OW! No one I know used that much wood in VT!
Monopoly, yes, It's a regulated monopoly though. Wood and pellets are good as long a everyone else doesn't use them. A friend was going to buy a corn stove this year. I don't know, but I suspect he changed his mind. ;-) Even wood is expensive, unless you have a source and are willing to do a *lot* of work. Even a few years ago ('02, I'm going to guess) I paid $180/cord, though I only used 1/4 cord a year, tops.
-- Keith
I had an uncle who worked at a paper mill where they made those old paper pulp egg cartons. The company had a private dump where they disposed of damaged pallets. He built sheds, and headted his house for decades with scrap lumber he picked up at their dump.
I can get plenty of free firewood around here, but the fireplace is no good. There is no damper, so either you have a roaring fire, or it just sucks heat out of the house.
-- Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to prove it. Member of DAV #85. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida
Regulation doesn't help much IMHO. Classic example, yesterday: Our Missy Bell wants to raise some services by a wee bit. A wee bit would be around 200%. I guess they must have their lobby activities very well lined up. Then we got a notice from the local water works, also yesterday, that a hefty surcharge (a.k.a. tax) is contemplated. Great!
Remember the tax for the Spanish-American war we paid although the war was over 100 years ago? The instant it was abolished Missy Bell quadrupled some fee. Took it right back out of the pockets, and then some.
Nah, we'll stay independent. Last spring we bought almond at $210/cord. The local guys wanted up to $300/cord for oak. No way. It's pathetic, we have a big truck coming up about 60 miles on the freeway to deliver our wood.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Snow this morning in the Sierra Foothills, then some hail, now rain and an ice-cold wind. Wood stove cranking like crazy. And it's almost February where it used to be quite mild. Global warming? It sure ain't happening.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
This past week we, even here in Phoenix (Ahwatukee Foothills), had a total of about 3" of rain.
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave
Was the winter colder than usual?
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Not in my historical memory, but slightly colder than the last few years.
The winter of 1969-70 was nasty here.
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave
We gradually went from two cords to five :-(
We had one bad winter here many moons ago where power was gone for over a week. People without wood stoves had to seek shelter. But now winters are consistently colder and longer. At least that's what the real oldtimers out here say.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Yes, there are a lot of companies that don't even pretend to recycle pallets. At my PPOE they didn't (though didn't have a lot) and fired one employee for taking them. It was stealing, even if they were going to the land fill, saving them money. Again, it's a good source (though still a lot of work) unless everyone does it.
Decent wood for burning? That surprises me a bit. Yes, most people don't realize that a fireplace s usually a net loss. Inserts aren't even that great but the chimney is useful for a wood stove. ;-)
-- Keith
Depends on who and how many they piss off. I doubt many care much what land-line service costs these days. ;-)
It's not like there aren't other choices.
Yikes! I could heat with greenbacks for that.
-- Keith
Of course! It's Armageddon, and Mother is vibrating the evil spirits out of her energy field. ;-)
Cheers! Rich
-- For more information, please feel free to visit http://www.godchannel.com
A lot of folks out here do care. Cell phone service is spotty, cable ain't available everywhere.
Like what? Ok, I happen to live in an area that has DSL. An area that pretty much ends about a mile from here. And (tada!) Missy Bell owns that as well. Of course.
Friday I had the "pleasure" to talk at length with an engineer about
1500 miles from here via VoIP. Corporate network, the expensive stuff, not just some supermarket phone on a PC. The line quality was the usual, horrible. Sure the bandwidth is excellent but the audio is often all fragmented. That sure ain't no alternative.
$210/cord is an absolute bargain out here. Energy costs tend to be rather inflationary these days. Propane goes up 25% -> Wood goes up 25%. But it sure beats paying north of $3/gallon for propane. Even heating with regular unleaded from the gas station would be cheaper because it packs more BTUs.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
I like that kind of law. Fortunately they are becomming more comm even here in California.
JosephKK
Can't you switch suppliers? You can't switch the network very well though.
robert
No, you can't. The company owning the local grid has you over the barrel.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
How odd. In the UK the companies generating (or selling) electricity and those operating the power distribution grid are separate entities. You can buy your power from whoever you like - even some supermarkets have got in on the act of reselling electricity. I could even buy off EDF, Electricite de Francaise if I wanted to... they were second best pricing last time I looked.
I actually use Scottish Power (hydroelectric) because they were 30% cheaper than the more local nPower. Gas is similar but is not available where I live.
Water is a bit more tricky you pretty much get out of the tap stuff from whichever reservoir, lake, river or borehole the pipes are connected to.
Regards,
-- Martin Brown
There are some places in the U.S. where such options are available -- moreso in big cities, as you'd expect. I'm out in the country a bit (southern Oregon) and we only have one choice... and to make matters worse, power outages are not exactly uncommon -- it's happened twice in the past two weeks here. A significant portion -- probably at least 1/4 -- of our neighbors have small generators, and we're planning to install one too.
The previous owners of our home did have the good sense to install a wood stove.
In message , Joel Koltner writes
I am surprised it isn't a higher proportion if outages are that frequent. 3kW generators are not that expensive. I have one mainly because although we get dropped only a few times a year it is always during the worst winter storms. It powers a few lights, freezer, boiler and the CH pump
Victorian solid wall house still with 2 fireplaces and plenty of candles so we can survive pretty well off grid if necessary (unlike modern homes). Trees falling through powerlines is the usual cause of outage.
Much of the UK has underground mains distribution.
Regards,
-- Martin Brown
I had to buy a couple new heaters this week, and I'm in "The Sunshine State". :(
-- Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to prove it. Member of DAV #85. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida
My uncle just used a chain saw to cut through stacks of pallets. A couple dozen people hit that pile of scrap wood every week, to be ready for winter.
Look at the aerial view and tell me if you can see any firewood. ;-)
-- Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to prove it. Member of DAV #85. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida
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