after the enviroment, but it gets to a point when we are just being silly. If there is something we want in the enviroment, there's no reason why we can't extract it resposibly. It's abit like a child, you can over care too much for the child, and it's not healthy for the child. My point is I believe the environment is less fragile than what many enviromentalists make it out to be. The ozone layer regenerates itself, cfc's do not cause any damage, the hole is natural, it expands and contacts every year. I have also explained many times on this forum that co2 does not cause global warming, with proof and infact co2 is good for the environment and us. People say look at all the hurricans, we I say thats natural, and if infact there weren't any hurricans this year, I would have been very suprised as the scientist say that the US is an a hurrican cycle period and is not out of the ordinary.

While I agree with you that it is likely that the environment is not as fragile as some people make it out to be (I suppose that's a matter of the scale that one observes, i.e., I notice big changes in a few little things, and little change in most big things) -

Burning waste oil is just plain stupid. It is filled with heavy metals, additives like PCBs, and trace fuel that tend to be quite toxic and form various aerosols and smoke, not combusting completely. Waste oil can easily be filtered and reused, it takes much more energy to get more crude and refine it to motor oil (although it may be cheaper dollarwise at $10/barrel) than to recyle the waste oil you have. Next of course, is the issue of supply - if you run a garage that does lots of oil changes, maybe you have a constant supply, but it is not possible (thank god) for everyone to burn waste oil, or used oil which is the proper term.

Why not just burn plastic bags from wallyworld to heat? At least they have fewer metals in them.....burning waste oil is a lose-lose situation.

[basil_hayden]

My thoughts above^^^^, login failed I guess..

[untothislast]

It's a fair point . . . the planet will endure pretty much whatever we throw at it. Some other life forms will ultimately emerge and thrive despite the mess we leave behind as our legacy. But is this what you want?

Our problem, is that the conditions we need to survive here as a species, have only existed for what is an historically short time. Further, the latitude of variability allowed - the temperatures within which crops will grow (for example) or that fish can survive in the oceans - is alarmingly narrow.

We tinker with the settings at our peril.

[aahala]

Where do you think you can get vast quantities of waste oil anyway? Are
you going to tour the countryside in your SUV looking for it?

Say you find a continuing source. Every few weeks you can walk 6 miles,
strap the 50 lbs. tank on your back and walk back.

And how about the idea that for $40 bucks and ordinary skill, one can
whip up a burning unit suitable for heating a building of any sort. The damn
thing could very well malfunction and burn the building down.

I needed a good laugh, so thanks for the thread.

[Dukat_Reloaded]

There will allways be fish in the sea, GW will not effect them much, if it warms up, fish which like the warmth will move to the warmer parts, and fish which like it colder will move north or south. Regardless of that, my point is everyone now lives in cities and rarely ventures into nature. Nature is on the nature channel and it's all reruns anyway. Yes in the future the land won't look as good as it did before, but does a falling tree make a sound when no one is there to hear it? Alot of resources are spent trying to "preserve" the environment, but it's a waste of resources doing so because sooner or later the tree everyone is trying to protect will be cut down anyway. I used to care about the natural environment but it's a waste of time now bothering, does it make any difference if a forest is cut down 10 years from now because everyone didn't care, or the forest being cut down in 50 years time because enviromentalists put up so much red tape that the loggers had to fight for every tree they cut down, slowly but surely they win in the end. Say your holding onto a weight attached to a pully over a cliff. The weight is too great for you to pull it up or keep it stable, it is slowly lowering while your getting friction burns on your hands. You know sooner or later that the weight will reach the ground, so why not just let go and save the friction burns on your hands, the weight will reach the ground faster, but really does it matter?, the end result will be the same.