don't go up in smoke! Gasification boilers vs outdoor boilers

When it comes to cheap, easy heat in rural areas, there seemed to be a continuing trend towards outdoor boilers. These "garbage disposal" type wood burners are touted as being able to burn "anything" from freshly cut wood to scap lumber. Unfortunately, these "wood doctor" type boilers are anything but cheap and easy. They are notorious smokers that never seem to offer an efficient burn; efficiency rarely above 50%. Combine that with household garbage that is sometimes disposed of in these units and you have a particularly toxic and polluting heat source.

Then comes the gasification boiler or furnace. These newer boilers use the latest in combustion technology; beyond the "secondary burn" technology offered in woodstoves which has been a huge benefit in home heating.

Where the difference lies between "secondary burn" woodstoves and "gasification boilers" is the temperature at which the fuel is burned. In standard wood burning appliances, it is well known that higher temperatures = cleaner burn. Hence the catalytic converter inserted in some woodstoves. The problem with woodstoves and most outdoor boilers is that they cannot effectively raise the temperature of the combustion chamber without damaging the firebox itself; not above 800°F in a woodstove and 500°F in an outdoor woodboiler.

Gasification boilers operate with a slight difference. First they combust the fuel source (wood) in a low temperature primary burn chamber. This releases all the fuel from the wood in the form of smoke and other gases. Then fresh "super heated" air is injected into this "smoke" as it enters the secondary burn chamber which is lined with refractory brick. This allows the burn temperature to rise above 1800°F offering a clean and efficient flame. All fuel that has been released from the wood is being burned without the use of a catalytic converter. These boilers/furnaces can reach efficiencies above 95% vs 70% for top quality wood stoves and 45-50% for the average outdoor wood boiler. This can equate to a fuel wood savings of hundreds of dollars or many, many cords of wood. If you burn 5 cords of wood in an outdoor wood boiler, you would use 3 1/2 cords with an efficient wood stove or just over 2 cords with a super efficient gasification boiler. Now you see why "cheap and easy" isn't so "cheap and easy"?

choosing a wood stove

So you might be considering a wood stove to heat your house. Assuming you have an abundant source of wood, it is a reliable and satisfying source of heat for your home since it does not rely on electricity to operate as does many wood pellet stove or liquid fossil fuel furnaces. (oil or gas)Also, it is one of the cleanest ways to heat your house using a consumable fuel source.

Contrary to popular belief, burning wood does not add new greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as the CO2 that is released from the combustion process is the same quantity of CO2 that would otherwise be released by wood decomposition if the tree where allowed to rot on the forest floor.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a stove: colour, style, pedestal or legs, size etc. The most important factor is to properly size your wood appliance to make sure it delivers the most efficient heat, cleanest burning and not to either overheat or underheat your home.

The most common error that people make when choosing a stove is to buy one that is too big for the area that it is going to heat. Having too big a stove is actually a bigger problem than too small a stove for the following reasons. With a stove too big, you will need to make a smaller fire to prevent overheating the house. By doing this, efficiency is sacrificed since the firebox temperature is not raised high enough to ensure complete combustion creating a potentially dangerous buildup in the chimney and offering sporadic comfort. A stove too small will mean more frequent refueling, potential overheating of stove or chimney if overfired and insufficient heat for the house. The up-side to undersizing is that combustion efficiency is increased and there is a reduced amount of deposits in the chimney. The ideal size of appliance offers adequate heating, low maintenance and minimal chance of overheating/underheating.

To get more detailed info on heating with wood, download this free publication from CMHC. It is a wealth of information to help you choose your wood burning appliance.







http://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/b2c/catalog/z_getpdf.jsp?pdfkey=2367912238736807498957944372812017562117778745946569768/66067.pdf

Down the drain!

One source of heat that we often forget about is the waste heat from the hot water that we use in our house. This "extra" heat can be recovered very easily and put back to use to reduce our energy requirement for heating. One system uses a simple coil-over drain pipe to recover wasted heat.


As the water goes down the drain, it coats the inside of the stack and transfers the heat to the incoming cold water on it's way to be heated. This system works great for end uses that use water as it is draining such as a shower. It does not however work if you are taking a bath as the waste heat only occurs at the end of the fill cycle, not during.


The best way to recover heat from a bath, or if you don't have a recovery heat stack, is to leave the water in the tub until the temperature has equalized with room temp. Of course, you only want to do this during the heating season as otherwise you would be taxing your A/C unit (if you have one). A second benefit of this is the additional humidity this provides during the "dry" season.

Free heat

For those of you looking to reduce your heating bill without converting to another fossil fuel or buying a wood stove, this might just be the ticket. Convection Solar space heating. How is this different than a PV solar panel? Well first of all, it' not Photovoltaic,or PV, so it does not generate electricity. In fact, trying to heat your house with electricity produced by your own PV panels is like trying to power your car with rubber bands. Yes it can be done, you just need a lot of rubber bands. On the other hand, if you use all the power from the sun, not just 13% which is what PV panels capture, then you are in for a surprise as to how much heat you can produce and how much money you can save!





This type of solar panel heats air which is then allowed to enter the house therefore reducing the load on the main heating system during sunlight hours. There are many companies making these convection solar space heaters that work just great, but of course, there is a cost; somewhere around $2700. Not cheap considering the output of a single unit.

But if you have a little time on your hands and if you are handy and want to venture into making one of these yourself, the good news is, you CAN! In fact, some units are made exactly of that! CANS. Yes recycled pop cans that have had the top and bottoms removed, painted black, and glued together under a sheet of glass or plastic. Of course, there are different ways of putting one of these things together. You can use any highly conductive material ie. aluminum, under glass or plastic, so as not to loose the heat gain, then vents in and out of the unit from the house as depicted in photo.

Here is a little math for those who want to build one.
We know the sun delivers slightly more than 1000watts per square meter and we know that there are losses in the area of 30% to 40% because of heat dissipation, reflection, inefficient heat transfer etc. I assume 40% so as not to over estimate. This leaves us with 600watts per square meter.

A sheet of plywood is 4'x8' or 32 square feet, just over 3 square meters. It can therefore absorb the equivalent of 1800 watts or just over 6100 BTU. (just over 2000 btu per square meter), or 56.25 watts per square foot. All calculations are based on a "per hour" basis.

Now calculate the size of the available wall (south facing of course and no obstructions!) and determine the amount of heat you would like to produce. You will probably run out of wall!

In winter, the sun does not shine all day long. To be realistic and not to over estimate, the actual average sun light based on the worst month of the year is 2.5 peak sunlight hours per day. Of course it's more than that overall, but not peak.

Lets say you have 24 feet of wall, 8 feet high, you could potentially produce 27000 watts per day, or 92000 btu. The amount of heat an average furnace produces in one hour of non-stop operation.

Now consider the savings. At $0.10 per Kwh, you are saving $2.70 per day for the worst month. Of course the other months get better so the saving is actually higher. $2.70 x 31 days is $83.70 savings per month based on electric heat. Not bad for free heat!

Now go get that tape measure and start figuring!

landscape revisited

When building our house, one of the aspects of our chosen lot was that we could "plant" a house in the middle of trees making it look like it had been there for the last 50 years. We didn't want to bulldoze everything and start with a lawn, then plant trees, flowers etc. and ending up having our yard look like every other yard in town; a mix of various non-native, hard to maintain plants that need very specific requirements. Instead, we used many native plants available in or around our yard.

Another reason for adopting this approach was to reduce cost. At $200+ per load of topsoil, It would have cost over $10000 in top soil and earth moving to produce a lawn not to mention the cost of maintaining a perfectly manicured green space.

The ideal setting is one where the house is skirted with tall evergreens on the north side of the house and deciduous trees to create shade on the remaining sides, but at least the south and west. This provides wind break for the winter and shade in the summer. Once the leaves fall, the sun can once again reach the house to offer solar space heating. The typical subdivision layout is houses spaced evenly along the street that has been clear cut,had all the stumps removed, striped of topsoil, excavated, houses built, having an insufficient amount of topsoil hauled in, planted lawn and a few hard to care for trees then sprayed with fertilizers and pesticides to cure it of everything bad that can exist. Or so we think!

Of course in our typical subdivision mentality, it is hard to achieve the perfect setting. So then we must ask "why do we want this typical subdivision layout?" It is obvious that it is not the most efficient use of land and resources, not to mention making our homes harder to heat and cool.

There are many other reasons to keep the existing landscape such as reduced chance of plant invasion (purple loosestrife), pest control (cinch bug), fuel consumption for the creation and maintenance of new, monoculture landscape, wildlife appeal and habitat.

OK, so you live in a subdivision, there are ways to avoid the poison pit of the chemical lawn syndrome. You can choose to grow your lawn organically or you can choose a rock garden from the rocks that are left over from the stripping of the landscape. You can also transplant trees from the local "original" landscape from nearby woodlots around the outskirts of town. Planting native trees results in stronger, faster growing trees that are more disease resistant than hybridized, grafted trees from many nurseries. That being said, a mix of both native and cultivated tress can have a very nice effect and can complement each other.

above all, you need a roof

The last time you bought a roof, did you consider all options or did you just consider all colour options of traditional roofing? Of course we want an affordable roof as this tends to be a considerable expense for a homeowner. But as human nature would have it, we tend to only look at the "today" cost, not the "tomorrow" cost. Lets have a look at few facts.

Traditional roofing is made of pulp felt (paper-wood fiber), tar (petroleum), and rock from varying sources. The average house has 2500 kg of roofing material which will cost approximately $2000 plus installation and will last roughly 15 to 20 years before it will need to be removed and find a new home in a landfill. The only options we usually have with conventional roofing is colour, pattern, or in the last few years, whether it's main fibrous component is wood fiber or fiberglass.


Steel roofing is made of painted galvanized steel which has a life span of 100 years or more at which point it should either be repainted or can be nearly 100% recycled. Weight is generally lower than tar paper roofing but will the material is unlikely to end up in a landfill as it has a final value like a pop bottle, it has a "deposit" which ensures that it does not end up in the garbage.

Slate or tile roofing. 150 + years at which point it can be converted to another yard amendment such as gravel for your driveway or walkway.





Wood roof. Wood is low life cycle carbon (a good thing) , has unlimited recycle ability. I can be used as stove fuel, mulch, compost etc. Lifespan varies depending on region, wood type and affecting landscape (proximity of trees)


Green roof is a built up system of a waterproof membrane, anti-landslide strapping, growing medium (soil, peat moss etc.) plants. Lifespan is determined by the longevity of the membrane which is very long since it does not (or should not) be exposed to sunlight. It is somewhat more intensive in installation but has limited maintenance unless you need to remove weeds (get a life!) In Germany, it is estimated that 10% of roofs are green living roofs and growing (pardon the pun)
http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f5/green-roofs-living-roofs-around-world-54142.html

Because of the slope we needed for our house (12:12), we could not easily have a living roof. We therefore opted for possibly the next best thing; a galvanized steel roof.

After seeing a few new options, I hope you open your eyes to the options before you open your wallet to the contractor, then again in 20 years! Get the picture?

40 days and 40 nights

For the second time this year, the Moncton area has been hit with a major rain storm stressing the storm sewer systems and causing localized flooding in many communities.


In Canada, 30 000 to 40 000 houses flood every year with a rise in the number of incidents. With the average cost in excess of $5000 and often many times more causing increased insurance premiums and an influx of construction related garbage in our landfills, not to mention potential health problems from an improperly cleaned flood site, we need to reassess our building practices to avoid this type of building failure that is all too common!

The problem with this picture is that houses were not built to handle this kind of weather and also the sewer systems are no help either! Often, the city sewer systems are not designed to handle excess rainfall with ease. In the country, sump pump failure is the main direct cause followed by insufficient pump capacity. Of course, these breakdowns would not cause any loss of sleep if the design of the building is able to handle these changing weather patterns.


I ask myself, "Why do people continue to build new homes knowing that they will eventually flood? Why does the Canadian building code still permit a basement in residential construction for areas where flooding is inevitable? Why are insurance companies still offering coverage to people who repeatedly claim flood damage in homes? Why do people spend $10 000 to $50 000 to finish their basements into living area and then spend $69,95 on the cheapest sump pump they can buy at the local hardware store? Why are battery backup systems not mandatory in existing construction?

In our case, putting in a basement would be "sure bet" at the racetrack as far as it being eventually flooded. Of course a sump pump or drainage ditch is always a possibility but failure of these system is inevitable. We therefore opted for a "slab on grade" construction. After seeing the amount of rain we have received in the last few years, we are certainly happy with our decision as all too often we wake up from a night of rain and are glad that the Ark has not sprung a leak!

Before building or buying an existing home,you should ask yourself if this this area flooded in the last 100 years, if the plumbing system is capable of handling excess flood pressure and, if the basement is finished, will a battery backup system help prevent a flood?

Of course the way a basement is finished and insulated will determine the cost of construction and the eventual cost of replacement of the finished area. I will cover more on this later.

Kill two birds with one stone

I'm always amazed at how many single use devices we use in our homes. They produce one "end effect" and often more than one by-product effect. Nowhere is this more true than in refrigeration-based products. The most commonly wasted by product of these units is heat. Now, you might be saying to yourself, "Charlie, I'm not following you!" Here is a little theory.



A refrigeration unit is used in things like our fridge, freezer, dehumidifier, air-conditioner, water cooler or heat pump. To produce cool, these units actually have to "remove heat". The way they do this is by concentrating it, or condensing it. This is done by the compressor. The heat then travels to the condenser coils and "Wastes" the heat. The cooler refrigerant then drops it's pressure and goes through the evaporator coil where it is able to pickup more heat.

As you see, it's a heat removal process, not a "make cold air" process.

So what are we supposed to do with all this heat? "Just get rid of it" is what we have always done. But now we know better and we can use this waste heat to heat our Domestic hot water (DHW). If we can capture heat and get rid of it in our DHW tank, then we are essentially killing two birds with one stone. We can effectively get A/C for our house and heat water! Wow, what a concept! Now this isn't really a big technological breakthrough, it's just that we have always thought that the equipment we have only has one use.

Another way we can do more with this waste it by converting the heat pump's waste of "cold air" into refrigeration for our fridge or freezer. Why not? Why not use waste heat from the fridge or freezer to heat water? There are many ways to save, and save BIG. All we have to do is think a little further than our immediate need!

To view one companies design, visit their site. http://www.airgenerate.com/products/airtap.html

off grid one step at a time

Some people ask me if I think they can go partially off grid. Not grid tied, but part of the house is off grid. It is a unique approach to energy conservation and power Independence.

With small investments in equipment, you can set up a mini "off-grid" circuit in your house. I would try (and will be implementing this soon in my own house) to find a consumer that is relatively constant such as a ventilation system or a computer. You will need a source of power, PV, wind turbine, micro-hydro, bio fuel. What ever you choose, make sure it is reliable first (such as PV, offers very dependable power). Chose an inverter that will have a bit of room to spare in case you calculate wrongly and just to ensure that the equipment doesn't get taxed to death. A low load tends to increase life span of this stuff! Get proper sized deep-cycle batteries, wire it up and go. It will give you a very good lesson in equipment set up and maintenance as well as give you a realistic snap shot of what can be done with a bigger set up. Once you get one circuit off grid, you just might get hooked and grid tie the whole house!

Remember, one step at a time!

Can you live off grid?

Short answer, "it depends". The truth? yes you can but you should practice first. If you are going to convert a existing grid home to "off grid", you better get your ducks in a row. First, look at your hydro bill.

If you are using more than 300 kWh/month, you need to make some adjustments to your lifestyle to get consumption to a manageable amount. Of course you can write a check for whatever you like, but to be realistic, you should practice. How? Every day, every minute, every light switch. You should be thinking of all the things you do every day that require power. Did you turn off that light switch? Do you run your computer 24/7? How about that long shower? On many electric utility bills, you can compare your usage to the previous year. I always try to "beat my record" every month. Of course, you can't just go out and say, "I'll beat last year this month" without a plan. Going over everything that consumes power every month to see where the holes in the bucket are, is a good way to analyze what needs to be done. In my first house in Ottawa, it was a challenge to get bellow 1000kw/month. I didn't think is was possible. Now, in a more modern house with modern appliances and a fistful of knowledge, I am able to routinely get the "bill" down below 300kW/m without any sacrifices.

Try hitting the "main breaker" for an hour every few days to see how you make out without power. Suddenly everything takes on a whole new light! (if you turn on a flashlight!)

Don't get all bent out of shape!

So I think you're upset right? Wrong. But you will be if you use the wrong foam insulation around your windows and doors. All too often, peoplelook for the best value in "spray foam" to put around doors and windows, thinking that the maximum expansion foam is best.

Truth is, they would be wrong to think that.

There are a 3 general types of consumer expandable foam.

High expansion for Big gaps, large voids or areas where distortion is not a concern.

Medium expansion for cracks and smaller gaps where control of the sprayed material would be beneficial.

Low expansion is for doors and windows.

Now the low expansion part is not the only characteristic of this spray in insulation. The most important part, and the main reason it is so critical the the correct product be used is that, unlike its bigger filling counterparts which get hard when curred, low expansion does just the opposite. It remains flexible so that when the building structure moves seasonally, it does not exert any pressure against the door or window frame causing frame or glazing failure. Unfortunately, it is a common mistake which causes a lot of headache for many would-be DIYers.

southern exposure

No I'm not talking about the TV show, or places below the belt. I'm talking about lot selection and house orientation. It is probably the most overlooked and under thought out aspect of house building.

Most people just buy a house without thinking of where the sun shines. When building, they only think about it if it happens to fit into their plans. Rarely does it get adjusted. Houses just get "planted" parallel to the road.

Why does this matter? Well, the sun does not shine on the North side of your house no matter where you live. And the south side is where the sun is highest and hottest; but you already knew that! What I was surprised to find out is that many people don't even know east from west or that the sun rises in the east! The reason this is important, or should be, is that it allows you to maximize solar heat gain through windows, solar collectors or PV cells.

It is commonly known in the window industry that you should have the highest amount of windows on the south side with east for morning light and west for evening light. North, therefore should have the fewest windows if possible. It is also the side that should have the best windows. Triple pane windows are now becoming mainstream with Low-E, argon, or titanium coatings. Some windows have R value exceeding R-7. Not bad for a hole in the side of your house.

If you want to maximize solar heat gain, you you want to maximize the number of windows on the south and south west of the house. If there are areas of the house that have good southern exposure and are not covered with windows, you should consider solar convection heaters or solar water heaters.

Now, you might be saying, "I don't want to maximize heat gain in the summer". Well, you can install high quality windows but most importantly, you should install louvers (pergola style) over your windows that will shade the glass at high noon in summer, but in winter, allows the sun (which is lower in the winter) to shine under them and into the house. The length of the louvers must be determined by the angle difference between summer and winter and also the overall height of the window. This angle is determined by your geographical location.

PV, should be on their own mount, hopefully you'll be installing a sun-tracker if you don't already have one. I will have more on PV later.

composting toilet

In an effort to reduce water consumption, landscape change, environmental destruction, overall cost and loss of visual appeal, we opted for a slightly more complex approach to sewage treatment. A composting toilet. Sure it sounds like a great idea. Crap in this hole, tumble it, add a bit of peat moss, tumble more and voila! Instant compost. Well... not quite!

You see, there are a lot of variables to running a composting toilet properly. First of all, regularity! Yup, you heard it! eat your vegetables! Finding the right compost bulking material is also a bit difficult as it depends on how much water gets used in the toilet. This varies by user! Not all users use the same amount of water. Those who don't usually require those who follow to use more! Why? Well if everything doesn't go all the way down to the central composting unit (providing you are using this type- we are, we use a centrex 2000 NE-power vented) the next user will have to make sure all goes down hill! This can lead to extra water being used. The problem with extra water isn't so much what to do with it, but it boils down to what it does as a by-product. You see, all that water is the perfect incubation area for bugs. ...and not the good ones that digest your poop! Little fruit flies will propagate in overwet compost or if there is a lot of residual water in the bottom of the composter. What to do? First of all, avoid extra water. Then, avoid extra water in the compost by adding extra bulking material or increasing ambient air tempurature. Increase air flow from the power vent by installing a bigger unit. Sloping the unit enough to prevent stagnation of the water in the bottom of the composter. Installing a "floor drain" in the composter (we didn't do this but a friend of mine has modified his this way and says it works well). Ok, so everything you can do has been done and you still have flies. Here are a few things to do.

1. Turn up the heat. Bugs wont like it, plus it dries everything out and increases the speed of composting.
2. Pyrethrines. Don't get any inside the composter as I wouldn't want you to be the first one to have to completely manually empty the composter because everything died! Spray only the outside of the drum.
3. Hydrogen Peroxide! Wow, this not only works, it looks freaky! Pour peroxide in the stagnated water and it will boil. This will kill off the eggs and larvae. You can spray the outside of the drum as well. Don't get any on your close as it will slightly bleach them.
4. Repeat peroxide treatment everyday until every sign of flies is gone.
5. concentrate on drying out the compost and getting rid of the extra water. This is the key to getting rid of, and preventing flies.

Flies in the house? Use beer in a glass with a paper funnel on top leading downwards. the flies will fly down and wont be able to come out! It really works.

New health risk!

While researching oil processing techniques for my "chip fat" burner or waste vegetable oil as it is commonly called, one common requirement was that all oil be non-saturated meaning no hard fat from animal sources.

This seemed quite logical and easy to understand. If you are to spray used vegetable oil in an atomizer at 200psi, and only consumer aproximately 4 liters per hour, it needs to be liquid. Pretty much a no-brainer!

Where I was really shocked was to find out that KFC oil is not recommended if the you want to preserve the health and life of your furnace. Seems the effects it has on the heating system are similar to the effects it has on our health. Fortunately, McDonalds chip oil is ok! This is not an endorsement, but the more you harden your arteries, the more heat I can produce for the house!

Long live the french fry!

Getting off the grid, how to start.

There is more to it than just putting up a couple of solar panels and an Air-X 400 wind turbine. This pipe dream that some people have of self sufficiency with minimal investment is a sign of a lack of information. I was going to say ignorance, but it carries a heavy connotation; one that people don't like. Maybe because they are ignorant of the double sense of the word.

Living off the grid for some folks means a couple of hundred watts of solar, a few batteries, an inverter, a small wind turbine (for effect mainly) 45 gallons of gasoline, 500lbs of propane and carting in endless bottles of water. This, to me is not "off the grid" it is mearly a displacement from one grid to another. Sure they don't have grid power but now they are dependant on bottled fossil fuel. Either propane, gasoline or diesel. It's a false sense of freedom. If the power goes out for a week, you're sure to run out of fuel, then what?

Living in a shack in the woods,gobbling up vast amounts of firewood to heat a poorly insulated or non-insulated building is hardly environmentaly careful either. There has to be a change in lifestyle coupled with the very best use of technology to produce a sustainable end result at an affordable cost.

It's more than putting up 5000 watts of PV power, or building a straw bale house. Sure both are great ideas. If you have $30,000 for the solar panels or are well versed on straw bale construction. It's about making changes to our needs. Really, our perceived needs. We don't actually need all the stuff we have, nor do we always make the best use of it. Most times, we have false sense of economy with many things that we have around the house.

For instance. The second fridge or freezer that is never used, holds more food than we can use and ends up being wasted because it is spoiled or freezer burnt. $35 of electricity per year (for the good ones, double that for anything over 7 years old) to save a few dollars per grocery bill, then throw 1/4 of it away (and that is generous for some people). there really is no savings. Now if you have a large garden and can keep some of it stored for the winter, then maybe you can come out ahead. Not if you look for the weekly bargain at Costo!

Lights have to be shut off. sure it's not a big deal, lighting is only a fraction of your power bill but it all adds up. Look for LED lights where possible. They last the longest and reduce power consumption even more than CFL bulbs. Plus they can last 10 times longer than CFLs. That's a long time! over 100,000 hours! A typical incandescent bulb lasts about 1000 hours.

The BIGGIE for most people is water heating. So let's convert to natural gas! NO, not the answer. sure it will reduce you heating bill, but once again, you are grid connected to a different source. Solar heating is a big solution for many people with a vast selection of heaters available on the market, plus the ability to piece together a home made system with little "pre-fab" parts. The lifestyle change come in when you reduce the amount of hot water you (think you) need. Let's face it, you don't need a 240 litre hot tub. it just isn't necessary.

There are options to consider for space heating and A/C as well. Most people don't need an A/C in their house. But if you are going to use one, why not heat your domestic hot water with the extra heat it produces? Why are all the things that spoil us always "end use" or should I say "dead end use"? None of the wasted energy is ever used for a secondary purpose. What do you think happens to all the heat that your fridge or freezer produces go? How about the A/C? Why not heat water with it. Did you know that it takes little more than an 8000 btu unit to provide all the hot water an average house uses in one day? Guess what the by-product of that unit is? A/C. Enough for 2 bedrooms or a living room. Or a fridge or a freezer, or... get my drift? Why do we produce cold air with electricity for our fridge when in Canada, the air outside is cold enough 5 months of the year? In summer, you could cool your house, your fridge and heat your water all with one efficient unit!

Now do you still think you are doing your part to conserve energy?

The long and the short of it is, to get off the grid, you have to get off the power hungry lifestyle that most of us have. Then, and only then, can it be feasible to think about it. Otherwise, you will certainly be disappointed. Getting off the grid might not be a reality for most people, but getting a huge payback in a few small lifestyle changes that really don't hurt much, at least not for very long, is a much more realistic expectation.

Could it be conceivable to be "reduced grid load" or "grid-light" or even semi-grid? I see too many people driving around in Hummers or other huge SUVs saying they would love to be off grid! Sure they would. I would love to have a million dollars too! Both are posible but not easily achievable unless you make changes. Small ones at first; to get used to it, some big ones down the road. Sooner or later, you can be on your way to liberating yourself of the grid altogether. Ok maybe not completely. But a $50 Hydro bill sure is a lot better than $400 or $500 per month. Changes will make it happen. Don't set you sights to be "off grid" when all you can be is "grid reduced".

More to come on changes that are easily attainable.

upcoming heating upgrades

The heating upgrades for the future will be three-fold.
1. Recycled vegetable oil to run a 60,000 btu water heater. This upgrade will be a simple tap-in to the system but will require an attached outbuilding with door and window. I currently have available storage for 1900 litres of oil. Not quite enough to make it through the winter for dedicated heat but plenty for top up to other systems. (wood burning)

2. Convection solar. This system will be the simplest once in opperation. It will be comprised of solar ovens attached to the East-south east side of the house. They will be either "pop cans" painted black in a solar oven, or flat black corrigated aluminum roofing in the same solar oven. The roofing will be much simpler and faster but will have a cost. The cans are almost free. I am looking to place 128 square feet of convection solar to the house by fall 2010. This is low maintanence system but does not allow storage as it heats air not the slab.

3. Concentrated solar. This is the holy grail of heating systems. Bigger outlay, more tinkering and a lot of research, but once that is done, lots of free heat. I mean lots. over 650 watts per square meter. I want a 9' diameter dish with is almost 12.5 square meters (need formula) or +- 9000 watts per hour. Loss factor of, lets say .3 (arbitrary), we get 6300 watts of power to the house. Double that of a water tank. 63 cents per hour x 4 hours peak sun per day (+-) =$2.52 per day or $76 per month. or 2.5 million btu (+-)/month. It's like running an 80,000 btu furnace for 1 hour free every day.

heating system updates

The in-floor heating system has worked flawlessly after I discovered the flaws. Ya i know, sounds hoaky but, the check valve in the pump was a problem from the start so I took it out. Now everything flows properly and no overheating of heatexchanger pipes.

This year, I added 50 feet of 3/8 copper coil to the existing 50 feet coiled around the stove pipe. It worked so well last year (as that was last years upgrade) that I decided to double it. I believe I have reached a point of diminishing returns on the stove pipe unless I went with direct fire. (water jacketed stove pipe) At this point, I don't think it's worth it for me. It would have been a simple solution and probably a better one, but the investment is there now and it was relatively easy to do. If I have to change anything down the road, I will create a water jacket stove pipe.

I also added heat shields around the stove sides to conceal the copper pipes that are nestled next to the stove. These did help a bit but not worth the investment in time nor money. The water jacket pipe would be better. Last year, I put Aluminum foil around the pipes to reflect the heat back into them. It worked great but it was ugly as sin. This year, the shields look much nicer but I'm not convinced that they are as efficient as the foil. I will probably line the heat shields with foil this year once I get a chance to breath.

The house still isn't fully insulated so there are many areas that can help the cause. They will be done this year once I get the kitchen panty done. I need room in the kitchen.

getting the fire wood for the winter

Well now that the house it weather tight, I have now discovered that I have way too much fire wood. The first year, we burnt 6 cords of hardwood, mainly because we moved in to the house before it was insulated. We had R-5 only. (the pink foam). We insulated on January 1st, then we burnt about 1 cord from then on for the rest of the winter. We put in R-100 in the attict. It might seem a little overkill but it was actually easier than trying to put less because of the design of the trusses.

Last year, we burnt 1.5 cords of hardwood with a mixture of Hardwood pallets that I got from work. This year, I have nearly 3 cords of pallet wood. I am going to sell some cordwood before it rots. it's already 2 summers old so it needs to go. It has already snowed this year and it's only October. Feels like a cold start to a long winter.