There has been a bit of a diversion this past month from the room preparation for my layout space. I have been concerned about the upward pressure on natural gas costs that we might have from here on out. I decided a solution was needed before heating cost got out of hand.

Looking at solar systems that would provide 90% plus of the heat required to heat my house has been "interesting". I live in an area where solar heat will work very well but I soon learned that 90% plus of my heat from solar was not easy to setup. I found that a working solar system to truly heat my house and hot water has a lot of parts to it. For a solar system I would need heat exchangers for my hot water, my furnace and I would also need 400 gallons of insulated water storage for heat to use at night. Enter the wood fired boiler! I installed a boiler that holds close to 400 gallons of water and the hot water is piped into the house with insulated pipe where I use heat exchangers just like I need for a solar system.

I needed a flat spot to place the boiler on and a trench to put the pipe in. Because the job was to small to get anyone to do it for hire, I had to dig the flat spot and trench by hand. My yard is decomposed granite so I had to break it up with a pick ax before I could do anything with a shovel. The task reminded me of the old time miners who worked their mines by hand looking for gold and how much labor they put in without much chance of making a strike. Sadly I did not locate any valuable ore myself and the only thing I found was some unexpected tree roots.