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Holy heating bill!


Dsetz

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Its too bad we export so many pellets to Europe and the price has balooned the last decade.
Some people were saving money burning feed corn in them, not sure where its price is atm.

Pellets may not be an economic gain but you save a considerable amount of time in the woodshed. You also don't have to worry about tossing on a log every 30 minutes.
And if your concerned about pollution-they burn quite cleanly.
I believe they are currently and contensiously being labeled as clean energy- so there may be subsidies coming with that designation.

I have 2 in my house(trailer) and use them for zone heating and to keep the furnace from running so much when it gets real cold.
My only complaints; they need cleaned semi-regularly. Soot build up makes them less efficient. The blowers can make an obnoxious drone. My one unit that is vented thru the wall WILL kill you if it somehow goes out and starts smoldering. The chimney vented larger stove doesn't do that.
Its never been an issue but ofc they don't work if the power goes out and you have no generator.
 


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Some people were saving money burning feed corn in them, not sure where its price is atm.
Depend on location. we don't make much shelled corn in New England, so price is higher than the corn belt. I believe fuel corn is sub-grade feed corn, burns fine, feeds not as well.

I had looked at corn stoves and ran down some math on BTU/cord of firewood versus BTU/acre of corn, it was something silly like 1 acre of corn at 150 bu/acre avg was equal to 4-5 cord of seasoned white oak. Avg cost to grow an acre of corn is $200/acre, but initial investment of equipment was prohibitive.

Yes, I have too much time to think most days.
 

Dsetz

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From your math it seems like we would all be smarter to burn corn in our stoves than in our cars lmao!
My BS is in sustainability & bio energy systems(ain't that some snowflake shit) so I enjoy such conjecture.
 

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From your math it seems like we would all be smarter to burn corn in our stoves than in our cars lmao!
My BS is in sustainability & bio energy systems(ain't that some snowflake shit) so I enjoy such conjecture.
The energy it takes to produce a gallon of ethanol is, as you probably know, pretty absurd. There's merit to a solid corn-fuel market, especially with the crazy bu./acre of today, but I believe it will always be a regional market.

<thread jack, continued>Bio energy is something I've had a growing interest in (no pun intended) What's the job market like on that? </end thread jack>
 

Dsetz

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Where I'm at its very poor lmao. Maybe if I had followed it up with an engineering degree it would be worthwhile.
Head to the coast and prospects improve, 40k+ to start. But I'm not going to do that- love the coast but dont love people.
Trying to finish my MS in plant science then the degrees go in a drawer and I'm going to start contracting full time herbicide and paint. Or whatever other crazy dreams I have to chase. Fine jewelry. Used hybrid auto lot.

Otherwise the best I could do with the degrees is probably in a marijuana analytical lab- which are close to 80k- but here they are all small business mom and pop labs that aren't hiring. If MT would remove its head from its butt and decide the tax income is GREAT, maybe that would change....
 

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Where I'm at its very poor lmao. Maybe if I had followed it up with an engineering degree it would be worthwhile.
Good to know, I'll stick with machining then lol
 

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You guys wanna know what fuels my furnace? :c-n:

There's a gas pipeline on the back of my property, I'm no hippy but I protested the hell out of them adding a pumping station a couple years back. Who wants that crap near their house? I've seriously considered the idea of tapping into the damn thing for heating fuel. You took my land the least you could do is give me free heat?
 
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Ouch that's a big increase in price!
About in line with cut prices here though.
What kind of wood do y'all burn over there?
Reminds me to start looking for pellets.

How are you using your heat pump? As a low end geothermal?
In past years I have gotten loads with lots of Locust and Birch, some Oak and Maple. Not really sure what I was burning the last few years, it was left here by the guy I bought the house from, and I couldn't ID most of it without the bark.

None of the load I got last week has bark on it, but I can tell by the smell it is heavy on Cedar.



My heat pump isn't anything as fancy as geothermal, just a central AC unit that has the ability to run backwards. I want to install some electric base-board units at some point. Especially now that there won't be anyone home to tend the fire most days.
 

Dirtman

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Any of you know how ash trees do as firewood? They sure suck to cut.... but I've got 20 acres of them.
 

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Dirtman

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85_Ranger4x4

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I'm curious if there's actually a difference between dyed offroad diesel and kero. There's a gas station in town that sells both at the pump - thing is, they're both red, they both look the same, smell the same, and burn the same but come out of different pumps and last winter kero was almost $7/gallon where offroad diesel was $2.50/gallon. Probably comes out of the same tank so I quit buying it. I heard the red dye in kero ruins heater wicks too.
Is not the same unless there is funny business at the station.

Winter diesel fuel is often blended with kerosene though so it doesn’t have as much lubricity as summer fuel.

Oh trust me, off road diesel gels up...
 

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Jealous of you guys with gas/propane hooked up! Out here electricity is 5.7 cents per kW thanks to a bunch of paid-off WW2 era dams & the trash furnace on the other side of the valley. Yet we still chewed up $350/mo last winter heating a split level 4-bed house with original '80s baseboard heaters. We had zoning down and everything. It'll be a cold day in hell before I fork that much over again so I got a couple bbq tanks and those Mr Heater radiant propane heaters off Amazon.

Remains to be seen how we'll handle this winter. It snowed about 7" total this October but its been 20s-40s out with no snow so far in November. Power last month was a bit over $200 before I bought the gas heaters. House smells like a warehouse but not as bad as if you're taking rips off a forklift tailpipe and the CO detectors haven't gone off yet.
 

alwaysFlOoReD

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I'm glad you have CO moniters. Be careful. If you start having headaches get out into fresh air.
 

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Will do. Got the house onboard with "smell something say something" too and we have low-O2 shut offs installed on the heaters. Propane will make CO but only when there isn't enough O2 to make CO2 so it cracks the molecule and shares the O. Having the monitors is one thing, testing them monthly is another.

Ive gotten the headaches and spins from overzealous diesel torpedo heater use on various job sites. Totally blows. It takes you out for pretty much the rest of the day.

This is one of the models. Works like a champ. Even better if you drill a hole through a wall and keep your tanks outside, those 5 gal bbq tanks aren't rated for indoors. These things are also ill-eagle in California but then again so are my guns and just about everything else I do :haha:
 

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