A
Average_Joe
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Hello Newsgroup,
Propane out here is now $1.20/gal (June 2004) Since june is supposed to
be the cheaper month for the stuff, this sets off some alarms in my mind
as to what the future price will be. (and frankly it sickens me to think
of all those people dying overseas for petro, relying on petro for
survival really seems like a bad idea to me.)
I spent last winter cramped in to a tiny room with an electric and
kerosene heater. (Use kerosene when it was really cold and 900/watt
electric when I was sleeping, didn't DARE use more than 900 watts and
even that was probably risky)
This is an upstairs area with no fixed source of heat.
I'd like to install a more permanent source of heat in this area and the
next room. (maybe 400-500 sq. feet upstairs, not too much BTU but I like
to shut the rest of the house down when not in use, I could easily do
this if I had heat in the basement as all the plumbing is located there)
Kerosene was really not very good. (cheap, but dangerous in the
small area and left soot everywhere, handy for thawing the pipes or in
the garage, but I really hated breathing that crap, standing guard with
a fire extinguisher in the event of emergency wasn't much fun either,
this was a portable unit. If there was a proper circulation system, a
kero-sun heater could have very easily heated the area I'm most
concerned about.
This is an old house with poor insulation, poor wiring and would
basically go up in a puff of smoke very quickly if not careful.
I'm thinking of a pellet/corn stove upstairs, wood cook stove downstairs
and some other source of heat in the basement. (this house has no
centralized heating, it's currently propane space heaters downstairs
with nothing upstairs and nothing (working) in the basement) I was going
to leave one of the propane space heaters as-is.
The location has an abundance of corn (I live right next to a corn
drier and practically everyone here except myself is a farmer) I don't
forsee any major industry changes here for at least 10 years.
What are the typical insurance costs of installing corn/pellet and wood
stoves? Are they dangerous? Assuming I went with only the corn/pellet
would the chimney need frequent sweeping? What about using corn oil
instead of fuel oil?)
I'd like a wood cook stove simply because.. well.. I've come pretty
close to running out of propane.. kinda tough when hot
water/cooking/drying AND heating are all reliant on propane) I also like
the idea of using it for "waking hours" and falling back to something
else (with thermostat turned way down) during sleeping or out of house
hours. Seems kind of dangerous though.
I'd imagine the cost of insurance for this type of setup would be more
than using elecric heating though.
Any experiences from people using heating sources other than electric or
propane?
What are the down-sides of fuel oil (besides the petro factor)
What is/was corn/pellet like?
Was/is wood worth extra insurance costs?
Any experiences with these forms of heating (or *objective* web sites)
would be appreciated. Especially regarding chimney sweeping.
Thanks
Jamie
Propane out here is now $1.20/gal (June 2004) Since june is supposed to
be the cheaper month for the stuff, this sets off some alarms in my mind
as to what the future price will be. (and frankly it sickens me to think
of all those people dying overseas for petro, relying on petro for
survival really seems like a bad idea to me.)
I spent last winter cramped in to a tiny room with an electric and
kerosene heater. (Use kerosene when it was really cold and 900/watt
electric when I was sleeping, didn't DARE use more than 900 watts and
even that was probably risky)
This is an upstairs area with no fixed source of heat.
I'd like to install a more permanent source of heat in this area and the
next room. (maybe 400-500 sq. feet upstairs, not too much BTU but I like
to shut the rest of the house down when not in use, I could easily do
this if I had heat in the basement as all the plumbing is located there)
Kerosene was really not very good. (cheap, but dangerous in the
small area and left soot everywhere, handy for thawing the pipes or in
the garage, but I really hated breathing that crap, standing guard with
a fire extinguisher in the event of emergency wasn't much fun either,
this was a portable unit. If there was a proper circulation system, a
kero-sun heater could have very easily heated the area I'm most
concerned about.
This is an old house with poor insulation, poor wiring and would
basically go up in a puff of smoke very quickly if not careful.
I'm thinking of a pellet/corn stove upstairs, wood cook stove downstairs
and some other source of heat in the basement. (this house has no
centralized heating, it's currently propane space heaters downstairs
with nothing upstairs and nothing (working) in the basement) I was going
to leave one of the propane space heaters as-is.
The location has an abundance of corn (I live right next to a corn
drier and practically everyone here except myself is a farmer) I don't
forsee any major industry changes here for at least 10 years.
What are the typical insurance costs of installing corn/pellet and wood
stoves? Are they dangerous? Assuming I went with only the corn/pellet
would the chimney need frequent sweeping? What about using corn oil
instead of fuel oil?)
I'd like a wood cook stove simply because.. well.. I've come pretty
close to running out of propane.. kinda tough when hot
water/cooking/drying AND heating are all reliant on propane) I also like
the idea of using it for "waking hours" and falling back to something
else (with thermostat turned way down) during sleeping or out of house
hours. Seems kind of dangerous though.
I'd imagine the cost of insurance for this type of setup would be more
than using elecric heating though.
Any experiences from people using heating sources other than electric or
propane?
What are the down-sides of fuel oil (besides the petro factor)
What is/was corn/pellet like?
Was/is wood worth extra insurance costs?
Any experiences with these forms of heating (or *objective* web sites)
would be appreciated. Especially regarding chimney sweeping.
Thanks
Jamie