What's going to happen with Gas prices?

Dusty! you ol' cranky texan! Where've you been?

Ya know, I was looking that last night and trying to figure out if I spelled it right or not. Then I just said fuck it someone will assume I'm another texan that can't spell.

 

A buddy of mine had one of those and he hated it so much he tore it out, put a standard water heater back in, and just threw the on-demand unit away.

 

What did he hate about it? I was looking into those...

 

I have a friend with a 10 yr old one that he doesn't like, but it's 10 yrs old.... I was hoping the newer ones would work better. Something small like:
http://cgi.ebay.com/TITAN-TANKLESS-...15967QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

 

I have a gas fired, on-demand water heater. They are great but I hate it because it wastes water but saves energy . The unit is activated by a flow switch. The switch must sense flow for about 20 or 30 seconds for the burners to kick in. If you only open the tap just a little, you dont get hot water due to insufficient flow. The burners output is 140,000 BTU while the average home furnace in Canada is just 80,000 BTU. This small water heater is unbelievable and packed with gadgets and electronics. Its best suited for restaurants and where high water flow is constantly needed. One advantage is that you will never run out of hot water.

 

I'm still trying to decide if I want to mess around with changing the water heating system, or just bite the bullet and start working on biodiesel. If I was making my own fuel I wouldn't really care so much about using oil to heat the house and water!

 

If you are outside of the city, consider solar and wind generation. They are not cheap but I'm sure you can rig something up for under fifty bucks.

 

I remember that well. I had (still have) '70 'Cuda with the 440-6bbl. I had to borrow my roommate's '74 VW Superbeetle to get to work. I don't drive my Taco much, but it may be keeping the 'Cuda company for a good while if gas prices keep climbing.

 

We're in town, but it's a small one. I'm thinking solar too since we have a southern facing roof on the house. I'd link to put a windmill behind the barn since the wind always blows, but one big enough to really help much is around $10k. Not to mention electricity's not my concern right now. Even with paying an old bill it's $100-$195/month. Still a lot, but it doesn't compare the $400-$600 minimum deliver for oil. I forget what the min is exactly, but last time it cost $700+ for 175 gals and that didn't even fill the tank! Last winter we used 100gals every 4-6 weeks.

Although this summer we're hoping to start replacing windows and cut down the overall cost of heating the house.

 

Consider a wood stove. If you go with solar panels consider a wind generator as well because in the winter, (snow fall area's) your panels are almost useless. Dont forget, if you can generate enough electricity, you can heat with it.

 

I just went from an 11mpg Ford to a 20+mpg Taco...I'm smilin'

George

 

Electric heat sucks. I had it in trailer a few years back. $300+ monthly bills and the trailer was still cold. Then again, it was electric baseboard heat, electric stove, lights, washer/dryer.... And I suppose now I'd love a $300 electric bill instead of a $100 electric bill and $500+ for oil.

We use a pellet stove to heat most of the house. We're thinking of putting another one in the house as well (newer, bigger, more efficient, cleaner, etc) once we can decide on a spot. Having two would probably be enough and combine that with the electric water heater then the oil could be filled whenever we could and become a backup.

But then again, wood pellets are $220 or so per ton this year. One ton lasts about a month with 1 pellet stove. Running 2 would probably mean buying 2 tons per month and we're back to a $400/mo heating bill. Unless the new stove might let us turn the other one down or off completely with it's thermostat controls, room sensors, etc. Newer windows would keep the heat in regardless of what we use so that's a priority.

I've thought about a pellet furnace with air ducts out the top, but we'd only be able to heat the downstairs without major construction. And it costs $3k. It would have to cut down our heating costs a LOT and then be used for several years to pay for itself and all the work needed to set it up.

Almost makes the $8k biodiesel setup-and-walk-away units attractive! lol Just spend the 8 grand on it, start making my own fuel, and let it pay for itself in a couple years. Maybe even make enough to sell to family or friends. (for considerably less than the oil company of course)

I'd like to know about how he does that! Not that I want to be off the grid per say (love the internet too much), but I really want to be more self sufficient. I hate relying on other people. Period.

 

It was easily clogged by minerals in 6 months whereas the standard unit was fine for 17 years. The warranty from Bosch was useless since his water was too hard. He would have had to put a water softener system to prevent the problem.

It also required removal of the water restrictor valve on his house (required by law here to conserve water) to increase water flow and led to a much larger water bill. Without removal of the restrictor valve, the unit had a hard time keeping up with his water demand; it would turn off and on result in hot-n-cold blasts of water while in he was showering.

He also made the mistake of buying it from an online dealer so he had no place to take it for warranty issues. They told him he had to deal directly with the manufacturer.

 

Ok, a new hot water tank it is...

Thanks for the info...

 

Nice way to get away from it all! Normal house or made out of recycled materials too? I've seen some of them! Look pretty bad ass! And efficient!

So where the hell did he run the phone line to? Does he just not have those utilities hooked up, or lives out too far to get them?

I'd love to get solar panels and/or a wind mill and starting selling electricity back to the grid.

Hell, I'd love the have one of these things. Collect people's garbage (maybe even charge them for it), break it down into the gasses, and sell those. Make money hand over fist with all the garbage here in NY.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/innovator_2.html

 

sounds like it.

 

I had made plans for a windmill using a bicycle wheel (for the bearings) a fan from a peterbuilt and 3 gm alternators...then use a power converter(like plugs in your cigarette lighter) like they sell at autozone to convert the 12 volts to 110 hoping it was enough to run a small camper size fridge for those long camping trips where there isnt any elec.