My fantasy is a larger, self sufficient home. Solar panels, composting, etc. I nearly died of awe when I saw what Outi posted (grr, can't find that link! It's a house that's just awesome, completely environmentally friendly).
We are experiencing very cold weather which happens on and off through the season in Maine. With heating prices as they are we are cutting everywhere we can. I am baking, and baking, and baking to help warm the house. We are running the vaporizer to increase the humidity, turning down the thermostat as low as we can and wearing slippers and layers of clothing around the house. I have sealed up several windows and weather capped (I guess you'd call it) the main entrance door.
Here is the problem. We are using fossil fuels. They aren't replaceable. They are increasing in cost. And what the other households in the US that use oil need is a different heat source. I so wish I had a wood stove or something else that needs no electricity to help keep us warm. Even if it was a back up source. But as with most people, swapping from one to another it no cheap thing. We would have to: put in another chimney or vent it some other way, find a safe place in our very small house to safely put it and the location would have to be "doable" as far as lugging wood in to it. I even thought about those pellet stoves. I have been doing so much reading online.....
I am mad or rather frustrated. At who I don't know. There are so few options and no easy fix.
2 comments:
I found your blog via the San Man Originals BB and thought I'd comment.
I'm not sure if you realize, but unless you've got small wood stoves in each room to heat or your house is fairly small and you have gravity fed vents (ex: Just let the heat raise by itself) you still need electricity when you've got a wood furnace. I thought the same thing when we bought our house 6 years ago and found we had a wood furnace. My main concern was that I thought our house would be heated if the power went out in the winter, but the blower and fans run on electricity. You can still light a fire, but the air isn't pushed through the vents, and if it gets too hot and can't vent to cool down you can burn out some parts on your furnace - don't ask me what they're called, that's about as much as I can remember from my DH's detailed explinations. :)
Anyway, Happy Stitching
Christine in NB
I share your environmental thoughts. We installed a geothermal system to replace our HVAC last year. But it still consumes electricity, which is generated primarily from fossil fuels, even though we pay extra every month to help sustain a wind farm, etc. I'd love to be able to go "off the grid" but I don't think that'll be happening anytime soon. The world just needs to get its act together more and present usable, cost-effective solutions.
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