On Nov 8, 10:02 pm, "K Barrett" wrote:
Yeah, I pulled the little elecrtic heater out of storage, too. For just in
case. But my gas/electric usage is paltry as compared to yours. I was
tempted not even to post becasue the worst winter we've ever had here is
like summer as compared to your worst winter, *G*. In other words your
winter could eat my winter for lunch. Nevertheless, these costs do mount up
and even I am looking for a winter strategy this year. I raised the
thermostat so the interior gets warmer, warming the 55-gallon drums hotter
(yeah right - I lie to myself constantly) and also hoping the floor bricks
will warm up more & back radiate heat, too. We'll see.

K Barrett

It doesn't make much sense to turn up the heater thermostat to save
fuel. But you mean you turned up a thermostat that delayed the
opening of vents so the sun was able to heat the air inside the
greenhouse to a warmer temperature and insure the water barrel heat-
sinks absorbed maximum BTU's before the sun set and the air
temperature dropped.

A BTU is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one
pound of water one degree. I am sure we are speaking Fahrenheit not
Celsius here but I may be wrong. You can figure out how many usable
BTUs are stored if you know the weight of the water in the barrel and
its temperature relative to your desired air temperature. (I think).
It will not be a very big number. It might surprise you. It is like
9 or 10 BTU's per gallon per degree rise.

The problem is always storing the BTUs in sufficient and cheap
quantities until they are needed.

My first oil tank filling of the season was yesterday. Heat energy
purchased as oil costs cost $2.799 per 141000 BTUs minus 20% for my
heaters inefficiency. My November electric bill also just arrived
too. Heat energy purchased as kilowatt hours costs me .077 cents per
3412 BTU this month. Hell seems to have frozen over and become even
more so in the process.