Last month's gas bill

Re: Last month's gas bill

ChrisOlson wrote: »

Both my wife and I grew up in homes heated with wood. We lived in a house heated with LP gas heat for a short time when I worked for Cummins. We had a gas explosion in that house due to a bad water heater valve. When we built our new house we planned around wood heat because better than 95% of rural homes in this area are heated with wood, and it was what we grew up with and are used to. We have no need for a "backup" heat source because wood heat never fails. It is the oldest and most reliable heating fuel known to man, and it is carbon neutral. Our new furnace has a catalytic recombustor on it so there is no smoke from the chimney and no creosote buildup in it. Even though the wood heat does require a little work, we like it and wouldn't use any other source.

We have a wood burning stove. It is located on the main floor in the living room, so you can seat next to it and it'll warm your limbs. It also has a glass door, so you can watch flames. Because of this location it doesn't warm the basement very well. We can use our gas furnace in "fan only" mode to circulate heat all over the house.

I lived in a house were wood was the only source of heat. The only thing that I didn't like about it is that in the morning it sometimes gets too cold and it is not fun to crawl out of the bad in the cold to light up the fire. Although with your efficient furnace this shouldn't be a problem any more. It probably can go on for 10-12 hours.

Re: Last month's gas bill

NorthGuy wrote: »

It simply goes to the floor drain, which eventually leads to the septic tank.

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NG, our HE furnace has a little sump ( 2 L ) of its own and whenever the mini sump fills, the float switch turns on and the small sump pump sends it to the house plumbing and eventually to the septic tank.

I just cant visualize your septic line freezing. It must be exposed to the air. Ours is totally underground.

Re: Last month's gas bill

Cariboocoot wrote: »

Having lived rural most of my life I agree with Tony; don't put anything down the septic that isn't necessary.

There are two reasons for keeping excess water out of a septic tank that I know of:
1. The volume of water could exceed the capacity of the leach field, but North Guy does not have one.
2. It could force actual effluent out of the septic tank before settling and bacterial action had finished processing it. A large enough tank would mitigate that.

Now running all of your food garbage through a garbage disposal instead of mulching it or trashing it is different problem for the septic system.
I once spent some time at a woodlands camp where the septic system was so overstrained that you had to put your toilet paper in a bag for collection instead of flushing it.

And city sewer systems are very picky because they can only run a limited volume/flow through their waste water treatment system. Since sewer water storage is usually not plentiful, high storm volumes force the plant to discharge untreated or partially treated sewage, annoying the neighbors and bringing fines from the government. :-)

Re: Last month's gas bill

the way a lagoon operates is that the outflow is meant to be below the 'static' water level where it is situated, just under that level, so that there is little or no backup in the pipe. However the pipe has to enter that lagoon at about a 45* angle so the solids move right on by the end of the pipe.

History: We had to replace a septic tank with, we found out the hard way, a too large lagoon at our field office, not properly sealed (bentonite clay layer on the bottom), and too low an ambient RH - so a hi evaporation rate... that had the pipe about 3 feet in the air first winter.... it froze solid right up the pipe when temps hit 30 below F. We broke the pipe with the backhoe so that the office did not have to be shuttered till spring...

Re: Last month's gas bill

solarvic wrote: »

There is another kind of sewage system biring installed in western pa. and my daughter has one. There are 2 separate buryed tanks close together. Frst tank gets the sewage like a regular septic tank.The water from that tank tranfers to the next tank that is filtered thru sand. From there the filtered water transfers to another tank in the back tard. You put clorix tablets in that tank and there is a motor that stirs the water mixture. There is 2 pipes that stick up from ground level about 6 ft. with sprinklers. Has a timer that you set so the sprinklers empty the water in the middle of night. All the water evaporates on top of ground. The grass there grows a lot faster than the rest of the yard, especially if you have a dry summer. If you have any power outages the timer comes on the wrong time of day. Just missed getting a shower from it last summer when mowing the yard. You still have to get the first tank pumped like a regular septic tank. :Dsolarvic:D

I have seen what I think is that type of system used over recharge zones (for underground aquifers) where you cannot get approval for a conventional septic system since the effluent might flow into the underground aquifer. They also are used where the land has too much bedrock for a conventional leach field.

Re: Last month's gas bill

solarvic wrote: »

There is another kind of sewage system biring installed in western pa. and my daughter has one. There are 2 separate buryed tanks close together. Frst tank gets the sewage like a regular septic tank.The water from that tank tranfers to the next tank that is filtered thru sand. From there the filtered water transfers to another tank in the back tard. You put clorix tablets in that tank and there is a motor that stirs the water mixture. There is 2 pipes that stick up from ground level about 6 ft. with sprinklers. Has a timer that you set so the sprinklers empty the water in the middle of night. All the water evaporates on top of ground. The grass there grows a lot faster than the rest of the yard, especially if you have a dry summer.

http://www.amazon.com/Grass-Always-Greener-over-Septic/dp/0345471725