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Mrs. Peel

This Old House... is COLD!!

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Cool.  Now I'm less worried about it shorting out.... maybe [mention=7008]DeerSlayer[/mention] was referring to the cheaper wrap type heaters?
We put frost king on my buddies well line outside in his pit. It worked for two years. Then it took a shit. And his well line froze again. It's not a permanent solution, as I've said a few times. That particular brand is better than others, but none of them are an actual fix.

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@AVB make sure you put the steam vents in the right order.

 

 

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Or buy Varivents, instead of cheap ass maid o mists... Weil McLain doesn't make furnaces. They make boilers. That's my pet peeve and I will correct anyone that calls a boiler a furnace or vice versa.

 

Maid O Mist = Hi-Point

Varivent = Cabot 1911

 

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Agree completely. Why is it no one can get water = boiler. Can't tell you how many times I almost turned down jobs because people called a boiler a furnace. That's why I always ask if they have hot air or hot water.

 

 

 

 

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If u have air coming in from the trim around the door u need to insulate between the door jamb and rough opening. If it is coming from underneath it was most likely not caulked when the door pan , if installed, was put in. If air is coming in real bad it is probably not water tight either. We use a product called  vicor over all window and door nailing flanges to seal air and water infiltration. 

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7 hours ago, Mrs. Peel said:

Oh, thank you for asking! Yes, though I'm not done yet, the situation is remarkably improved. I guess the good thing about frigid temps is that it's easy to locate air leaks! I've been like a detective going through the house... just running my hands around doors, windows, outlets, etc. Interestingly, the slider in my sitting room is an Anderson and tight as a drum, but the decorative wood trim on either side of the door had settled a bit and opened up the tiniest of cracks in the paint between the decorative trim and the door frame... the amount of ice-cold air pouring through those cracks was just unreal! I also have a new piece of molding (I think it's called a door sill? that molding on the floor that goes up against the door?) but I haven't sanded, stained and installed it yet. I'm such a dumbass.... a tidal wave of cold air was seeping in there too! :facepalm: So, as a cheap, temporary fix, I put lengths of clear packing tape over those areas --- instantly stopped the air leaks.  

No exaggeration, between the packing tape fix, pulling furniture away from the only baseboard heater in this room, vacuuming its fins really well, sealing (so far) about one-quarter of the upstairs windows, and putting aluminum foil on the about 1/3 of the master bedroom baseboard fins... I'm proud to say the thermostat in my (previously cold) sitting room is set at 70... and right this second the room temperature is actually at 70! So warm, so happy! Woo-hoo! :clapping: As an added benefit, the master bedroom is not quite so sweltering at night. Yeah, going with 2 zones makes sense --- but for the moment, I'm going to buy more aluminum foil and see if I can oh-so-cheaply "balance" the system myself just by blocking off some of the fins in every room upstairs. It's worth a try!

I'm also getting more proficient with my woodstove. I start it up every afternoon around 3 and run it throughout the evening, adding the last few pieces of firewood at 11 pm and letting it die out naturally in the wee hours of the morning. So, it's running about 12 hours per day. I'm sure even just that is taking some strain off of my boiler and saving me oil and $ too.  (So far, unsuccessful at pushing that warm air into the sitting room... might need one more fan).

Sealing windows is taking much longer than I thought - I have to get up on a ladder, etc. - it's a bit time-consuming... and I still have pipes to "noodle" in the basement! So, I can see I have many more days & hours of work ahead of me. But, if this continues to be a cold winter, I'm sure all of these little insulating tricks will pay for themselves soon enough!

Thanks to everyone for their great advice. And "good luck" to those of you experiencing your own house woes in these frigid temps. 

glad to hear!, it's amazing how much difference little things make, isn't it?

 

 something none of us has mentioned yet.......you do know to NOT use pine in your stove, right?

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22 minutes ago, 1LtCAP said:

something none of us has mentioned yet.......you do know to NOT use pine in your stove, right?

I'm burning the most expensive fires in Hunterdon County --- my dad had chunks of hardwood leftover from his woodworking days --- he did beautiful segmented lathe work. But since the wood was cut up in chunks, it would have been useless to most woodworkers. So, I'm burning oak, cherry, mahogany, etc. I've even had the occasional chunk of zebra wood mixed in there. The only pine I use is 2-3 fatwood sticks (I think that's from pine trees) when I'm starting the fire --- pretty much everything after that is hardwood. 

Is there a reason though? I just thought pine burned too fast... is there some other reason I shouldn't use it? (just for my own knowledge...)

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3 hours ago, DeerSlayer said:

We put frost king on my buddies well line outside in his pit. It worked for two years. Then it took a shit. And his well line froze again. It's not a permanent solution, as I've said a few times. That particular brand is better than others, but none of them are an actual fix.

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Indoor vs outdoor maybe?  Indoor may last longer.  If it's a couple years then I'll be ok with it if the builder doesn't come up with a better solution.

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25 minutes ago, Mrs. Peel said:

I'm burning the most expensive fires in Hunterdon County --- my dad had chunks of hardwood leftover from his woodworking days --- he did beautiful segmented lathe work. But since the wood was cut up in chunks, it would have been useless to most woodworkers. So, I'm burning oak, cherry, mahogany, etc. I've even had the occasional chunk of zebra wood mixed in there. The only pine I use is 2-3 fatwood sticks (I think that's from pine trees) when I'm starting the fire --- pretty much everything after that is hardwood. 

Is there a reason though? I just thought pine burned too fast... is there some other reason I shouldn't use it? (just for my own knowledge...)

creosete buildup in the draft. you can even see how dirty it burns when you watch the fire.

 

13 minutes ago, capt14k said:

Not burning pine is an old wives tale. It is fine for starting a fire. Just burns faster which actually creates less build-up.


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i'd have to see some kind of actual proof, as the few pieces of pine i've put in my stove burn VERY dirty. i've never found anything saying that it was safe to burn pine in the stove.

and i'd LIKE to, 'cause i got a metric poop-ton of pine out back. had a guy delivered me a trailer load of free wood last year. was supposed to be all oak/maple. turned out it was 80% pine, 20% oak.

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44 minutes ago, Mrs. Peel said:

I'm burning the most expensive fires in Hunterdon County --- my dad had chunks of hardwood leftover from his woodworking days --- he did beautiful segmented lathe work. But since the wood was cut up in chunks, it would have been useless to most woodworkers. So, I'm burning oak, cherry, mahogany, etc. I've even had the occasional chunk of zebra wood mixed in there. The only pine I use is 2-3 fatwood sticks (I think that's from pine trees) when I'm starting the fire --- pretty much everything after that is hardwood. 

Is there a reason though? I just thought pine burned too fast... is there some other reason I shouldn't use it? (just for my own knowledge...)

How big are those chunks? 

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On 1/4/2018 at 7:58 PM, DeerSlayer said:

Or buy Varivents, instead of cheap ass maid o mists... Weil McLain doesn't make furnaces. They make boilers. That's my pet peeve and I will correct anyone that calls a boiler a furnace or vice versa.

Maid O Mist = Hi-Point

Varivent = Cabot 1911

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DeerSlayer:

You are right.  I was being semantically sloppy in my choice of words, even if some lay people use the terms interchangeably and some dictionaries include my definition description for the word “furnace”.  But to be truly accurate with M/E/P industry nomenclature, we do in fact have a boiler, not a furnace.  I stand corrected....  

Thanks for the suggestion to consider Varivent vents.  I just replaced what was already on each radiator, matching their opening sizes.  I already bought and installed the Maid-O-Mist vents so that project is now finished and the steam system is currently working as intended.

AVB-AMG

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8 hours ago, capt14k said:

Agree completely. Why is it no one can get water = boiler. Can't tell you how many times I almost turned down jobs because people called a boiler a furnace. That's why I always ask if they have hot air or hot water.

 

 

 

 

How about hot water heater. It’s a water heater. It doesn’t heat hot water it heats cod water.

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How about hot water heater. It’s a water heater. It doesn’t heat hot water it heats cod water.

 

 

 

That one doesn't annoy me quite as much, but you would think they would look and see it says water heater not hot water heater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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6 hours ago, WP22 said:

How big are those chunks? 

Most of them fall between 4x4x5 to 4x4x8. Frankly, the other nice advantage is that it was nice clean lumber so it's stored in my basement... unlike most "normal" sources of firewood which I've been warned would need to be stored outside (or I'd risk an insect infestation). Storing outdoors would be much more unpleasant and inconvenient... my pioneer spirit apparently extends only so far! LOL.

 

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2 hours ago, Mrs. Peel said:

Most of them fall between 4x4x5 to 4x4x8. Frankly, the other nice advantage is that it was nice clean lumber so it's stored in my basement... unlike most "normal" sources of firewood which I've been warned would need to be stored outside (or I'd risk an insect infestation). Storing outdoors would be much more unpleasant and inconvenient... my pioneer spirit apparently extends only so far! LOL.

 

my wood pile(that is chopped and ready to burn) is outside. started off 40' long, 4' wide and 5' high. the last 18' of that is 8' wide. i bring wood in every 3-4 days. i store it on my front porch in a ring. in the living room where the stove is, i have a storage bin. like those you can buy at lowes or home depot. i fill that each day from the front porch when i get home. it is a lot of extra effort. but it is well worth that effort.

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Pine is ok to burn if your fire is HOT and you don't burn too much of it.  It will generate more creosote.

The number one generator of creosote however is a poorly insulated chimney liner.    A properly insulated chimney liner will drastically reduce the amount of creosote as the hot gasses exit the chimney and don't accumulate on the walls.

As an example, when we did our house addition in 2012, we extended the chimney by 6 feet.   We normally had to have the chimney cleaned twice a year.  Usually once in January.

When we extended the chimney, we found that the prior liner had only been insulated with pink fiberglass, most of which was not even touching the pipe. 

We jammed a fiberglass "plug" as far down as we could reach around the liner and filled the void with perlite.  It looks like popcorn.  It's similar to vermiculite, but vermiculite will absorb water and turn into mush. Perlite will not.

Anyway, we now clean the chimney in the spring and it's not even that bad.

 

 

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My sunny optimism was premature! I fell asleep on my sofa last night (tuckered out from the pioneer lifestyle, LOL)... I woke up with a cold little noise... put my specs on... peered across the room and realized with HORROR that the room temp was 54 degrees!! Thermostat was set at 62. Can you imagine? Ugh. I checked the boiler and gauges are reading normal. I guess the system just couldn't keep up with the extreme temps, the remaining air leaks in the house, the uninsulated basement pipes, etc. I mean, it's almost 10 a.m. and it's still only 2 degrees here! Brrr! (temp in this room is up to 62 already, thank god).

I don't feel discouraged though... I just need to move assertively this week to finish all the remaining work on air leaks, uninsulated basement pipes, etc.  I'll spend a couple of hours a day until it's all done. Can you imagine how cold it might have been if I had done nothing?? Besides, I feel lucky that I avoided frozen pipes.

Good luck to all of you struggling with house issues! This week will warm up tremendously --- a word of advice (though contractor-people on here may have even better suggestions!) --- if you have a frozen pipe, shut off the valve leading to that pipe anytime you're out of the house and maybe even at night while you're asleep. God forbid the pipe's split, and as it thaws it starts pouring water everywhere --- you'll want to be ware of it and get to that shutoff valve quickly to minimize water damage! (Been there, done that).

Good luck, everyone!   

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hey....since we've got a lot of people that seem to do this for a living in this thread......the one air leak(cold leaking into the house) that i can't pinpoint by just feeling it is in the kitchen. i was looking at this.....

https://www.amazon.com/Seek-Thermal-Reveal-Range-Camera/dp/B01CNSDK94/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1515350782&sr=1-6&keywords=thermal+imaging+camera

 

any opinions on it? it seems relatively inexpensive for what it is.......

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hey....since we've got a lot of people that seem to do this for a living in this thread......the one air leak(cold leaking into the house) that i can't pinpoint by just feeling it is in the kitchen. i was looking at this.....
https://www.amazon.com/Seek-Thermal-Reveal-Range-Camera/dp/B01CNSDK94/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1515350782&sr=1-6&keywords=thermal+imaging+camera
 
any opinions on it? it seems relatively inexpensive for what it is.......
Little bit of an over kill.

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3 minutes ago, 1LtCAP said:

how do i find the air leak then? i'm lost on just this one. i could literally feel the leaks in other places of the house....but can't find this one....

Try moving an incense stick very slowly to different parts of the room... watch the smoke. I did that and it helped locate some smaller leaks.

That's my amateur, non-contractor advice! If nothing else, your drafty room will smell really good. :D

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9 minutes ago, Mrs. Peel said:

Try moving an incense stick very slowly to different parts of the room... watch the smoke. I did that and it helped locate some smaller leaks.

That's my amateur, non-contractor advice! If nothing else, your drafty room will smell really good. :D

Peels into patchouli. Puzzle pieces.

 

candles work also. But Peel’s methodology is muscle!

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