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turboblue Samba Member
Joined: October 09, 2003 Posts: 4216 Location: Central Indiana
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:54 am Post subject: Anyone use renewable fuels to heat their home? |
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Installed a corn/pellet fuel furnace about mid winter last year.
Propane was near $2.60 a gallon then.
We were tired of being cold and having a huge fuel bill to boot.
Winter of 07-08 I spent nearly $1500 in propane.
That's with a 94% efficient furnace set on about 62° and an insulated house.
Installed this unit and tied it into my existing ductwork.
http://www.americanenergysystems.com/magnum-6500.cfm
Best move I ever made.
Cost me about $3 a day to heat my house with corn and it's warm. _________________ Gary
Turbo VW Sand Drag Buggy
"If you don't run into the Devil every once in awhile, you must be going in the same direction!" |
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Russ Wolfe Samba Member
Joined: October 08, 2004 Posts: 25187 Location: Central Iowa
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:08 am Post subject: |
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I have a fireplace that burns wood if the power goes out.
Propane cost me $1.24 gal this year. 900 gal to fill both the shop and the house.
My brother heats his shop with waste oil. The local farmers and shops save it for him, so his only cost is for the electric to run the pump on the furnace, and his gas to go around and pick up the oil.
He is thinking about putting a waste oil burner to heat his house, but he would need to duct the oil burner heat into the house from outside. They do tend to smell near the burner assembly. _________________ Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you end up with a lot of scum on the top!--Edward Abbey
Gary: OK. Ima poop. |
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Gary Person of Interest
Joined: November 01, 2002 Posts: 17069 Location: 127.0.0.1
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:08 am Post subject: |
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Same here with the propane situation. I wanted to get a pellet insert for my fireplace as my living room is 19'x22' with a 15' vaulted ceiling. Talk about a heating and cooling nightmare. When I replaced the furnace in my house I had the installers put an additional return air high up the wall in the living room to recapture the lingering hot air. I would be curious to hear how well your burner performs this winter. Are you burning corn or pellets? _________________ West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) |
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Mike Fisher Samba Member
Joined: January 30, 2006 Posts: 17970 Location: Eugene, OR
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:56 am Post subject: |
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We used to heat for free with salvage pallets in a parlor stove at our old place, but PG&E in CA was .12 kwh. $120 with No heat. My wife won't let me replace the "beautiful" pellet stove we have here in OR that never gets used since our BPA electricity is only .074 kwh. $120-150/month with cooling/heating. I think our propane is about $2.50. _________________ https://imgur.com/user/FisherSquareback/posts
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold
Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey |
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kevtherev Samba Member
Joined: December 23, 2007 Posts: 897 Location: the 51st state
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:37 pm Post subject: |
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We use coal
Made of dead trees, it was recycled years ago though. |
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turboblue Samba Member
Joined: October 09, 2003 Posts: 4216 Location: Central Indiana
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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kevtherev wrote: |
We use coal
Made of dead trees, it was recycled years ago though. |
Not renewable though.....not in our lifetime anyway........
I use mostly corn when it's cold.
My furnace is rated 15K more BTU on corn than pellets.
Maximum output on dry corn is 78K and pellets it is 63K BTU.
There is a grain elevator about 2 miles from my house.
They sack shelled corn for me into plastic feed bags.
I dump that into metal trash cans with lids.
I have a drive out basement where the furnace is located.
Just back up to the door and fill up my metal cans.
When it's time to fill the furnace I transfer the corn with a gallon bucket and pour it through hardware cloth that has about half inch openings.
This screens out any stalks or cobs that can plug the feed auger in the furnace.
I still have the propane system but it is strictly backup in case the fire goes out on the corn furnace.
I keep the thermostat for is set on 60°.
I buy about a ton of wood pellets to use in the spring and fall when it's not so cold.
40# bags and again store them in the basement on a skid.
Pellets are not has hot as corn.
I can turn the furnace down to the lowest setting and still keep the house nice and warm in the off seasons.
Right now the corn runs about 6.5 cents per lb and the pellets are 12 cents with the sales tax.
In your case Gary I think I would do a free standing stove.
My cousin had a corn insert.
When he had to do anything other than normal maintenance to his, it had to come out of the fireplace.
Those systems weigh over 500 lbs too.
You can get a wall kit to vent them pretty reasonable.
The stoves even have a tax rebate on them now.
I've had my furnace since December of 08 and wish I hadn't waited so long to get it.
Here is the link to the home page of the unit I have:
Corn/Pellets Heating Systems _________________ Gary
Turbo VW Sand Drag Buggy
"If you don't run into the Devil every once in awhile, you must be going in the same direction!" |
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skills@eurocarsplus Samba Peckerhead
Joined: January 01, 2007 Posts: 16883 Location: sticksville, ct.
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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outdoor wood boiler FTW and burns about anything you can toss into it. a nice big stump will go for a day and a half
http://www.centralboiler.com/ _________________
gprudenciop wrote: |
my reason for switching to subaru is my german car was turning chinese so i said fuck it and went japanese....... |
Jake Raby wrote: |
Thanks for the correction. I used to be a nice guy, then I ruined it by exposing myself to the public. |
Brian wrote: |
Also the fact that people are agreeing with Skills, it's a turn of events for samba history |
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oorwullie Samba Member
Joined: May 01, 2003 Posts: 2365 Location: fribourg,switzerland
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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yeh, we burn rabbits.
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Jimmy111 Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2006 Posts: 2643 Location: Wyoming
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:58 pm Post subject: |
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I have a pellet stove in my house in Wyoming. The only problem is that they require electricity to operate and when te power goes out so does the heat and corn leaves a lot of clinker.
I grew up in a house that had a gassifier that supplied gas for heating and for the lights. This house had no electricity. You could thow anything into that gassifier and it would decompose it into CO and H2.
Great thing. Im sure that the greenies would hate it. |
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ScottK Samba Member
Joined: August 28, 2004 Posts: 1748 Location: Avilla America
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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Jimmy111 wrote: |
I have a pellet stove in my house in Wyoming. The only problem is that they require electricity to operate and when te power goes out |
The first year we "upgraded" to a pellet stove from our wood stove (our only heat source besides a small propane wall mount in the kitchen) we had an ice storm and lost power for 8 days.
I love camping, just not in my own house in January. It got pretty cold in here. |
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notchback Insensitive Jerk
Joined: December 16, 2003 Posts: 7024 Location: Behind the Zion Curtain
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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We burn the annual trimmings from the fruit orchards in the area we live in. Cherry, peach, apple, pear, plum, apricot. It costs me $60 for as much as I can put into my pickup. I burn about 3 loads a year. _________________
zeen wrote: |
Arguing with johnnypan is like mud-wrestling a pig. After a while you realize he just enjoys playing in the mud, winning the contest is not the point. |
FU#3 |
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Vanhag Samba Mortician
Joined: June 29, 2003 Posts: 2606 Location: Desert Coast
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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We've used out Pellet stove the last 3 years and love it. It keeps the house nice and warm, even on low. I shop around for the best price on the best quality wood pellets every year. I too was afraid about being cold when the power was out. So I did the calculations and bought a good sized inverter and can run our pellet stove off of a car battery. I've got a couple of deep cycles out of the camp trailer that I maintain in the winter. I've run the pellet stove for a day on a regular car battery.
Mine won't burn corn I wish it would. Pellet prices are going up even thought they are made local to me. Still a heck of a lot cheaper than my propane bill. And if the cap and trade stuff goes through my electricity is going through the roof so I'll do away with my supplimental electric heat too.
I did spend 5K upgrading the insulation, windows, and doors in our home. It made a huge difference. The house is at least 30% more efficient than it was 4 years ago when we bought it. _________________ CU05 w/HBB
HOODRIDANCE |
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BSQUARE Samba Member
Joined: November 05, 2004 Posts: 1876 Location: Feeling, Minnesota
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:39 pm Post subject: |
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I heated my first house with an old wood stove that someone put in the alley to give away,
I fueled it with scrap wood from renovations and pallets from behind K-Mart.
It only cost the price of gasoline to drive 8 blocks in the Bus to pick up the pallets and bring them home. _________________ 1988 Ford Festiva L
1965 Honda 50 "Super Cub"
2016 Miami Sun Trike |
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BugMan114 Samba Member
Joined: March 22, 2007 Posts: 3744 Location: Ellenwood, GA
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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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I just throw a bunch of VW cases in the fire place. with 22 million VW's running around, i'd say to me its pretty renewable............
jk _________________ 1974 Super Beetle: Custom resto in progress
1972 Super Beetle: Daily Driver
1971 Std. Beetle w/ 1929 Mercedes Benz Gazelle kit
1960 Baja Bug
1969 Baja Bug
Sand Rail- Homemade
Sand Rail- FUBAR
Aircooled Airheads
Why the hell do they call it a gland nut. its obviously a big fat bolt!!! |
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busfreak_71 Flat 4 Junkie
Joined: April 29, 2007 Posts: 1191 Location: Sherwood Park, Alberta
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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 7:29 pm Post subject: |
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I use a wood stove. That, and the waste heat off of our low RPM diesel generator which burns anything from diesel, to veggie oil, to waste motor oil. _________________ '71 Tin Top Westfalia
'99.5 Bora TDI
'85 Jetta Coupe
'85 Mercedes 300SD
Resident Off-Grid hippie and diesel advocate. |
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Iowa Mark Samba Member
Joined: May 06, 2004 Posts: 1071
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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Up until a couple of hours ago we were using no fuels, either renewable or otherwise. Snowstorm killed all power for the last two days. We are back to using a combination of coal and wind at the moment. |
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Gary Person of Interest
Joined: November 01, 2002 Posts: 17069 Location: 127.0.0.1
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 6:23 pm Post subject: |
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BugMan114 wrote: |
I just throw a bunch of VW cases in the fire place. with 22 million VW's running around, i'd say to me its pretty renewable............
jk |
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=78603
Quote: |
DON'T use excessive punctuation, smilies, annoying or unreadable text colors, or bold text |
_________________ West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) |
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Tram Samba Socialist
Joined: May 02, 2003 Posts: 22728 Location: Still Feelin' the Bern- Once you've felt it you can't un- feel it.
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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Gary wrote: |
BugMan114 wrote: |
I just throw a bunch of VW cases in the fire place. with 22 million VW's running around, i'd say to me its pretty renewable............
jk |
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=78603
Quote: |
DON'T use excessive punctuation, smilies, annoying or unreadable text colors, or bold text |
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What would we ever do without the Great Regulators? _________________ Немає виправдання для війни! Я з Україною.
Bryan67 wrote: |
Just my hands. And a little lube. No tools. |
To best contact me, please use the EMAIL function in my profile |
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Jes67 Samba Member
Joined: February 28, 2007 Posts: 370
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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Tram wrote: |
Gary wrote: |
BugMan114 wrote: |
I just throw a bunch of VW cases in the fire place. with 22 million VW's running around, i'd say to me its pretty renewable............
jk |
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=78603
Quote: |
DON'T use excessive punctuation, smilies, annoying or unreadable text colors, or bold text |
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What would we ever do without the Great Regulators? |
,,,,,,,,,,,,,[ tram break],,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.. |
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Bart Samba Member
Joined: March 18, 2002 Posts: 2516 Location: Chapel Hill, TN
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:21 pm Post subject: |
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skills@eurocarsplus wrote: |
outdoor wood boiler FTW and burns about anything you can toss into it. a nice big stump will go for a day and a half
http://www.centralboiler.com/ |
I want to get one of these. I've even seen one that a farmer made that would burn round bales. _________________ http://www.sundial-camper.com |
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