Yep, today is National Tune Up Your Heater Day. The fact that Maine is expected to surpass its previous record of 88 degrees does not matter I guess, or the fact that the fall foliage this year is terrible...more brown then red and yellow because of the drought and hot weather, we should tune up our heaters. Myself I am ready with firewood in, my stove freshly installed, and my propane boiler ready to go if need be. What about you?
It's hard to tune up a steel box but I shoveled the ash left in it from last year and cleaned the pipe and chimney yesterday. It was hot on the roof! The oil burner gets little use so it's on the two year plan. This is a no clean year
I rented a set of tuning forks. I then took a small ball peen hammer and went about tapping the forks and various locations on the wood stove. Top, sides, load door, ash door...etc. All sounding good now! Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk
Have to haul one truckload of firewood into the garage for the kicker stove in the basement. No hurry. Yet.
Oh man I started getting the wood in the basement yesterday morning before it got too hot. Got one overloaded snowmobile trailer load in and one load on the trailer then the sun poked up over the tress and I was done
OWB is all cleaned out all that is left to do is spray the solenoid and hinges with WD-40 and remove the bucket from the stack.
Your local heating contractor is standing by ... I get my oil boiler cleaned and "tuned" in July or August. They can usually more easily schedule a day more convenient for me then. I usually check batteries and battery compartments for corrosion and for water intrusion in things at the same time. Flashlights, outdoor wireless thermometers, etc.. Isn't it great that HomeServeUSA™ declared a National Day that's just a teeny bit self serving ? It is a good idea to get ready for Winter before Winter actually comes though. Still have to run a brush down the chimney and tune up the snow blower.
Ours is ready to go but I may do a complete cleaning of the cat yet this week. Probably will bring wood to the porch this week also. We've already had a few small fires and all was well so really we are ready to go. Now if the weather would just cooperate.
I did our wood & pellet stove back in August but the furnace still needs cleaning so we'll set that appointment up next week.
Had the stove people out today, I am all ready and waiting to burn. They cleaned the stove and chimney, but said it really didn't need it. Must be the new EPA stove. The old one would have been a mess.
Same here. We had the stove people out last Friday and it and the stack got a good cleaning. Wood is dried and ready to burn, and next week I will have my sons bring a load onto the porch. Our 2 heat pumps dont see a lot of action and they are only 2 years old, so debating on having them serviced this fall or maybe wait till next spring. But we are kicking around the idea of getting us a generator to run a few appliances and the stove if the power ever goes out. 2 years ago we had a terrible ice storm that killed power for a couple of days. Only had a fireplace then. Not much need for a generator. Now with the insert, were thinking it would be a good idea if we had a generator to run the fan on the stove.
I looked into an indoor boiler a few years ago, one of the new gasifer type models. It was really good, but it also cost $7,000. We went and talked to the owner at his store afterwards (he was showing it off at a fair) and he talked me out of buying it. I had two directions to go with my home when I built it, with passive solar heating, or being super insulated. I chose to go with a super insulated home, and it is not something I regret. Since I can heat my fairly large house for $1800 a year with straight propane, he said the return on investment of an indoor boiler would ever be recouped, just keep buying propane. I did not like that answer, but knew he was right so I went in another direction. I found a used wood/coal boiler for sale and bought that for $700...a return on investment that makes sense because it is 10% of a $7000 boiler. Anyway I reconditioned the boiler, hooked it up and then the wife decided she wanted the boiler moved. So it never has seen a fire at my house and sits. Instead we have a stove inside our home, but because it is so super-insulated it keeps the house warm...about 80 degrees if I am running wood, and 90 degrees if I am running coal. Sometime I would like to hook up the wood/coal boiler because I have radiant heat in my home, and a boiler would use that, but now we are warm so there is no big push to hook it up. I have had chances to sell that wood boiler, but I don't think I could ever find another for that price, and this one is in great shape now that I reconditioned it.
A number of yeares ago we had a power outage that lasted most of a day ( I know, not to long). It got us thinking of what would happen if we had an extended outage, We have 2 freezers, a frig, our own well and an oil furnace. We bought a generator and had a manual trnsfer switch installed so we could power all of those units, but not all at the same time. It really gives you some peace of mind knowing you can stay warm, have water and not have your food spoil in case of an emergency. We have not had to use it except for brief periods of time but I feel better having it. Kind of like having multiple years of wood put up:stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke::stacke:
Yeah I agree 100% with you. We are for sure gonna grab one after Christmas and we are also looking into a transfer switch ti make life a little easier. If you dont mind me asking, what is the wattage of yours and name brand. I think personel recommendations are way better than some of those so called "reviews".
Joe Seaton It is a Generac 6500EXL. I found with this unit, just like any smaller gas engines, you should use the non e gas. I had a 10-4 cord made up to attach the genset to the transfer switch.
Joe, generally speaking a generator that can produce 6-7000 will do but if you have a large home and wish to be able to power everything you will need bigger. I think ours is a peak 7000. We run 2 freezers, large refrigerator, water pump, a few lights, computer. We have even ran a small air conditioner too. We can use the microwave if absolutely necessary but rarely do.
First time we ran the genset during an outage, the elec. coop guys stopped and checked my genset. They were prepared to remove the meter from the house until they saw I was using a transfer switch. They don't look kindly on someone backfeeding their system. No complaints from me, they were just working in a safe manner.
