Finally bought a lift

[chrisj]

You know someone's serious about cars when you see a lift in their garage. :) I have personally never seen one in a home garage. Guess I don't hang with serious car ppl. lol

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by yarisugi

now THAT'S a garage!
It's bigger than my apartment!

After seeing that failed lift, looks like your research paid off well.

May I ask what all those bags are on the two sides of your garage?
Looks like a 5-year supply of rice! :P

The bags are 4 tons of wood pellets. We use a pellet stove to reduce our consumption of heating oil.

[henry33]

Originally Posted by CTScott

The bags are 4 tons of wood pellets. We use a pellet stove to reduce our consumption of heating oil.

that is smart from you ;)
how much do you usually use during the winter ?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by henry33

that is smart from you ;)
how much do you usually use during the winter ?

We actually just bought it last February (we always put our tax return money into improving the energy efficiency of our house). We just burned it during the day for the month of February and used about 40 lbs per day. By March we realized that if we burned it 24 hours per day it could heat the whole house and we wouldn't need to use any oil. Since March was a bit warmer, we still just used one 40lb bag per day. For us, one 40lb bag of pellets yields the same results as 5 gallons of oil (I actually have a digital meter hooked to my oil burner to assess our daily burn rate). So, with oil at $2.25 per gallon and pellets at $200 per ton, one $4 bag of pellets equals $11.25 of oil.

[henry33]

Originally Posted by CTScott

We actually just bought it last February (we always put our tax return money into improving the energy efficiency of our house). We just burned it during the day for the month of February and used about 40 lbs per day. By March we realized that if we burned it 24 hours per day it could heat the whole house and we wouldn't need to use any oil. Since March was a bit warmer, we still just used one 40lb bag per day. For us, one 40lb bag of pellets yields the same results as 5 gallons of oil (I actually have a digital meter hooked to my oil burner to assess our daily burn rate). So, with oil at $2.25 per gallon and pellets at $200 per ton, one $4 bag of pellets equals $11.25 of oil.

what do you mean by oil ? since it can have more explanations ? you mean like petrol ?
but yes it is cheaper and more ecological we were using the same stuff in our house to save the gas :)

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by henry33

what do you mean by oil ? since it can have more explanations ? you mean like petrol ?
but yes it is cheaper and more ecological we were using the same stuff in our house to save the gas :)

By oil I mean heating oil, which is basically the same as diesel fuel, but is supposedly less refined.

[henry33]

Originally Posted by CTScott

By oil I mean heating oil, which is basically the same as diesel fuel, but is supposedly less refined.

so that is guite expensive heating here is becoming very popular geo thermal heating . the first investment is huge but after that you have free heating with just one condition that you live in the thermal area which is basically 60 percent of the country ;)
something similar is on the island for ages

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by henry33

so that is guite expensive heating here is becoming very popular geo thermal heating . the first investment is huge but after that you have free heating with just one condition that you live in the thermal area which is basically 60 percent of the country ;)
something similar is on the island for ages

Geothermal is our next big step. I have designed our system and we are saving for drilling the wells. In our area there is too much rock to lay horizontal loops for geothermal, so we use vertical wells. In my case, I need two 350 foot deep wells, which will cost about $15,000. The geothermal equipment will be less than $10,000 and I will do everything but the well drilling myself.

[henry33]

Originally Posted by CTScott

Geothermal is our next big step. I have designed our system and we are saving for drilling the wells. In our area there is too much rock to lay horizontal loops for geothermal, so we use vertical wells. In my case, I need two 350 foot deep wells, which will cost about $15,000. The geothermal equipment will be less than $10,000 and I will do everything but the well drilling myself.

interesting but have you considered that the investment of 25000 will be back after 7 years of using the oil and 17 after using the pellets ? just for curiosity when the price is high if it wouldn't be more efficient to use pellets ? but on the other hand investing in geo thermal will be also for future generations where the oil will not be available and pellets could cost 2000 per ton
so I am your fan do it ;)