Somethings gotta give ya'll

Solar heat can and does work up north. Maybe not as well as in Tx but it can be a valuble supplement to oil or wood heat. Do you KNOW it won't work? Have you tried it?

This is a sort of side bar.... I was given a load of hickory about two months ago, it was only about halfway dry. I split it with a log splitter, and I split it small, like 4 or 5" thick at maximum. I wanted it to dry fast, and it has. It's burning really well, throws just as much heat as the seasoned, year old oak.

Buffy, your heater only works during the day. At night, it is no help. It has no way to store heat. Even the biased "Mother Earth News" said as much when they published plans for a similar one. So at best, it can help some.

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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

Oh yeah, and on the wood smoke flap, the CO emitted by wood is in the current carbon cycle (100 years or less), meaning you are NOT contributing to a net gain in atmospheric CO. That is not true of oil or gas, where you are releasing carbon that formerly was sequestered in the Earth for millions of years. End of story on that, and no need to bring in all the infrastructure arguments at all.

I do it for that, and for the considerable cost savings, and because I am making a business for the guys who cut my wood locally -- rather than exporting my dollars to some multinational global company. One more thing: My local woodcutters do not fund terrorists.

Rose, I prefer hickory to oak, and burn it whenever possible.

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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

http://www.weathertoday.net/weatherf...loudy_desc.php

Nothing personal here, but which 5 days or so this month, should we heat with?

Here is a discussion board about alternative energy for NE Ohio.

http://www.realneo.us/forum/solar-power-for-neo

I think folks who live in the south sometimes have no concept of what winter in a snow belt area is like.

Benefits... great snow fall, rainfall... droughts usually don't affect us.

cons... We don't get many sunny days.

Everyone recommends solar/wind hybrids here WITH a generator back up for off grid housing... because neither solar nor wind are dependable enough for power. Heat... well, that's what God made trees for.

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That is why I suggest insulation. In the northeast snow belts.... Solar is really just silly. For example it's cloudy and snowy for 4 months of the year. Not to mention the short days. Here we are down to 9 Hours of sun(NEPA). So the Solar gain of windows is often lost in the 15 hours of dark. Go further north..... It just gets less and less.

well put. Years ago I dated a girl who moved from Daytona Beach to upstate NY. She had always lived in FLA. Once winter hit, she found out what cold was, and that it stayed for months, not just hours. If you've never experienced a northern winter, you just can't appreciate it.

I wish our local co-op would 'split' with me. I'll split wood and they can split atoms. I'll heat the house, they can run the fans, the freezer, the pumps, the lights, the water heater, the .....oh, Montgomery Burns, please move to Ky.

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"Only the rocks [and really embarassing moments] live forever"

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

JimS summed up my thoughts. The system you show is good for a little extra heat only while the sun is shining. As soon as the sun goes down, there is NO heat. Lets face it, it gets even colder once the sun goes down.

In the north, solar can be a suppliment only, for heat. For power, as others have stated, in the winter months we still need wind and a backup generator if we wish to live off grid. Unless... we choose to live an even simpler lifestyle.

Heating oil here in Maine is @ $3.25 a gallon.......right now it's ZERO, expected to drop to -10..........we heat with oil and a wood furnace, without the wood furnace we would be frozen. Between the increase in oil prices and groceries, gas, and everything else my paycheck isn't going to cover it.........I worry about the elderly!!

It takes nearly $1,000.00 a month jut for gas to go back and forth to work, and for the home heating fuel to keep my house from freezing up.

As I said yesterday, the sun porch is a great boost to the house on sunny days. Solar works in some parts of the northeast. It's just some of you guys are too close to the great lakes and get all that cloud cover from them. Okay, so solar won't heat you when it's stormy, but when it's sunny it will help reduce your yearly bill.

Everybody's situation is different. Wood is great but it might not be feasible for all, especially as a primary heat source. Some live in areas or have houses wood heat just isn't compatible with, along with zoning and insurance frowning upon it. Some don't live in areas where wood is easily and cheaply available. Some just aren't physically able to handle wood and the work of a stove. Some also work long hours away from the house and require a more convenient(for lack of a good wod) form of heat.

The reality is I don't see anything giving. No matter what you heat with the reality is there is going to be increased expense. Your electric might not be generated with oil, but whatever they generate with might require transportation and that's going up. The maintenance of the grid requires transportation and equipment so that's going up. The gas company also uses trucks and equipment and on and on.

This is very reminiscent of the 70's when the "back to the land" movement started. The ironic thing is that back to the land movement has caused more problems then it fixed. The other funny thing is instead of changing we just figured ways to throw more money at the real problem.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

see, my problem is theat I "assume" that being this is a homesteading forum, that people are indeed trying to homestead. The more I read, the more I reallize that 90% of those here are farther from actual homesteading than I am.

It would seem to me, that a homesteader wouldn't have a 9 to 5 job, but would earn money from home or as needed

it would seem to me a homesteader would be phyically able to do the work (I always think back to my former neighber , he was 93 , still heated with wood, no modern plumbing, a hand pump in the sink, basic living, and have the will to do the work

I can't see how living "back to land" creates more problems. More work, yup, problems, nothing a little thought can't fix

insurance, huh... try a bank account and extra stuff stored away. Basic, simple living. Stuff can be replaced. If god forbid my home burned down, I'd struggle for a while, but end up with a better home, with no incurred debt, and it would be more self sufficient.

I've just come to realize that the vast majority of those who post on this forum, are currently not even making an attempt to homestead.

We heat with propane and the price just keeps going up and up and up. It was 2.37 gal at the last fill up.

Since I'm at home all day I am the one in control of the heat. It's at 60 all night. At 7am when the kids get up and ready for college etc it goes up to 67 for one hr. Then back down to 60 during the day. I cook from scratch so heat from cooking usually keeps the house around 64 give or take. At 5pm when H gets home it goes back up to 67 until 7pm. The kids work during the day and into the night.

Had M and S over for lunch yesterday. After cooking and baking all morning I thought it was baumy at around 66 degrees. Didn't even think until they had left that they might have been cold. They did keep their coats on the whole time. lol Oops.

Stony, I like you... put on your flame proof undies though.

And while you are at it, please list what you consider homesteading. Is a true homesteader connected to the grid? Do they have internet access? Do they have running water?

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If I was starting out (had the $ to do it right) I would LOVE to have solar heat and lights and refridge etc. Also a composting toilet, and an attached green house. And a grey water system, and rain barrels and....
But alot of people like myself are struggling to keep our heads above water. We simply don't have the funds to add solar anything these days. Mary.

for the last 18 years we have heated strickly with wood...the most we have paid for wood is 10 a cord (2 cord minimum wood permits from the forest Service). This last summer we got several 1 ton truck loads of wood from tree cutting services that were going to chip the trees they took down (Oak, Fir and Maple). Craigs List is a great place to find FREE wood and so is Freecycle.

As for cold bedrooms and such, we have placed a small fan at ceiling level and when the main room is heated we send the heat down the hall to the Bedrooms and bathroom.

Husband's aunt paid $1,200 for propane last winter, she has since moved to an all electric home.

I too wonder how folks are gonna make it....

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"At The Worlds Beginning There Was A Mother"
~ Chinese Tao Te Ching~

had to pay 1.98 for propane last summer it has gone up a lot, Glad I heat with wood guess I will be looking for a wood cook stove with a new sense of urgency soon. Saw an old rusty one get $225 at auction and did not want to go that high.

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marching to the beat of a different drummer

Why do you use green wood for heat? The stuff would release the same pollutants to the atmosphere when it decomposes just would take longer so dont feel guilty, I never burn garbage though lots of ignorant folks here do including my best friend, when you burn plastic it's making dioxin same as agent oarnge go up, I dont burn brush either just let it rot.To many fire bugs out there.

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marching to the beat of a different drummer