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Preparedness for when

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  • nuatha
    nuatha Posts: 1,932 Forumite
    Bedsit_Bob wrote: »
    I was just curious, as B&Q are selling a gas heater with a 4,200w output.

    As for running costs, I seem to recall a comment on a review (possibly Amazon), that they used one for about 10 hours per day, and it lasted about a fortnight, on a 15kg cylinder.

    Can't recall if this was at full power, all the time.

    A quick Google, gives a price of £35 for a 15kg Calor butane refill, which I make to be about 25p per hour.

    Not sure if that's cheap or expensive.



    This cabbie wasn't named Emmett Brown, was he? :D

    You get approx 14KW per kilo, so a 15Kg bottle contains around 200KW (1 Kg = 1.985 litres, 7.08 KW per 1 litre)

    200KW/140 hours is 1.42KWH, so probably running on a single bar (assumption 4.2KW heater has 3 bars, like a Surper Ser, each bar would be approx 1.4KW)

    If its your main heating, then the running costs would be cheaper using an electric fire, if its an occasional supplemental supply or replacement for electrical failure, then the actual running costs are less important (though they remain a factor) if this is the only source of heating in a SHTF scenario then availability of the fuel is more important.

    Be aware that some tenancy agreements (and some insurance policies) restrict or prohibit this type of heater.

    HTH
  • GreyQueen wrote: »
    :p That's cuz you're up a hill Oop North.

    But, the up side is, during the summer it's glorious here, with rolling fields all around, and a view of the Pennines that can't be beaten. :cool:
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Bedsit_Bob wrote: »
    But, the up side is, during the summer it's glorious here, with rolling fields all around, and a view of the Pennines that can't be beaten. :cool:
    :D I'll have you know I have a fabulous view of a car park and the other huge block of flats on the opposite side of the river! :rotfl:

    I can see some lovely countryside from the allotment, but you wouldn't really call it rolling. Gently lolling, perhaps. We don't have big hills around here; something in the bye-laws, I expect. Not entirely sure I approve of hills and rocks and stuff like that, they're all a bit alien to my experience.

    I mean, I've been to the Peak District and the Lake District and lived in Scotlandshire, and clambered around mountains in Forn Parts, but I'm not entirely sure I approve of them as proper landscape. OK to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 19 January 2014 at 8:56PM
    Just occurred to me, with oil running low, but huge reserves of shale gas (and quite a reserve of, albeit hard to extract, coal), could we see a return to steam engines (perhaps running on shale gas), to replace the diesels we currently have?

    Sorry, that should read "shale gas", not "coal gas".
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Bedsit_Bob wrote: »
    Just occurred to me, with oil running low, but huge reserves of coal gas (and quite a reserve of, albeit hard to extract, coal), could we see a return to steam engines (perhaps running on shale gas), to replace the diesels we currently have?
    :) I guess it's possible. There were people alive until quite recently in this part of the world who'd used steam-driven threshing engines.

    People like my Grandad and Great-Grandad, and Nan's people, it was their line of work. There are functioning steam engines in museums which come out on the roads and go to the rallies. Enthusiasts around who know how to work them and re-build them.

    If you can recall, in one of the opening scenes of Dances With Wolves, there's Kevin Costner riding into the fort and one of the things he passes is a steam-driven piece of equipment, powering a saw. You can do all sorts of stuff with steam and I guess if sufficient quality coal was available and the infrasstructure was still there, they could have them running pretty easily.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • GreyQueen wrote: »
    :D I'll have you know I have a fabulous view of a car park and the other huge block of flats on the opposite side of the river! :rotfl:

    OK you win.

    In your dreams. ;)

    Even our buildings are beautiful.

    2303527_b700da6b.jpg
  • nuatha
    nuatha Posts: 1,932 Forumite
    Bedsit_Bob wrote: »
    Just occurred to me, with oil running low, but huge reserves of coal gas (and quite a reserve of, albeit hard to extract, coal), could we see a return to steam engines (perhaps running on shale gas), to replace the diesels we currently have?

    We're still highly reliant on steam engines, mainly in power generation, whether its more feasible to use fuel to create steam or burn directly in portable engines currently seems to come down on the direct use side (LPG for example). Though electric car tech is improving, widescale adoption requires a substantial investment in charging infrastructure or a massive improvement in range of vehicles.
    Steam tech as we used to know it requires substantial amounts of labour to feed the furnace, which is one of the reasons that petroleum products became the dominant fuels for mobile engines
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 19 January 2014 at 9:06PM
    GreyQueen wrote: »
    There are functioning steam engines in museums which come out on the roads and go to the rallies.

    They still run steam locomotives, in the village were I live.

    We even have our own, fully working, level crossing.

    Ramsbottom_signal_box_East_Lancashire_Railway.jpg
  • nuatha wrote: »
    Steam tech as we used to know it requires substantial amounts of labour to feed the furnace

    Although that wouldn't be the case, if they were built/modified to run on shale gas.
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    :eek: It's made of STONE! OMG, never saw that before. We're strictly half-timbered buildings around here.

    Well, if you ignore the cathedral, the castle, the many fine banks (snigger), the townhouses, meeting houses, the shops and what-o. You can have buildings from 900 years ago or last year, and every century in between, all on streets which were laid out by the anglo-saxons.

    Several million visitors a year, Bob, from all over the world, and they love it. You can't beat an ancient walled city.

    ;) Not without cannon, anyroad, as our poor battered walls will testify.;)
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
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