In view of all the exciting energy cost rises, I’ve copied a comment by the good Ripper and glued it up front as it could be of interest to those of you pondering heating replacements or in the midst of DIY that’ll include your fireplace.
He mentions those fan heaters disguised as coal or log fires. I can type from experience that those thingies can look nice but that is all they do; look nice. If memory serves, the one I put in lasted all of four months before I ripped it back out.
Money? Near zero interest rates? Housing market goes crazy then hike interest rates? All part of some scary personal money eroding plan? Wot a foil hatted crazy thought...
I guess next we’ll see a huge, manufactured, rise in petrol and diesel prices at the pumps so’s those recent purchasers of electrickery cars don’t feel quite so stupid when they look at their daily{?} recharging costs.
Whoa! Here’s a thought. Could the technology be close to herald the next marketing step for all those millions of home exercise bikes an’ such? Plug ’em in and peddle a charge into your electric car? A fit family and a small free car charge? Could be a winner right there. Think about that Ripper and if it looks like it could be feasible in the near future, slap a patent on the idea and, who knows, you could become rich just down the line. If that should come to pass, don’t forget your ol’ Blog mate...
Anyhoo, over to Ripper:
“Nearing the end of the DIY upstairs, then I can start the real work downstairs. One job is the fireplace. The heating/hot water come from a gas combi boiler that feeds 7 radiators and the fireplace is never used. It has a cheap and ridiculously fake fan heater disguised as a coal fire that I disconnected as soon as I moved in here. So, as energy costs are going through the roof and the supply gets iffier by the day, its led me to investigate alternative forms of heating that could be self sufficient just in case Vlad does end up turning off the supply.
I've settled on opening the fireplace back up and installing a wood burner but I recall, sometime during the 80's seeing this great system invented in the USA. I never heard anything more since but I've just found it again.
Ever heard of a water hammer? Its just a pump basically that heats the water by smashing it. Some installations exist so its known to work but I believe the inventor was bought out and the idea shut down. Its so simple that I think I could build one, it could sit outside and be connected into the house radiator system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjGSXKSLpfY
Another option for occasional heating could be done with a thermosyphon system fed from a coil of copper pipe wrapped around the flue of the wood burner, fed into a copper cylinder the old fashioned way.”
Quote; Aristotle.
“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
2 comments:
Mac,
If you want to progress forward, look back.
I doubt whether I could get anything patented but if I won the lottery I'd remember you. I prayed for a win on the lottery only the other week, and God appeared before me. He said "Of course I'll grant you a lottery win - but do me a favour mate - buy a ticket".
As for inventions, look at what happened to Stan Mayer in the States. Wouldn't really like to go there. Being an engineer though, I have thought of an improvement to the rotor of that water hammer. Instead of drilling 1000 holes in a huge block of metal, I would have lots of circular flat plates cut on a laser, with cutouts around the circumference. Then I'd stack them up on a shaft. Easier to make, more efficient, cheaper and the plates can be changed in minutes when they wear out.
Ripper,
I do believe you can patent just an idea but I could be wrong.
You plate idea sounds like it'd work.
As for the lottery... A tax on the poor?
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