Burning oil = not happy

Sorry to hear this. Our first season and hoping the same. Run the oil only to exercise the furnace and warm the basement on the worst nites. We should make it through using less than 1/4 tank. Would electric heat wraps for your pipes be a consideration?

Friday night with the coldest temps in 5 years I lost my nerve and shut down the Harmon and ran the hydronic baseboard system. I had a minor blockage last year and caught it before the pipe burst. I have anti freeze (glycol) in the system, but I need to up the percentage to -20. I saw a post about this a few days back and it freaked me out just a bit. I have a fully finished basement and just don't wan't to take a chance. Is there a timer or some other device I can install to send a charge of hot water into the system periodically? I have a raised ranch, sometimes called a split level with a garage under a third of the space. I run the boiler to heat the three other finished rooms downstairs to 60 f. and the domestic hot water needs. I use less than 300 gallons of #2 fuel oil a year. Three and a half tons of pellets keeps the upstairs space a toasty 72-74 in the stove room and 67-68 in the bedrooms at the other end of the house. I haven't seen any posts about the antifreeze in the boiler system anywhere in the forum. Is this not commonly used anywhere else in North America?

Yep. Burning propane here. It's currently -15 with a windchill approaching -50. I'm 33 and I don't remember any weather like this ever before. The 10-cpm tries, but it's too cold and windy. I also have some air infiltration issues, and that's causing some problems. No frozen pipes (yet?) but there was literally ice in the bathtub in the daughter's bathroom. Yikes. I think there is an air leak somewhere back there!

Try this to prevent frozen pipes.

http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/

My pellet stove burns 24/7 all day every day during the winter season. Electric heating is controls by digital thermostat to keep the minimum temperature in the house at 70F in all the other rooms. The temperature where the pellet is located can rise above 90F, but I keep it at around 78F. Everyone knows where to find heat and it's not in the electric base board. I looked at installing oil, but not at a $7K price tag.

We have a frozen cold water pipe in the kitchen right now.

Running the furnace would not have prevented it. It is in an unheated crawl space 20 feet away from the basement.

These pipes froze every year with the furnace running.

We put heat tape on them 3 years ago, but I think it is just too cold or the heat tape is shot

RCCARPS said:

Try this to prevent frozen pipes. http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/

Click to expand...

I always fear the same problem, thanks

mrjoshuanyc said:

So with the crazy low temps lately looks like I'll be burning oil. Was hoping to get through the winter on one tank but thats not going to happen. I had a pipe burst last night in my garage. The pipe was a heating pipe for my daughters room. Stove was keeping the thermostats happy but not the radiators. I have the heat up to 70 to make sure the radiators get used. Im really bumbed about this and now have to deal with repairs and my home insurance company. Im addicted to my pellet stove but looks like it will supplement and not heat the house when temps get too cold. Hopefully others don't run into this issue!

Click to expand...

Hey Joshua - I am just across Rt. 129 in Croton and face the same issues. I find that when we have multiple cold days I am OK if, after 3 or 4 days at 20 or below, I run the oil burner for just 45 minutes in the morning and again late at night. Otherwise my Accentra FS carries our house at between 68 and 70, running 24/7. This morning it was 5 outside and 70 inside.

You gotta spend some time under there with spray foam come spring. If you need ventilation for warm months you can always control access using foam sheets. As a general rule, pipes just don't belong in unconditioned space.

We need to find a skinny person to get under there. You have to crawl on your belly and not be claustrophobic

I am always afraid of freezing pipes. I run my dino burner periodically just to warm the pipes in the basement and radiators in the distant rooms. I just crank the thermostat up to 95 degrees until I feel all of the radiators warmed up.

Bill

RCCARPS said:

Try this to prevent frozen pipes. http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/

Click to expand...

Only works with forced hot air systems. Will not keep radiators and pipes warm.

Bill

I use the bearmountaindesign product on my forced hot water system to keep the pipes from freezing. It works great. The system is basically a timer that fools the system into thinking heat is needed.

The purpose of the product is to prevent frozen heating pipes.

Rick.............

bill3rail said:

Only works with forced hot air systems. Will not keep radiators and pipes warm

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Works on a hot water system too...read "frequently asked questions...need one unit per zone

I clearly understand the desire to get off fossil fuels but it's not worth the risk if your pipes are going to freeze or parts of your castle are going to be uninhabitable. I'm happy if, at the end of the heating season, I've saved some money.

BigJohnfromCT said:

I'm happy if, at the end of the heating season, I've saved some money

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Me too ...with all fingers and toes

In a related development, I had to go into my main office on business today in a state building here in New Hampshire. A pipe burst in the heating/cooling system on the roof. The result was half a million dollars in damage. This includes three floors of flooding including the folks responsible for the instalation of the system two years ago flooded out. We are also talking a basement full of servers and a print shop. Paper files going back decades are ruined along with computers, furniture electrical fixtures, and everything else. The drywall was cut of at 36" from the floor. I will not take any chances. I'm going to give the baseboards some love in the next few nights in this cold spell!

mrjoshuanyc said:

So with the crazy low temps lately looks like I'll be burning oil. Was hoping to get through the winter on one tank but thats not going to happen. I had a pipe burst last night in my garage. The pipe was a heating pipe for my daughters room. Stove was keeping the thermostats happy but not the radiators. I have the heat up to 70 to make sure the radiators get used. Im really bumbed about this and now have to deal with repairs and my home insurance company. Im addicted to my pellet stove but looks like it will supplement and not heat the house when temps get too cold. Hopefully others don't run into this issue!

Click to expand...

Sadly I had the same thing happen on Saturday night. Definitely learned a lesson to keep the heat on very low in the upstairs when it is that cold. I am also going to look into getting extra insulation in my exterior walls. Thankfully the damage appears minimal.