Alternative Heat Sources

[briano]

Does anybody here heat their homes with solar or anything other than oil, gas or wood? I am looking into different solar options, nothing serious yet just doing some research on it. My girlfriend and I just moved into our new house a few months ago and it has an oil furnace, fuel oil here is $3.50 per gallon. I have put in a wood stove already to help with the heating costs, but I had to buy wood because I didn't plan on having a wood stove.

[atc500x]

Oil and wood in garage and house,garage heated to 15 degree celcius all winter long.Not heating oil....but waste oil burner!
Cost for a winter for the garage.....0$, 500 liter of used engine oil,hyd,gear oil

I did my burner myself with a standard Beckett burner.But a complete system are available from different place in the US.

http://www.wasteoilheat.com/

all part to built one are easy to find

[fabiodriven]

Wood is the way to go. I'd like to look into solar/wind stuff at some point down the road.

The only way wood is going to really save you serious coin is if you get wood for free. I've been burning wood since I was a kid. I have a chainsaw, a pickup, and a log splitter. If you don't have the stuff to process it, you will definitely be paying for wood. If you're gonna pay for wood, you might as well just buy oil. Since you've already got the stove, work on getting a saw and a splitter. Then just keep your eyes and ears open. Free wood is plentiful if you know where to look. Watch the sides of the roads for fallen limbs and trees. If you see a tree down in somebody's yard, offer to remove the bulk of it for free. If you don't have a truck a trailer will do fine.

I would never pay for wood. It's November now and I still don't have any heating oil. I'd be tempted to try to whole winter without using oil, but if I go away at all I'll need the oil.

[briano]

I have everything needed to get the wood, usually I cut wood every summer for our camp and my parents. It's just that I had too much going on this summer. I have a Husqvarna 575xp, a wood splitter and a truck, the wood that I had out at camp my brother and dad decided to take lol. There is a guy two houses away that has wood for sale at a decent price, so that will have to do for now. I don't know if I want to fork out the kind of money for a solar set up, I would like to see one in person or hear from someone that has had one for a while. My cousin has geothermal, but the cost to put that in is more than we paid for the house.

[hoosierlogger]

I have an outdoor wood fired boiler. It uses alot more wood than they told me when I spent $9000 for it. I go through about 24 ricks of wood a winter. But I heat a 90 year old house, a poorly insulated 1 car garage, and my hot water with it.
I always wanted to try the solar setup, but the cost it still pretty high.

[just ben]

I heat with oil. one way I have found to save is used vegtable oil. filter the hell out of it and mix 60/40 with kero. depending on your nozzle you will have to change that and adjust the air intake on the burner

[briano]

I was thinking about the veggie oil but wasn't sure about it, good to know it can be done. I know a guy that makes biodiesel.

[just ben]

It will burn fine, but without separating the glycerin it will need to be cleaned atleast once mid season.

[The Goat]

Granted I don't have near the winters y'all do, but wood is deiniteky the way to go for me when I get the new house.

The place I have now is so small that the body heat of myself and fiancée, coupled with two dogs running around and the sun coming in is more than enough to keep it toasty.

Insulation is key.

A small fake fireplace when it's in the 20s will get the house into the 90s if I forget and leave it on at night.

My future house will have the strategically placed windows to catch winter sun.

[rdlsz24]

Is it common to use oil for heat in the Northeast? I don't know anybody with that type of heat. We all have furnaces. I program the thermostat and don't have to think about it again all winter.

Rob

[fabiodriven]

It's very common to have oil heat in the north east.

I don't understand what you mean by "We all have furnaces". You can have a furnace with oil heat as well. That or a boiler. You just turn the thermostat up and away you go.

[Jason125m]

Wood, is by far my favourite choice for heat, produces a nice, clean heat.
If you wanted to go the solar route, expect to fork out an arm and 5 legs. I have a friend, who powers his house with Solar, he paid 67 THOUSAND for the system, and HE installed it..
The way solar works is, you produce the power, sell it to the power company, and then you buy the power back from them ( crooks ). But, even paying 67 grand for the system, he says he will double his money in 10 years, since he produces WAY more energy than he needs for his house.
Solar is something my dad and I have been looking into for a long time, don't think it will be happening unless we win the lottery though...

[tri again]

One way to 'save' is to store whatever heat you can make.
My concrete floor is 74* degrees right now so if the power goes out / fire goes out, that massive chunk of concrete
will keep the place from freezing for a couple days at least.

I also have watertanks around my woodstove that hold a couple hundred gallons at say, 120 degrees
with the smallest fire that I can keep going.
Fire goes out, they stay hot for quite a while.

Winter sun is super strong, even if it's freezing out.
My next trick will be to enclose a greenhouse on the south side
of the house and massive use of rock, conc, watertanks etc to hold whatever heat it collects
and be able to blow some of that heat into the house.

Wonder what the indians did? Sleep with hotrocks?
They used hot rocks to boil water in woven baskets fer god's sake.

They lived right here for 10,000 years.
It just never ceases to amaze me

[rdlsz24]

It's very common to have oil heat in the north east.

I don't understand what you mean by "We all have furnaces". You can have a furnace with oil heat as well. That or a boiler. You just turn the thermostat up and away you go.

I should have elaborated. Natural gas furnaces and you don't have to get re-supplied. The gas is constantly coming into the house. I didn't know a furnace was used to burn the oil.

Rob

[Dirtcrasher]

^ You have forced hot air. Either propane, natural gas or oil can be used.

Some of the homes out here do not have natural gas on the road or the tie in cost is outrageous to say the least.

I could pipe within a foot of their valve with my backhoe but I'd need a permit and would have to pay the town to get hooked up to the main line.

[fabiodriven]

I should have elaborated. Natural gas furnaces and you don't have to get re-supplied. The gas is constantly coming into the house. I didn't know a furnace was used to burn the oil.

Rob

Gotcha.

Like DC said, we don't all have access to gas here. If it's already on the road you're on that's half the battle. I don't have the option for gas so I do wood primarily and use oil heat as a backup.

[tri again]

I remember 'spending' about a week a month just dealing with the weather in new england.
Back then, late 70's, 300$ a month to keep the house at 50 degrees.
Anything else was a treat.

These days, it seems, if you buy wood, or propane or electricity, it comes out about the same.
The only way around it is to get wood for free, or BLM permit and cut your own, but if you 'pay'
yourself 10$ an hour, bar oil, gas, chains, time, load, stack, start/feed the fire, clean the stove
and on and on... it comes out the same. in the NW.
Flip a switch? or fool with firewood around the clock for 7 or 8 months and don't forget to
keep accumulating and fooling with it all summer too.

I think my fire's gone out once since Oct 1st..
Nice warm concrete and hot water is sure nice to come home too.
If I built from scratch in this climate, I'd be tempted to run waterlines thru all the concrete floors
and heat 'em with a woodstove.
..and it's only Novenber you guys.
The shortest day of the year hasn't even happened yet.