Pellet heads!! What's up today?

You're MUCH more patient than I would be. They would have been gone after the 2nd missed visit.

 

I KNEW I jinxed myself when I posted about how nice the weather has been here.

 

LOL!

 

Link broke and I can't update the post. So, here's another link (can't get enough 3 stooges):

 

Here, I have to cover all the well heads (here and rental properties) with a plastic 15 gallon drum with a heat lamp inside or they freeze up at the well head. I keep the cellar above freezing all the time (takes a little furnace action, I have a second thermostat wired to the furnace in the cellar and set for 40 degrees. If it's real cold I kick the furnace bower over to manual and let it circulate the heated air in the cellar as well. Never had an issue other than the well heads freezing and that entails the use of a salamander and a box to unthaw them, something I prefer not doing. My remters pay their oen electricity bills so they get to pay for the heat lamp too.

 

One time I had to excavate the line from the pump to the basement wall, I didn't have it buried quite deep enough. I just used an excavator I had in the yard I was working on. Frozen ground is a real bitch to excavate however.

As an added insurance I wrapped it with foam pipe wrap. So far (10 years) no issues.

 

That is warm compared to here. Been well below freezing for a while now. Other night was 1 above zero with a 30 degree wind chill factor.

 

We've done the same in years past corncob: and I'm thinking about grabbing another plastic bucket from Homey D, w/a 100w incandescent bulb (if they even sell 'em anymore, sigh) today to have on-deck, just in case. (We've had the water on & trickling .. to keep the well pump running, every so often. )

In the low 20's here today, sure beats -5 F from yesterday. ... this Friday / Sat. is looking chilly again though.

 

I buy heat lamps (for brooder chickens) at TSC and use them. Still incandescent and output quite a bit of heat. Better than a frozen well head and having to deal with that.

 

Cool (pun intended). Thanks for the heat lamp at TSC heads-up, much appreciated.

 

Frankly, we are running with half staff ourselves (two resignations in 3 months in Aug and Oct) in the office so I dont have time to mess with that part of it at the moment. Good luck finding people who want to work right now.

As I mentioned, I somewhat understand to a point the tech shortage and our heating systems are running OK. Its the customer service that is pizzing me off.

Funny thing though. Even shorthanded, we still respond to the customers the same we have always done, luckily the two of us still here are the ones who get the work accomplished.
Well, lucky for the company and customers that is-were puling our hair out

 

That's why we dropped our last oil company G - 'business profit' over 'customer service'. * From experience, that directive comes from the top -> down. Happened not too many months before the company was sold to a regional competitor, w/ (another) new Service Manager installed. Front desk peeps were the same nice folks I knew for a decade or more: their hands were tied. I needed a replacement fan switch & a pre-season checkup, the part, checkup, and pre-buy all paid for... SM guy Cxld 2 visits, spoke to him & asked what the deal was, 'tech was tied up on another call', yada yada yada .. translation: tech was on a -more profitable- call or install, asked him 'do you have the part' - "Sure, it's sitting right here in front of me" Ok ... showed up @ the office and surprised the guy: asked to pickup the part to install / to at least get the furnace back to operational, "No, we can't let you do that, only service techs can install our parts." Uh-huh. Sure. No Thanks. Went to the front desk, and cancelled our account on-the-spot. ... With him whining in the background. Front office folks cut me a check for the full balance on the account, right then & there. Maybe that guy is working at Strogen's now. Hang in there G.

 

The real kicker is when I am on hold for at least 10 minutes to talk to someone each time called. The entire time, I hear the recorded loop over and over again on how important it is to have your systems regularly maintained in order to avoid issues during the colder/hotter weather

They also push for their Platinum service that gets you the "better" customer response times and includes the regular maintenace in the plan

Talk about getting pizzed off while on hold for repeated no shows on maintenance when we have the Platinum plan.

 

That's the worst. I'd be breaking chit, by minute 5. * Pete's right, you have the patience of a Saint, what's the secret: and don't say Beer. Anyways, I'd be giving Joy's HVAC or Admiral Climate Control in your area a call to see what they could do, cause that level of non-performance BS is about the last thing anyone needs in life right now.

 

That just p*sses me off. I know they probably have help issues or they took on too much work or whatever. Not your problem. Why can't companies just come out and tell you that they can't come any time soon. Just be freakin honest. Yeah you may be upset but at least you would not have all that wasted time. I am so fortunate that I can do all my own work. I have worked in industry for 32 years where I got my boiler license, plumbers license and worked as an apprentice electrician. My last 12 years were in a power plant as an engineer. I have never had to hire anyone for anything since I owned my first house in '76. I had electrician friends and plumber friends who allowed me to work under their licenses when doing work on my homes. My son in law was a builder. That may change in the future as my age will start to affect what I can do but my kids have told me that they will do the work as long as I can tell them what to do. gbreda, I can only hope you get someone to come and do what needs to be done!

 

Yeah, that was my thought too. Every time they have come out (once for the DWH, now twice for the boiler), they have been great and the fixes/charges have been pretty cheap IMO. Before finding this company (for the 1st boiler repair), I had a local-ish guy come out, he took a look, went to "get parts" and never came back (nor would he return calls/emails).

I agree, they have been great to work with - 2 boiler calls and a fix to my older DHW. They are reasonably priced, don't try to sell me new units, diagnose and fix the issue quickly, do extras and don't ghost me like some have done.

 

Staff shortages are one thing, but when they don't communicate at all with you, that is a whole different story.

 

We have been planning a mid winter shell run since out first haul back in November.

Old man winter has been a real pain this year.

Trying to schedule a haul has been impossible.....Weather folks call for a nice sunny day....we get all ready to go....get up in the morning and it's pouring down rain....

We have to work around the schedule of the plant too....

We planned on yesterday for over a week....then on Tuesday my other half breaks off a front tooth....OMG....

Yesterday morning after a quick visit to the dentist we decided ....With abundant sunshine....IT'S A GO.....A bit of a late start.....We got on the road at noon.....normally we get out early, get home by 10:30 am ...spot the outfit, have breakfast and then get unloaded.

We arrive at the plant and it is a zoo.....The boys got us located in the yard and one fella comes over with a couple totes of shells.


OH CRAP....STUFF IS SOAKING WET....

The plant had been shut down more or less due to the nasty weather of late and the totes are all stacked up outside in the rain.

I chat with the guys a bit and we sorted through several stacks of totes..

Not gonna cut it.....

Another fella started getting excited and jumps on a fork lift and disappears....a few moments later shows up with a tote brimming with VERY SMALL shells....DRY TOO.

A different variety of hazelnut.....

Guy asks me.."These OK" YEAH BUDDY......
Very small nuts, but this stuff is clean and with the smaller size of the pieces...THE STUFF WEIGHS UP REAL WELL

Almost twice the weight in our dumpster.

Same cost....

We filled up eleven 55 gallon barrels .......

We get home about 2 pm and are finally unloading by 2:30

The other half is hurting pretty good so I decided to run solo......

Two people can hustle this quite well and fill a barrel in 5 minutes or less......

One person slows things down a bunch .

Best part was 60F outside (until it got dark)

Had the job done and the outfit put away, barrels stored and heading up for dinner by 6:15pm

We pulled the outfit into the barn and left it hooked up....Going to try for another haul Friday...

Weather is gonna be nice.
If we can get a second haul in we will be at full capacity of about 50 barrels full.

I am excited to run some of the new shells through the Munchy and get them into the stoves.

The size of the new stuff should be close to what we used to get a few years ago.....

Best part though is this new material does not have all the dirt and NON BURNABLE CRAP
Clinkers are always a concern....and about twice a day we need to do "Clinker patrol" Just stop the fuel feed....let the fire burn down to coals....then open the fire door and swish the clinker out of the fire pot....leave some coals...then resume feeding.

Just all in a days work.

I just wish we could have secured a 4 yard dumpster.....but beggars can't be choosy eh ????

Thinking real hard about doing a bit of a revamp in the barn and clearing out some crap off the slab that makes accessing the barrels tough once we get into the stack a ways.

Summer time things.......

For now.....Just keep the supply full to the brim......
And so it goes.....

This winter has been an absolute horror trying to schedule hauls......

Usually we can grab a day here or there and no worries.

Not a case of "Just stop off at the Farm store and grab a ton"

The absolute joys of biomass fuel....