I just go the winter fuel supply today. Twenty-five, 40 kg bags of high grade anthracite.
One of the problems houses have in Ireland and the UK is dampness. And not as you'd think from rain, well, at least not primarily anyway. No, the issue we have is general humidity. So when in Spring we stop lighting fires dampness permeates the walls of a house and this needs burning off before one can be comfy in winter.
I discovered the truth of this when I got hygrometers and put them all over the house thereby discovering I have 80 plus in summer but only 60 plus in winter. No matter how wet or dry it is rain-wise.
I helped the men schlep in the bags off the lorry and got the compliment that he could see it wasn't the first time I humped bags. Something as a newly minted Artist, slash classical historian slash landscape designer I'm not sure IS a compliment.
But I have moved thousands of those darn bags in my youth, filled with chemical fertiliser or seed grain, and I expect your body doesn't forget how to make the bag do the work for you.
Anywoo's.
One of the problems houses have in Ireland and the UK is dampness. And not as you'd think from rain, well, at least not primarily anyway. No, the issue we have is general humidity. So when in Spring we stop lighting fires dampness permeates the walls of a house and this needs burning off before one can be comfy in winter.
I discovered the truth of this when I got hygrometers and put them all over the house thereby discovering I have 80 plus in summer but only 60 plus in winter. No matter how wet or dry it is rain-wise.
I helped the men schlep in the bags off the lorry and got the compliment that he could see it wasn't the first time I humped bags. Something as a newly minted Artist, slash classical historian slash landscape designer I'm not sure IS a compliment.
But I have moved thousands of those darn bags in my youth, filled with chemical fertiliser or seed grain, and I expect your body doesn't forget how to make the bag do the work for you.
Anywoo's.
I guess that idea of feeling the dampness in your bones is pretty accurate in your case - all year round, but especially when it's cold.
ReplyDeleteAlways amazes me how it can depend on what's IN the bag as to how it hauls. I'm pretty good with a 50 pound sack of dogfood or sunflower, but hate to wrestle with a bag of potting soil. Then you have things that are deceptive by looks... like a car battery. I never expect it to be so heavy!
Ohh my yes, but some things are really deceptively heavy.
DeleteBack in the day, I was what was called a weedy little fella. And never had the body strength to do like my cousins, I had to think about moving something. And while they would horse things about very quickly for a while I would get as much done albeit a tad slower. But a narrative developed in the family nonetheless.
Anthracite is good coal. The old blockade runners during the Civil War always carried some of this hard and smokeless coal and when they got close to the blockade, they changed from regular coal so they could more easily slip through the blockade and head for the port.
ReplyDeleteWe have a humidity problem here, too. Even with AC, it is hard to keep the humidity below 50 in the summer. It's a little easier in the winter but central gas heat tends to dry things out too much.
Yep, a very good smokeless coal. That why I can use it. We've moved to a smokeless position here for home heating. The only real issue with it is that you have to have above a certain amount to get the fire going and to keep it in. But once you have that, it will keep long enough to hold the heat for 24 hours. However a few pounds less and it won't light. You have to form a slight dome of the stuff.
DeleteWhere I live we definitely deal with humidity in the summer but not sure much once things cool off. Looks like you are well prepared for the coming winter months there.
ReplyDeleteYes, fairly well anyway. I'm fairly convinced humidity is the source a much sickness in a home. And perhaps was one of the reasons why TB became so rife once.
DeleteI was going to say, but Sage beat me to it...you guys gotta get yourself gas heat, it'll dry things out in no time. :) I can barely use it in the winter at night time because I wake up in the morning with dried out sinuses.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, living where I live I have no understanding of what is in the bags you've carried in...where does it go? In a furnace or a stove or? How quickly do you go through a bag, will it last you the winter?
Remember this is the first year I have the walls and attic fully insulated and so I don't know just how long the ton will go. Usually I need about 30-40 depending on the coldness of the winter.
DeleteThe humidity here is in the walls. I know that sounds nutty, but you probably had the same when you lived in Boston.
Oh it's a stove. I put in in myself and plumbed in the central heating to it. And it keeps the house at a sweet 20C all winter. And you might get 6 days out of a bag. But for counting I say 5. Or early to mid March.
You would love my part of the world in winter. We generally run humidifiers all winter to put moisture back into the air because it gets so dry. I have a whole house humidifier that attaches to the side of my heating duct system and then for an extra kick, we have portable humidifiers in the girls bedrooms. I don't think all that will get us much over 40% humidity.
ReplyDeleteI've done an experienced a lot of things in my years but I've never been around burning coal. I would like to see a coal fired system someday and see how it works. I imagine it to be similar to our wood pellet systems where it has a hopper that gradually drops in pellets/coal as needed to keep the fire burning at a stead rate.
I could probably live in New Mexico or Arizona but I'd have to see the sea regularly. I don't think I could manage that flat undulating landscape of Iowa.
DeleteActually no, coal is a bit different. Well this stuff is. It's the coal used in a blacksmiths forge. It needs a certain amount for the size of the container to get and stay going.
Actually, only about a third of Iowa is flat and undulating, the part leveled out by the last ice age. The other two thirds is best described as heavily timbered, rolling hills and river valleys.
DeleteWhen I'm in Belgium or the SE of England around London I get antsy. And it took me ages to fathom just why. It's mountains.
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