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Author Topic: How much more wood consumption in Dec.  (Read 8952 times)

rhugg

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #15 on: December 15, 2011, 07:26:27 PM »

My recent heating degree days:

12/1/2011   27
12/2/2011   27
12/3/2011   29
12/4/2011   25
12/5/2011   17
12/6/2011   9
12/7/2011   12
12/8/2011   30
12/9/2011   32
12/10/2011   29
12/11/2011   39
12/12/2011   36
12/13/2011   23
12/14/2011   21

I chewed my  wife out on the 12th for running the thermostat up on the 11th.  She did some but the data shows a 25% bigger heating load than the 8th.  I was mostly wrong again.
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F7JC

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #16 on: December 15, 2011, 07:29:10 PM »

Interesting.... Last year I just about burnt 2 or 2 1/2 cords in the indoor stove. If I go through 10 cords a year with my current setup I will be tickled!!  My stove is 150gallons and its rated for 225,000 btu.... as for hourly btus I wouldnt have a clue, same for the indoor stove. 
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willieG

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #17 on: December 15, 2011, 07:35:38 PM »

Interesting.... Last year I just about burnt 2 or 2 1/2 cords in the indoor stove. If I go through 10 cords a year with my current setup I will be tickled!!  My stove is 150gallons and its rated for 225,000 btu.... as for hourly btus I wouldnt have a clue, same for the indoor stove.
your ratingo f 225,000 btu should be your hourly rating..how does that comapre to the propane stove (it should be on a plate somewhere on the stove)

as for wood consumption that would be 10 cords to equal your propane gallonage plus the 2 or 2 1/2 cords you used in your indoor stove. (this is an average guess, it could be more or less one or 2 cords) and in cords i mean real cords...bush cords..what ever you call them in your area ..a cord equals 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long
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Rockarosa

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #18 on: December 17, 2011, 06:57:20 AM »

I have burned a cord so far, pretty pleased with that. I fill twice a day but  only 3 0r 4 pieces at a time. I'm heating a 2800 square ft. farm house. I have an  oil fired hot water furnance which I only run to make sure it will  run. I really like my 250 Cozyburn. on my 4th winter with it and it's already paid for itself.  I read somewhere that a cord of locust is equivalent in BTU's to 100 gallons of fuel oil. So when I spend all day cutting a cord of wood and heating oil is $3.82 a gallon. that's quite a savings.  Think Ill keep cutting!
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F7JC

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #19 on: December 27, 2011, 05:20:58 PM »

Well it snowed today and out of curiosity i ripped the foam from the pipe that runs into the mechanical room only to discover water was in the pipe.... this may be an issue.
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MattyNH

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #20 on: December 27, 2011, 06:14:32 PM »

I have burned a cord so far, pretty pleased with that. I fill twice a day but  only 3 0r 4 pieces at a time. I'm heating a 2800 square ft. farm house. I have an  oil fired hot water furnance which I only run to make sure it will  run. I really like my 250 Cozyburn. on my 4th winter with it and it's already paid for itself.  I read somewhere that a cord of locust is equivalent in BTU's to 100 gallons of fuel oil. So when I spend all day cutting a cord of wood and heating oil is $3.82 a gallon. that's quite a savings.  Think Ill keep cutting!
Dont blame you there buddy.. Current price here in NH $3.49
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mikenc

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #21 on: December 28, 2011, 07:18:51 AM »

Well it snowed today and out of curiosity i ripped the foam from the pipe that runs into the mechanical room only to discover water was in the pipe.... this may be an issue.

May be gound water getting inside insulation rather than a leak. Water around piping will sure decrease effiecency. That would explane wood usuage increase along with heat demand in your house increasing due to colder weather. May need to replace or better insulate underground piping at some point. I would suggest running piping inside a casing like 4'' or 6' pvc to keep it dry if you insulate it yourself.


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F7JC

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #22 on: December 28, 2011, 07:15:32 PM »

I did run it in 4 inch pvc, must have been damaged when I backfilled it or had a bad joint.  I'm thinking if trying to get away with it the rest of the year and replace it with thermapex or something similar next spring. We will see.   Piping still looks moist on the bottom, yet only lossing 5-6 degrees, hopefully I can make it work the rest of the winter.
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rhugg

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #23 on: December 29, 2011, 12:59:32 PM »

The fact that your insulation is wet may not be as catastrophic as people imply.  I guess it depends on the insulation.  Closed cell foam will remain fairly effective because it doesn't hold water like a sponge. Most of what we use for PEX insulation doesn't really absorb water.  Water is a good transferer of heat but a little trapped water is not a disaster.  On the other hand if you have the inside and outside of our 4" pipe filled with water it would transfer the heat from the PEX quite effectively.  Especially if the ground water was flowing thru the area.  I think the best data is the temperature drop from OWB to House.  I'd assume the return to be similar.  You might check this drop at various times, especially after a good rain as compared to after you have had no rain for a period (dryer ground).

It seems most people think 3-5 degrees is a reasonable loss.  I don't know what mine is and even if I had an IR Thermometre I'm not sure that shooting a metal fitting exposed to outside air (at the OWB) and then a fitting in the basement (65 F) would be accurate.  Maybe if it was the same temperature outside as the basement it would be representative of heat loss.  Hey, I need one of those IR tools anyway, and I now have a Lowes Christmas Gift Card :-)
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willieG

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #24 on: December 29, 2011, 01:45:37 PM »

perhaps a smal amount of moisture could be condensation? also losing 3 or 5 or 5 dgrees in the ground may  be a lot or not much? the heat loss in your pipes is also tied to how many GPM you are moving.  lets take some imaginary numbers (only because i don't know the real ones) two house are matched perfectly in pipe size, stove size square feet ..evrything but one thing GPM. fan speed  exchanger everything is the same but GPM so both houses call for heat, both are delivering 180 degree water but one is delivering 5 GPM and one is delivering 10. the house that is getting 5 is losing 10 degrees on the out (return)side of the exchanger and the house delivering 10 may only be losing 4 or 5...it would work the same in your underground piping. if you read the adverts on some of the underground pipe it will (or may) say that it has a 1 degree loss in 100 feet of pipe, also in the fine print i have seen it say ..this test was done at 5 gpm and water temp of 180 in the pipe and 54 in the ground. all three of these things can and will make a difference

if you are melting snow above your pipes ..you are losing enough heat to account for quite a lot of wood consumption. my underground pipes are 250' from the OWB to the house. i used to have a melted area 3 to 4 feet wide above them with my old insulation. last year i replaced them with the foam stuff n the black sheeting and my i have no melted area now. in my situation it saved me about 1/3 of my woood consumption! i would not have believed it until i recorded it myself.
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Ridgekid

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #25 on: December 29, 2011, 01:59:12 PM »

WillieG-

That should be pinned somewhere! Great explanation!

Bottom line=Don't go cheap on your underground pipe!
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rhugg

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #26 on: December 29, 2011, 02:20:00 PM »

Yes, willie is right.  If I lose 1 degree F with my circulatot on high that could be much worse than 3 degrees with it on low.  I have the 3 speed TACO.  The temperature loss just 'represents' BTU loss but probably needs multiplied by a flow volume.  But since temperature is the thing we can measure ...
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F7JC

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #27 on: December 29, 2011, 06:48:16 PM »

I have also noticed less noise in the pipes in the mechanical room in the last week or so.  Like the flow has slowed down a bit.   Purhaps i should put another pump in to see if results are similar.  The water in the basement may be condisation,  it really hasnt flowed out, rather a steady drip,  right after a rain or snow.   Also the little bit of snow we had this year has melted above the line two to three foot wide.  But at night frost and any moisture freezes about the line.
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willieG

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Re: How much more wood consumption in Dec.
« Reply #28 on: December 29, 2011, 07:09:19 PM »

if this has been a new install recently, it may melt over the line for a bit as the ground has not settled completely ...but if it is still melting snow in the heart of winter when the air temps are not above freezing and the direct sun is not heating things any, then you can likley consider a problem
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