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Preparing for Winter

I never stated that a circuit breaker was "not a disconnect". I'm saying that they can fail, in many ways. Moving the handle does not guarantee a positive disconnect on a molded case breaker. Also, few people have an acceptable Lock-Out / Tag-Out kit available, and fewer people know how to use it properly. You are playing with fire, not to mention someone's life on the suply end of your electrical service. Close your main before opening that 30 amp breaker and someone could die. There are panels with fail-safe interconnects for just such a setup--you physically can not position the breakers in an unsafe configuration.
 
I had my 7KW generator system installed for about three thousand last year. That included installation and the transfer switch. It runs off on a 120 gallon propane tank. That tank will run it for a few days. I didn't want anything I would have to drag out and hook up. I needed something that would start automatically when I'm not home. It runs the heat, well, microwave, garage doors and the first floor lights.
 
A good, old fashioned COAL boiler is sounding better and better. I wonder how it works out money wise. The coal bin would just take the place of the oil tank, and the arabs can K.M.A.
 
Bio Bricks

I bought a pallett ( 1 Ton) of Bio Bricks last year to try them out and used them to get the woodstove cooking and then mixed in 2 to 3 bricks with 3 to 4 logs of mixed hardwood/softwood.

Just pulled the woodstove to have the chimmney lined with a stainless one piece liner and the flue was almost spotless.

The Bio Bricks burn hot & Clean.

Im looking to get a 40 ft truckload purchace together. Any of you guys want to go in on a bulk deal?

I have a Dodge Diesil Truck and just need to beg or borrow a trailer to haul them from Hartford, CT to Portland Maine. One guy I was speaking with that is a Mason and built my hose just bought a new Stake Body truck with lift gate and hes interested

Capt Walt


Hey I just found a picture of the same kind of woodstove that I have chock filled with Bio Bricks..

Personally after having used these last winter I would not put that many in my woodstove at once. But then I like to use them in combination with Free Firewood.

Any of you guys that want to do a bulk by just E mail me and Ill get some prices. The only thing we have to figure out is getting the pallets off the trailer. I suppose the old tie a rope to it and tug method works as well as any. Drop the pallett (1 ton) right in your driveway. The only drawback is that they have to be stored indoors out of the rain.

in_stove_stamp_008-621x459.jpg
 
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N.E. CHARTERS said:
I bought a pallett ( 1 Ton) of Bio Bricks last year to try them out and used them to get the woodstove cooking and then mixed in 2 to 3 bricks with 3 to 4 logs of mixed hardwood/softwood.

Just pulled the woodstove to have the chimmney lined with a stainless one piece liner and the flue was almost spotless.

The Bio Bricks burn hot & Clean.

Im looking to get a 40 ft truckload purchace together. Any of you guys want to go in on a bulk deal?

I have a Dodge Diesil Truck and just need to beg or borrow a trailer to haul them from Hartford, CT to Portland Maine. One guy I was speaking with that is a Mason and built my hose just bought a new Stake Body truck with lift gate and hes interested

Capt Walt
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Funny you mentioned them. I just got 10 packs of these to try, and so far so good!. Depending on cost, I would likely be interested in some sort of bulk deal. I live right off of Rte 95 about 10 miles south to the NH border....
 
What are "bio bricks" anyhow?

Anyone know of a list anywhere with a comparison of prices/btu of oil, gas, coal, wood, pellets, electric, (other?)?

Too bad there can't be steam plants located in each town everyone could hook up to, powered by nuclear power. I know all or most of UMass was steam heated by the coal fired power plant.
 
PennyPincher said:
///We need a way to warm up our son's bedroom all winter anyway. Even if it is just a warm up before bedtime. We don't want to spend a lot of money - can't afford it. //
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My son's room is a bit cool as it's the end of the line, on the 3rd floor. First we got a small Quartz heater, but later found a thermostatically controlled heater with an oscillating fan - $40 or so at Lowes or HD. Easily keeps the room up to temp. Due to current draw they're limited to 5,000 BTU or, adequate for a booster in a room but not much more.

Growing up my parents economized on heat at night, and an electric blanket worked great. These don't solve the problem if you loose power, of course, but work great the rest of the time, for low cost.
 
Well, I put in a Honeywell RTH230B thermostat from Home Depot on Sunday. Had it set to go down to 60 on Sunday night starting at 8:15, and it just seemed to be too danged cold. I guess the old thermostat had some "play" in it regarding temp swings. I imagine it will take a week or so before I sort out the temps and times on the programming.

I started somewhere like this:
6:00 66 degrees while getting going in the morning, showers, etc.
8:00 61 degrees while at work, school, or busy around the house
5:15 67 degrees while coming in from outside or home from wherever
8:15 60 degrees for the night

Oh, I've turned off the "early start" feature, which makes it arrive at the programmed time "on time", as opposed to making that the start time. I think that had me confused, as it is counter to how most thermostats work.

I've now adjusted the night one to 8:30 and 63 degrees, and the 5:15 one to 66 degrees. Might take some more tweaking.
 
Chris said:
...While not technically legal, it's not that hard to hook up an emergency generator to your heating system. Just find your shutoff switch near the unit and wire into the downstream of the switch. Just have a 50' coil of 12 gauge Romex around and some proper size wire nuts. No permanent damage. Be aware that you might have another circuit that runs a blower or something. Certainly not for everyone, but if you can learn to just start a car, you can learn to deal with basic electrical for survival....
Click to expand...

I have seen people using an inverter off their car to back feed just the heating unit. Seemed to work well. Was quick to setup and was pretty cheap.


Edit: I just realized this was a resurected thread :-D
 
Chris said:
While not technically legal, it's not that hard to hook up an emergency generator to your heating system. Just find your shutoff switch near the unit and wire into the downstream of the switch. Just have a 50' coil of 12 gauge Romex around and some proper size wire nuts. No permanent damage. Be aware that you might have another circuit that runs a blower or something. Certainly not for everyone, but if you can learn to just start a car, you can learn to deal with basic electrical for survival.
Click to expand...

I cut into the wire from my furnace to the electrical panel (with power off). And inserted a female plug on the electrical box end, and a male plug on the furnace end. And then plugged them back in to each other. Now I can unplug it and plug the male end for the furnace into my generator when needed.
 
Knob Creek said:
I cut into the wire from my furnace to the electrical panel (with power off). And inserted a female plug on the electrical box end, and a male plug on the furnace end. And then plugged them back in to each other. Now I can unplug it and plug the male end for the furnace into my generator when needed.
Click to expand...

On the surface, this sounds like a good idea. I'd be interested to hear what, if any, downsides there are to this.
 
Coyote33 said:
On the surface, this sounds like a good idea. I'd be interested to hear what, if any, downsides there are to this.
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The main down side to this, is that circuit breakers in your panel can and do fail. So even if you think you have it clicked off, and it is bad (which you would never know) you will be back feeding power into the grid, and the poor sap who was called away from his wife, 2 kids and one on the way to fix your power outage is killed because you're too cheap to hook up your generator the right way.
 
Adam_MA said:
The main down side to this, is that circuit breakers in your panel can and do fail. So even if you think you have it clicked off, and it is bad (which you would never know) you will be back feeding power into the grid, and the poor sap who was called away from his wife, 2 kids and one on the way to fix your power outage is killed because you're too cheap to hook up your generator the right way.
Click to expand...

Read the quote in his post. He's not turning off the breaker, he's physically disconnecting the wire. As long as he did good work setting it up, I don't see a problem.
 
PennyPincher said:
So here in the Northeast I think one of the highest, most immediate threats would be surviving an extended loss of electricity due to a winter storm. My family mostly lives in Maine and frequently loses power for a day or 2 at a time. We really haven't had that problem in my town since I have been here. Also, my house is old and our son's bedroom just doesn't get warm in the winter. If we lose electricity I believe we would lose our heat since it has an electric ignition and blower fan. With this in mind I was looking into getting 2 space heaters - probably propane - for use in an emergency. My thinking is that a generator is very expensive, storage of gasoline could be complicated, and while needing to be careful with a space heater I am very familiar with them from growing up in Maine and feel I would be able to take the proper safety precautions. Anyone have any recommendations/comments?


I appreciate the comments so far. Let me add a few restrictions. Our house is not very large - 1400 sf. We need a way to warm up our son's bedroom all winter anyway. Even if it is just a warm up before bedtime. We don't want to spend a lot of money - can't afford it. I proposed a propane space heater because of the low cost (seen $100-$200 models), no need to ventilate, ease of storage of propane (right now we have 2 grill tanks and could easily buy 2 more), we could also buy a propane cook stove for camping which we could cook on if the power went out for a few days. Installing a fireplace, woodstove, or generator would be out of our price range at this point. I guess I am looking for any comments if people are familiar with this type of space heater, how well they work, safety of, and specific product recommendations. I am not looking at this as a long term SHTF solution. I am looking at the mostly event which would be a major winter storm and loss of power for 7 days or less. Oh yeah, any idea how much propane one unit would burn in 24 hours - I know it's relative but an educated guess?

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

So, is this post looking familiar to people these days?

The coming weeks would be a good time and here would be a good place to share lessons learned. What works? What doesn't? Who makes good and who makes bad products? Generators seem important when there is a sump pump and electrically operated furnace involved. Wood stoves seem to heat a house (no kidding) to keep pipes from freezing.

How about a new post with best bang for the buck easy stuff you can do?

Stay warm people!
 
Coyote33 said:
So, is this post looking familiar to people these days?

The coming weeks would be a good time and here would be a good place to share lessons learned. What works? What doesn't? Who makes good and who makes bad products? Generators seem important when there is a sump pump and electrically operated furnace involved. Wood stoves seem to heat a house (no kidding) to keep pipes from freezing.

How about a new post with best bang for the buck easy stuff you can do?Stay warm people!
Click to expand...


+1... I've been formulating that post for a day or two now...
 
matt said:
#11 - Assume your power is going to be out for a long time and handle your frozen/refrigerator food accordingly. If it is cold outside take advantage of that and move the food outside.
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And make sure you have coolers or totes on hand to put the food IN so you're not feeding the coyotes...

Also, 1 gallon water bottles, frozen outside and then placed in the fridge/freezer, will nicely extend the amount of time that your fridge/freezer stays cold.
 
dwarven1 said:
And make sure you have coolers or totes on hand to put the food IN so you're not feeding the coyotes...

Also, 1 gallon water bottles, frozen outside and then placed in the fridge/freezer, will nicely extend the amount of time that your fridge/freezer stays cold.
Click to expand...

Sorry - posted that here in error. continue the lessons learned in the new thread.

Matt
 
I have a nice porch that right now acts like a fridge this time of year. Comes in handy for the holidays and I have no room in the fridge.[laugh]
 
Realizing all the stuff I need to do:

new boiler
new hot water heater
new fan in bathroom
3 windows need to be fixed (wish I could replace)
would love to have a wood stove
need to chop some wood
need to buy a part for my snowblower chute
need to fix up my ice fishing tilts and box
need to buy new skates for the kids
need to sharpen my skates
need to sharpen ice chisels
waterproof and possibly point chimneys
need chimney caps

Looks like I'm into it for about a week of work and $500!!!!!
 
Rinnai heaters aren't too expensive, are very efficient, and only draw 120 watts for the fan. Some people run them off a battery or UPS. A generator is probably cheaper than a UPS as even the smallest would run the Rinnai. A HondaEU1000 sips gas.
 
I need to take down several trees, restack my wood piles, install snojax, and replace the friction disk on my backup snowblower.

Oh, and order about a ton of ice melt.

Rinnai heaters aren't too expensive, are very efficient, and only draw 120 watts for the fan. Some people run them off a battery or UPS. A generator is probably cheaper than a UPS as even the smallest would run the Rinnai. A HondaEU1000 sips gas.
Click to expand...
I like Rinnai, but wouldn't want to be dependent on having both gasoline and propane to avoid freezing.

As an alternative, Williams and others make what is called a "gravity wall furnace". These have a microvolt thermostat that runs off the pilot light and the fan is optional, so you can get thermostat-controlled propane heat without needing a supply of 120VAC.
 
Wow. Just saw this thread pop back up. Is it really that time in New England already? I guess so. I was just at a meeting here in Texas and a couple of times they mentioned "winter" and I had to control myself from blurting out "winter! you people don't know what winter is!" [rofl]
 
Just fired up the snowblower to see how it would go since I never got around to treating the gas in it this past spring, started up just fine.

Gas heat, stove, water heater, and dryer(the first three run off of pilot lights) so now what I need to sort out is which generator to get to keep essentials and laundry going in case of an extended outage. I'd love a standby generator to hook into the NG but that's not in the cards at this time. After that I'll be getting one of those $100 electric snowblowers for the deck and some de-icing cables for the roof and gutters along with a roof rake for back-up just in case.
 

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