Pennsif's Progress #604 - Get out of oil, dad
It is the third visit from the engineer this year.
Luckily we have a maintenance contract with Worcester Bosch the manufacturers - but they are getting more fussy now.
The boiler is only five years old and it is supposed to have a design life of 15 years but the original installer appartently didn't do a very good and it has suffered ever since.
We have been trying to get off oil more or less since we moved here. The ever growing cost and the obvious fossil fueled environmental impact don't taste right.
When we moved into this old, cold farmhouse there was a 10 year old oil fired Rayburn heating the house and the water. It took up a big chunk of floor space, guzzled truck loads of oil and on the coldest days sounded like an angry jet engine landing in kitchen.
But it was what we had and we didn't have money to replace it.
Our dream was to move to a solar thermal / wood burning back boiler combo. We got an engineer in to plan it out and give us costings. But the south facing roof wasn't strong enough to support the panels so fixing that added to a budget that was already out of our league at the time.
That plan was put on the back burner.
Then one winter's day about 5 years ago the Rayburn blew out. That phrasing might be a slight over dramatisation but it was a sudden and catastrophic failure that involved water and oil pouring out on to the kitchen floor.
With the sudden loss of heating and hot water in the midst of a cold Welsh winter we had to make the quickest decision for a replacement boiler.
Alas with the money we had available, the speed of installation and the lure of a government boiler replacement grant of £400 our only viable choice was to replace the Rayburn with a modern oil fired combination boiler.
No time to review our solar and wood plans. That had to wait for another day.
That day may now be approaching fast.
Although today's fix - a broken valve - was carried out free of charge under the maintenance contract, the engineer, following company policy was obliged to inform us quite forcefully of what changes we will need to implement to continue to be covered.
The list was suprisingly long - a new guard in one place, a new valve in another, moving the gas cooker as it is too close, adding this and adding that... All things that were not needed when the boiler was installed only 5 years ago and the cooker just 18 months ago - both by registered and certified engineers.
And the real kicker... in about 18 months our oil tank will be illegal for domestic use. It is single skinned, unbunded and worse of all measured in gallons which takes it just over the 2500 litre domestic limit.
For the new tank and all the other adaptations required we will be looking at approaching US$ 7000.
The time for change is fast approaching.
If we will have to be spending that sort of money to keep our wonky oil fired system running legally I would rather find a bit more money, ditch the oil and finally and joyfully head into the renewable offgrid world of wood and solar.
To reinforce this conclusion I put the question to the engineer (from the company that makes and services these oil boilers) - "With all these extra requirements and costs, should we be ditching oil now?".
"If you were my dad, I would say get out of oil as soon as you can," was his reply.
Sound advice, but do I really look that old ?
He even threw into the melting pot that he is installing an air source heat pump and solar PV battery setup in his house.
"Get off-grid as fast as you can" he exhorted as he loaded up his van.
Sounds like I might have had a prepper in the kitchen and I didn't even know it!
Farewell to oil
It is looking like the time to say goodbye to oil for heating our house and our hot water is coming real soon.
I am going to check out the air source heat pump option but my natural leaning is towards the solar and wood combination. Mainly because we have an almost infinite source of wood here.
The one big elephant of course is cost.
I haven't had full costings recently but I am suspecting we will be in the US$ 15k plus range to buy all the kit and get it installed.
That is a big chunk of change that we don't have to hand.
You may have read in my previous blogs that the main reason I initially joined steem was to raise the capital to move us forward on our journey to our offgrid renewable nirvana.
Here comes the big fat steem dilemma. $15K is the total value of my steem account all in and powered down.
But that wasn't the plan. If steem got to $5 then I could take the capital needed with only a third of the account and leave the rest to grow.
So where do I go from here? Just sit back and hope steem rises?
That would be the wonderful path to take but with current progress I fear I might have passed into another world before steem reaches that moon.
Steem on and all that...
While you are here check out these to see what else I do :
SteemRadio - schedule of all the steem radio shows - week beginning 23 July 2018
Pennsif's Progress #606 - Dreaming of nothing, or very little at least
The Alternative Lifestyle Show - Friday 20 July 2018 - with @surfermarly [recording]
My Life In 8 Songs - 19 July 2018 - @breakoutthecrazy, @anarcotech & @klynic [recording]
Headlines that caught my eye... 19 July 2018
A Dollar A Day charitable giving project : Fundraiser Thanks to @lyndsaybowes
Pennsif's Live Sustainability Curation Digest for MSP - week ending 22 July 2018
[ images from pixabay.com ]
Do you have a cooperative selling green electricity in Wales ?
I haven't come across one yet but there might be...
I am installing two mini-split systems in the homestead we are moving into. They cost about $1000 each, and they draw 900 watts each. They will run on 220vac, 50 Hz; and two will heat and cool 1400 sq feet. It will heat with an outside temperature of -22 degrees Fahrenheit.
A 2500 watt solar system will run this heat and air.
I will be interested to hear how it goes.
I will install one soon in a tiny house we already built. I will let you know, but they have very good reviews. :)
I am not surprised at the 'shifting of the goalposts' by the new regulations of 'certified engineers' for your oil heating - Just typical!
Yeah i think i would steer away from oil too (prices & regulations are a real threat).
I have heard that the Air Source Heat Pumps are not that effective in many places of England & Wales. I know someone who has one and in the Winter there is just not enough heat in the air for an efficient extraction. Last Winter their electric bill was quite high, as the pump used to extract heat from the air had to work quite intensively! Sounds like it could be counter-productive.
Another alternative could be a Ground-Source-Heat-Pump, similar to the Air version, but it's efficiency would depend on location too.
For convenience, GAS is great, but dependebility on The System and it's price/supply volatility is too unpredictable and volatile.
Personally, i would opt for wood/coal so long as you have a good sustainable supply (not too pricey either).
Hopefully STEEM should increase, we'll just have to wait and see.
Good Luck
We have a near neighbour with a ground-source system - but they have flat land near the house for the pipework. We are on the side of the mountain so a bit more tricky.
We are no where near mains gas, and the tankers cannot get up our narrow lane.
Wood is definitely my main target as we have 15 acres of woodland so an almost infinite supply.
BINGO! Go with wood all the way! Sustainable, cheap and self reliant.
(Don't mind the dust lol) - When you get older or if you are injured it can be a problem cutting and gathering wood/getting rid of the ashes though.
As I get older I hope I can do 'wood-share' arrangements with younger and fitter folk - they get half the wood in exchange for cutting and splitting some for us.
Definitely move away from oil asap. There are numerous clever ways to heat houses now that would fit in with your ideology. Typically, some combination of enhanced insulation and a heating system that is sustainable can achieved even in order houses I think.
I guess it depends partially on what you have available in terms of space and natural resources - but since you have a lot of wood, maybe rocket heaters are worth looking at?
Yes I have been looking at rocket mass heaters.
I had a chap (@em3) on The Alternative Lifestyle Show a couple of weeks back who is working at Wheaton Labs. That prompted me to check them out again but I don't think we would have the physical space in the main house as the rooms are small.
Host of The Alternative Lifestyle Show on MSP Waves Radio.
Editor of the Weekly Schedule of Steem Radio Shows.
Founder of the A Dollar A Day charitable giving project.
If you want to get really creative you can make a sofa out of the rocket heater :)
That could be a comfortable option.
Ugh! I'm sorry you are faced with all this. Do you have the $7k the oil fix would cost? I'm not suggesting the fix, but if you do have that money, then the wood/solar project would only take half your account's value roughly, right?! And it sure would make for a lot of great posts along the way.
Hello @pennsif I was told that you support charity through fund raisng. I humbly came here to ask if you could help our advocacy. Here's the link for our cause. https://steemit.com/charity/@aalagenesis/fund-raising-for-creative-street-manila
Thank you so much