Berry Chechy : I am one of the top 5 Rocket gurus here at Permies and You are not going to build any thing that resembles a
rocket stove in a week or less that
will not endanger your family. Sorry but there is a steep learning curve, and you have to crawl before you can walk. With carefull
scrounging can lower the price
of a
Rocket Mass Heater to a couple of hundred dollars -buying everything to speed thing up will triple or more the cost of your
project -with that much again, spent
on a safe outside chimney
You could call your oil dealer and ask about the history of oil consumption for the rental you live in. They
should be able to access a computer program that
compares a couple of recent winters, and their '' number of Degree Days'' with this winter, month by month, or delivery by delivery, and tell you for the number
of '' Degree Days '' a comparable number of gallons you should have gone Through !
This is important because if there is a difference from expected performance, you will have a Case to make to get an Oil Burner Tech to your place without paying a
"Emergency No-Heat'' call Premium price. They can schedule a visit when it is convenient for Them ! You should do this yourself.
With this information in hand, you should talk with your landlord, especially if there is a major difference in Real and Expected number of gallons used ! As a minimum
he should let you pay for a service call by taking it off of your rent ! OR- he may get a better deal from the oil dealer, I bet you are using that dealer because the
Landlord recommended that Dealer Right? Does the landlord Know when and by whom the oil burner was serviced !
If this is a house cut up into multiple apartments and there are empty units sharing a common wall or above you, you should ask him for a walkthrough. so that both
of you can check on things like windows left open doggy doors with missing flaps, or ways animals could have gotten into a crawl space and torn down the insulation.
Is there an attic window out? has some one left and took a drier connected to the outdoors and left a hole in the side of the house, or left bathroom fans or range hoods
on and running !
By now you know how dry winter air is, if you are still using a cloths drier yourself do Not vent it outside, plug the drier vent outlet remove the hose, fasten a pair of
pantyhose to the exhaust vent on the Back of the drier, and look to get or make a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 filled with water as an indoor lint trap. lots of information on
line under
drier lint trap buckets, if you have to run the drier, see if you can move it to the living room or kitchen?
ELectronics stores throw away yards and yards of bubble wrap, if you simply use a squirt bottle to moisten your window glass the bubble wrap will cling from one side
of the window frame to the other, and cut your cold air infiltration in half at your windows. You will still have as much light !
Can you close off a room in your house, if you have forced air heat you can lift up a floor mounted register, block it with rags and close off the room.
Like the inspection of crawl spaces, you should be able to check your basement, go down there during the day, use card board to cover all basement windows,have a
flashlight, but turn it off, you are looking for daylight around where the foundation wall meets the sill plate, if you need to you can google a picture, also look where
the the sill plate meets the floor is there moisture or even frozen water trapped in the insulation at the outside wall? Poor construction techniques allowed a decade
ago are destroying foundations, and sills, codes have changed, your landlord will not be happy if you find this problem, but if he gets mad at you. you have the wrong
landlord !
Several heavy blankets thrown over a kitchen table with a small electric heater underneath is something you can set the family around and play board
games. Or you
may have a larger register where your oil burner heats just your family till bed time. then just move the table !
At the very bottom of this page is a Cartoon of a beaded 'old guy' holding a skillet, to the right find and click on the words
Electric Heaters, here too some of the best
advice would have been great to have 2 months ago, but learn what you can!
Do not leave any space heaters unwatched ! For the Craft ! Big AL !
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