They've seen a few deer,Nickolas got a spike day before yesterday.
We all sat up and talked til about 11:30 last night. My son is right,the US is so far behind.
First off,they live in the same latitude as Anchorage Alaska just for reference. Thogar told me all about his heating and water heating system. You'd be slapping yourself in the forhead if you heard him talk about it. First off,he has solar panels on his roof. Not to foolishly try to use some stupid pie in the sky Star Wars technology to generate electricity,which you can't store,but to heat water,which you CAN store. Duh huh?
He has 2 400 gallon insulated storage tanks. He says that when water reaches a certain temperature,it becomes what he calls "dead water". Said that means it won't rust or corrode metal,so you don't need galvanized,glass lined or stainless. He has 7 meters (yea,everything was described in metric) of coiled copper in one tank from the solar panels. He runs an antifreeze in those lines. Says they reach temps as high as 175 degrees C,or somewhere around 350F. He has coils in there too for his domestic water. He says that system is all he uses for hot water and for whatever heat he needs in the house from April through September.
Now,he also has that small wood gassification boiler to heat the water when it's too dark and cold for the solar. He said this time of year,he loads it up,and that's not saying much as small as it is,and lights it about every other day. He just lets it burn itself out and has enough hot water for the household use and to heat the house. Said it takes about 4 hours after he lights it for the gassification to start and the water to heat,but that it doesn't matter because the water is still warm enough to keep the house warm anyway. Later on when it's dark most of the time,and the outside temp averages about -20C,he burns it all the time,only uses birch because that's all that grows up there. We calculated his usage to be less than 2 cords a year! Says that boiler is 87-92% efficient. The stove pipe stays at about 50C,or 105F,about the temp of the water in a hot tub. No smoke,no creasote,about half a 12 ounce can of light fly ash a week. He has to put just a few sticks of wood in about every 12 hours.
He said he'd send me all the information he could find on those systems when he gets home.
Are you feeling foolish yet for cutting so much wood and not using solar to heat water? I sure am!
We all sat up and talked til about 11:30 last night. My son is right,the US is so far behind.
First off,they live in the same latitude as Anchorage Alaska just for reference. Thogar told me all about his heating and water heating system. You'd be slapping yourself in the forhead if you heard him talk about it. First off,he has solar panels on his roof. Not to foolishly try to use some stupid pie in the sky Star Wars technology to generate electricity,which you can't store,but to heat water,which you CAN store. Duh huh?
He has 2 400 gallon insulated storage tanks. He says that when water reaches a certain temperature,it becomes what he calls "dead water". Said that means it won't rust or corrode metal,so you don't need galvanized,glass lined or stainless. He has 7 meters (yea,everything was described in metric) of coiled copper in one tank from the solar panels. He runs an antifreeze in those lines. Says they reach temps as high as 175 degrees C,or somewhere around 350F. He has coils in there too for his domestic water. He says that system is all he uses for hot water and for whatever heat he needs in the house from April through September.
Now,he also has that small wood gassification boiler to heat the water when it's too dark and cold for the solar. He said this time of year,he loads it up,and that's not saying much as small as it is,and lights it about every other day. He just lets it burn itself out and has enough hot water for the household use and to heat the house. Said it takes about 4 hours after he lights it for the gassification to start and the water to heat,but that it doesn't matter because the water is still warm enough to keep the house warm anyway. Later on when it's dark most of the time,and the outside temp averages about -20C,he burns it all the time,only uses birch because that's all that grows up there. We calculated his usage to be less than 2 cords a year! Says that boiler is 87-92% efficient. The stove pipe stays at about 50C,or 105F,about the temp of the water in a hot tub. No smoke,no creasote,about half a 12 ounce can of light fly ash a week. He has to put just a few sticks of wood in about every 12 hours.
He said he'd send me all the information he could find on those systems when he gets home.
Are you feeling foolish yet for cutting so much wood and not using solar to heat water? I sure am!
