You know how much help readers have been to me over the years? Between random $20 hits to the tip jar, fun and often even useful care packages, good suggestions via comments, and then there’s the big things:
- A now deceased reader paid for the Lair’s last battery pair as a dying bequest
- An unnamed reader dropped like $5000 into my lap for eye surgery several years ago when I was going blind, and a readership fund raiser paid for the rest
- A readership fund raiser paid for the Lair’s siding two years ago
- A reader paid for rat-related Jeep repairs
- Another bought me four tires
- Another paid for a pair of post-surgery glasses
There have been gifts of holsters and ammo and food, my laundry tubs, hell, I can’t remember all the many kindnesses done for a loquacious old hermit on these pages.
And now this. Dig it:
That, gentle readers, is a Empire DV210 thermostat-controlled direct vent propane-fueled furnace, precisely the sybaritic luxury item the Lair’s new bedroom wants. Retails for roughly half the entire cost of building the structure, so completely out of the question.
And it’s on its way here (well, to my maildrop) via UPS complete with plumbing.
Shit, I can hardly wait for winter. 😀
There are a lot of decent people out there. Sometimes, because of the news and all the bullshit I see happening, I forget that. But they’re out there. Good post.
I’ve had a pretty good day so far, but this is still the best news that I’ve heard all day!
How many pounds of propane are need to push that furnace? We bought a wall mounted one; when we got home with it and were reading the direction that came with it, the direction called for a minimum of a 100 lb tank. Maybe someone in the know can answer the wherefores and whys of what we were reading and maybe supply a work around to them.
I use 30 pound RV bottles for portability, since the propane can’t come to me and 100-pound tanks are too big for the Jeep and full ones are too heavy to move with any comfort.
So far I haven’t found an appliance I can’t run from a 30 pound bottle but it remains to be seen how long you can run one of these furnaces on one. Certainly it’ll work; all I want this to do is keep the bedroom above freezing overnight. That first hour in the morning while the woodstove is working is a real pain sometimes.
No matter what size bottle you use, you need a regulator to bring the propane pressure down to what the burner can use. So while it lasts even a little barbecue bottle will work just fine; it’s got lots of pressure till you run out of gas.
Judy the issue is in very cold climates. The colder it is, the slower the gas vaporizes, so in the frigid north country you need a bigger tank to allow enough gas to vaporize to run your appliance.
I have the same heater in my 448 square foot “lair” and I love it. Using the wood stove to do the heavy lifting and setting the Empire’s thermostat for 55 deg over night works perfect. The rest of the time with the ‘stat set at 40 deg a 100lb bottle (20 gallons) lasts several months. That’s at 4200’ elevation in a well insulated cabin in the snowy mountains of far Northern Kaliphornia. The heater comes with a simple mechanical thermostat but I installed a cheap digital one from the local hardware store so I can program the temp changes and forget about it.
I’m thinking that your excellent new firewood shed is having a jealous fit. And darn right you have cool readers!!! What would we all do for entertainment without them.
Wow, yeah. Joel. That’s some fabulous reader you’ve got there. And whoever s/he is joins other fabulous readers. The wondrous thing is that you’re not alone. I have equally fabulous readers in my life. And a few I’m sure are the same people, taking great care of us both.
We are amazingly blessed.
Now if only someone would send you a window air conditioner, you wouldn’t have to wait until winter to use that fine beauty!
}:-]
Actually, Mark Matis, it could be done, albeit inefficiently. When my Dad (1945-2013) was a kid, he said that they had a gas-powered refrigerator. When I lived in a camper, I think the fridge in it would run off LP if electric was unavailable, although I’m not sure, because I never had to do so. I’m certain there are propane-powered AC units somewhere. Probably noisy bastards, too.
Propane refrigerators are common/standard in RVs. I’ve had personal experience with three of them since moving here and the experience has taught me nothing but contempt. I could own one tomorrow, if for some reason I wanted a non-functional refrigerator.
Never seen a propane-fueled AC unit, though there’s nothing theoretically impossible about them. Most folks around here who bother use swamp coolers, which are better than nothing if sometimes barely so. This coming weekend (stay tuned!) we’ll be testing a redneck’s AC with a fan and a cooler full of ice.
People complain about trolls and such on the Internet, but I’ve been blogging over six years now and have had very little grief, and much kindness and generosity!
Bloggers and their followers are AMAZING!
Sorry, I am unable to contribute…)
gfa
The reason you might need a minimum sized propane tank for that heater is that the propane is liquid and it has to evaporate you might need more surface area of tank to boil enough gas to run the heater, if it ends up being an issue it is possible to run 2 or more of the 30 lbs bottles into one regulator.
Oh come on now, y’all! With all that excess battery power he now has, he just needs him a regular AC window AC unit!.
Sumthin’ like this:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Frigidaire-5000-BTU-150-sq-ft-115-Volt-Window-Air-Conditioner/50342322
Or if’n he’s the Big Orange type:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-5-000-BTU-115-Volt-Room-Air-Conditioner-Only-AEL05LV/206685276
Well, of course neither of those units will heat the Lair, and Joel needs heat more than AC.
But going with the flow… Either of those AC units takes about 500 watts, and will need a big power surge to start. So Joel would need an inverter several times the size of those he has. Also, I’m pretty sure that the Lair’s power system would need more of EVERYTHING to power that AC more than briefly because it would cause about a 45-amp draw on the 12-volt side.
So what is Joel’s battery capacity? And how many amp hours would it take to knock the temp inside The Lair down a few degrees at the end of the day? And he already has a means to heat. This would be to make non-winter somewhat livable without having to chase over to Ian’s Man Cave…
Although I did initially post that as a means to let him crank up the heater now, with the AC running full blast to keep from overheating The Lair…
}:-]
A huge help in cooling the lair would be a good exhaust fan in the highest point available in that tall roof peak on the Original Lair, one of those with the automatic weather shutter setups. Something in 12 volts, perhaps? On the vertical wall, perhaps, as opposed to on the roof, perhaps?