Heating

[GMCAMARO]

Well my 1400 square foot garage has turned in to an unbelievable nightmare and yes I am sorry we built it. There is another thread on the board showing the beginning of this nightmare. Catch up. Gas company refuses to install tank because home owner did work and yes it was inspected. 2nd gas company scares wife with concern about cars slamming into tank. We are 35 feet from lot line and 1 mile from any sort of busy road.

Okay, I think gas is not for me no big deal, why would I want to pay ever increasing gas bills and yes they will be going up in the future, so I start to investigate waste oil furnaces, not in the people's republic of MA. If a home owner has one it a criminal offense.


I am at lost, we are actually starting to investigate moving to a less regulated state.

Any new heating ideas would be appreciated.

The garage is 35 x 40 with 14 foot ceiling in 1/2 the garage and 9 foot ceilings in the other half. Gas is officially out.

 

[mulepackin]

Seems like wood or electric are your only options. I'm guessing wood is out for some of the same reasons as the waste oil, plus I believe by code they are not to be used in garages--so no one does that (right). There are radiant and convection tube type electrics available, I don't know much about cost or efficiency. Electric has never been cost effective around here (especially since the power companies convinced everyone they were so many installed electric heat).

 

[bmwpower]

What about NG?? I assume you mean LP when start referring to terms like "tank".

 

[russlaferrera]

You can go for oil heat. Oil puts out more BTU per gallon than gas. Price wise it's close..

What are the regs on propane use? Most states have specs on tank placement.
Find out and push them!

As far as a car hitting the tank You can put pipes in the ground filled with concrete. That will stop a car but will not stop planes or meteors falling out of the sky. Bye the way....how many cars hit propane tanks up there?

Here in VA people are afraid of gas. It can blow up I ask then if they are afraid of being electrocuted at the stove, it's 240 v.

 

[boiler7904]

How about a in-ground propane tank? It's done all the time. The only thing visible is the fill valve assembly. Use some landscape boulders and there won't be a chance of cars hitting it.

What's the budget like?

You could look into a ground source geothermal heat pump. Couple negatives are that you'd have to drill a well or a dig trenches for the piping to lay in across the yard to act as a heat sink. It's also pricey. On the positive side, it's pretty easy to add cooling to later if you want and should be inexpensive to operate - just a pump and a fan / blower motor.

 

[GMCAMARO]

You can go for oil heat. Oil puts out more BTU per gallon than gas. Price wise it's close..

What are the regs on propane use? Most states have specs on tank placement.
Find out and push them!

As far as a car hitting the tank You can put pipes in the ground filled with concrete. That will stop a car but will not stop planes or meteors falling out of the sky. Bye the way....how many cars hit propane tanks up there?

Here in VA people are afraid of gas. It can blow up I ask then if they are afraid of being electrocuted at the stove, it's 240 v.

In the People's Republic of Massachustts, they want to ensure a nuclear tipped war head will not penetrate it. Or help me a child can not effect it.

Also, right now oil is 255 or so a gallon, lat year at this time it was like 2.45, it appears to be heading higher and higher. This is part of the problem I do not want the garage to become expensive to use.

Which is actually why I regret building it or I wanted to use waste oil, after the LP gas fiasco.

 

[aerobb]

Here in NW Pa, if you aren't lucky enough to have a natural gas the choice is LP or fuel Oil. LP may be cheaper per gallon but the difference in BTU /Gal makes fuel oil cheaper per year

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Well my 1400 square foot garage has turned in to an unbelievable nightmare and yes I am sorry we built it. There is another thread on the board showing the beginning of this nightmare. Catch up. Gas company refuses to install tank because home owner did work and yes it was inspected. 2nd gas company scares wife with concern about cars slamming into tank. We are 35 feet from lot line and 1 mile from any sort of busy road.

Okay, I think gas is not for me no big deal, why would I want to pay ever increasing gas bills and yes they will be going up in the future, so I start to investigate waste oil furnaces, not in the people's republic of MA. If a home owner has one it a criminal offense.


I am at lost, we are actually starting to investigate moving to a less regulated state.

Any new heating ideas would be appreciated.

The garage is 35 x 40 with 14 foot ceiling in 1/2 the garage and 9 foot ceilings in the other half. Gas is officially out.

If you already have a propane heater installed, then I'd suggest working it out with the propane company. If you look at it from their prespective you would know that they are just concerned about liability if there is a problem with your plumbing. Don't be mad. Just find out what it's going to take to satisfy them. Maybe you could hire a plumber to inspect and sign off on your plumbing?

As far as the price going up...that's going to be true of whatever fuel you choose.

As far as the tank safety...can't help you there. Underground tanks can't get runnover by cars, but they can develop leaks. I'm not sure that's the answer either.

Oil might be a good choice. Waste oil? Even if you could get permission where would you get enough waste oil? It has what? 165,000 BTUs per gallon? A 50,000 btu heater would be chewing a couple of gallons a day through the winter. It's not like your going to get that much waste oil by working on your own cars.

If you were further south, I'd recommend a good heat pump. But in MA, that's probably out. Since you are planning on moving anyway, maybe you should consider Arizona. I hear it's nice out there.

Kidding.

Phil

 

[Franz©]

Lot to be said for owning your propane tank, like the ability to buy propane from the low priced vendor, and the lower cost per gallon.

Tank location is pretty much dictated by firecodes.

Frankly, this situation sounds like you fall into the undesirable customer category. The profit in delivering propane is falling rapidly thanks to government and insurance, and some companys have little desire to be helpful to small users.

 

[shocksystems]

I am at lost, we are actually starting to investigate moving to a less regulated state.

I am with you on that. This state does get to you sometimes. Where have all the sane people gone to? (NH perhaps?) It just seems to get worse and worse here in regards to regulations. *sigh* Good luck with your heat problem. I would like to understand more details about what basis they are refusing to hook you up. Getting a plumber to "certify" your work seems like a good idea, but I do not know the details of why they refused.

 

[Franz©]

But I keep hearing how the wonderful Kennedy family is operating a fuel oil delivery system to help the underprivileged people in Mass. Where is the problem?

What do you mean waste oil is illegal? It's an oil burning appliance. It burns #2 oil. Just keep your mouth shut about what you pour in the tank.

 

[femcadder]

First choice would be geothermal, I agree with all that was said, cooling is just a given if you use this system. If not, what about a pellet stove? Super easy, and cars can bang into the pellet storage all they want!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

What do you mean waste oil is illegal? It's an oil burning appliance. It burns #2 oil. Just keep your mouth shut about what you pour in the tank.

True, that type of heater quite readily burns regular home heating oil. Buy one, install it, have the tank filled (at least 1/2 or so) with heating oil. If anyone ever says anything, show them the fuel oil tickets

You might also talk to some of the manufacturers of USED oil heaters (don't call it waste oil, its technically not waste oil..... Waste oil is contaminated and you cannot burn WASTE oil, but you can burn USED oil). Its all in what you call it. The used oil heater people probably can advise you how to proceed also.

In looking at heaters I found the following manufacturers.

Reznor, which is an old manufacturer of heaters, now owned by Thomas & Betts and who decline to post the location of their headquarters or manufacturing facilities.
http://www.reznorwasteoil.com/

Firelake, Mt. Crawford, VA
http://www.usedoilheaters.com/index.html

EnergyLogic, Nashville, TN
http://www.energylogic.com/heaters.html

Heatwave which is also found under the name Seibring Manufacturing, George, IA
http://www.heatwave-waste-oil-heaters.com/models.htm

Clean Burn, Leola, PA
http://www.cleanburn.com/

Lanair, Janesville, WI
http://www.lanair.com/home.cfm

Omni by Econo Heat, Spokane, WA
http://www.econoheat.com/

Norki Energy Systems, Poughkeepsie, NY
http://www.norki.com/tech.html


Charles