Heating Budget

[Doughknob]

OP your subject sounds funny - Heating Budget. What happens when the budget runs out? You freeze? LOL

 

[3930dave]

Since seeing one in the midwest many years ago, I've always been fascinated by corn feed pellet stoves. If wood stoves are banned, this seems to be the way to go, depending on the area you live. Corn is a grass. And as such is also a bio-fuel. Yet, it is no longer a "wood stove."

I remember seeing one in a rural restaurant years back; it was throwing out great heat.

Back when corn stoves had been out for a bit, I was having a chat with a stove dealer. His point (re. staying away from corn, business-wise) was that the capital required (at least at that time) to pelletize wood was fairly high - so nobody just dabbled in doing wood pellets.

Corn - he said he could see somebody cobbling together some sort of corn-dryer on a farm, and selling low cost corn fuel.... get the moisture wrong, and the stove-dealer gets stuck explaining to a customer why they have corn-syrup lined chimneys.

I don't know enough about combusting corn to know exactly how critical the moisture is, but I understood his reasoning.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

AS a result local users will have to sacrifice so that our hydro can deliver what they contracted to do.

The first person I knew years ago to personally own a good sized generator at home was a friend's family who had a large vacation home near Aylmer PQ.

They had that one in the 70's, because Hydro Quebec was doing the same thing back then; blacking out Quebec customers in the dead of Winter, to avoid lawsuits from the USA States being supplied.

I'm generally not interested in all-electric heat, but I can't imagine relying on it, under the above conditions.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

It's ironic that the idiot's in charge here are and have been taking out many of the smaller hydro dams that have existed for decades in a back door attempt to bolster the highly subsidized (like 15x the amount of oil) wind and solar.
Just yesterday I saw what had to be 100ac if the sun is out solar "farm" under construction, that the last time I drove by, it was heavily wooded with beautiful oaks!

It does seem like the Inmates running the Asylum, too often.....

While I like to see a diversity of energy sources in play, I take serious issue with removing hydro resources. Throwing away that scale of resource is not wise at any time, but esp. not where we are supposedly going....

As a private citizen, cutting down one twig in many areas can be a big expensive hassle..... 100ac of oaks in the name of Solar, No Problem !

No Respect, I tell Ya ! ..... now gotta straighten my tie.....

Rgds, D.

 

[lman]

13,000 acres of farm ground going out of commission.

Work starting on 13,000-acre solar farm in northern Indiana

An Israeli company has started work to build a solar energy farm that’s planned to cover some 13,000 acres (5,261 hectares) across two northern Indiana counties when completed.

www.tribstar.com

 

[3930dave]

OP your subject sounds funny - Heating Budget. What happens when the budget runs out? You freeze? LOL

For the top third or so of the financial stratum, it's a Don't Care.

Given how food, transportation/fuel, and housing costs have rocketed, having energy spike is one more unwelcome "challenge" further down the bonepile....

Most of us who hang out here likely aren't at risk of freezing this Winter, but there are other people who will be having to make some hard decisions about where to cut their personal budgets......

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

In 1990 propane or electric was our only option when we took out the flue. We went all electric but then propane was cheaper.

10 years ago the church moved to propane and built a high ceiling 40x60 foot activity center. Things were tight pre Covid-19. Propane cost may turn out the lights. The community died hard but people keep driving back due to family members but now they have pasted.

Time changes all things.

Churches are notoriously difficult to heat.

I'm thinking of one particular church in a small town I pass through on the way to visit family...... very steep roof, that happens to have a good SW orientation, so they filled the roof with solar pv panels.

I'd guess they were likely grid-tied there, but have always liked the Diversion style regulators for pv/battery systems. Surplus power (once batteries are full) is diverted to heat hot water - domestic or heating, user's choice.....

Rgds, D.

 

[jyoutz]

Surprised that it's been held back this long. 2008 should have seen a huge blowout but the banksters pulled another rabbit out of the hat. No more tricks left.

Funny that this is article is from the BBC. Europe is going to be slammed a lot harder.

Recently filled our propane tank after ensuring that the prices had gone up high enough. Only used for cooking and clothes dryer. Fill it every 3 or 4 years.

Increasing reliance on electricity will one day prove problematic. Well, it already was problematic for folks in Texas this past year. Expect more such to occur.

Texas also had natural gas shortages due to shallow uninsulated pipelines freezing where they entered the power plants.

 

[jyoutz]

No natural gas, only propane available where I live. Here's the headline from Bloomberg news:
View attachment 717251

I was in that situation for years. My solution: wood pellet stove for heating, propane for water heater and kitchen stove.