Tanada wrote:[
Does anyone have a calculator for cost benefit analisis of varied fuels based on price of each fuel and heating value of each fuel?
The following link has a comparative calculator for various home heating fuels:
http://www.hearth.com/articles/47_0_1_0_M7.htmlOne point I want to make about burning coal and wood. In both cases the combustion gases must be sent up a flue for safety from carbon monoxide etc. If the combustion air is sucked from inside the living space, cold air MUST leak into the house through cracks and crevices and around doors/windows to replace this combustion air. Otherwise the flue will not draw. This reduces the overall efficiency considerably since you have to heat this extra infiltration air up to room temperature.
Gas and oil furnaces located inside the living space may have the same problem.. The gas furnace I now have is located in the garage and uses cold garage air for combustion which then goes out a flue. The indoor air is circulated past a heat exchanger via insulated ducts. There is a little heat loss from the furnace that is useful as it keeps the insulated garage above freezing until outside temperatures get below 15F. This furnace is rated at 80% of the gas heat into the house and uses a two stage burner to run at low gas burning rates most of the time, except during exceptionally cold weather. The also make 90% efficient units.
Electric systems require no flue and are 100% efficient or up to 200% efficient using heat pumps. You have to subtract the losses during the outside coil defrost cycle for heat pumps however. Heat pumps must switch to A/C mode for a half hour or so at intervals to melt frost buildup on the outside unit. On foggy days, this defrost cycle may be activated often enough to largely offset the electrical savings of the heat pump. It depends on local climate.
They make wood stoves that bring outside air into the wood stove from outside which avoids this combustion air infiltration problem. Heating with a wood burning fireplace is terrible in the amount of heated air from the house you lose up the chimney.
I grew up as a boy in a house heated with coal. We had a stoker that was a big metal bin with a screw drive that slowly put coal pellets into the burner box. Every day or so an ash "clinker" had to be fished out. Filling that stoker box with a shovel from the bin was quite a job, but the stoker had a thermostat and avoided tending the furnace every couple of hours otherwise.
Coal is only practical in a few areas close to mines as transport and delivery costs easily offset the fuel savings for small residential users.
With coal heat you could cancel your exercise club membership, and save some more money.
Old saying:
Man who cuts own wood gets warm twice
The best thing I did in our current house is to design for passive solar heat with roof extension louver shades for summer A/C loads, but that is another story.
An expert is someone who has made every mistake possible in their field and learned how to prevent them.
