feeling a tad gassy
1 JANUARY 2011
The last few weeks have been pretty chaotic in true holiday fashion: watching the days go from quite short to a bit less short, connecting with some folks we haven't seen in a while, finding a christmas tree, making 196 pierogis of various types, and oh yes-- trying to get the heat system happily functioning.
The new boiler runs on natural gas, and has a vent that goes straight out the side of the basement wall. It is a super-efficient little droid of a boiler. Made in NJ, easy and somewhat intuitive to poke around inside, and accompanied by a manual slightly confusingly written.
Aahh! Natural gas. Mostly methane (CH4), some other hydrocarbons, and some mercaptan for added sniffability. Thanks to anaerobic bogs, fens, heaths, and peatlands. Cold and wet ecosystems all over the world and their microbial communities largely make natural gas power and heating possible. Here's a link to a great scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Peter Groffman, who conducts experiments and studies the roles of these gas-makers in the context of global climate change. I used to work for Peter in my “wild science” days.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that has about 100 times the warming power of CO2-- so by burning it; oxidizing the carbon to produce carbon-dioxide and water vapor, we should be reducing the warming potential – in theory. This is true for that volume of natural gas that would have escaped into the atmosphere anyway. The extracted portion of the gas we burn is a different story however. What is the advantage of extracting deposits of gas buried thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of feet below ground? Heating homes, making hot water, and providing power are a couple advantages. The production capability of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. also means having a more local source of fuel, compared to importing oil from the Middle East. Also gas is a cleaner substance- with a much lower sulfur and nitrogen composition (the primary components of acid rain) than either oil or coal. Ever wonder why someone shows up once a year to clean out the oil boiler? It's because it's full of black shit. This stuff makes hauling wood and wood ash a sublime saturday chore.
But, we don't have any wood heating potential at 76 Melbourne St. Nor do we have well-developed wood pellet heat infrastructure, e.g. a pellet boiler that is within the same price range, truck service that delivers pellets to a hopper via high-pressure hose, or a extensive and serviceable knowledge of the technology. One exception to this is a company called revision heat, in Portland and Bangor, Maine. They have researched and espoused the (to us) cutting edge technology (such as wood gasification boilers) that they've been using all over Europe for 20+ years.
For now it's gas and no ash. But I'd love to add some local wood resource to the mix someday-- now that we've got an nice disused chimney flue!
Ich werde für einige Pelletsheizungen Fähigkeit aussehen.
And happy new year to everyone!
The last few weeks have been pretty chaotic in true holiday fashion: watching the days go from quite short to a bit less short, connecting with some folks we haven't seen in a while, finding a christmas tree, making 196 pierogis of various types, and oh yes-- trying to get the heat system happily functioning.
The new boiler runs on natural gas, and has a vent that goes straight out the side of the basement wall. It is a super-efficient little droid of a boiler. Made in NJ, easy and somewhat intuitive to poke around inside, and accompanied by a manual slightly confusingly written.
 |
| From BLOG pics |
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| From BLOG pics |
Aahh! Natural gas. Mostly methane (CH4), some other hydrocarbons, and some mercaptan for added sniffability. Thanks to anaerobic bogs, fens, heaths, and peatlands. Cold and wet ecosystems all over the world and their microbial communities largely make natural gas power and heating possible. Here's a link to a great scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Peter Groffman, who conducts experiments and studies the roles of these gas-makers in the context of global climate change. I used to work for Peter in my “wild science” days.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that has about 100 times the warming power of CO2-- so by burning it; oxidizing the carbon to produce carbon-dioxide and water vapor, we should be reducing the warming potential – in theory. This is true for that volume of natural gas that would have escaped into the atmosphere anyway. The extracted portion of the gas we burn is a different story however. What is the advantage of extracting deposits of gas buried thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of feet below ground? Heating homes, making hot water, and providing power are a couple advantages. The production capability of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. also means having a more local source of fuel, compared to importing oil from the Middle East. Also gas is a cleaner substance- with a much lower sulfur and nitrogen composition (the primary components of acid rain) than either oil or coal. Ever wonder why someone shows up once a year to clean out the oil boiler? It's because it's full of black shit. This stuff makes hauling wood and wood ash a sublime saturday chore.
But, we don't have any wood heating potential at 76 Melbourne St. Nor do we have well-developed wood pellet heat infrastructure, e.g. a pellet boiler that is within the same price range, truck service that delivers pellets to a hopper via high-pressure hose, or a extensive and serviceable knowledge of the technology. One exception to this is a company called revision heat, in Portland and Bangor, Maine. They have researched and espoused the (to us) cutting edge technology (such as wood gasification boilers) that they've been using all over Europe for 20+ years.
For now it's gas and no ash. But I'd love to add some local wood resource to the mix someday-- now that we've got an nice disused chimney flue!
Ich werde für einige Pelletsheizungen Fähigkeit aussehen.
And happy new year to everyone!
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