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Here is an idea that I was trying to do before winter, but many other projects prevented it.
Add about a four foot section of copper pipe to your shower drain (maybe a few dents in it would help), then circulate the incoming cold water around it to pull some waste heat an raise the temperature of the water coming into the shower.

If you can raise the water coming in even 15 degrees, that could help dramatically to use less hot water.

Ok, here goes....

I got tired of the ridiculously rapacious (it's sad what people will do to their fellow countrymen when they have them "over a barrel") gas and electric heating costs and built a double barrel woodstove for my basement.  Cost about a 100 bucks.  Our main source of heat for the last 8 years.  Very efficient as the top barrel exchanges heat quite well.  At average operating temps, it puts out about 75-90,000btu.  On the subzero nights it can be opened up to about 150,000btu. For a bit more moola, one may drill the back of the bottom barrel and install a Hilkoil water heating loop (or reasonable facsimile  8) ) that runs to the hot water heater, effectively nullifying hot water heating costs for the duration of the burning season. 

Also quite efficient, is the magnifying of incoming solar radiation for E,W, and S facing windows.  I have vertical blinds in my living room and kitchen which are swapped out in the winter months with black metal slats.  Reflective surfaces may be added outside the window in order to direct more light onto the black body surface areas.  This year, I may also add Fresnel lens assemblies to the black vertical blind slats for even greater heat generation and a small solar powered motor that causes the blinds to track the sun. 

There are those who swear by Evacuated Solar Tubes as far north as Canada.  One may wish to experiment with those as well.  Very efficient.  As for me, the necessity for outside installations is negated if one makes efficient, if not "Purdy", use of ones own windows.  Lets face it, this late in the year, and given Earth's relatively recent attitudinal/orbital changes, options for inexpensive solutions are waning fast. 

Some are reporting good results with indoor mobile heat pump heaters/ac units.  Great for zone heating, especially if one is able to power their electric heat with wind/solar. 

For you busy beavers with the time and equipment....consider the work of good ol' Russ Finch.

http://citrusinthesnow.com/ (http://citrusinthesnow.com/)


Blessings all the way to the bone marrow, we're gonna need 'em.


TS

Great topic idea.

Well, besides using JT circuits for all of my summer/winter interior lighting, I use alcohol burners to add heat in the winter over here.  I also burn kerocene lamps that give off both light and heat.

This winter I am going to invest in a 5,000 BTU alcohol stove that is similar in the design of one we used to go across the country in the 1960's.  (Camping)  No problem with CO and you can make your own alcohol to heat your house.  (Might be illegal to do so, check federal and state laws on this.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Qm9&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=denatured+alcohol+stove&revid=75718134&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1263&bih=558&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=10716306896597489433&sa=X&ei=qc_BTrblF4TqggeC8cXJBw&ved=0CHUQ8wIwAw (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Qm9&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=denatured+alcohol+stove&revid=75718134&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1263&bih=558&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=10716306896597489433&sa=X&ei=qc_BTrblF4TqggeC8cXJBw&ved=0CHUQ8wIwAw)

I have no ties to this product but, it resembles the one we used such a long time ago.  I live in a small apartment and I can usually keep my electric bill below $40/month in the winter.  (Less in the summer)  Everthing here is electric, water heater, stove, heat/cooling, lights....so I do not think I am doing too bad.

Just tossing this out as an idea but, if you really get serious, it is amazing what you can do and still have light and be warm.

Bill

This (recently posted) thread of a single post looks unnoticed while worth a consideration:

http://www.overunity.com/13807/new-discovery-explains-stan-meyers-energy-harvesting-method/#.UjZJvD-E4Uo (http://www.overunity.com/13807/new-discovery-explains-stan-meyers-energy-harvesting-method/#.UjZJvD-E4Uo)

Also these:
1.  http://www.overunity.com/13791/every-home-should-have-a-nuclear-reactor/#.UjaIOT-E4Uo (http://www.overunity.com/13791/every-home-should-have-a-nuclear-reactor/#.UjaIOT-E4Uo)

2.  http://www.overunity.com/13754/thermonuclearfusionreactor-co-uk-hot-nuclear-fusion-for-the-home/#.UjaJZT-E4Uo

What about geothermal?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBHHqw6TRXk

 
Qwert, regarding geothermal, Russ Finch did it cheaper.  Much cheaper.  The "experts" avoid it because it is so easy and makes them no money. 

My last link in my first reply to this topic.


TS

Thanx, TechStuf. So, we have very good and ready idea. Here is the short story:
http://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/2010/01/22/the-missing-geothermal-technology/ (http://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/2010/01/22/the-missing-geothermal-technology/)

Unfortunately, not for me: I live in Chicago and here making simple hole on own yard is impossible without permits. And permits are obtainable only by proper, documented professionals.

Qwert, dig at night.

lol

Quote from: TechStuf on September 18, 2013, 09:06:38 PM
Qwert, dig at night.

lol

There you go.  They can't control us 24/7....yet.

Bill

Quote from: Pirate88179 on September 18, 2013, 10:17:42 PM
There you go.  They can't control us 24/7....yet.

Bill

Yes, there are some ideas, I know... one of them is: "dig underground" (sic).

Excellent I'm shocked at the amount of responses I have got within a weeks time it is just proof that there is a real need for this type of thing.

Anyone care to share some pictures of their designs.

I am going to be doing a bit of my winterizing here soon I will take some pictures...

I like the idea of the black blinds I may use a similar approach to this problem...

I also plan on starting an indoor winter garden to grow some fresh produce this winter.
I will be trying:
mini bell peppers supposed to grow well in winter
brussle sprouts unsure if they grow well
chives unsure if they grow well
sibirean tomatoes smuggled from russia long ago and used during the winter for a good indoor grower
black strawberries best growing strawberry for indoors
bonsi blueberries supposed to grow well on a patio dunno about indoors but from what I have read it is the best shot
spinach a variety that was made for winter
lettuce unsure if it will grow but going to try
maybe even more to be honest dunno

I have been brainstorming cheapest ideas for setting up my indoor grow operation like containers and things I could repurpose for growing. Have not settled completely but I will share when I do settle.
knowing this during daylight hours I will need to maintain close to 70 degrees for growing I have an unused room upstairs rather then owning more JUNK or hoarding I plan to make logical use of this living space.

I also plan to seal up my home fairly well this winter by:
Caulking the windows around the inside frame works.
Possibly using something to collect heat like the black blind idea on windows I do not really need to see out of.
Then indoors on the outside of all of my windows (on the frame) I plan to use some clear plastic duck kits.
I plan on weather stripping around all non hinged edges of all of my doors.
I plan on completely sealing off one of my exits with a thick heavy mil plastic because we never use it!
I plan on completely sealing off the basement access doors to the outside with heavy mil plastic as well because we never use it.
I plan on putting foam covering on both my cold and hot water pipes.


I would kill for a double barrel setup or an alcohol burner but when you rent a home there is always issues with burning anything for insurance reasons. I really wish there was a way around this for me but it appears that my landlords will not permit me to burn anything for heat other than gas from my local coop... But please do not stop posting these ideas because they are of value to many people.

Does anyone have anything done yet that they can share some good pics of ? I would really love to see all your hard work and good setups and put some visualizations in this project that everyone can have! I realize I am asking a lot to have you charge up your batteries to that digital camera and upload files to your computer and then to overunity.com as it can be painstaking but I will tell you what if you folks purchase an eye-fi sd card rather then the typical sd card you can save a lot of your troubles and allow your camera to upload via your wireless router automagically!

We really need to get some pictures going this is really going to strike interest with the general public and grab some more attention and in return we may get to see some more folks like us at these forums sharing some great ideas that might save all of us some money.

I also plan on looking into some home based work over the internet during the winter months if I can find something decent that doesn't just pay 5 cents or something crazy for doing 30 minutes of work... Amazon mechanical turk is interesting but the pay rates on there are like highway robbery! It took me about 2 weeks of doing odd crap on there to earn a lousy 7.00 not too exciting and not making me want to head back to that any time soon other than to check if the wages improve the rates are dependent upon who posts them so it is subject to change by the minute technically. I have found some other microjob type websites that have not seemed to pan out the greatest either but still on the hunt!

If you have a suggestion on online working you do not wish to share in public feel free to msg me I know how it can be sometimes you prefer not to speak of online work and would rather it be kept confidential because it is personal to you and you may not want to look like you are advertising for the company which would be considered spam in most cases... With anything if you have something you would like to keep confidential I am always open to this and would gladly allow you to share with me on an individual basis but I do prefer public domain where possible as we can encourage each other to do more for each other.

The way I see it if we want to fix this world we have to fix our point of view instead of the world being considered a Me World we need to switch our point of view to how can we redefine this world as a We World we are all accountable for our society and the things and the types of people that are produced from it! Look at some of the interesting thought testing that was going on in Einsteins era you will find that the action of just thinking and believing in something invokes changes in the universe. This may sound crazy but the notion was backed up with albeit limited testing that was done to prove the theory but the results while limited did seem to amaze. Many ancient cultures were aware of this as well if you study your history.



KEEP SHARING
PICTURES Please add your Pictures!

pirate:

Is there a lot of suit and smoke from the alcohol burner I am curious on using this actually at second look my only fear is that I will leave home for my 8hour shift at work and come home with a burnt down apartment ... I really think this may be a fairly good idea but .... I have a 2 story home with big rooms it is an old farm house that I rent.

Oh yeah I guess this is still on topic as it qualifies for electrical savings did you ever get a good efficient mark that you hit with your ground battery testing? I see you are fairly creative and likely one of the most crude but effective DIYer's on this forum.

I'd really enjoy if you would share some pictures of these burners with us as well as your Joule Thief lighting circuits I use 75watt eqiv. CCFL bulbs with the daylight color temperature this helps me tremendously in the winter as it gives me an abundance of nice clean non yellow lighting my guess is you live in an apartment complex and are able to borrow wifi for a near feeless internet as well... I would love to do all of this and obviously it'd be great to find a way to be free of rent charges as well but good luck with that one unless you can convince your landlord and a cellphone provider to put a cell phone tower on your rented property and you have an agreement if you could get x amount of dollars for this tower per month that he would give you free rent there for as long as you stayed lol! Fat chance but still would be nice.

PS I got about 5 windows done today myself I did take some pics and will post them but first I want to get a couple more things done like some of the thicker mil plastic work. Should have that done tomorrow I think then I will upload some pics.

Quote from: Pirate88179 on September 15, 2013, 06:18:59 PM

Well, besides using JT circuits for all of my summer/winter interior lighting, I use alcohol burners to add heat in the winter over here.  I also burn kerocene lamps

There ought to be a method of fermenting grass cuttings (full of carbohydrates) to make a dilute alcohol solution and then distilling it.

Is there such a method?

Quote from: Paul-R on September 23, 2013, 01:15:16 PM
There ought to be a method of fermenting grass cuttings (full of carbohydrates) to make a dilute alcohol solution and then distilling it.

Is there such a method?

Yes, there are many methods to produce this fuel.  Easy to do at home too.  But, it is illegal to do so here in the US.  (Go figure)  Anything with sugar can be fermented with some yeast and distilled easily.  It takes only a few days to ferment.  Sugar is what is converted to alcohol so I am not sure about grass clippings.  Corn, corn meal, apples and most fruit, bags of sugar, etc will work just fine.  See Youtube for home distilling methods and explanations.  (For educational purposes only)  It burns clean with no CO and produces a lot of heat.  You can buy denatured alcohol but it is pretty high.

Bill

Quote from: Pirate88179 on September 24, 2013, 12:22:15 AM
Sugar is what is converted to alcohol so I am not sure about grass clippings.

It looks like the grass clippings, so plentiful in spring and summer, have to be subject to some sort of process first, to render the cellulose ready:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol)

This may seem obvious but I think it is often underestimated.   Having designed and built 2 large homes that have had surprisingly good heating and cooling bills (low bills) and having done even more insulation in the second house I think it is very important.   And it is very affordable to add insulation in your attic.   I put in several layers of roll out insulation.   Look to Lowe's or Home Depot.   You may find it a lot cheaper than you think.   Take a look in your attic and try to estimate the amount of square feet you can add.   You may find a $100 spent now will save you that much or more just over one winter and will keep things cooler in the summer too.   Older houses may be easier to do and likely to benefit more.   Newer houses with trusses and low roofs may be more difficult but you can still probably add some.   It doesn't matter if you have blown in insulation or roll out you can still add roll out on top of what you have.   I strongly suggest wearing a respirator (about $20) and long sleeves and gloves when you get to it.  I also found using a trash grabber tool can help a lot in getting insulation out the the roof edge where the roof meets your ceiling as that can be a very tight spot to reach.   Be warned it takes some skill to maneuver around in most attics.  Don't fall through your ceiling by stepping on your sheetrock - it won't support your weight.   

Very sweet grass clippings as alcohol that's about as cool as it gets with an alcohol burner we will be heating in no time.

E2matrix: Very true I have seen substantial savings in a lot of cases I know folks who have put in something like 2ft of insulation in their attic and had excellent savings.

I would like to share some pictures here but am having trouble with uploads:

Woot figured it out well here are the rest of the pics:

It is a work in progress I am kind of documenting as I go I urge everyone else to document as well.

I would love it if everyone would join in and share with us obviously we all do some winter preparations why not share way better than social media this is a purpose driven project lets do some old fashioned networking please share with us your ideas and pictures.

Thank all of you for contributing so far but please don't stop there as there has been a lot of great contributions so far!

Even if you are doing the same thing we want to see it there may be subtle differences that are note worthy.

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...

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.

"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 (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/ (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

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

Here is the tech page:

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

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...

I've made a candle power radiator actually works real well...

Materials used:

2 glass jars or mugs thick glass from the thrift shop
1 medium sized cooking kettle  (I bought mine for .50 from the thrift shop so go see your local thrift shop!!!!)
4 Candles 2 to 3 inch diameter
1 Glass plate from the thrift shop

Just flip the kettle upside down rest the handles on top of the two glass mugs or jars and center the plate under the kettle. It is important to note that the wick need to be just below the kettle to have the appropriate amount of oxygen to keep burning.

CAUTION: Be sure that if your home is sealed real well that you have a Carbon detector not doing so could result in death or serious injury and be sure that your fire alarm batteries are working well.

The temperature of the kettle reaches 205° F throws off some decent amounts of heat. I really would like to try a ceramic pot if I can get my hands on one cheap enough to see what types of differences there are between the two.

Anyone else do any candle based radiator testing?

If so what did you use?

I did also try 1 candle to do the radiator that resulted in a high temp of about 113° F ... Now these temps are with an IR thermometer I am guessing they may be higher than stated a funny thing I have noticed about IR thermometers is on silver metallic objects the temps seem to always be lower than what they truly are.

When I get time I will check out readings with my digital thermometer and fix it to the kettle with some kapton that should be able to handle the heat this throws.

from one-glas-window to double-glas-window using "tuff-glass" (also green-house et cet.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50kEm7JdFTM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50kEm7JdFTM)
This I saw in the "Jade Mountain"-catalog 15 years before.http://www.e-greenstar.com/SolarPowerStore/

Other possible source: www.motherearthnews.com

Sincerely
              OCL