Posted on 01/06/2014 12:27:07 PM PST by virgil283
Yeah, what you said.
We use propane for backup heat. However, when the temperature dips below about 15 or 20 degrees, we often use it for primary heat, since our heat pump struggles to keep up in colder weather. I have no data to back it up, but I would guess that, below a certain temperature, propane is even cheaper to use than a heat pump.
No need for a pure sine inverter - waste of money.
Build your home backup power with info from here:
http://battery1234.com
I don't think you are going to find a C02 detector unless you work in the gorebull warming industry.
Carbon Monoxide, yes. Carbon Dioxide? Probably not at Home Depot, Lowes or other household supply.
I am just going to add a disclaimer as we have all heard of tragic accidents.
Un-vented combustion heaters of any sort, give off by-products to the combustion that are poisonous like carbon monoxide — kills, silent, no smell and deadly.
Our furnaces keep this deadly aspect of combustion on the vented side of a heat exchanger, thus the combustion is never actually in the air stream, it is vented.
There are heaters and fire places that have claims to be 100% efficient at burning off the combustion by-products without venting. If you use one you are betting the lives of your family on it.
I have known instances of a heater in a garage without duct connection to the main house, still poisoning a family sleeping in the attached house, even with the door cracked in the garage. There are methods to keep your furnace going with auxillary electricity for pilot, fan and t-stat. If that solution is used you are probably using the safe bet as long as any generator is exhausted clear from the dwelling.
I look at it this way:
What kind of Kerosene heater would you use (Vented or non-Vented). Vented ones work fine much like an oil furnace. Used one up in Maine for years and it had a thermostat.
I currently have a propane fireplace (vented as well) and I like the point & click vice the 4 wood fireplaces I grew up with in Maine as well prior to the kerosene heater plus I also use the propane to cook with on our Jenn-Air Range and it’s hooked up outside to me BBQ grill.
I'm just sayin'.
Yes unvented, I should have specified, unvented and portable heater.
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I doubt you find portable and unvented. There are some propane units without venting requirements but typically not portable. I suspect you will not find any kerosene that way.
And if it says indoor on the box, read the manual that comes with it. Do not ignore venting requirements without first listing me in your will.
My furnace is a steam radiator system so it only needs juice to run the thermostat, open the flu and make the pezo-electric spark to ignite the gas. So it is a very light load. The battery/inverter setup can provide juice to the furnace/thermostat system for a long time. If the batteries get down, I'll know it and can recharge them easily. A small weed whacker motor that drives an alternator. 20 minutes usually does it. Uses very little fuel for that amount of time.
The major issue is it is not very stealthy. I'm working on that for the inevitable SHTF scenario.
In coal mines the miners have traditionally used canaries to monitor the level of CO2. When the canary dies the miners get ready to leave.
But there are more sophisticated instruments for CO2 detection. The “Testo Model 535 Carbon Dioxide Monitor” is a hand-held monitor which detects levels from 0 to 9999 ppm and has a dual probe to measure airflow through both an incoming and out-going duct. It’s cost is about $730 U.S. Dollars.
Green houses use CO2 monitors in order to assure that plants are receiving enough CO2 to carry on photosynthesis. Often these monitors are built to trigger a CO2 enrichment device when levels drop below that which is optimal for plant growth. However Green Air Products does produce a “Portable Carbon Dioxide Monitor Model CDM-7001″ which is hand held and would be well suited for a variety of applications. It also gives a temperature reading and is able to register a CO2 level within 30 seconds. It has a data port that can output data to a windows based application.
This monitor operates 70 hours on 4 AA batteries. The cost is about $925 US dollars. GE Telaire makes a device that looks identical in every aspect and sells for about $425."
They are on the way. "Internal combustion" is not a real gud idea.
Go propane, get one rated for indoor use with a tip over shut off. Never put it on the rug.
Read the reviews from several sites, have gotten a lot of good pointers.
Growing up, we had a wood furnace in NE Ohio. Worked very well once we figured out how to set the bi-metal damper. The learning curve involved all the windows in the house open, 25°F outside, 85°F inside. It was an add-on unit that used the original forced air duct system from the original oil-fired furnace. Both ran in series, the oil set at 55°F as a back-up unit.
Amazingly, after I went away to College and was no longer cutting, hauling, splitting and stacking firewood, Dad used the oil furnace and little wood.
I have a Nat. Gas Forced air system where I’d need to turn the blower motors (one motor for internal forced convection and one to provide outside combustion air and exhaust of same and the controls.
I do think I'm going to a wood stove, however. I live in a grove of trees. The downside to a wood stove is that you have to be there to tend it, and I'm not, always. If it gets cold enough the pipes freeze, so something that needs less tending fits my needs better. But wood heat requires nothing in the way of electricity or a propane dealer to support. Smells nice, too.
There’s a saying to the effect that firewood warms you twice: once when you cut it and once when you burn it.
Indoor combustion heats hundreds of thousands of home in the US. Ventless indoor combustion is another issue. Oxygen depletion will like be the first problem, which is why O2 sensor are far more commonly recommended.
I love the air movement and the filtration component but from a grid down standpoint, they really do suck down the power. So, I'm happy to stick with the steam radiators for now.
LOL. There is nothing like slave labor.
My best return on my kid's educations was to get an alternator replacement done while I supervised and enjoying a good wine on a warm summer evening. It was sweet.
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