Home Energy Use

[Hermione]

I would use a pellet stove if they were available. If I ever get to build my little steel-frame house, it will definitely have some alternative energy, as well as an on-demand water heater.

[bpitt]

It burns pelletized wood or corn cobs, I think. We've got an insert in our fireplace, and, thanks to Katrina, have plenty of wood for next winter, and the next, and the next. When we build our next house, I plan on having some solar panels and possibly a windmill generator, I've got to study wind charts first. Also, one of those furnaces that you can burn anything, it resides outside and you pump the air in, kinda neat.

We plan on some major landscaping next spring, at which time I plan to install a cistern that collects rainfall from our gutters, then I'll have water for the garden during drought times, and hurricanes.

[carsalesguy]

i read an article the other day where they were saying pellitized sawdust was $5 for 40 lbs? i'll try to find it-

[daisy]

Yes, if I ever have to build again, it too will have many energy saving features. Where would you get pelletized wood? Sound like cost might defeat the point? I dono yet. Coal is cheap. We use to burn tons of it when I was a kid growing up in Camp Shelby. Heating water and drying cloths is two of the biggest energy waste there is in a household. I'm gonna build Ms Elle a clothsline. Won't she be proud of me?


To the last?

Nope, not unless she likes hanging out clothes and birds don't fly over and drop little gifts.

We had one at a house in the 70's and it was close to a black cherry tree.
Birds were dropping by.

[Hermione]

I grew up hanging clothes outside, nothing like the smell of sheets that dried in the fresh air. However, as women get older, it gets hard to hold your arms up over your head for very long, so I probably wouldn't do clotheslines again.
I saw a pellet stove in a house I visited in Wales several years ago. It has an automatic hopper that feeds the pellets into the burner. Put out a nice heat with less smoke and ash than a woodstove. Apparently they're also popular in the Pacific Northwest.

[amanda]

Butterball and I are in the very early process of building a home and have been looking at all types of energy savers. We have decided to go with GeoThermal heating/cooling. The inital outlay of money is double what the traditional methods of central heat/ac, but the return on the money is within 8 years with very low electrical bills.

Here's a link for information if anyone is interested:

http://www.igshpa.okstate.edu/geothermal/residential.htm

[Fish-Bait]

I thot I knew everything :dork: but I don't. What is a pellet stove? I never heard of that.

i read an article the other day where they were saying pellitized sawdust was $5 for 40 lbs? i'll try to find it-

I grew up hanging clothes outside, nothing like the smell of sheets that dried in the fresh air. However, as women get older, it gets hard to hold your arms up over your head for very long, so I probably wouldn't do clotheslines again.
I saw a pellet stove in a house I visited in Wales several years ago. It has an automatic hopper that feeds the pellets into the burner. Put out a nice heat with less smoke and ash than a woodstove. Apparently they're also popular in the Pacific Northwest.

This pelletized wood thing is just catchin' on around here. Although I don't know all the specifics, the AL Port authority is installing two very large and very tall belt conveyors for this product. Somethin' bout a guy gettin' a contract with Walley world to sell this stuff. Several million bucks goin' into this operation down there. All it is, is compressed sawdust, or fines. If sawmills don't have a place nearby to dispose of this dust (i.e. fuel boiler dry kiln to burn it in) They have to haul it somewhere. A small sawmill can create 7-25 tons of sawdust in a week dependin' on the type of headsaws they have(thin kerf or large kerf). Lots of mills are retro-fitting there large kerf head rigs and puttin' in thin kerf (notice the difference of 7-25 tons a week.
I am not goin' to buy mine at walley world though.:smt118
Fish

[Fish-Bait]

I need some 7 year old hardwood sawdust for my garden. anyone know where an old shut-down mill is where there might still be some old piles?

On de heaters, I ain't too sure I'd want to rely on a fuel that manufactured and shipped from afar? Too much chance of them uping the price once they get you dependent. When I owned a feed and seed store, I use to give baby chicks and rabbits away a couple times a year. The customers thot that was great, but then they had to buy a ton of feed from me over time :smt023
Try the old Louisiana Pacific mill off of James Skreet. been shut-down for bout' 3 or 4 years now. ain't to far from ya either.

[Fish-Bait]

I shall, thanks. I hadn't been dat route in so long I didn't know it shut down.

We went and bought the old machine lathe my grandfather use to use when he worked there 3 decades or so ago and sent it up above Chatanooga and had a guy go through and rebuild it. It now sits on the floor of our machine shop and gets used now and again for small jobs, btw, it gets kept pretty dad-gum clean. Lotsa' old timers worked at that mill that helped get this operation goin'.

[ynotme297]

I need some 7 year old hardwood sawdust for my garden. anyone know where an old shut-down mill is where there might still be some old piles?

On de heaters, I ain't too sure I'd want to rely on a fuel that manufactured and shipped from afar? Too much chance of them uping the price once they get you dependent. When I owned a feed and seed store, I use to give baby chicks and rabbits away a couple times a year. The customers thot that was great, but then they had to buy a ton of feed from me over time :smt023

hawk, go to the pulp mill at new augusta on buck creek road. if they still do it, they place fines, saw dust, chips, and sludge at the east end just past the main entrance. it used to be free. sometimes they even have a guy on a loader that will load it for you. try calling 601-964-8411 and ask them. they are now called koch celluloise.

[SoMissTV]

try calling 601-964-8411 and ask them. they are now called koch celluloise.

They were called Koch Cellulose. The plant, originally Georgia Pacific Leaf River Operations, was closed and reopened as Koch Cellulose. Koch Industries then bought Georgia Pacific and took their name. The plant is now called Georgia Pacific Leaf River Cellulose (http://www.gpcellulose.com/).

[ynotme297]

They were called Koch Cellulose. The plant, originally Georgia Pacific Leaf River Operations, was closed and reopened as Koch Cellulose. Koch Industries then bought Georgia Pacific and took their name. The plant is now called Georgia Pacific Leaf River Cellulose (http://www.gpcellulose.com/).
in the beginning, 1984 they were great northen nakooska. georgia pacific did a snatch and grab take over of all gnn plants then started selling them off little by little. it used to be a great place to work, still is a high paying place of employment but the job sucks.

[SoMissTV]

You're right. Great Northern Nekoosa was purchased by GP in 1990.

[bpitt]

I used to cut their grass, way back in high school, many a hot day spent there................anyway, back to topic. As an aside, my wife claims that I myself am a source for natural gas, whatever that means. I reckon I orta put a gas catcher on me!

[Fish-Bait]

Workin' shutdowns down there sucks. That's why I will never go back.

[Baloo]

I have some solar lights that I need to go home and install... I have also been looking into some motion detector solar lights. I would love to have a wind mill up on my hill... I think that I might just check into that! Hawkeye, they use a lot of those pellet stoves up here, along with coal burning stoves. We can find huge chunks of coal on the beaches up here...

[eyescene]

ummm I keep my water heater down on low and wash my clothes in cold water Does that count? And I bought some of those weird curly looking light bubs to conserve energy!

[bpitt]

Yeah, we're looking at gettin' some of those curly lights, too. My in-laws have got some already. They say they're supposed to last longer and use less energy.

[Fish-Bait]

Home energy use...true, but funny story.

I went over to a buddy's house to pick him up so we could go plant our food plots. Well, he was a really a big time partier, I mean this guy just wouldn't quit. He embarrassed the hell out of me one night when we went to Mustang's over in Mobile. This peckerwood carried in 10 rolls of pennies to pay the dang 5 dollar cover charge........anyways

As I got out of my pick-up and started walkin' up his side walk I noticed an extension cord runnin' through his yard and up the steps and right under his front door. Curious about this I started walkin' around the corner of his house to find where or what is was plugged into.....it went right in his neighbors window. So I went inside to wake my buddy up and low and behold it was plugged up to a small window unit, my bud was layin' on a mattress on the floor, with to rather large members of the opposite sex. All passed out, beer cans and an empty fifth of Jack Daniels layin' on the floor. Dam I wish they had camera phones back then!

Needless to say the power company had come by while he was out and turned off his electricity. I just don't think I could ask a neighbor to plug up a cord in that situation, but hey, I think he didn't mind given the circumstances. heheheheheeeeee!!

[58ford]

I built a solar beef jerky maker out of an old sliding glass door & some plywood.

[bpitt]

Ya'll seen that study that came out a while back, about voltage being found in trees? I just might tap into my trees.