(Project EconoWinterize) Need to borrow your collective brain power.

[infringer]

Hashing over the post and after looking into stills for alcohol ....
Looks like a garage is required for distilling alcohol not only that but a friggin ethanol permit which blows.
Anyone know how much it is for an ethanol permit?

Lumen has a point the reverse effect of a still if you could raise the temp of the cold water coming in with the warm water that is draining you would not need as much heat but would it be more advantageous to fight the cold water with the warm water or use the copper drain pipe mind you it would have to be somewhat large in case of hair or whatever goes down the shower drain easily clogged and harder to unclog in a coil...

[infringer]

Been pretty busy with winterizing amongst other things like getting my work room in order ...

The latest thing that I have done:

Finished silicone job on all of my windows
Put foam underneath each and every window in the house 1/2" thick to stop any drafts
Clear coated all of my wooden window frames this will help the double sided tape stick and remain stuck to the surface
I have started foaming the top portion of the windows where there is a small air gap.

I have some daylight bulbs on order for light for the plants once they are alive and well.
Have a greenhouse for germination along with a heating pad.
Have about 30 buckets for planting.
Have about 80 quarts of potting soil.
A lot of stuff all going on at once trying to keep it all in order not to mention looks like my vehicles are going to need some maintaining as well before the snow flies.

I will post pictures of more when I get time.

Anyone else care to share photos of there winterizing? I am really curious to see how others do please share I don't care how little or large the scale is I really would like to hear and see what others are doing even if it is the same thing.

Oh yeah one more thing I purchased some eclipse samara black curtains for the south facing windows on the first floor and west facing windows on the top and bottom floors what I did was purchased them in black so that they could absorb the sunlight and work to aid in heating when there is a good amount of sunlight. So I have the black non insulated side facing out to absorb as much heat as possible and keep it indoors. It was fairly amazing the one 60+ degree day we had with lots of sun you could just stand by the curtain 2 ft or so away and feel the heat pouring off of them.

[lancaIV]

"Cutting"/ minimizing the room heating area by erecting a "virtual wall" with a radiant barrier,air-foil:glow zone principle
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiant_barrier
The isolator/virtual wall can be something like "reflectix" and/or other no/brand or similar DIY-solutions.


cheap heat/light solutions http://www.heatstick.com/


Rubb and clapp your hands and body and make a hot dance convention


and ask then the people-neighbours-with the same problem:winterizing about their re/solution and work together

[TechStuf]

 
Infringer....take a chance....these things are SOOO cheap to build and they put out almost NO smoke.  Nearly ALL the heat stays in your home.  I've seen guys go from burning 4 cords of wood a year to heat their home (in Canada, mind you!) to using only 1/2 a cord.  One is able to hold one's hand over the chimney, as most of the heat remains in the home.  Watch the lady below, put her face in the exhaust....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGaGtO8MkQk

Here is the tech page:

http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp

These things burn kindling and do it so well, that nearly 100% of the particulates and gasses are burned.  I've heard that there is very little ash produced as well.



TS

[infringer]

Very good info guys thanks I am sure it will help someone substantially I am thinking of trying the candle radiator myself a very useful idea! Need to find some cheap clay pots somewhere and make up a rig to do some good heating I am guessing that this will limit the amount of suit that does not get burnt up as well keeping air quality a bit better but I really need a cheap CO2 detector as I do not have one and with things sealed up so well I need to monitor this deadly force...


So without further ado I would like to share some more pictures of my progress please share yours as well! I really think a picture can provide a thousand words.


I even took a pic of what I was getting for heat from my curtains today! Keep in mind it was only like 40 degrees outside...