Heating Oil Company in Pike county

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by jtab4994

Actually, it's been so long I neglected to caution the OP that when they call Liberty, find out which office is dispatching the truck!


The first time I called them, I somehow got thru to their Easton office, and that driver got lost coming up to Shawnee! After I straightened all that out, I made sure I got thru to the Bartonsville office for dispatching. That was in the days when GPS was still fairly new and we didn't have house numbers yet.


Given the age of our Dynatherm boiler, I recently asked our service guy about the comparative efficiency of replacement units. He basically said our unit would run forever and is highly efficient, so don't even think about replacing it! I know "forever" is a relative term, but the thing is over 50 years old and still does a splendid job of pumping out heat and hot water (knock wood).

Ours was an old Dynatherm in the 1970's when I used broom sticks to repair it. It is possible that that they changed the design for yours. I do want to say that the new boilers are more efficient. The one 50 years old might cost you considerably more than the new ones? But installing a 'new' boiler is expensive. I just got a new one about three years ago and it was about $10K. But that was for a new oil tank; I had an aging in-ground oil tank removed and replaced it with an in-garage tank. I think the boiler was around $3,500 itself; but there are many plumbing parts needed to install the new boiler plus the cost of the plumber.

The new burners build up oil pressure before they finally 'fire'. I would have to really study our bills but I feel like my oil is cheaper and last longer - but it could just be milder temperatures? It also takes a long time to make up for the original cost of a new boiler. By the way, for oil, I like the Beckett burners. I do not know if you could simply install one of the newer higher efficiency burners on an older boiler? The newer burners are less than $1,000 - not counting the plumber.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by fisheye

We were also running low on oil and I had asked them to come before the storm and they had not come.

Having been in the coal delivery business the trouble there is everyone does the same thing.... Bad storm coming or cold spell and suddenly the realize they need fuel. Then you get the morons telling you they need their fuel today and they have a 4 week supply....

I had one guy because of where the bin was I had to come down the upper side of his house through the lawn, put the coal in and then go all the way around the rest of the house. Otherwise a real easy delivery and a full load which is exactly the type of delivery you want. He waited until the end of September to order it after I had warned him the previous year about getting it in the summer. It rained and rained that Fall, come November he still didn't have his coal and I was waiting for the first overnight frost to deliver right in the morning when the ground was still a little froze. He insisted I bring it before then and since it was fairly dry for about a week I said screw it.... Big number 11 all the way around his house.

I could not find anybody to plow my snow; it was far too much. So I ended up hand shoveling the whole driveway and salting it so they could deliver.

That's not acceptable at all, if you give someone a date and time you better be there unless there is some extraordinary circumstances. As a side note one good thing about delivering coal is there was always a ready supply of ashes.

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

Having been in the coal delivery business the trouble there is everyone does the same thing.... Bad storm coming or cold spell and suddenly the realize they need fuel. Then you get the morons telling you they need their fuel today and they have a 4 week supply....

That's not acceptable at all. As a side note one good thing about delivering coal is there was always a ready supply of ashes.

Yes, I liked the ashes for the driveway many years ago - but then I had a gravel driveway. I would not want them for my new asphalt driveway - although salt is also not good.

I think the storm I had trouble with was the big snow storm in 1994? They had promised delivery and then they failed to show before the storm and that is what got me so angry after all the work of hand shoveling a 400 foot driveway!

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by fisheye

I would not want them for my new asphalt driveway -

Other than the mess I wouldn't worry about it. Guy across the road has a driveway like the one you describe, he was taking ours and storing them for about a year. He has 5 gallon buckets he puts out about every 10 feet along the side of it before the storm comes.

Over gravel it will firm up considerably after a while, if you want to go really crazy mix it with about 10% to 20% Portland dry. Spread it and crush it down, hit it with some water..... instant driveway.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

Over gravel it will firm up considerably after a while, if you want to go really crazy mix it with about 10% to 20% Portland dry. Spread it and crush it down, hit it with some water..... instant driveway.

I wish I'd known that years ago.

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

Other than the mess I wouldn't worry about it. Guy across the road has a driveway like the one you describe, he was taking ours and storing them for about a year. He has 5 gallon buckets he puts out about every 10 feet along the side of it before the storm comes.

Over gravel it will firm up considerably after a while, if you want to go really crazy mix it with about 10% to 20% Portland dry. Spread it and crush it down, hit it with some water..... instant driveway.

Like I said; I did like them on the gravel driveway. Our asphalt is still pretty new and we do not want to mess it up right now + we have a very new oil furnace and no reason to change right now.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by Gerania

I wish I'd known that years ago.

Coal ash is excellent substitute for sand/gravel in concrete mixture and it makes a much stronger concrete. If you go around to some of these abandoned structures some of them will look like they were poured yesterday, that's because they have ash in them. Fly ash from power plants is used in commercial applications for concrete and other things like synthetic gypsum for drywall.

The method of mixing the Portland dry is not going to produce anything quite as durable as poured driveway however if you had a very long driveway it's a cheap alternative to get you halfway there.You can do the same with regular dirt...


https://www.google.com/search?q=dirt...utf-8&oe=utf-8