[AT] OT Heating with wood

Larry D. Goss rlgoss at evansville.net
Fri Sep 30 11:53:26 PDT 2005


I understand the $$$ problem.  It ain't cheap.  One of my colleagues at
the university is slowly replacing all the windows and doors in his
house with triple-glazed Pella windows at the rate of one per year.
Each replacement is in the neighborhood of $800 and the IRS only allows
$1000 per year on energy saving upgrades.  Fortunately, he chose a
standard style that is likely to be available for the whole conversion.
It will take him 12 years.  He's about halfway through the project at
present.

Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Easley, Greg
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 10:40 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: RE: [AT] OT Heating with wood

Our house was built in 1973.  It's rather large ~3200sq/ft, has lots of
doors and windows,
and a 16' high vaulted ceiling in the living room.
I've replaced two of the three 6' sliding glass patio doors, one with a
modern triple-glazed
vinyl-frame slider and the other two with single-swing wood doors that
have a venician blind
built into the glass.  The windows could stand to be replaced but I
think I'll leave that to
the next owner.  There are ten of those and only one of them could be
bought from stock at the
lumberyard - big $$$ for the other nine.

Cutting firewood gives me a good excuse to play with my '46 MM R.  That
thing is great for
skidding logs.  It has plenty of snort and will go places where the M5
simply won't fit.

Greg

From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Larry D. Goss
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 10:04 AM
To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
Subject: RE: [AT] OT Heating with wood

FWIW - My father installed triple-glazed windows on the farmhouse where
I was born back during the first energy crunch of the 1970's.  He kept
very accurate records of utility expenses -- kept track of degree-days,
etc -- and told me afterward that he amortized the entire cost of the
extra glass and framing in one heating season.  So, when we needed to
replace the old leaking windows in our "modern" house, my wife and I
spent the extra money for triple glazing, UV coating, and full draperies
at every window.  We specified similarly high R-factor doors throughout
the house.  The house already had good insulation in the walls and
ceiling, so it's reasonably efficient.

The fireplace has an insert in it that heats two rooms, and the
combustion air for it is ducted separately from the outside through the
crawl space.  That way, I can heat a major portion of the house with the
glass doors on the fireplace closed, and when the fire dies down at
night I don't loose living area heat up the chimney. 

Back in the late 70's, I had a neighbor who had access to an IR
pyrometer.  He brought it home during a bitterly cold winter and we went
outside at night and took some readings of ours and our neighbors'
houses.  It was kind of shocking to see how much heat was being lost.
Even such decorating details as valances over draperies at windows can
make a big difference on the amount of heat loss.  Needless to say, we
found it "necessary" to include valances on every window during our
redecorating over the years.

BTW, I see that Harbor Freight is having a sidewalk sale tomorrow and
Sunday.  They have a coupon which gives 50% off on a laser-directed
thermometer.  I think I'll have to pick up one of those.  At less than
$40, it should come in handy.

YMMV.

Larry

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