This weekend we visited Charles Family Hearth and got an education in options.
After careful research we thought for sure we wanted a pellet furnace. Not a stove but an actual furnace that we could tie into our existing duct work.
Our biggest issue is we have an old farm house, it’s leaky, not well insulated and not easy to insulate. It’s chopped up, not open so it doesn’t lend itself to a stove. We’d never get the heat distributed.
We currently have oil heat, and last winter we burned through 750 gallons of fuel oil. We ran out twice. For the last month we limped along and wore sweatshirts, etc.
Basically our options break out like this:
| Technology | Pros | Cons |
| Oil Heat | Do nothing | Go broke. |
| Wood (whole logs) | None that I can see. Might save some money. | We have to buy wood or go get it. We don’t have woods to cut our own. Cutting/splitting/stacking wood sucks. Then transport wood to the basement or where ever the wood furnace is sounds like a real joy. Wood needs more attention, you can’t leave all day and expect to come home to a warm house. |
| Corn | it’s just like wood pellets | It’s as expensive as oil and is apparently very inconsistent. |
| Propane | Easy conversion from oil. | Just as costly. |
| Natural Gas | Would Save money | It’s not available to us. |
| Electric (Heat Pump) | Should save money | Not sure a heat pump could keep up with our drafty old house. I suspect we’d be on electric auxiliary heat a lot and that’s not economical. Heat pumps are not ‘warm’ and we like warm. |
| Wood Pellets | Should be cheaper, is a warm heat, but isn’t instant on like oil. | We’re already seeing prices of $300/ton (before delivery). Pellets have been in short supply in recent years. Stoves/Furnaces are in high demand, allocation is an issue. Some of the bigger producers are in iowa and were just flooded out. They are not maintenance free, you can automate pellet deliver, but you still have to maintain the burner and heat exchanger. You have to man handled 7 tons of pellets to get the same BTU’s as 750 gallons of Oil. |
| Coal | Cheapest of all options | Dirty as hell, smelly, and you have to handle it which isn’t attractive. |
| Geo Thermal | none for us | Far too expensive to install at this stage of the game. This works best with tight efficient houses, our is the opposite of that. If I were building new I’d certainly consider this. |
| External/Outside Furnaces. | None to me… | If I’m already bitchin about loading a wood/pellet furnace that’s in my house, why in the world would I want to do that in cold and snow. |
So right now our run away leading candidate is a wood pellet furnace.
There are a couple brands/models. Some auto start, some don’t. Some have large hoppers some don’t. All require me or someone in our family to be the fuel delivery mechanism at some level.
Some are available, some are constrained. None are fast heating. You don’t get the blast of heat we’re used to with Oil out of anything but Oil (or gas). But they work well if you keep them at a constant temperature and keep them burning (so we’re told).
What are we missing?
_self
The new car…
June 23, 2008 in Commentary, Family, Miscellaneous by MAD | No comments
So here’s the break down. We are a family of 7 with 3 drivers now. Each one of us drives a fair amount, and with gas prices heading north of $4 a gallon we had to do something.
Before anyone complains about the Excursion, let’s do a little math.
We have a family of (7), one in a car seat. To go anywhere as a family you need something this size. In fact your options are somewhat limited.
Taking two cars that get 25mpg each, nets you 12.5 mpg in the end so there’s no savings. It’s worth the premium to take one vehicle.
Since everything is paid for, every time we look at new vehicles and do the math… The cost/payment on something new that would hold us or almost hold us would buy a lot of gas and a lot of repairs. (We also have to pull a horse trailer and other stuff from time to time).
In any event, having Michael commute to Kings Island for work and down to UC for the summer for his college class and eventually to CCM at 12-14MPG didn’t have me very excited. The van does have advantages; it’s paid for, is fairly reliable, and is pretty safe as well.
We’ve been keeping our eye out for a good deal on something and finally landed it last week.
We now have a 1998 Ford Escort ZX2… Yeah, the sport model. It was literally driven by a little old lady to work each day and church on Sunday. It’s 10 years old and only has 88,000 miles. (OK, so Melody isn’t that old).
It’s in really good shape for it’s age. It’s got 10 years worth of scratches and dings but overall was a great buy for us. With estimated mileage at 30MPG it will pay for itself in 10,000 miles vs driving the van. So that’s all good. It is by far the highest MPG car we own, as well as the lowest overall mileage.
It’s a stick though, and Michael didn’t know how to drive a stick. We worked with him this weekend and while he did well, we’re not sure he’s ready to take this to the hills of Clifton just yet. Perhaps next week.