hello from lower mid michigan

jwxr7 · 12-12-08, 02:52 PM

Hi, I heard about this site from Daox at ecomodder.com.
Here's some info on my homestead:
I have 10 acres of weeds

and a 2500 sqft tri-level home. I park my geo metro in a 30x40 pole barn.
It was built around 1970 and is heated primarily with a propane boiler with 5 zones (1 for heating each level, 1 for a "boilermate" water heater, and 1 unused). The house was originally heated with base board electric, and still has a few of them left. I also burn lots of wood in a Lopi woodburning insert located in the lowest level.

The average annual heating degree days for my area is around 7000. I currently can go just over a year between propane tank fills. It's a 500 gallon tank but we usually use around 375 gallons/yr. I use the base board electric at times and portable electric space heaters for ultra zone heating alote. Lately electric heat has been competative with propane for cost in my area. Last year we burned around 13 face cords of wood. The propane t-stats are usually in the mid 50f range and if we want warmer we burn wood and electricity. My wife hates it every winter

.
My land is setup well for a wind turbine and has a good area for solar exposure south of the house. The prevailing winds have no obstructions for almost a mile behind my yard. I plan to be using both sources of alternative energy in a DIY fashion. A small PV array is almost ready to start pushing power back into the grid, and 90% of the materials are waiting for me to finish a 7000 btu air heating panel. I've always thought about building some kind of DIY wind turbine and that will be a future project.

12-12-08, 02:52 PM	#1
jwxr7 Apprentice EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: mid michigan Posts: 191 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	hello from lower mid michigan Hi, I heard about this site from Daox at ecomodder.com. Here's some info on my homestead: I have 10 acres of weeds and a 2500 sqft tri-level home. I park my geo metro in a 30x40 pole barn. It was built around 1970 and is heated primarily with a propane boiler with 5 zones (1 for heating each level, 1 for a "boilermate" water heater, and 1 unused). The house was originally heated with base board electric, and still has a few of them left. I also burn lots of wood in a Lopi woodburning insert located in the lowest level. The average annual heating degree days for my area is around 7000. I currently can go just over a year between propane tank fills. It's a 500 gallon tank but we usually use around 375 gallons/yr. I use the base board electric at times and portable electric space heaters for ultra zone heating alote. Lately electric heat has been competative with propane for cost in my area. Last year we burned around 13 face cords of wood. The propane t-stats are usually in the mid 50f range and if we want warmer we burn wood and electricity. My wife hates it every winter . My land is setup well for a wind turbine and has a good area for solar exposure south of the house. The prevailing winds have no obstructions for almost a mile behind my yard. I plan to be using both sources of alternative energy in a DIY fashion. A small PV array is almost ready to start pushing power back into the grid, and 90% of the materials are waiting for me to finish a 7000 btu air heating panel. I've always thought about building some kind of DIY wind turbine and that will be a future project. Last edited by jwxr7; 01-07-09 at 08:06 AM..