The Scrimp and Scrape thread: tips to save money

boomshackala · **Joined:** Dec 29, 2008 **Posts:** 1717

Madness of Crowds wrote:

I've been thinking...

The basic chemistry of diesel, light fuel oil (domestic heating oil) and gas turbine aviation fuel is pretty much the same and if your engine is sufficiently basic they're interchangeable.
Now, one of the main problems with using biodiesel (or home heating oil) in modern common rail diesels, aside from any duty implications, is that diesels have been engineered to a level of sensitivity that precludes using any fuel lacking appropriate detergents and lubricants. Is this now the case for oil-burning boilers? In other words, even if you can't run your car on domestic heating oil, could you heat your house with biodiesel? If you lived down the road from McDonald's, would anyone even notice?

(OK, I know that biodiesel differs somewhat from the fossil fuels, but if two types combustion chamber designed for alkanes can burn alkyl esters, is there a good reason why the other can't?)

You can use a very wide variety of fuels on the same boiler, you may need to change the fuel nozzle, and for commercial applications, change the fuel pumps according to viscosity

boomshackala · **Joined:** Dec 29, 2008 **Posts:** 1717

pollydolly wrote:

HiFi wrote:

slasher wrote:

rebelbuttmunch wrote:

Save money on your heating bills
Rolls of rock wool in B&Q Tallaght for a tenner. I was out there last night and got 5

don't forget to shut down those pesky drafts - probably more important

Instant soluions to cold/draughts - I find in the winter that when I'm sitting on the sofa for any length of time, eg. watching a movie, that my feet and legs from the knees down get really cold. Sounds obvious but a lot of people don't do this - just get yourself a nice big soft snuggly fleece blanket/throw, they're cheap in places like Ikea. Throw it over your legs when sitting on the sofa watching a movie and it keeps you really warm. A big blanket is more sociable too if you have a significant other and you won't have to turn the heating up too high just to heat your feet.

If you live in an old house with a big draughty front door, consider getting/making a big heavy curtain to go over it (on the inside) and make sure it trails on the floor by a couple of inches - you can remove it in the summer. It will be a very effective draught stopper and it can look very stylish in an old-school way if you get the right one. I lived in a big old barn of a house in the mountains in Spain a couple of years ago and it was freezing in the winter. A big heavy velvet curtain in front of the front door made a massive difference. Tapestries etc were used as draught excluders as well back in the day, they're not just there to be pretty.

Finally, if you live in a place without double glazing, this kind of stuff is a great cheap and short term solution, esp if you are in a rental property: http://reviews.wickes.co.uk/9987-en_gb/210014/reviews.htm

Good advice there, important to make sure the curtain drags on the ground. Old houses had a trellis on top, though maybe not as ugly as this

This stops the chimney effect, where cold air at the window sucks warm air down between the curtain and the wall, thus creating a convection air flow out the bottom of the curtains and around the room, removing far more heat than just plain radiation out the windows themselves.

For windows in the bedroom, I've made a wooden frame to slot in to the opening and tacked on Double Foil Bubble Foil Insulation from homebase

Keeps the room nice and warm with minimal heating. If the windows are draughty, make sure and go round them with decorators caulk

Coles2 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:42 pm

Nice warm fire but suffering from cold toes? Probably caused by a draught of cool air being drawn under the door, across the room and up the chimney. Lots of ways to deal with that. Most modern homes are built to take an external air supply for the fire/stove to prevent such draughts.

On a not unrelated subject, I came across a product advertised in the 'Seedsavers' catalogue that I thought was interesting. The 'Ecofan', a canadian invention that circulates the hot air above a stove to make more effective use of the heat. It claims it can save 14% of the fuel cost but I suspect that might be the outer limit of it's abilities, but either way it's kind of cool.

And how could a fan possibly be interesting? Well, because it uses the Seebeck effect to generate an electric current to run the motor. On a much smaller scale this effect is used in electronic thermometers (thermocouples), and on a far larger scale it is used in power stations and electric cars to try an gain a bit of extra efficiency, but as far as I know this is the first time I've seen it used in a domestic application.

Of course, there is a far more efficient way to drive an air circulating fan from the hot surface of a stove... with a Stirling Engine! And of course there is a competitors product available that does just that... the Vulcan Stove Fan.

Ok, maybe it's actually not that interesting...

Open Window · **Joined:** Jan 1, 1970 **Posts:** 18108

It is. If I were planning and designing a build. I would locate all the heating stuff centrally and water tanks. The idea is clustering all the active heating elements with the water storage that wishes to be heated and also kept warm. Understanding the the envelop of the build is another lay of protection and the centralising of these features creating a better placement where they all mutually work together and no time or heat/energy is lost in transportation around the structure to make delivery. A warm inner core. That radiates from the inner most point equally out.

Heat exchange in an elemental portion of the design of a house but you only get heat/energy theft in a SEMI-D land aka as burning money

FB2 · **Joined:** Oct 9, 2007 **Posts:** 2053

Was planning to machine a Sterling engine for myself for the top of my stove. Not much too it really. I've seen then made up from basis household materials. To be honest though a copper deflector for the top of the stove in the Ope works just fine. You could make the deflector out of an insulator if you wanted to take it further but the copper looks nice.

Coles2 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:12 pm

Open Window wrote:

If I were planning and designing a build. I would locate all the heating stuff centrally and water tanks. The idea is clustering all the active heating elements with the water storage that wishes to be heated and also kept warm. Understanding the the envelop of the build is another lay of protection and the centralising of these features creating a better placement where they all mutually work together and no time or heat/energy is lost in transportation around the structure to make delivery. A warm inner core. That radiates from the inner most point equally out.

Heat exchange in an elemental portion of the design of a house but you only get heat/energy theft in a SEMI-D land aka as burning money

In Central Europe and Scandanavia they use this principle with their Masonry Stoves. Big thermal mass in the centre of the house that stores the heat energy and radiates it out slowly. Very complex to built properly, particularly when incorporating a cooking oven etc etc...

Coles2 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:15 pm

FB2 wrote:

Was planning to machine a Sterling engine for myself for the top of my stove.

I'd say you could buy one fairly cheaply...? I'm on the look out for one to mess around with.

yoganmahew · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2011 11:05 pm

This fan yokey, suitably modified, coupled with ventilation pipes could turn a stove into a home heating system, no?

FB2 · **Joined:** Oct 9, 2007 **Posts:** 2053

Thought about that but the sitting/front room where the stove is, is for relaxing and I don't really want conversations or the radio from other rooms being piped in. The other thing I was thinking of was putting a steel plate around the stove so it could be common to two rooms sharing a back wall but in the end I decided on temp. regulation valves on the rads and one room really snuggy with the stove.

http://partem.net/d.asp?product=THERMALENGINE#

That's an example of the stirling engine. Nice piece of kit. Once you can create a thermal differential between the hot and the cold side you are laughing. Glass is normally pretty handy.
P.S. The valves on the rads are a work in progress so I would take any advice on type/model. It should eliminate the issues with zoned heating.

boomshackala · **Joined:** Dec 29, 2008 **Posts:** 1717

yoganmahew wrote:

This fan yokey, suitably modified, coupled with ventilation pipes could turn a stove into a home heating system, no?

If you werent worried about noise transmission as FB2 says, you would be better pulling the air, so you would need a duct coming from other rooms, and the fan sucking out of it, blowing over the stove. I can see this causing dust issues though

My own plane was to have a passive air inlet into the top of the room, with a fan on a thermostat on the bottom pulling the colder air back into the 'heating room'. I plan to noise insulate these rooms

I plan to build all the rooms around a large living area, so minimal heat transmission is needed in the first place, and build a radiant masonry stove, if I can attract the right man to help me build it. It will be the first part of the house to be built, everything else will be built around it (for other reasons)

This would allow one simple ventilation point, in the form of a trombe wall. The only other outside air supply would be directly to the stove

rebelbuttmunch · **Posted:** Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:35 pm

Doing some DIY. Hit Chadwicks or your local hardware store. You'll be amazed how much cheaper they are than B&Q/Woodies/Homebase.

watch+wait · **Posted:** Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:41 pm

rebelbuttmunch wrote:

Doing some DIY. Hit Chadwicks or your local hardware store. You'll be amazed how much cheaper they are than B&Q/Woodies/Homebase.

Don't forget you can haggle there, the DIY shops don't entertain haggling

rebelbuttmunch wrote:

Doing some DIY. Hit Chadwicks or your local hardware store. You'll be amazed how much cheaper they are than B&Q/Woodies/Homebase.

AWAAF · **Posted:** Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:47 pm

watch+wait wrote:

rebelbuttmunch wrote:

Doing some DIY. Hit Chadwicks or your local hardware store. You'll be amazed how much cheaper they are than B&Q/Woodies/Homebase.

Don't forget you can haggle there, the DIY shops don't entertain haggling

I find going in wearing my dirty diy gear and calling the guy behind the counter "chief" unleashes any amount of discount. "Scout" works also. I tried "Boss" once but I got a smack.

Open Window · **Joined:** Jan 1, 1970 **Posts:** 18108

Its a mixed bag. You have to be price aware among all of them to find the good value. Chaddies is not known for its customer service like where as B&Q has improved even more from recent experience.

rebelbuttmunch · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:52 pm

Open Window wrote:

Its a mixed bag. You have to be price aware among all of them to find the good value. Chaddies is not known for its customer service like where as B&Q has improved even more from recent experience.

right customer service is awful. You need some brass balls otherwise you'll end up walking around with a docket totally clueless

The Scrimp and Scrape thread: tips to save money

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