I don't know much about these pellot heaters but I will sugjest that you review how you can heat for the least.
Electric prices, LPG (liquified petrolium gas/propane), fuel oil, natural gas varry per market area.
An interesting local thing is that LPG has gotton so expensive that electric heat is cheaper. This may work out for fuel oil also.
Heat pumps arn't popular up north because the sustained cold you get. Check out the ratings on the new heat pumps that use R-410a that is replaceing R-22. Gives 25% more heat at the colder temps. You can hook the up so that they work with a gas furnace.
Our electric rates just jumped 20% last month and I am in shock over the electric bill that came today.
Bamboo, although a renewable resource, would still need to be processed, chopped and formed to pellets. I haven't heard of this being used but I do know that in some areas people are using corn, peach pits, olive pits, etc. as fuel.
In my area, there's a guy who is looking into growing a certain type of grass that can be harvested, chopped and formed. He estimates that it can be harvested twice a summer and is looking for people to share crop this product along with him. He's working on determining the BTU's that a ton can produce and the efficiency of the product. If I can find their website, I'll provide a link for you. If his experiment proves to work out, this could be answer to the problem of sourcing pellets. Right now, a ton of pellets is $280 in my area.
We've looked into the whole heating oil vs. pellet stove vs. propane stove (Rinnai), etc. option. At this time, we've decided that heating oil is still the most efficient and we belong to an energy co-op so we're getting our oil at dealer's cost plus $0.33/gal. We have tightened up the house quite a bit and seen a difference just in the insulated storm doors, extra weather stripping, thermal drapes, thermal window film and other small changes we've made. We keep the thermostat at 58 degrees during the day and dress in layers. Last winter, even with all the snow and constant winter (no thaws) we used just 500 gal of heating oil.
We also placed a sunroom on the south side of the house - we did a couple of years ago - but on a sunny winter day, the sunroom heats up to about 75 degrees and I open the door from the sunroom into the house and place a fan at the door of the sunroom to direct the warm air into the house.
I believe that oil is much to precious to burn in any form. We can't get any more than what's in the earth now (yes we may find more). If you don't agree I'd like to challenge you to google "petrochemicals" and judge for yourselves.
We all can't or shouldn't try to use the same resources because we don't all don't have them. Some of us can use wind, some solar, some geothermal, some this and some that. Use a combination. We have the technology - just not the desire. We'd better get the desire 'cuz I don't want to be around when we have the last barrel of petroleum and somebody has to decide....what are we gonna do....make plastic heart valves??? or heat somebody's house for a few hours?
The fact we use heating oil or any other substance - wood, etc. - is more based on history and cost effectiveness (past cost effectiveness, that is) than it is on desire to not do anything. Looking at alternatives now is more costly because EVERYONE is scared that they won't be able to heat their home this winter and they are all looking for alternatives. The price of pellet stoves, wood stoves, etc. has greatly increased and the price of a cord of wood has gone up a good $100 in just two years!
If no one desired to change, then we'd still all be burning wood or coal, at least here in NH.
The problem is that because no one can truly predict what the market will do, then it makes it hard to make the best choice.
Personally, I'd go geo-thermal in a heartbeat - if I had land enough and wasn't sitting on a huge ledge of granite. We couldn't afford the digging and it would take about ten years to pay for itself - we'd be looking at over $20K just to dig.
Let me clarify - propane (LP) is processed here in the USA and not something we have to import. The price of it in my area is about $2.70/gal and it's seen only about a $0.60 increase from last year. This is because demand has increased.
Fossil fuels are now being questioned as to whether or not they're really fossil fuels. There are scientists who believe that it is not a resource that we will deplete nor that it came from dinosaurs. The price increase we're seeing now is due to a "perfect storm" of factors, starting with hurricane Katrina, the loss of the value in the US Dollar, the increased demand in China and other competing countries for fuel, and the lack of refineries to process the product. Add in the taxes that each state places on the products and there's your increases.
Chas - you're right. You're right about everything.
I know that the hydrocarbons were/are used because they were easy to get and cheap. We live in a different time now, so we should be exploring different things. And with the economy being so tight, it's like living, or, rather, trying to live with your body being in a paper bag and you can't see anything, and you can't punch your way out of it.
I am glad to see that so many are looking into so many solutions. That's a good sign. I even find myself wondering sometimes if we shouldn't reconsider nuclear power as a means of producing abundant electrical energy.....or....at least revisiting the issue.
I don't know if I'm right about everything - LOL. My husband ceratinly wouldn't agree with that one.... but I've spent a lot of time learning about it because I quit my job three years ago so I could stay home with the kids. Hubby hasn't had a pay increase in three years, so we're surviving on what he was making in 2004.
This summer, my mission was to find the best heating alternative I could and to get Hubby on board with the idea so we could implement it before December.
Hundreds of hours later, looking at heating alternatives, etc., I learned that we're better off weather proofing the house and cutting expenses in other areas than trying to introduce a secondary heating source. It sounds simple but I had to explore all the options until I believed it. I also took time to talk with several people in the business - they all confirmed what I had found.
At least, that's the market and what works for my neck of the woods....
Insulation and stopping air infiltration is the first and best use of energy saving money ... at least if you don't have a modern air tight home.
Once the house is well insulated and tight ... ground source heat pumps are pretty good ... and yes, we need lots more nukes. Nukes can make a lot of electricity, and we have lotsa COAL right here in the good old USA. We are the Saudi Arabia of COAL.
Pellet stoves are maybe not practical for most people ... you can go get a nice wood stove and burn wood with a little more effort ... I have all the wood I need, but not all the energy I need to mess with it.
Good points about fossil fuels chas ... I think much of the excitement now is rooted in politics and economics ... not the reality of all the COAL, oil, natural gas, and NUCLEAR potential we have ...
At least that is what I have learned ... so far ... I did do solar and wood for a year ... kinda fun ... takes some involvement though ...
I've been heating with wood for about 17 years, now.
I just have a big airtight wood stove in the middle of the house with some fans to circulate the warm air. I can usually keep the house about 50 degrees above the ambient temp, which can be a little chilly when it gets REALLY cold outside.
My costs are about three gallons of gas, 2 cycle oil and bar oil for my chaninsaw. Comes to about $35 a year, now.
Sometimes I get lazy or too busy with other stuff and gave to buy it. It runs about $30 per "rick" (nobody seems to agree on exactly what a "rick" is, but generally, it's about a full size pickup load) these days
Although Confucious was right when he said "Man who cuts own firewood heats self twice", there's a downside in that the house gets really dusty and messy and sometimes smokey. It does keep the house smelling nice and it's a great workout.
I'll probably continue with it for several years to come.
A guy at work suggested we rig up some man-sized hamster wheels to generate power and have inmates run those wheels round the clock in shifts. That right there would take care of a number of problems.
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ex70sHouston
I don't know much about these pellot heaters but I will sugjest that you review how you can heat for the least.
Electric prices, LPG (liquified petrolium gas/propane), fuel oil, natural gas varry per market area.
An interesting local thing is that LPG has gotton so expensive that electric heat is cheaper. This may work out for fuel oil also.
Heat pumps arn't popular up north because the sustained cold you get. Check out the ratings on the new heat pumps that use R-410a that is replaceing R-22. Gives 25% more heat at the colder temps. You can hook the up so that they work with a gas furnace.
Our electric rates just jumped 20% last month and I am in shock over the electric bill that came today.
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ChasUFarley
Bamboo, although a renewable resource, would still need to be processed, chopped and formed to pellets. I haven't heard of this being used but I do know that in some areas people are using corn, peach pits, olive pits, etc. as fuel.
In my area, there's a guy who is looking into growing a certain type of grass that can be harvested, chopped and formed. He estimates that it can be harvested twice a summer and is looking for people to share crop this product along with him. He's working on determining the BTU's that a ton can produce and the efficiency of the product. If I can find their website, I'll provide a link for you. If his experiment proves to work out, this could be answer to the problem of sourcing pellets. Right now, a ton of pellets is $280 in my area.
We've looked into the whole heating oil vs. pellet stove vs. propane stove (Rinnai), etc. option. At this time, we've decided that heating oil is still the most efficient and we belong to an energy co-op so we're getting our oil at dealer's cost plus $0.33/gal. We have tightened up the house quite a bit and seen a difference just in the insulated storm doors, extra weather stripping, thermal drapes, thermal window film and other small changes we've made. We keep the thermostat at 58 degrees during the day and dress in layers. Last winter, even with all the snow and constant winter (no thaws) we used just 500 gal of heating oil.
We also placed a sunroom on the south side of the house - we did a couple of years ago - but on a sunny winter day, the sunroom heats up to about 75 degrees and I open the door from the sunroom into the house and place a fan at the door of the sunroom to direct the warm air into the house.
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krys
I believe that oil is much to precious to burn in any form. We can't get any more than what's in the earth now (yes we may find more). If you don't agree I'd like to challenge you to google "petrochemicals" and judge for yourselves.
We all can't or shouldn't try to use the same resources because we don't all don't have them. Some of us can use wind, some solar, some geothermal, some this and some that. Use a combination. We have the technology - just not the desire. We'd better get the desire 'cuz I don't want to be around when we have the last barrel of petroleum and somebody has to decide....what are we gonna do....make plastic heart valves??? or heat somebody's house for a few hours?
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ChasUFarley
The fact we use heating oil or any other substance - wood, etc. - is more based on history and cost effectiveness (past cost effectiveness, that is) than it is on desire to not do anything. Looking at alternatives now is more costly because EVERYONE is scared that they won't be able to heat their home this winter and they are all looking for alternatives. The price of pellet stoves, wood stoves, etc. has greatly increased and the price of a cord of wood has gone up a good $100 in just two years!
If no one desired to change, then we'd still all be burning wood or coal, at least here in NH.
The problem is that because no one can truly predict what the market will do, then it makes it hard to make the best choice.
Personally, I'd go geo-thermal in a heartbeat - if I had land enough and wasn't sitting on a huge ledge of granite. We couldn't afford the digging and it would take about ten years to pay for itself - we'd be looking at over $20K just to dig.
Let me clarify - propane (LP) is processed here in the USA and not something we have to import. The price of it in my area is about $2.70/gal and it's seen only about a $0.60 increase from last year. This is because demand has increased.
Fossil fuels are now being questioned as to whether or not they're really fossil fuels. There are scientists who believe that it is not a resource that we will deplete nor that it came from dinosaurs. The price increase we're seeing now is due to a "perfect storm" of factors, starting with hurricane Katrina, the loss of the value in the US Dollar, the increased demand in China and other competing countries for fuel, and the lack of refineries to process the product. Add in the taxes that each state places on the products and there's your increases.
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krys
Chas - you're right. You're right about everything.
I know that the hydrocarbons were/are used because they were easy to get and cheap. We live in a different time now, so we should be exploring different things. And with the economy being so tight, it's like living, or, rather, trying to live with your body being in a paper bag and you can't see anything, and you can't punch your way out of it.
I am glad to see that so many are looking into so many solutions. That's a good sign. I even find myself wondering sometimes if we shouldn't reconsider nuclear power as a means of producing abundant electrical energy.....or....at least revisiting the issue.
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ChasUFarley
I don't know if I'm right about everything - LOL. My husband ceratinly wouldn't agree with that one.... but I've spent a lot of time learning about it because I quit my job three years ago so I could stay home with the kids. Hubby hasn't had a pay increase in three years, so we're surviving on what he was making in 2004.
This summer, my mission was to find the best heating alternative I could and to get Hubby on board with the idea so we could implement it before December.
Hundreds of hours later, looking at heating alternatives, etc., I learned that we're better off weather proofing the house and cutting expenses in other areas than trying to introduce a secondary heating source. It sounds simple but I had to explore all the options until I believed it. I also took time to talk with several people in the business - they all confirmed what I had found.
At least, that's the market and what works for my neck of the woods....
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rhino
Insulation and stopping air infiltration is the first and best use of energy saving money ... at least if you don't have a modern air tight home.
Once the house is well insulated and tight ... ground source heat pumps are pretty good ... and yes, we need lots more nukes. Nukes can make a lot of electricity, and we have lotsa COAL right here in the good old USA. We are the Saudi Arabia of COAL.
Pellet stoves are maybe not practical for most people ... you can go get a nice wood stove and burn wood with a little more effort ... I have all the wood I need, but not all the energy I need to mess with it.
Good points about fossil fuels chas ... I think much of the excitement now is rooted in politics and economics ... not the reality of all the COAL, oil, natural gas, and NUCLEAR potential we have ...
At least that is what I have learned ... so far ... I did do solar and wood for a year ... kinda fun ... takes some involvement though ...
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polar bear
I'm saving 100 percent on heat. I sold the house and am renting an apartment with all utilities included.
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Ron G.
I've been heating with wood for about 17 years, now.
I just have a big airtight wood stove in the middle of the house with some fans to circulate the warm air. I can usually keep the house about 50 degrees above the ambient temp, which can be a little chilly when it gets REALLY cold outside.
My costs are about three gallons of gas, 2 cycle oil and bar oil for my chaninsaw. Comes to about $35 a year, now.
Sometimes I get lazy or too busy with other stuff and gave to buy it. It runs about $30 per "rick" (nobody seems to agree on exactly what a "rick" is, but generally, it's about a full size pickup load) these days
Although Confucious was right when he said "Man who cuts own firewood heats self twice", there's a downside in that the house gets really dusty and messy and sometimes smokey. It does keep the house smelling nice and it's a great workout.
I'll probably continue with it for several years to come.
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Belle
A guy at work suggested we rig up some man-sized hamster wheels to generate power and have inmates run those wheels round the clock in shifts. That right there would take care of a number of problems.
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