Eliminate heating bills and reduce heating costs
Note: This post was written when we were living in a house. We keep our RV thermostat at 65°F to avoid condensation.
With the thermostat currently set at 55°F Hopefully we’ll save a pretty penny this winter on heating – In fact, it has been several days since the air conditioner was last turned on. Wearing loose, multi-layered clothing and getting up and lifting some weights from time to time, 55F is not a big deal. Of course for those who are accustomed to 75F and prefer to wear shorts and t-shirts during the winter while sitting perfectly still, 55F is a big deal. If wearing more than one layer is unusual,A space heater may be a good solution
. The idea is to warm the occupied room with a fireplace and leave the rest of the house cool. It’s not the perfect solution. In general, temperature gradients, where one side of you is warm while the other side is cool due to the heater being on one side of you, or temperature changes from walking from a warm room to a cold room or even vice versa, make you feel more uncomfortable than cold temperatures. Fixed. Your choice.
55 F is the thermostat’s minimum because water pipes are compromised at low temperatures. Do not set the thermostat below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. After purchasing a space heater and realizing we already had one (note to self: get rid of more stuff! Buying something because you forgot you already had one is pretty embarrassing when you run a frugal blog), you decided to increase the usage of your wood stove. Actually, we have a wood stove, but mostly being lazy and all, I’d rather adapt to the cold than try to fight it even if it means lifting tons of pig iron – hey, it’s a good way to get a beach boost.Fortunately firewood can be collected for
Free on Craigslist . However, free firewood comes with some caveats attached. Unless you’re lucky enough to get your first dip into someone’s firewood because they just switched to an alternative heating source, free firewood usually means either scrap wood or rounds from someone’s backyard. The giver’s main motive is to get rid of it. The recipient’s main motivation is free heating.Scrap lumber like 2x4s, boards, etc. is usually a risky proposition. It is often painted or treated with fire retardants making it useless for heating purposes.
We went on many wild hunts for free firewood as much of it turned out to be unsuitable for burning . Clean scrap wood, on the other hand, is dry and burns well. After realizing the significant cost of gasoline to obtain it, we no longer go out of our way to obtain it. The problem is that we have a compact hatchback and there is a limit to the amount of wood that can fit in the back. Maybe worth heating for 10 days. Therefore, it’s not worth spending more than $10 on gas to go get it. Honestly, I think we’ll take this limit even lower given our limited upload capacity. Speaking of which, we’ve been talking about getting a truck the next time we buy a car in, say, 10 years.Unlike rings that are usually sawed with the chain to the correct length, Scrap wood comes in odd lengths. DW initially suggested we get… Electric saw. no no no no! Like powered screwdrivers, automatic egg boilers, and bread makers, chainsaws are just another sign that the world has gone mad. Sawing, such as screwing (important!), boiling eggs, and baking bread, can be done by hand. To cut wood this size “by hand” you need a bow saw or frame saw. Now, it turns out It is impossible to buy a bow saw or at least impossible here. We tried three different hardware stores, and all they had were mini saws and of course…power saws. So I had to make the decision (no shipping costs) and get it online. I got this Saw bow. It just arrived today and I quickly cut up some of our longer scrap wood. Boys and their toys. It was rather expensive, but I’ve known Bahko since I was a kid. My dad got a set of Bahco screwdrivers that lasted forever unlike the flimsy 14-piece sets one usually gets from hardware stores.
Buying quality is usually much cheaper in the long run. Plus, it’s more fun to use a good tool or anything good for that matter. This saw goes through wood like butter, I mean I’ve used my grandfather’s bow saw before, but this is like magic. He also posted alternatives to push-ups. I just have to remember to use my left arm as much as my right arm. Now all I have to do is train DW to use the bow saw and her skills will be complete (she’s not a Jedi yet). The other option for free wood is rounds. Tours are a better option. They are always burnable. They are also usually of unseasoned (freshly cut) wood and therefore not as good this season. So these are an investment for next winter. Shots the size of a shot two feet in diameter are also very heavy. Getting them into the car without scratching anything is good training. As well as dividing the rounds. I already had a sledgehammer, so instead of getting $30 from the split shot, I got $7
Cleavage wedge . The link is just to show what a split wedge looks like. Don’t buy this online – at 4 lbs, the shipping cost is exorbitant. We got Home Depot. The split wedge is less convenient than the putter, but it is more versatile because it allows me to split more aggressive rounds. Never get a specialized tool, if a variety of tools can do the same job. It didn’t take long for me to use the sledgehammer at full power and actually hit what I was aiming for. It was later discovered that thin pieces of wood could be broken in half by striking them forcefully with a sledgehammer. Now I understand why hammers were used as weapons. Don’t forget the safety glasses. There will be large, sharp pieces of wood flying everywhere. now
The real question is whether we actually saved anything
Since we bought a chainsaw, heater and gasoline wedge. The answer is a solid yes for next year, but the jury is still out on this year. I think we’ve spent about $100 so far to avoid spending money on heating the air conditioner. This is clearly an investment but it is not yet clear whether this will be a good investment.
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