Hey all...bend over....

[mimico_polak]

Yeah doesn't that happen like twice a year, I know it does in Oct sometime every year. Seems like BS. They ask use all the save on energy, you try, make home improvements, and yet still raise the rates.

You made the improvements so you can keep paying. Your house efficiency goes up, your consumption goes down…so they need to raise the rates to keep making the same money.

Plus you spent thousands on upgrades.

Win-win-lose

I’m becoming too cynical damnit.

 

[GreyGhost]

You made the improvements so you can keep paying. Your house efficiency goes up, your consumption goes down…so they need to raise the rates to keep making the same money.

Plus you spent thousands on upgrades.

Win-win-lose

I’m becoming too cynical damnit.

Well if you hadnt done the upgrades you really get screwed. You still use lots of gas but pay the higher rate. Again a kick to those trying to hold on.

 

[sburns]

You made the improvements so you can keep paying. Your house efficiency goes up, your consumption goes down…so they need to raise the rates to keep making the same money.

Plus you spent thousands on upgrades.

Win-win-lose

I’m becoming too cynical damnit.

So am I, dam life age experience dialing in reality instead of the fiction or ideals in your youth....

 

[MacDoc]

You made the improvements so you can keep paying. Your house efficiency goes up, your consumption goes down…so they need to raise the rates to keep making the same money.

Plus you spent thousands on upgrades.

Win-win-lose

I’m becoming too cynical damnit.

Told ya....sell the house ( you missed the peak ) move to Cairns. No furnace, no heaters lots of sunny days,
With solar hot water and a smallish solar array ...electricity cost for 3 months about $260.
oh yeah riding days 365 - minus a few storms.

 

[DownUnder]

Told ya....sell the house ( you missed the peak ) move to Cairns. No furnace, no heaters lots of sunny days,
With solar hot water and a smallish solar array ...electricity cost for 3 months about $260.
oh yeah riding days 365 - minus a few storms.

If your going to move across the globe because of weather, make sure to move to a Goldie Locks zone... in Australia that's South East Queensland/North East New South Whales.

Far enough South that you don't get hit by cyclones/monsoons, and far enough north that you don't get frost in the winters. 300+ days of sunshine each year, beautiful beaches and rainforest and ofcoarse the hinterland to ride through every day of the year.

 

[DownUnder]

Forgot to mention, far enough south you don't get box jellyfish and crocodiles at the beach and far enough north you don't get great whites... there are an awful lot of bullsharks though.

 

[mimico_polak]

Told ya....sell the house ( you missed the peak ) move to Cairns. No furnace, no heaters lots of sunny days,
With solar hot water and a smallish solar array ...electricity cost for 3 months about $260.
oh yeah riding days 365 - minus a few storms.

I do have family in Sydney. And I think Melbourne looks like a great place to live.

Should've taken my company's offer to transfer me there years back.

 

[MacDoc]

Indeed but not to Melbourne ...too $$$.

 

[basmn]

In many cases the wood fireplace will actually increase gas usage. It draws air from the house that goes out the flue which draws cold air into the rest of the house increasing the load on the furnace. Most of the heat energy it creates goes out the chimney. There are ways to offset or prevent this...

Not if you have a outside air intake for the fireplace...and BTW...the price of propane has increased more than 10% over the past 7 months

 

[sburns]

Not if you have a outside air intake for the fireplace...and BTW...the price of propane has increased more than 10% over the past 7 months

What if the fireplace makes enough heat you don't need to turn on your furnace, maybe just use the fan to circulate?

 

[GreyGhost]

What if the fireplace makes enough heat you don't need to turn on your furnace, maybe just use the fan to circulate?

The theory is that without makeup air, most of the flue gas going up has been sucked out of the house. It's part of the reason that the distant rooms get colder when heating with wood. Sure, you can pour enough wood to it to heat up the rooms near the fireplace but it would be more efficient to have outside makeup air supplying the fire so all heat that makes it in the room gets to stay there (until it leaks through insulation or weak points in the envelope but at least you are actively pulling heat out of the house).

 

[Scuba Steve]

What if the fireplace makes enough heat you don't need to turn on your furnace, maybe just use the fan to circulate?

You need a modern sealed reburn fireplace to get any heat any open fireplace is just sending the heat from the rest of your house out the chimney. It moves the wood from under 10 to 70 percent efficient. Pacific energy is good so are some others.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[basmn]

Correct, we have a zero clearance wood burning stove with a outside air intake equipped with a fan. No inside warm air is used for combustion. Warm inside air is pulled into the bottom of the fireplace and circulated around the fire box then exits from the top. The furnace DOES NOT come on at all during the day when the fire is on....saves a Ton on furnace fuel

 

[sburns]

You need a modern sealed reburn fireplace to get any heat any open fireplace is just sending the heat from the rest of your house out the chimney. It moves the wood from under 10 to 70 percent efficient. Pacific energy is good so are some others.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Thanks I'll look into that.

 

[Mad Mike]

In many cases the wood fireplace will actually increase gas usage. It draws air from the house that goes out the flue which draws cold air into the rest of the house increasing the load on the furnace. Most of the heat energy it creates goes out the chimney. There are ways to offset or prevent this...

That shouldn't gapped for more thsn a few moments. A proper fire does require combustion air, and loses a bit of warm air in chimney draft- works the same way in your gas furnace.

More fireplace heat radiates into the house than is consumed by feeding combustion.

Think about it for a minute... do you think the fireplaces used to heat houses for the thousand years before furnaces were invented were chilling homes in the winter?

My furnace doesn't call for heat at all when I have a good fire going.

 

[backmarkerducati]

As I noted there are solutions that can prevent this but without the..... Without fresh air for the wood fireplace every cubic foot of air that goes up the flue is also air that was heated by the furnace that comes from inside the house, and cold outside air replaces it. A standard wood fireplace is also really inefficient, but some are better.

This is the same reason many have fresh air intakes for the gas furnace, to prevent it from sucking heated air out the chimney/vent (and for CO prevention in a sealed up house). The difference is the furnace is way more efficient than a wood fireplace.

In the end there are even simpler solutions, we crack open a window in the room with the fireplace when it is going--minimizes the loss in the rest of the house.

 

[sburns]

In the end there are even simpler solutions, we crack open a window in the room with the fireplace when it is going--minimizes the loss in the rest of the house.

I was thinking that is what I would do if the fireplace needs more air.
Plus I am in one of those double brick houses with no real vapour barrier in the walls so the air would flow, maybe not enough.