I'm seeing high-end, staged, architected, ecological houses with stuff like this:
Natural gas is cheap for the moment, like $3/Mcf. It was likely undervalued for much of this year.
I ran the numbers and discovered that if I had gas service at my place I could run a gas->120V generator to charge my Volt and beat the off-peak electric rate by a decent margin, even accounting for a 70% conversion loss.
In the UK you can no longer smoke in pubs, so there are now lots of gas flames outside, helping to heat the planet. It's a bit below zero (Celsius) here at the moment and the flames are roaring while the addicts get their fix.
Cheers
People keep finding trillions of cubic feet of gas. China and India may have frackable gas.
Still no reason to make purely decorative outdoor flames on a house with solar panels. At least put a pig on a spit or something.
Well... that one only wasted CPU power. Fake as fake can be!
The ones I've seen in person, throw off an impressive amount of heat. Efficient space heaters. Sometimes, people gather around them like cats!
I expect stuff like this doesn't take all that many BTUs. It's wispy and poor burning (yellow = diatomic carbon and radicals, low oxygen), thin, and rising by convection alone. Basically for ambiance.
Tim
That one can actually heat the rooms if designed correctly.
Some of my favorite watering holes on bike rides have those. Luckily they are only used if wimps are sitting outdoors. An even larger energy waster was what I saw when a company gave me a really nice apartment in WA state. It was deep in the winter. Yet all through the night while nobody was using them the large in-ground jacuzzis everywhere were creating plumes of steam that just wafted off into the sky.
They easily burn 1/2 gallon per hour or more of gas. It's quite wasteful and I guess at $5-7/pint they quickly recoup the cost.
Not really. At one of the outdoor bars I frequent during bike rides one of them is in the middle of a bistro table. Integrated into it and unfortunately situated right next to the bar. I am a guy who rides around in a T-shirt even when it's 30F. When guests turn it on I usually move a few bar stools away from there because it throws off a lot of heat.
That one shouldn't be too bad if it's no vented.
The other two aren't "efficient uses of energy". Since when has that been a requirement. I do/buy a lot of things because I like them.
We converted our wood-burning[*] fireplace into an LP fireplace this year (and ran gas to the kitchen at the same time). It gets cold at this end of the house in January and February and we need something for backup heat anyway. We haven't used it yet because it does throw off a *lot* of heat (30kBTU, IIRC).
[*] Though there is evidence it's been used, we've never burned a stick of wood in it. It's too close to carpeting for my likes.
What's wrong with the indoor gas fire? The others I agree are silly. But so is much that is sold.
NT
We do that a lot in AZ... takes the chill off at night while you chat outside and drink wine ;-)
Wife wants one of those, but I'm resisting... outside is my preference.
...Jim Thompson
Open fireplaces are a major waste of energy. Most heat goes out the chimney, and then some.
We had a wood stove insert installed upstairs and a pellet stove downstairs, along with high-end liners and all. Now we heat exclusively with wood and pellets. It's a much more comfortable heat but does take work. Good exercise though. After using the splitting maul all day long I feel like Tarzan. But only until after dinner ...
Yup. The gas logs we had installed are "flueless". Gotta get a CO detector before we use them, though.
It's too dry for my likes. My skin is dry enough in the Winter without an open flame sucking all the moisture up the chimney. We had a wood stove in Vermont and used it when it was below zero (and for backup) but other than that oil or, later, gas.
I don't like those. Kind of risky. They look nice though.
That's why my grandparents had a big decorative open kettle on the stove. A "fully automatic temperature-controller moisture regulator with forward control". You just had to make sure not to forget filling it up in the morning.
Doesn't work that well on inserts like ours because it would block the airflow and the top shelf is too small. I miss that real wood stove versatility where I could do the "manly thing" and brew beer on it.
Not at all risky.
You're just kidding yourself. That's not *nearly* enough water (vapor>.
Won't a visible yellow flame dump a lot of micron-scale particulates into the air?
An unvented blue flame isn't romantic, but it's sure efficient.
I've never noticed any soot from gas logs.
I think that's the point of the "logs", in gas logs. They heat up and glow red (as well as the little things on the burner that look like embers).
Thanks! Got to post that on the brew NG. This is the oldest brewery I heard of in the US which still seems to operate. I am surprised they don't have contamination issues.
I'm sure brewing back them involved quite bit of luck and superstition
Pasteur's prof that yeast was alive and Emil Christian Hansen isolating pure yeast at Carlsberg came much later
-Lasse
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