Same here in NH. We pulled out blankets again, and woke up to the steam radiators cranking out heat the other morning. But tomorrow may be back in the 70s and Friday may be in the 80s.
I think we had 23C ( 73F ) and 5C ( 41F ) at night. I have slightly upgraded the house with wall insulation ( polyester wool ) and to the roof. It seems to hold it's heat very well if that temperature range. The cost of the walls was £350 (UK government/British gas) and fancy silver bubble wrap ( high grade ) £120. The house is 2000 square feet. The house is as bad as is possible 1966 design. Whilst the outside hit 23C the inside was 19.6C. If you can do nothing else insulation is a cheap upgrade. Heating isn't. To fully realise the benefits of modern heating you need to upgrade the radiators or fit underfloor heating to keep the water below 55C. I was duped by this. My old boiler had a very long pipe for the flue gases that ran through the middle of the house, it was a legacy of a hot air system of 1966. The exit temperature very low ( same or less than the new one ). The flame burnt blue. I doubt very much it was only 67% efficient as I was told due to no waste heat of the flue. I had no choice as it had become dangerous. It hadn't, it was exactly as when new. £4000 for no real return. I am selling the house so had no choice. I guess if anything it's 10% better with very high risk of repalcement in 10 years. The old one called Ideal Mexico was 30 years old without a days trouble. I often put water treatment in ( 2 years ). The gas engineer said how clean the system is.
The house I want to buy is oil fired. More or less diesel. The house owner is very confident it will be no trouble. The lady made a better statement. A local firm they've used for years will teach me the how and the why. By chance the new house is a near identical period and almost from the same book of designs. At least I know what to do. Being oil I really must sort out what I can to keep bills low. There is no gas locally.
The house I want to buy is oil fired. More or less diesel. The house owner is very confident it will be no trouble. The lady made a better statement. A local firm they've used for years will teach me the how and the why. By chance the new house is a near identical period and almost from the same book of designs. At least I know what to do. Being oil I really must sort out what I can to keep bills low. There is no gas locally.
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The Romans made their chariots the width of a horse. Next time you look at the rails at Oxford station you can tell your fellow passenges the whole rail system is based off of a horses ar5e.
Here (and I suspect most markets), Diesel and home-heat oil are the same thing. Road-use has Road Tax and a dye to show tax was paid. Heating oil is generally quoted in-tank while road fuel is priced at the station. But money aside, same stuff.
For some time, "Diesel" was low-Sulfur but it seems that it is all low-S now, not worth handling separate grades of the same stuff.
Gas heat generally burns with zero soot. Oil heat can soot-up the boiler in a year. Aside from NEVER using dirty fuel, your main upkeep is a thorough fire-side cleaning. This is a very messy job. I was always happy to pay the oil-man to clean the innards, replace the fuel filter, test the safeties, gap the spark, set the air-shutter, and check the smoke.
At least your (new?) oil tank won't leak into the basement or soil. In the UK they seem to want double-wall oil tanks. In the US this is unheard of; but sad tales of oil leaks are common.
I noticed the oil fired boiler looks sooty. Some Bosch boilers rival gas for efficiency. I will take that as true. What I did notice is we in the UK are allowed to work on an oil fired boiler, not so gas. For example repair the atomizer. The safety cut out uses a device Siemens had for sale in 1880. It is a semiconductor. The flue is in an area where I want to have a workshop. It looks despite my misgivings it will be a vastly expensive new Bosch boiler using existing tank and plumbing with flue relocated. Bottled gas is expensive and electricity a no no on price. Very few areas in the UK are off of a gas grid. Dorset seems to be one of the worse with no obvious reason. I read 2%, it must be more.
There are only two "fuels" you could use. Carbon and Hydrogen. Usually a blend. As long as you can get the C and/or H intimate (at the atomic scale) with air (O2), in best proportion, and wait, you can get 99+% of the chemical energy. (System efficiency is also limited by exhaust temperature.)
Coal is mostly carbon and comes in big lumps. We burn it on a grate. We never get uniform burning conditions and lose a lot in the ash. Charcoal slightly better. Neither are common in home heat today. Hydrocarbons are easier to handle and to break-up for best burning. More Carbon gives the Oils, which are sticky and must be force-atomized to burn near-completely. More Hydrogen gives Methane or Propane which break-up naturally and this leads to simpler burners; but you can't carry gasses in a bucket or compact thinwall tank.
There may be technological limits. Oil burns hot, and will melt/rot mild steel. In the US it has been the practice to run Excess Air to tame the peak temperature. This is even written into manuals, and means the "standard" adjustment on an oil burner gives only "80% efficiency", +/- much weaseling and odd definitions. Gas can often be burned without excess air and can show higher efficiency. My gas burner claims 94.5% (95+% is another price class even when it appears to be the same parts and box) (80% gas is popular in warm climes near the gas fields).
But "efficiency" be danged. It may be useful to compare different same-fuel burners, but does NOT lead to lowest heating cost (what you really want). Throw wood in a barrel. You be lucky to get 50% efficiency. But here in Maine it is very popular because trees are free. I have a 5 acre property which is wooded now, but only a dozen trees over 30 years old, overgrown with young trees. 1948 to the 1990s, they cut it over to heat the house. 1990s the old man got old, oil-heat was installed, the trees grew back.
I have zero hope of ever seeing the "Gas Grid". The nearest from-Texas mains are 300 miles away. The land from there to here is thin soil over granite. It would take more blasting to trench for pipes than this area's gas-needs could ever cover. Yes, trucked-gas is available, and this (other) property is now Propane. Someone was starting a Natural Gas truck service: NatGas is cheaper (being wellhead farts; Propane is cracked from NatGas) but much more bulky (being 40+% low-value contaminants). Dunno how that plays out. For now, Propane has a strong niche market in Maine and much of the US outside the Gas Grid. May be different further from the NatGas/Propane facilities in Texas and Oklahoma, such as in the UK.
I had conventional oil here. It was old, over-sized, and I had oil-leak worries at a former house. I tore it out and put in a $800 gas hot-air burner and three huge Propane bottles. No rusty oil tank. No red-hot flue at head height-- the smoke goes out in PVC pipe hardly-warm. While Propane is more expensive than oil per BTU (heat unit) the ~95% efficiency make it break-even. (Don't compare Oil to Propane per Gallon/Liter: Propane is thinner than oil.)
I read recently that the capture of carbon from the air can now be done for $100/ton. Was $600 in the past. The bigger deal was they hope to make heating products from it ( CH4? ) .
I guess what I could do is install the best possible LPG tank and generate electricity also. Then get the house as good as I can. At the moment neither the walls nor loft are any different to when build in 1966. As with most houses a token attempt by fitting double glazing. As far as I can see mostly it is the better sealing of the windows that works with that. The electicity needs to be quiet. I doubt I could do that at a sensible price.
The UK is getting problems with wind turbines. They are making radar play up. Some measures used with Stealth are required which means secret ways and means if we are to have more wind energy. You can't win can you.
The BBC reported recently about two forms of water. The news was in fact about two years old. Maybe the science world was shown it first as the research is ongoing. I have always been facinated by water. The one thing over use of carbon fuels might be doing is making the sea too acidic for life. It seems to knock some of evolution theory on the head as the fishes simply are not adapting. It's said Jellyfish will take over. I wouldn't knock the evolutionists except to say this is a small change which should easilly suit evolution. Time will tell. The specific heat capacity of water helps us greatly.
Water, water: The two types of liquid water -- ScienceDaily
I guess what I could do is install the best possible LPG tank and generate electricity also. Then get the house as good as I can. At the moment neither the walls nor loft are any different to when build in 1966. As with most houses a token attempt by fitting double glazing. As far as I can see mostly it is the better sealing of the windows that works with that. The electicity needs to be quiet. I doubt I could do that at a sensible price.
The UK is getting problems with wind turbines. They are making radar play up. Some measures used with Stealth are required which means secret ways and means if we are to have more wind energy. You can't win can you.
The BBC reported recently about two forms of water. The news was in fact about two years old. Maybe the science world was shown it first as the research is ongoing. I have always been facinated by water. The one thing over use of carbon fuels might be doing is making the sea too acidic for life. It seems to knock some of evolution theory on the head as the fishes simply are not adapting. It's said Jellyfish will take over. I wouldn't knock the evolutionists except to say this is a small change which should easilly suit evolution. Time will tell. The specific heat capacity of water helps us greatly.
Water, water: The two types of liquid water -- ScienceDaily
Speaking of gas, have none of you ever considered making a biomass digester?
It has been something I've thought about for a very long time, If I ever get enough space, I will:
1. Build an excavator from scratch (mostly to learn how to weld).
2. Make a Biomass digester/biogas system, fill it with waste, animal dung and connect it to the toilet.
Good'ol info, it's not a new thought:
https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint archive/Files/16_4_BOSTON_04-72_0070.pdf
Hah!
I see they even have these things over there:
Household Biogas Digester Pricing | Homebiogas
Seems a bit flimsy for permanent installations methinks, but very cheap at 590$.
It has been something I've thought about for a very long time, If I ever get enough space, I will:
1. Build an excavator from scratch (mostly to learn how to weld).
2. Make a Biomass digester/biogas system, fill it with waste, animal dung and connect it to the toilet.
Good'ol info, it's not a new thought:
https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint archive/Files/16_4_BOSTON_04-72_0070.pdf
Hah!
I see they even have these things over there:
Household Biogas Digester Pricing | Homebiogas
Seems a bit flimsy for permanent installations methinks, but very cheap at 590$.
No LPG in Magna Brittania? They probably use LPG in the islands surrounding England, Scotland and Ireland.
LPG was the only thing which kept chunks of Puerto Rico electricity running after the hurricane. Stateside, one of the problems with gas via a pipeline is that when it gets extremely cold (i.e. -5F which happens in the midwest of the US) the gas pressure drops quite significantly.
I seem to remember LPG is the more expensive option even with a big LPG tank here in the UK. Some say oil is the cheapest which I doubt. Estate agents mostly say it.
Venus. Could bright lamps help you with the winter blues? The ones I have seen seem to make me more depressed as it's not daylight. I am sure the ones who know will say I'm wrong. For me the need is to forget it's not real. We use to make daylight using strip lights and standard lamps. On a test card for TV it was close and very cheap to do, ugly looking. Very interesting as neither of the lamps used were anything like real daylight. A happy overlap made it possible, I suspect excellent daylight LED's must exist. I must say when I went to Sri Lanka I couldn't cope with the short days. All year round so no chance of looking forward. I never thought of Australia as where I would suffer the same, I think I see it now.
I notice some 2700K LED's are nothing like others. The first set I bought cheer me up no end and use as near zero watts as possible. 80 watts replacing 800. Beginner luck I think as these ones are the best. They are the " not approved " of plastic backed type and branded Wicks who are a DIY chain. It may be the very simple cluster of 4 ceiling fixings ( 16 lamps ) that helps. It is very hard to think the lights are on when in use. I've just switched them on. Today the sun is very bright. The lamps blend and are slightly brighter with a cream coloured light. 200 square feet. I bought them as no one in this house knows what a light switch is.
If I were very rich I would live modestly in England and New Zealand south island for these reasons. Norway is no good as the 5.5 hours of night we get right now is the limit for me. Zero hours wouldn't be good. Closing the curtains isn't the same, I somehow need it to be dark outside. In my recent life I have learnt to love the dark. If I wake up at 5 AM right now I feel guilty if I am not up by 6. In winter 8 AM suits me fine which means more sleep. The UK has the same weather all year around although this year has been better. I have learnt it's not how warm, it's sunlight I need. To be serious winter is often 10C and summer 17C, in the past it seemed more like -2C and 25C. The newer UK always has clouds. I am sure statistics will say I am wrong. Winter for a motorcyclist was always about snow. We seldom get it now and when we do it seems softer.
Here in Woodstock UK the birds use to sing in the night. 4am was their favourite. I put this down to the street lights. I even thought I imagined it. I went out with a friend to confirm it one night. These days they don't sing so much day or night and seldom or never at night. Our street lights were changed including new lampposts. To me they look the same, both versions of sodium lamps ( almost 100% sure not LED ). However, thinking back the old ones might have been higher pressure types of pinkish shade. I had put this out of my mind until living in Dorset this past year. More birds and more singing although not at night. Woodstock has tons of trees, why are the birds in decline? Dorset is 1970's Britain with 2018 if you want it. That's ideal. I can't say I feel unwell in Woodstock and better in Dorset. What I do feel is Dorset is in a plenty of choices time warp alnd a Enid Blyton could suggest. Perhaps the magnetic field has shifted a bit and the birds react to that?
I tell people for fun Stonehenge is a folly built in the 1700's ( in some ways it is as stones were put back I'm told, it was later ). The point is we have to take peoples word for it that it's old. I mentioned to my son that someone I know thought it was considered an energy source of some fascination, not Hippy types. I suspect a bit of Tesla and magnetic core stuff. Ley lines also. My son said he was visiting Stonehenge one day. His friend had shut my sons finger in the car door. Chris decided Stonehenge first then hospital. On touching the stones he felt warm all over and is convinced his finger was no longer broken. I really couldn't say and neither could he. Chris wasn't saying broken or not, Just he no longer was in pain and the finger no longer black. He sort of doubts it was broken 70/30, the way he said it I think he was convinced at the time. I neither believe nor disbelieve. I do feel the energy lines are real and protect the Earth and are the Auroras we see.
Chris told me how an aqueduct in Malta was Roman. A local said so. No, it is British Victorian period. The local said hard to believe it's so old. It wasn't. More fascinating was a Soviet map of Malta that has been published. In Chris's opinion the roads are marked for tanks to drive on in red, yellow not so good. The maps also show rivers that seem as dry as a bone. I said perhaps to say they could flood or might be weak. Malta is a great place if you like history. It has a bit of the Dorset about it although more 1300 + 2018. The people are timeless.
Venus. Could bright lamps help you with the winter blues? The ones I have seen seem to make me more depressed as it's not daylight. I am sure the ones who know will say I'm wrong. For me the need is to forget it's not real. We use to make daylight using strip lights and standard lamps. On a test card for TV it was close and very cheap to do, ugly looking. Very interesting as neither of the lamps used were anything like real daylight. A happy overlap made it possible, I suspect excellent daylight LED's must exist. I must say when I went to Sri Lanka I couldn't cope with the short days. All year round so no chance of looking forward. I never thought of Australia as where I would suffer the same, I think I see it now.
I notice some 2700K LED's are nothing like others. The first set I bought cheer me up no end and use as near zero watts as possible. 80 watts replacing 800. Beginner luck I think as these ones are the best. They are the " not approved " of plastic backed type and branded Wicks who are a DIY chain. It may be the very simple cluster of 4 ceiling fixings ( 16 lamps ) that helps. It is very hard to think the lights are on when in use. I've just switched them on. Today the sun is very bright. The lamps blend and are slightly brighter with a cream coloured light. 200 square feet. I bought them as no one in this house knows what a light switch is.
If I were very rich I would live modestly in England and New Zealand south island for these reasons. Norway is no good as the 5.5 hours of night we get right now is the limit for me. Zero hours wouldn't be good. Closing the curtains isn't the same, I somehow need it to be dark outside. In my recent life I have learnt to love the dark. If I wake up at 5 AM right now I feel guilty if I am not up by 6. In winter 8 AM suits me fine which means more sleep. The UK has the same weather all year around although this year has been better. I have learnt it's not how warm, it's sunlight I need. To be serious winter is often 10C and summer 17C, in the past it seemed more like -2C and 25C. The newer UK always has clouds. I am sure statistics will say I am wrong. Winter for a motorcyclist was always about snow. We seldom get it now and when we do it seems softer.
Here in Woodstock UK the birds use to sing in the night. 4am was their favourite. I put this down to the street lights. I even thought I imagined it. I went out with a friend to confirm it one night. These days they don't sing so much day or night and seldom or never at night. Our street lights were changed including new lampposts. To me they look the same, both versions of sodium lamps ( almost 100% sure not LED ). However, thinking back the old ones might have been higher pressure types of pinkish shade. I had put this out of my mind until living in Dorset this past year. More birds and more singing although not at night. Woodstock has tons of trees, why are the birds in decline? Dorset is 1970's Britain with 2018 if you want it. That's ideal. I can't say I feel unwell in Woodstock and better in Dorset. What I do feel is Dorset is in a plenty of choices time warp alnd a Enid Blyton could suggest. Perhaps the magnetic field has shifted a bit and the birds react to that?
I tell people for fun Stonehenge is a folly built in the 1700's ( in some ways it is as stones were put back I'm told, it was later ). The point is we have to take peoples word for it that it's old. I mentioned to my son that someone I know thought it was considered an energy source of some fascination, not Hippy types. I suspect a bit of Tesla and magnetic core stuff. Ley lines also. My son said he was visiting Stonehenge one day. His friend had shut my sons finger in the car door. Chris decided Stonehenge first then hospital. On touching the stones he felt warm all over and is convinced his finger was no longer broken. I really couldn't say and neither could he. Chris wasn't saying broken or not, Just he no longer was in pain and the finger no longer black. He sort of doubts it was broken 70/30, the way he said it I think he was convinced at the time. I neither believe nor disbelieve. I do feel the energy lines are real and protect the Earth and are the Auroras we see.
Chris told me how an aqueduct in Malta was Roman. A local said so. No, it is British Victorian period. The local said hard to believe it's so old. It wasn't. More fascinating was a Soviet map of Malta that has been published. In Chris's opinion the roads are marked for tanks to drive on in red, yellow not so good. The maps also show rivers that seem as dry as a bone. I said perhaps to say they could flood or might be weak. Malta is a great place if you like history. It has a bit of the Dorset about it although more 1300 + 2018. The people are timeless.
It's payback time now, these never ending days...... YouTubeWe got very dark winters so it evens out.
I have too been unsucessfull in the past in regards to simulating natural daylight indoors. However I hope to be sucessful this year as I am currently undergoing testing involving a bed-end clip on lamp with a 60w ES incandescent bulb with a reflector type glass fitting on it. So it literally heats/warms up my arms.
That is I beleive the missing link, heat, infrared, Vitamin D production.
The close proximity to my arms should also make things far more energy efficient, placing 60 watts here at my arms and face and head should prevent me from having to use an overhead lamp in the ceiling and having to burn 100-150 watts there just to fill up the entire room with infrared rays.
I once bought high powered CFL "SAD" bulbs and they didn't work, they honestly peed me off more than made me comfortable as I would in the sunlight, probably from a lack of infrared.
Depends on where you are, If you are located inland its not likely that you will be getting any sort of cloudy days, but you also won't get any rainfall and it will be mostly desert land that you would have to live in. Those kinds of areas are a place where you would consider year round work outside to be possible.
I am on the coastline, as most people are in Australia because its generally too hot to live inland during summer at least. And winter here is typically a long 3 month period starting in April of windy rain and overcast days where the clouds never move and stay like they are stuck ontop of your house like melted cheese, blocking any sort of sunlight off from reaching the ground.
Infrared. I'm suprised your country is so hostile towards energy burning Halogen and Incandescent bulbs when these very things are probably the only things possible of keeping you guys chipper and prosperous.
My mum often says that the sun was never as intense as it was now in the past when she was growing up, she is in her late 60s.
A draught can make you think its far colder than it actually is.
The quantum mechanics of the conventional light bulb should be far more well known:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chador...licated-physics-of-a-light-bulb/#6972362d4f55
Maybe its because the sun is feeding us particles of energy and that is the reason why we/our bodies miss it so much when winter comes because it feels like we are no longer being fed/dying.
I'm sure that we have things far more in common with the typical houseplant than we think we do. Scientists voting on public policy can be so destructive when they want to be. BRING BACK THE BULB!
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