Bj”rn Forsstr”m (2:203/614.61) wrote to Steven Horn at 13:00 on 31 Jan 2004:

 BF> Wow.
 BF> We haven't been there yet.

Count yourself lucky.:-)

 BF> I saw on TV that the northen parts of America have had a very cold
 BF> period.

And we have been colder than most.:-( 

 BF> Forced air oil heating system? What's that?

The oil burner heats air which is forced through ducts to registers in
rooms and then is returned to the furnace through cold air returns.  The
same system is also used with natural gas burners or electric furnaces. 
SDee:
http://www.hometips/content/forcedair_intro.html
  
 BF> It's nice to come out to a warm car in winter. I alos have a block
 BF> heater and a coup‚ heater.

Is a coupe heater what we call an in-car heater?  If so, I have one but don't use it.

 BF> This night it came about 20 cm and it keeps coming right now. Had
 BF> to change my allyear tyres to real winter tyres with spikes now
 BF> since it didn't want to go in snow, even with the 4WD in. It just
 BF> stood still and melted the snow to ice, but not now with new tires.

I put a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks on in November and so far they are just fine.

 BF> Yes. Installed for only 2 months ago and it works completly ok.
 BF> There was so much water in the 130 m deep hole so it should be able
 BF> to maintain the function down to at least - 15 C and it has. No
 BF> extra electrical power has been used so far.
 BF> And I can still use my woodheating if I want to, to even minimize
 BF> the heating cost.
 BF> I still have about 40 m3 wood left and I use this when the
 BF> teperature falls so the
 BF> heatpump doesn't have to work its ass off and have to call for
 BF> extra power and I also have a fireplace in the livingroom.

I don't know what I'd find in a hole 130 m down but I doubt that it would
be water so it's back to a more conventional heating system.

 BF>  Isn't that rather much? How many m3 do you burn in one season?

We deal with litres and I can reasonably expect to burn about 4000 litres
per year.  I can live with that as our house is large (232.25 m2) and you
already know it can get frighteningly cold.

 BF> Ther is a new law coming here that says you have to inspect your
 BF> oiltank at least
 BF> every 3 year to see if it doesn't leak any oil into the ground and
 BF> that will cost about
 BF> 2 000:- (about 180 USD) and that comes on top of a very high oilprice
 BF> so for a normal house oilheating isn't very cheap here.

No fuel is cheap here and wood won't do the job so oil is the bast of a bad
lot.  However, my tank is above ground so inspection costs are not an
issue.

Take care,

Steven Horn (steven_a_horn{at}yahoo.ca)
Moderator, ALASKA_CHAT 
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+