Since the last post (2008!) our biodesel vendor was kind of flaked-out for the 2008-2009 season, so we burned fossil fuel. Instead of letting the man make money from us, we toted off-road diesel from the local gas station to the house ten gallons at a time. It was kind of the winter hobby. Every few days I would stop at the station on the way home and dump ten gallons in. That was effective but transporting petroleum is not fun. No wonder the oil companies charge for delivery.
Today I cleaned the burner/boiler and tuned it up. The last time I touched this unit was when we stopped buring B100. No shutdowns on fossil fuel for the winter and summer. Cleaning it was a breeze today, only the tinest bits of charred-on hard substance on the inside of the combustion head. The fireside was covered in a soft layer of soot, no hard stuff.
The oil filter is showing some signs of water in the fuel, the inside of the can is a tiny bit rusty. I will buy a replacement can to have on hand.
We are on the fence about what fuel to burn for this winter. B100 is $3.15 per gallon delivered. That is almost a dollar more than the tote-it-yourself pump price for fossil fuel. Adding to the price disparity is the pain of burning it (there likely will be known shutdowns on B100 during the winter).
We'll see in the coming month on what fuel we use.
Here are some pictures of the boiler pre-cleaning today.
Since the last post (2008!) our biodesel vendor was kind of flaked-out for the 2008-2009 season, so we burned fossil fuel. Instead of letting the man make money from us, we toted off-road diesel from the local gas station to the house ten gallons at a time. It was kind of the winter hobby. Every few days I would stop at the station on the way home and dump ten gallons in. That was effective but transporting petroleum is not fun. No wonder the oil companies charge for delivery.
Today I cleaned the burner/boiler and tuned it up. The last time I touched this unit was when we stopped buring B100. No shutdowns on fossil fuel for the winter and summer. Cleaning it was a breeze today, only the tinest bits of charred-on hard substance on the inside of the combustion head. The fireside was covered in a soft layer of soot, no hard stuff.
The oil filter is showing some signs of water in the fuel, the inside of the can is a tiny bit rusty. I will buy a replacement can to have on hand.
We are on the fence about what fuel to burn for this winter. B100 is $3.15 per gallon delivered. That is almost a dollar more than the tote-it-yourself pump price for fossil fuel. Adding to the price disparity is the pain of burning it (there likely will be known shutdowns on B100 during the winter).
We'll see in the coming month on what fuel we use.
Here are some pictures of the boiler pre-cleaning today.
