Hearth.com Forum

does used copper wire go bad

2008-04-19T14:55:14-05:00

due to increased resistance, humidity,water ,wear from usage etc.
looking for reasons not to use , possible backlashes from using again
i am primarily concerned with the physical/chemical aspects of the used copper
thanx

dryer gas vs electric

2008-06-14T20:10:32-05:00

Hi I will be in the market for a dryer soon, and am wondering which is more cost efficent ? I live in Maine where electricity is pretty expensive. I already have a gas stove so the gas company comes here anyways Thanks for your help Dan

Anyone look into heat-pump water heaters? My quest for oil-free house

2008-06-30T18:02:18-05:00

I’m thinking more about how to go 100% oil free. Currently we are down to about 180-200 gallons/year after putting in solar HW to shut down our boiler about 8 months per year, and using wood heat as much as possible to keep it off in shoulder periods and minimize use in winter.

The sad part of this, however, is that much of that 200 gallons is standby loss - I estimate at least 0.5 gallons/day, or about 60 gallons in that 4 month winter stretch when the boiler is on. This really aggrevates me in that a relatively low percentage of this expensive oil I buy ever makes it into my house as heat. But it also suggests that I could go with a low level of supplemental heating system even using electric sources and eliminate this altogether, maybe saving money in the process.

I’ve been thinking about domestic water heat pumps as one possible solution, coupled to radiant tubing on our first floor (not installed, but easy to do and something I’m looking at anyway for better heating efficiency) and part of our second floor (tubing installed following opening ceiling for water leak). Two BRs would be kept at 50 on their own baseboard zone with relatively low temperature water.

There is a nicely documented study from CT where these heat pump systems seem to achieve real-world COP of around 1.8:

http://www.cee1.org/eval/db_pdf/277.pdf

We have an unconditioned, large, and deep basement - only about 1 foot above grade. I suspect that even with one of these systems running, we’d be unlikley to change the basement temperature much beyond ground temperature, so we should have no trouble getting good performance - consistent ambient temperature.

So if I work through this a bit, I could say that while I’m buying 200 gallons of oil a year, I’m really only getting about half that into my house as heat when accounting for combined standby and combustion efficiency losses. This would suggest that I need about (100 gallons) (138,000 BTU/gallon) divided by (4 months)(24 hours/day)(30 days) = 4800 BTU/hr on average for the 4 winter months that I run my boiler to supplement my wood heat. In reality, I know this will spike and drop over time, but I’m assuming that I would use a hydronic storage system to help balance this load, and would be looking at a heat source with a higher rating.

Then the question is would any of this be cost-effective?

My baseline case is just buy 200 gallons of oil. Currently, that oil would run $800/year if I’m lucky, plus I need to maintain my entire oil boiler system which adds a lot of cost.

If I purchased equivalent of 100 gallons of oil with regular electric resistance heaters (i.e. a standard water heater) at $0.15/kwH, I’d spend about $606/year for the energy assuming 100% efficiency, and probably get about the same heat into my home as the 200 gallons of oil. This would have next to no maintenance or complexity. In theory it could even be done with cheap space heaters.

If I was able to realize COP of 1.8 with a heat pump system, I think this means I could drop the price to $337/year. Probably more risk of unplanned maintenance/failure expenses, but probably still less than oil furnace. System cost is around $2000 for a 12,500 BTU system, so about 13-14% return on investment compared to a straight resistance heater.

Anyone want to poke holes in this line of thinking or offer their thoughts?

The other options I haven’t sized include adding some high efficiency vacuum tube solar arrays and relying on existing electric resistance heater as backup when those don’t do the job, and/or doing a water heat exchange loop behind my woodstove, integrating it into my solar control system as a second solar array that would take heat when stove is hot. The problem with the woodstove heating is that I’m not sure I can move that much more wood through it in the winter without burning faster/less efficiently, but I’d have to be burning at least 25% more wood to generate the required extra BTUs to supply water/radiant heating.

-Colin

What have you done to cope with high energy costs?

2008-05-30T12:23:17-05:00

Assuming that you’re paying more for energy - and who isn’t - logically more of your otherwise disposable income is now going to pay for all sorts of things that cost more - gas, food, etc. There are many ways of adjusting to this. I’m curious - how have you adjusted? Where does the money come from? More debt? “Government stimulus?” Have you even adjusted at all?

Reducing consumption is one way to cope. If you have, what have you done, specifically? Trading your Chevy Suburban for a Smart ForTwo, assuming you drive the same number of miles, counts as “reducing consumption” but going from oil to wood or pellets doesn’t - that’s a different answer.

If your consumption has remained relatively constant how have you re-allocated your expenses to offset energy’s higher cost?

For me, I’ve completely eliminated going to restaurants. That means no eating out - no McDonald’s no Starbucks, nothing. No movies (but I do have Netflix). Haven’t had TV for years but that predated energy’s recent rise so it doesn’t really count. Have had small fuel efficient cars for years too. Never did much frivolous driving but I’m making a concerted effort to combine necessary trips. Sold my airplane but with avgas over $6.00 a gallon I wasn’t flying much any more. No magazine or newspaper subscriptions - no need as long as my dialup works. I’m going to the local library more than ever, no book purchases necessary. Ammo purchases are down to about nothing due to its high cost. Already have a bunch of CFLs and dimmers on what aren’t. Planted a small vegetable garden. The pellet stove will reduce my heating oil consumption. Next on the chopping block for me is my cell phone and Netflix - I lived without them for years and can do it again. After that… well I really don’t know. There’s not much else to cut. Maybe I’ll stop cutting the grass.

Speaking of cutting my barber says his business is down - he says people simply go longer without a haircut. I suppose I’d just shave my head if necessary. Save on shampoo also.

So what have you done? What WILL you do if gas goes to $10.00 a gallon or simply unavailable at any price?

Be specific!

I’d put this in the form of a poll but the answers would be too constraining.

Solar Energy Research Center

2008-07-04T09:56:33-05:00

http://www.du.se/Templates/InfoPage____4176.aspx?epslanguage=EN

Solar Energy Research Center have many good publications on solar energy and some on pellet.
And some interesting projects.

Check it out

/Hansson

Compost and Organic Gardening

2008-06-24T15:11:52-05:00

Organic gardeners know the value of compost: it’s the engine that drives the organic garden.

I have three compost bins, which I’ve used for more than 15 years. However, over the past couple of years (since I got a bagging mower), I’ve been building a regular compost pile out in back of the wood pile, and have discovered that it’s less work than the bins and yields a large amount of the essential ingredient--organic matter in various stages of decomposition.

Actually, the pay dirt, if you will, is located at the bottom of the pile, so you have to excavate it out of there every year. This involves basically moving everything that sits on top of the good stuff into a new location, where it will form the basis for next year’s mulch. In this pic, the good compost is down at the bottom of the pile--the dark area behind the shovel head. Note that I sift everything through an old steel milk crate lined with chicken wire to get compost of even consistency. Anything that won’t go through the wire (black walnuts, avacado pits, clam shells, small sticks, stones [ I know], etc.) gets thrown back onto the pile for more time to decay. The usable compost is mostly a decomposed mixture of grass clippings, raked leaves and pine needles, kitchen scraps, weeds and other dead plants from the garden and yard.

Potential savings with advanced house construction…..

2008-06-01T18:08:14-05:00

With the price of oil and energy going up, and the realization of most Americans that our energy and carbon footprint is too large, I wonder if and when building codes will be tightened up.

I was reading today about the Passive Houses being built in Europe as well as those built to the German standards. It is interesting calculating the potential savings in cost and resources…

Example: A house constructed in the USA to 2003 Model Energy Efficiency Codes uses between 5 to 15 BTU per sq foot per heating degree day.

So taking a season of 6000 degree days - and a 2,000 sq ft house - that would be an average of about 120,000,000 BTU or 1,000 gallons of oil in a very efficient burner (average - figured at 10 BTU sq ft).

A Passive House is engineered to use 1 BTU per Sq Ft per heating degree day.....

Meaning that the oil used would be 100 gallons instead of 1,000!

Although I am certain that such standards will not be required for a long time, it is interesting to see that we COULD get by on vastly less energy and still have a reasonably sized house, etc. - Even instituting some of the advanced standards could result in a savings of 1/2 or more over the current codes.

It may be in the near future that we complain about using 1000 quarts of fuel oil, instead of 1000 gallons.

House hold wind mills

2008-07-01T08:04:03-05:00

Does any one here make there own electric power for there house with a wind mill?

I would love to flip the electric company that special finger. It was a proud day when I flew that finger for the gas company.

Start up cost seem very high for any unit I ve found on the web, it would take years to pay for itself. I am not sure the wind mill would outlast the cost of buying the unit.
I haven’t give up on wind power yet....I just haven’t found the right unit yet....

Anybody familar with wind power???? advise?????? Links????

Cost of hot water

2008-06-20T06:57:58-05:00

I recently installed a pellet stove to heat my home. We still currenty have to heat our domestic hot water thru the tankless coil on our oil boiler. I am looking to see is anyone knows of a cost to energy calculator to heat water for oil/electic/gas/solar. Oil is currently $5.00 per gallon in our area while electric currently costs .12 cents per KWH and unfortunatly we dont have the option on natural gas. I have looked into solar a litte bit but it seems that we would have to spend at least 4k to have that done and the pay back seems very long term.

Duke Power Going Green?

2008-06-23T04:26:28-05:00

Yesterday’s NY Times Magazine has an interesting article about Duke Power’s CEO Jim Rogers and his plans for the company. By 2050, he wants Duke’s CO2 emissions down to 0. He has proposed installing 500,000 solar panels on the roofs of private homes. All purchase, installation, and maintanence costs to be born by Duke. This would be the equivalent of a new 1000 megawatt generating facility. Apparently to begin this summer on a trial basis in NC and SC is the use of smart meters which “automatically turn off customers’ appliances during periods of peak power use.” Projected savings in the Carolinas is 1800 megawatts. The bulk of the article deals with the cap and trade legislation making its way through Congress.
I’m posting this mainly in hopes that others with far more knowledge and expertise than I possess will read the article and comment. Since at least the 1930’s (look at the history of DP and coal mining in Appalachia) Duke Power has been one of the most sinister and notorious energy companies. They still rank number 3 in overall CO2 production. If this change of heart and attitude can be believed, we really may be entering a new era.