How Much Have You Used Through Feb. for This 2013/14 Season

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Sun. Feb. 23, 2014 3:14 pm

Horace wrote:My Season to Date and February usage thus far.
You are holding at close to 1 lb. burned per HDD. I envy you. Nice!


 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Feb. 23, 2014 3:18 pm

Even though its a pound per heated degree, it doesn't really say anything for efficiency right? It could be that his house is smaller than yours... or is there more to it?

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Sun. Feb. 23, 2014 3:35 pm

Lightning wrote:Even though its a pound per heated degree, it doesn't really say anything for efficiency right? It could be that his house is smaller than yours... or is there more to it?
Correct. It could be smaller, newer, better insulated, tighter, or just have a better and more efficient piping, valving, and operating scheme than my simple zone valves with single circulator setup.

 
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Horace
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Post by Horace » Sun. Feb. 23, 2014 4:04 pm

lsayre wrote:
Lightning wrote:Even though its a pound per heated degree, it doesn't really say anything for efficiency right? It could be that his house is smaller than yours... or is there more to it?
Correct. It could be smaller, newer, better insulated, tighter, or just have a better and more efficient piping, valving, and operating scheme than my simple zone valves with single circulator setup.
I don't recall exactly how big your house is, Larry, but I do remember that it's bigger than mine. I think that I'm heating about 1,500 sqft or so. Fairly well insulated, newer windows, pretty tight. The biggest thing that I changed this year is that I'm keeping a bigger idle fire so that T-stat calls are shorter. Looking back over the past few years' data, my ratio is lower than in the past so it's evidently working from an efficiency standpoint as well.

 
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Horace
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Post by Horace » Sun. Feb. 23, 2014 4:10 pm

freetown fred wrote:Damn Horace--I gotta get me one of them thar gizmo's-PURTY ;)
And the geeks shall inherit the Earth ... or something to that effect.

It's a Microsoft Access Database. I thought of converting it into web-based application so that anyone could have access to it, but I got more than a little lost in the translation. I taught myself Access years ago, but for some reason I can't get my brain wrapped around MySQL and PHP, or Perl, or Python to make it happen. Even giving the database over to someone with Access is a little tricky because of the way it pulls in the weather data. Not impossible, and I'll gladly hand it off to anyone who wants it, but it's not completely seamless.

 
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Post by rychw » Sun. Feb. 23, 2014 6:11 pm

I have burned a total of 4 tons of Blashack pea thus far which is usually what I burn for the entire heating season. That being said, I think I will burn 1 ton more this season due to the cold winter. Originally I assumed that the coal quality was not as good as previous years but now I know that the coal is fine, and the temperatures outside are the cause. I have vacuumed my horizontal smoke pipe twice thus far instead of the one time I usually do. Thank God I burn coal at $280 a ton and not oil at $3.85 a gallon.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Feb. 23, 2014 8:03 pm

The biggest thing that I changed this year is that I'm keeping a bigger idle fire so that T-stat calls are shorter. Looking back over the past few years' data, my ratio is lower than in the past so it's evidently working from an efficiency standpoint as well.
A certain amount of coal is required to maintain the fire, the colder it is the more degree days your "minimum burn" is spread across.

Think of it like buying envelopes from a printing company. It doesn't matter if you want 1 or 2 million, you still have to pay the guys to setup the press (one time setup cost)...the longer they run it, the cheaper each envelope becomes.


 
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tikigeorge
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Post by tikigeorge » Sun. Feb. 23, 2014 8:16 pm

Started in Sept with 4 tons of buck. Used 3 1/2 tons by Feb 22 2014. The coal man dropped four more @ $283.75/ton. Oiled and bridge toll charge included. :D Sure beats oil.

 
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Post by LiftedAWDAstro » Mon. Feb. 24, 2014 9:53 am

As of this morning I have used 10,498.5# across 127.8 days for an average of 82.17 #/day. Last year I had used 9200# as of February 24th.

 
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Horace
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Post by Horace » Mon. Feb. 24, 2014 10:17 am

Rob R. wrote:Think of it like buying envelopes from a printing company. It doesn't matter if you want 1 or 2 million, you still have to pay the guys to setup the press (one time setup cost)...the longer they run it, the cheaper each envelope becomes.
Something like that, yes. I finally got it through my head that it's a stove not a furnace. By keeping the bigger fire, the stove was constantly putting out more heat and when the T-stat kicked on, it didn't have to recover from a 2" fire and build up to an 8" fire. It was already 5" and didn't have too far to go. Rather than have t-stat calls eight times per day, it's now only twice. My goal is to never have the t-stat kick on during the day; only at night.

The only "problem" that I ran into was when we got warmer spells and I didn't adjust in time. Then it was too hot (if there is such a thing.)

 
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EarthWindandFire
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Post by EarthWindandFire » Mon. Feb. 24, 2014 6:59 pm

I'm guessing around 2.5 tons so far.

 
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Post by maurizziot » Mon. Feb. 24, 2014 8:31 pm

My neighbor used 9 tons 5600 sqft house

 
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Post by voodoochylde » Tue. Feb. 25, 2014 8:23 am

I just purchased my last ton from Green Valley yesterday. Hopefully it's the last I'll need this season as they aren't selling until next year. That makes 5 tons for the season with no wood used except as kindling.

 
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Carbon12
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Post by Carbon12 » Tue. Feb. 25, 2014 9:09 am

2 more tons coming

 
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buffalo bob
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Post by buffalo bob » Tue. Feb. 25, 2014 9:26 am

so far 4 ton going some day this week to get another long ton...been a cold rough winter...wonder if obummer will give out coal stamps????long ton 2,260 lbs, thats 2 scoops in my pickem up...


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