Wow, that’s snow! Hardly any snow here, but that’s how it goes with extreme cold, once the jet stream wobbles north it could change.
As they say, it might be cold, but it’s a dry cold… 
2 Likes
Don, I have a combination, in floor radiant in part of the house, electric baseboard in most of the rest, and 2 forced air wall mounts.
Fortunately our rate is just over 8 cents Canadian per kw/hr
2 Likes
.08/kwh not bad. We buy some of your hydro here in Vermont to keep the carbon numbers down. I’ve heated with wood for over 40 years but am mixing in some electric this year. I have 6k of solar panels on my garage roof. Went out this morning when it got up to 0F and raked the snow off the collectors. I’ll be lucky if I make over 1kwh today. Summer is a different story. I build up a balance and spend it down in winter. I get .20/kwh credit toward what I consume at .15/kwh. Goal is to break even.
The glycol in my solar water collectors was gelled this morning. Hopefully it will thaw. I have those collectors tilted at 60 degrees and on a cold sunny day in winter I’ve seen them at 170F with the reflection off the snow.
3 Likes
Dick, I have been itching to implement a solar concentrator array for heating. There are significant advantages. Flat plate solar thermal efficiency drops with air temperature, radiant losses eventually equal gains. A concentrator is immune to that, 7,000 watts of solar power fall on the collector regardless of temperature from a 10 foot array. That would be enough to heat my home, at least while the sun shines, and perhaps a reserve tank of heated water. And once it is really cold the sun shines…
Sounds like you have to strengthen your glycol mix, here 50 / 50 is the rule…
3 Likes
You´re right,
I just checked and our electricity is only a few % more expensive and I can´t remember what year I last had a power out. However my house is built 1946, I have the original windows, no insulation in the walls and only 8 inches of sawdust and planer shavings above the ceiling (except for the extensions I built myself). Also i have a concrete brick basement that radiates a lot of heat. If I were to go 100% electric I would probably end up somewhere between 25,000 - 30,000 kWh a year. Insurance cost would still be the same.
If I had to buy wood I would be able to cut the cost with only half, compared to heating with electricity. Then it would certainly not be worth the effort.
The exercise, the satisfaction and the joy of wood handling is what motivates me the most. Playing golf is not my cup of tea.
8 Likes
I am thankful for natural gas that runs to my house. Last year my total gas bills added up to $695 for heating 2200 sq ft. including hot water and clothes drying. My only regret is that it is not available at my shop. Then maybe my S-10 would be finished.
7 Likes
I burn wood, no backup just wood. Because of that I have never even checked on homeowners insurance. If I were to heat with electric you could bet it would be HID lighting that would also be used to grow an indoor garden. Efficiency only comes from stacking functions.
This is the first year growing indoors . Porch was not ready by time garden crops froze so I only had a few plants to bring in. I never planned on heating the porch this long . Hear is a pick of some strawberries I woke up and brought in. They are alive but with no supplemental light not producing. Hard to believe that with as many nights in the negitive 20s and 30s and days never braking 0 that my one little wood stove heats 1080 sq ft plus the ever shrinking porch. I think since I have made it this far I am going to add another layer of plastic and keep heating it… only another six weeks and it will heat itself and give a great deal of heat back to the house.
11 Likes
Those plants sure look pretty healthy. I’ve done some winter stuff, but its always in front of my south facing picture windows. It even looks like the strawberry is flowering, nice.
3 Likes
Excellent point, that’s the beauty of electric, a fan, a toaster, whatever it is, when all is considered, is a 100% efficient electric heater. A watt is a watt.
Here a good case could be made for mining bit coins all winter, the energy cost would be zero. Same as for grow lights.
2 Likes
I think I would rather put in solar and mine all summer with the excess power the panels make… except at the current drop in bit coin and the crazy computers you need to mine now I don’t think I will try it. I really don’t understand how the government allows bit coin anyway the USA government is pretty clear that the us dollar is to be used for currency. Your not allowed to have a local currency I don’t remember the actual law but if memory serves me right it came out of the revolutionary war and the problems sorting out the currency from the south.
3 Likes
Those concentrating collectors are a real step up in efficiency from my system. They look really good for space heating.
My glycol is 50/50 but it gets real slushy in this weather. I rescued my 70s era collectors from a trip to the landfill. I had to solder up some leaks. I think they’re the same brand Jimmy Carter put on the White House and Reagan took off.
3 Likes
I remember that, president Carter was a real forward thinker. Too bad the energy glut right after lulled people back to sleep.
If the glycol is still slushing at 50 50 it may be breaking down, not sure what eventually happens to it, but it has a certain life expectancy. Might do to test the freeze point, 50 50 should be minus 40.
The concentrators are pretty attractive. The bigger the better for efficiency, but 6 x 6 ft should still give practical results. I like that they are just simple focused mirror elements. The tracker is the big issue as precise alignment is necessary, an event timer with a movement every 5 minutes should do fine for that. MEN detailed a thermal tracker years ago, it would win for simplicity and energy efficiency. Although a gear reduced shaded pole rotissery motor could point a balanced array.
1 Like
Yup, to bad they took away our 100 watt incondecent bulbs hear in this country. I guess they figured out we were getting free space heat when used properly . Put one in a lamp by your chair read and stay warm for the same dollar. Turn the thermostat down and heat your personal space with the light. Warm weather change them out led.
3 Likes
Exactly. I used to do the same. But the LEDs seem to actually live up to claims, a person might age out before having to change many of them, they have their own attractions. During heating season energy saving wasn’t so credible. Depending on where the electricity comes from. If coal generated, then thermal losses at the plant, line losses, better to go with efficiency. Here we are fairly unique in having a very green power grid.
Yes Pepe they seem to be doing well. There are strawberries but I don’t think they will be edible. Even the late season ones from the garden were hard and dry. We typically don’t get enough sunlight here in the winter to grow anything that flowers. My goal is to bring a late season garden in to harvest mid December. This is my first time ever trying to extend my garden season. I do know by from last year that I get alot off my earliy and late season from this little sun porch. On the down side it has been taking my wood gas time. I am finally working on my truck again though.
2 Likes
I put the led light between me and the wood stove it makes you think you have the old incandescent bulb at night when you sit there. 
Seriously though a heating element is about the least effecent way to convert electricity to heat that is why the old baseboard heaters everyone put in when nuclear power was going to make cheap power for the world all ended up in the dump back in the 80s.
1 Like
Yeah, but if you are going to use one to dry your clothes anyway why not save the heat. The wood stove will take care of the moisture.
1 Like
At least the cold doesn’t consume 80% of my free time.
The view out my door.
My frog pond.
I smell wood.
Small part of my drive way.
Plow and blow snow fun.
More snow and colder weather ahead then they say it might rain next Monday…
6 Likes
That doesn’t look like 7 ft of snow. The news said Eire was under 7 ft of snow. Are you saying the news guys don’t know what they are talking about.? TomC
A heating element is a perfectly efficient power to heat conversion device. There are no losses for practical consideration. But the same can be said for an electric fan, light, tv, computer, whatever. Every watt consumed is eventually converted to heat in the space it occupies, be it by direct heat, or moving something which will eventually result in heat from friction.
Electric baseboard heat became uncompetitive in most places when compared to near giveaway fossil fuel pricing, especially when the electricity itself comes from fossil fuel plus line losses, infrastructure costs and maintenance.
2 Likes