Mr Frugal, strikes again

[Robert Mickley]

In an effort to burn less wood. I decided the outdoor bouiler should have its own shed. I figured there had to be lots of wasted heat going up in the atmosphere.

Boy was I right. Gathered up some shedule 40 1.5 inch pipe and welded up a frame, layed r19 over it and covered it with some galvonized tin I had. Ugly? yes. but when you open the door its about a 100 degrees in there. I was fixing the fire every 12 hours, I haven't added any wood since 10PM or so last night.

Darn insulation isn't cheap.
If I can whack 30% off of my wood burning It will pay for itself. Last year I burned around 4.5 cords

[Dennis Peacock]

Hey Robert. Whatchoo heatin' with that thang? I don't see a house anywhere in site.

I'm toying around with the idea of setting a woodburning stove outside my shop and venting the heat off of it to the inside of my shop. Wood is much cheaper to come by than Natural Gas.

Since we converted over to burning wood last year with our new Soapstone Stove, we burn just under 2 cords of wood last winter and last winter was the first winter we had here in Arkansas where we were actually "warm" inside the house.:)
Monthly NG bill was running us just over $300 a month and with the woodstove? We dropped that to just under $40 a month in the winter months. :D :D

Details man......I need details!!!! :rolleyes:

[Robert Mickley]

Thats because I'm standing at the house, actually its a house trailer Dennis. You know how hard the older ones are to heat. It pumps the not water to the house and goes through a heat exchanger under the furnace, origional blower on the furnace blows air across the exchanger and out the ducts. At 150 degree water temp you can't stand on the first register in your bare feet. My propane bill year before last was about 1300 for the year, last winter, ZERO. propane furnace never even got lit last year.

Next up is installing the hot water exchanger. Picked it up last week. It cost $225 but Since I won't be running the electric water heater all winter I figure I can cut my electric bill maybe $25 or $30 a month.

After that I 'm rnning lnes to the camper. Going to start my plants in there this winter instead of the kitchen. and if I get enough coin scraped together I'm going to run a line down to that building in the far left of the picture. Thats the woodshop.

The end goal is to heat the woodshop, the trailer, the camper and the greenhouse all off of one fire:D

[Dennis Peacock]

Robert,

That's pretty cool....ah-hemmmm....I mean "warm". :rolleyes: :)

So I guess you're on a farm? I was raised on a farm and farmed all of my life up until I went into the Air Force. I thought life was tough then, but it's sure not any better in the hightech industry. I miss the days of punchin cows, plowin, takin corn, cotton, and such to sell after the harvest. Shoot, I used to help "hand pick" cotton pulling a big ol' burlap sack behind me. We didn't have a cotton picker to drive and do the work....WE were the cotton picker!! :D

Let me know how your heating system works out. I gotta work out a way to get my shop off the Natural Gas kick. ;)

[Robert Mickley]

So far so good Dennis, it will go about 16 or 17 hours now. I haven't caught the draft fan an on yet. It may be coming on but if it is, it isn't running long. When it does come on it eats up the wood in a hurry.

Your right I do live on a farm, we rent off of my wifes cousin. I can't afford to live anywhere else with this deal. Granted its a house trailer which isn't the best thing in the world. But I get my shop and I have use of any equipment I need. I would be lost if I didn't have access to that tractor and loader. and little things, like this year he made me up 12 round bales of straw for my mulch next year. Where else are you going to get that for $250 a month?

In exchange I help him out with some of the field work, and I take care of the animals when he is on vacation.