Electricity (home, buy, schools)

[Stephan_K]

Originally Posted by jimj

We have 53 in the cap and I think 21 or so in the walls, double pane windows, may go triple next time though..... I love that I can turn down/off rooms we aren't in and don't just send heat everywhere. We do have a 45000 BTU fireplace with blower that will heat most of the house and an emergency power panel to hook a generator to that runs the fireplace and essentials in case of prolonged power failure (that has never happened btw).

ranch or 2 story? basement, crawl space, slab or other?

[Stephan_K]

rickers, never a dull moment in your neck of the woods. sounds like the foundation for one of those reality shows for the discovery channel, like occ and such ! call it "a day in the life, on the rez, MT"..........hehe

what kind of scoot do you and your bird enjoy?

And for the life of me.....how does that peg fit on a bicycle peddal???? That has to be a real site when that guy stops and puts that peg down on a little ice !

[jimj]

Originally Posted by Stephan_K

ranch or 2 story? basement, crawl space, slab or other?

Ranch w/ 500 sqft bonus room over a triple garage on a 5 ft crawl space. Slab foundations are real rare here due to frost line and heaving issues (at least that's what I'm told).

[rickers]

My bike that Peekaboo and I ride is a year 2000, Suzuki DR 650 enduro, now called duo-sport. It is a trail ready and street legal hybrid sort of bike. It weighs only 360 pounds, has muy beans and it is the t!ts ! Besides the one legged biker there is this guy who looks like a grizzled old miner and he disappears for weeks on end up into the hills with his three pack horses. He told me I could take his picture next time I see him camping out somewhere. I'll take one and post it if I can find him !

Picasa Web Albums - Rick - bike and stuff

[Stephan_K]

Originally Posted by jimj

Ranch w/ 500 sqft bonus room over a triple garage on a 5 ft crawl space. Slab foundations are real rare here due to frost line and heaving issues (at least that's what I'm told).

Any heat in that crawl space? If not how is the floor, chilly at all?

My little cabin basically has an unheated crawl space, no matter how much I roast the place with the wood burner the floor always has a chill too it. Only thing I hate about unheated areas under the floor.

Actually a standard block foundation (below frost line to code in any are) with a slab on grade thermal broke with 2" Styrofoam under it and 1/2" on the edges with tubing in it circulating 85 - 90 degree water from a hot water tank is the best heat you will ever have. Supposed to be the most efficient of all right next to geothermal. Just have to like living on concrete though which is hard on the bones over time if more tile present than carpet.

If done right, it is very inexpensive to put in. There are gangs of companies that have turned this simple heat method into a costly technical process. A bunch of bull crap if you ask me. I've seen these types of heat systems installed in the most redneck ways and the house is the most comfortable climate you will ever experience..... better than the latest greatest $10K heating systems being put in.

This type of heat is typical in very cold climates. Big in Canada and the NE US. This setup with a very small wood burning boiler is the ultimate. I was considering this too.

[Stephan_K]

Originally Posted by rickers

My bike that Peekaboo and I ride is a year 2000, Suzuki DR 650 enduro, now called duo-sport. It is a trail ready and street legal hybrid sort of bike. It weighs only 360 pounds, has muy beans and it is the t!ts ! Besides the one legged biker there is this guy who looks like a grizzled old miner and he disappears for weeks on end up into the hills with his three pack horses. He told me I could take his picture next time I see him camping out somewhere. I'll take one and post it if I can find him !

Picasa Web Albums - Rick - bike and stuff

I would have took you for a Harley kind of guy ......... From your pics it sounds like you like your trails ! ......What is a prospect hole anyway? Never heard of such a thing.

Do people ride a lot of 4 wheelers there? Besides my Road King on pavement, I like tearring ass on the trails with the grizzley. Was wondering how people felt about them in NW MT.

I'd love to see some of those pics . Has to be wild.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by Stephan_K

Any heat in that crawl space? If not how is the floor, chilly at all?

My little cabin basically has an unheated crawl space, no matter how much I roast the place with the wood burner the floor always has a chill too it. Only thing I hate about unheated areas under the floor.

Actually a standard block foundation (below frost line to code in any are) with a slab on grade thermal broke with 2" Styrofoam under it and 1/2" on the edges with tubing in it circulating 85 - 90 degree water from a hot water tank is the best heat you will ever have. Supposed to be the most efficient of all right next to geothermal. Just have to like living on concrete though which is hard on the bones over time if more tile present than carpet.

If done right, it is very inexpensive to put in. There are gangs of companies that have turned this simple heat method into a costly technical process. A bunch of bull crap if you ask me. I've seen these types of heat systems installed in the most redneck ways and the house is the most comfortable climate you will ever experience..... better than the latest greatest $10K heating systems being put in.

This type of heat is typical in very cold climates. Big in Canada and the NE US. This setup with a very small wood burning boiler is the ultimate. I was considering this too.

Nope, no heat in the crawl but being that the twin water heaters are down there it keeps it about 55 degrees more or less. Yes, our tile floors can get chilly. We have alot of houses here with radiant floor heat but the costs to install it here make it prohibitive. My neighbor just installed a system that uses a wood/gas fired boiler system. It's about the size of a storage shed that sits by his house. He feeds it about every 3 days, and if he forgets or goes somewhere the gas burners will kick in when the temp drops in the firebox. It provides radiant heat and hot water for the house and large shop as well as driveway/sidewalk deicing. If I had known about this system before I built my house I might have done it as well.

As for ATV's, yes they're accepted here since in this state you can license them for street use. There are a lot of people that use them daily to get around and it's neat to be able to get on one in the garage and ride it to the woods. There are trails everywhere but like everywhere else the out of state greenies are trying to shut them down all the time.

[rickers]

A prospect hole is a place where a gold or mineral miner has dug a test hole where he saw signs of valuable minerals. Say If some placer gold is spotted on the ground then one would dig holes in hopes of finding a vein. when a vein is found he then would start tunneling to follow the rich ore veins.
Speaking of trails getting closed. I went to explore a trail that my new Forest Service map showed to be open to motor vehicles and there was a sign saying basically hiking only. It had the symbols of a 4 wheeler and a dirt bike in a circle with the line through it. I went to the forest supervisor for Lolo N.F. and verified that the trail was one of the unrestricted ones and he verified that I was allowed to ride my moto on it. I then proceeded to insist that the sign had to be removed. The next day the sign was being removed by a forest crew.

[rickers]

Back to the original post, Electricity ! I lived on a sailboat for 8 years and I was very happy with the amount of power I could get from a large solar panel. I had two large marine deep cycle batteries and a regulator. A few people buy property off grid sometimes with difficult access to save a few bucks. Many of these folks really don't want to be bothered with things like phone and power bills plus many of these folks just want to stay out in the woods. I don't like the bills but I like having lots of power to run my tools (I have a metal mill/lathe combo machine).
So I live in town for the conveniences and if I want to be out in the sticks I only have to go to the edge of town and I'm in the woods. Anyway 12 or 24 volt D.C. systems for houses off the grid are getting better all the time. I didn't have much room for a bunch of panels on my boat but a guy could cover a roof with the things and along with a wind turbine or two the power can be converted to A.C. and fed into the power grid. Some of these home power generators actually get money from the power companies for the power they feed into the grid.

[Stephan_K]

Originally Posted by jimj

Nope, no heat in the crawl but being that the twin water heaters are down there it keeps it about 55 degrees more or less. Yes, our tile floors can get chilly. We have alot of houses here with radiant floor heat but the costs to install it here make it prohibitive. My neighbor just installed a system that uses a wood/gas fired boiler system. It's about the size of a storage shed that sits by his house. He feeds it about every 3 days, and if he forgets or goes somewhere the gas burners will kick in when the temp drops in the firebox. It provides radiant heat and hot water for the house and large shop as well as driveway/sidewalk deicing. If I had known about this system before I built my house I might have done it as well.

Those burnign shacks are VERY popular around here. Keeping the wood burning mess outside is great. Those dual fuel ones are expensive! I priced them ~$10K-$15K depending on the setup. Here everyone puts heat exchangers in the furnace right on top the A coils and gets the adapters for hat water tanks. The furnace runs like it normaly does but doesn't burn any gas! ROI is like 30 years for those big hi tech ones, that is why most go with the simple $5K units in this area.

Problem is you are tied to it all winter long as burn times are about 12 hours max when it is pretty cold. I'm surprised your neighbor gets 3 days out of it. That can't be in the winter? They are a nightmare if they ever freeze!

Ya....back to the topic at hand, electric. I was trying to figure out just how much elec it would take to heat a house. I have come to the conclusion that as long as the heaters are sized large enough to keep up with the temp differential inside and out, it doesn't matter how big the heaters are or how much the heaters run. Being 100% efficient they will only run enough to makeup for the heat loss depending on the temp diff. Therefore one just has to figure heat loss at given temperatures and convert it to kW to figure the actual cost of electric needed to heat the house. Am I thinking correctly? I think I am.