As Heating Emergency Looms, Maine Searches for Energy Options

jpak

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Thu Aug-07-08 12:15 PM
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As Heating Emergency Looms, Maine Searches for Energy Options

http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16160&Itemid=1

ELLSWORTH � As the grim realities of runaway energy costs sweep across America, Maine may wind up being the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

�Maine will likely be the first state to experience a heating state of emergency,� said University of Maine professor Habib Dagher in his recent testimony before the U.S. Senate�s Homeland Security Committee. �I say that with confidence, because we are living it, and living it right now.�

With eight of every 10 families in Maine relying on heating oil to fuel their furnaces and the first bitter winds of winter only months away, the situation is bad and getting worse, he said.

�Next winter�s heating oil costs will be $5 a gallon, if you try to lock it today,� Dagher said. �That means the average Maine family will pay $5,000 to heat their home next winter. In 2020, if we don�t do anything � those numbers will be $10,000.

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JohnyCanuck

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Thu Aug-07-08 12:23 PM
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1. Just saw this post after I started a new thread on a very efficient 15th century Hungarian stove.

The medieval marvel: 14th century Hungarian stove cuts my monthly gas bill to just �5

By Andrew Levy

With gas and electricity bills soaring, energy firms are ploughing millions into cutting-edge technology.

However, according to this man, they might be better off taking some tips from the Middle Ages.

Peter Breuer has cut his gas bill from �20 to �5 a month by heating his house with a Hungarian stove based on a 14th century design.

The 80-year-old grandfather says it is so effective at warming up his house that he has been able to switch off his central heating.

It uses just one small bundle of wood - which he often gets free from local tradesmen - to keep his home snug for an entire day.

'I live in a sizeable house and that's one of the reasons I had to fit the stove,' said Mr Breuer, a retired Customs and Excise lawyer who lives in Westcliff-on-Sea, near Southend in Essex.

SNIP

He had the Hungarian stove fitted for �3,000 last autumn, around the same as it costs to install central heating.

With the average family now spending �750 a year on gas, such a heater could save them �500 a year - meaning it would pay for itself in six years.

The stoves are virtually unheard of in Britain but have been popular in Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, northern Italy and Scandinavia since the 14th century

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1041812/The-medieval-marvel-14th-century-Hungarian-stove-cuts-monthly-gas-just-5.html

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jpak

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Thu Aug-07-08 12:29 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. I know of several homes with masonry stoves here in Maine

Edited on Thu Aug-07-08 12:35 PM by jpak

Same principle as your Hungarian stove - a large masonry heat sink.

The were built in the mid-80's during the last oil crisis - they were called "Russian Stoves" and could burn 4 foot logs.

One fire heats the house all day (and night).

:hi:

Here's some similar stoves...

http://mainemasonrystove.com/

http://www.mainewoodheat.com/rothschild1.html

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GliderGuider

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Thu Aug-07-08 01:20 PM
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3. I love the optimism

Edited on Thu Aug-07-08 01:20 PM by GliderGuider

In 2020, if we don�t do anything � those numbers will be $10,000.

My expectation by 2020 would be more along the lines of $50,000 to $100,000, assuming anyone is still heating with oil by then.

Of course they won't, but that raises the question - what thermal source will Joe and Jane Sixpack use for home heating once oil and gas become unaffordable? Electrical resistance heating supplemented (where possible) with ground-source heat pumps? Wood? Polywell reactors in the basement?

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jpak

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Thu Aug-07-08 01:38 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. Here in Maine, it will be wood, solar thermal, geothermal and renewable electricity (and insulation)

Edited on Thu Aug-07-08 02:09 PM by jpak

especially the latter.

IIRC, the median age of Maine homes is 60 years. Lots of opportunity for "home improvement".

Pellet and wood stoves in the near term.

Solar hot water and hot air in the near and mid-term (most homes with oil heat use oil for hot water as well).

Geothermal in the mid- and long-term.

Off- and on-shore wind power for electrical resistance heating in the long term.

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DCKit

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Thu Aug-07-08 06:36 PM
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5. A ground/water source heat pump is, and always be, more efficient than electrical resistance heating

And if they burned that diesel fuel in an engine (using the waste heat from the engine block to heat their homes) they could light up the NE.

Burning diesel for heat is ~85% efficient.

Burning diesel in and engine is ~40% efficient.

I realize the combined heat and power is, in this instance, greater than 100%, but it's two different kinds of energy.

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