Show HN: Why build a custom home heating oil tank solution? | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Why build a custom home heating oil tank solution?

robertrutkowski.net

One thing that I could use in a number of places is a cheap smartphone app that can ocr digital meters. In particular, a very simple calculation could predict a water leak from the digital display on a water meter.

Most (all?) smart meters' payload is unencrypted, and can be read with a $20 software-defined radio:

https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433

I now have my electric, gas, and water readings going into Home Assistant - the hardest part of setting this up was figuring out which meter serial numbers were mine, and which belonged to my neighbors.

How is your Home Assistant configured? What hardware and did it take a long time to set up?

Thanks this is good

Welcome to America, where they burn more oil to keep their houses warm or cool than most people drink water in a year!

Like seriously, how on earth do you use so much oil?

That’s the Actual reason for using the monitoring - understand consumption and try to reduce usage. Unfortunately this is how the home is heated. I’ve remodeled and added insulation. Thought about going gas, but recent energy prices have made me rethink that approach.

In the winter of 2019–2020, about 5.5 million households in the United States used heating oil (distillate fuel oil) as their main space heating fuel, and about 81% of those households were in the U.S. Northeast

In 2019, residential consumers in the Northeast used about 2.9 billion gallons of heating oil, equal to about 86% of total U.S. residential heating oil sales.2 In 2019, residential consumers in the Northeast used about 2.9 billion gallons of heating oil, equal to about 86% of total U.S. residential heating oil sales.

Is the furnace condensing? Ie. is the smoke cold enough it exits through a plastic pipe, and there is a seperate drain for water?

If not, that's a pretty big efficiency win. By switching to a condensing boiler, you alone can probably save enough oil to heat multiple houses in sweden (where many houses are so well insulated they barely need any heat).

No. The smokestack is clay flue. The boiler is approximately 87% efficient. When the current one goes I will most likely upgrade to a Buderus made for us market with higher efficiency.

How do you heat a house when the power is out and you're not connected to natural gas?

Edit: to follow up, I already realize you need power for the furnace to pump and burn, but a generator can power it. This is a real issue in places where my grandparents live. No natural gas, well water, extremely cold winters that can see power outages. The grid has gotten better there but heating oil was a necessity when the power could be out for a week at a time and you had a generator.

My concern isn't using oil for heating... My concern is how much oil is necessary for heating. That quantity of oil would serve an entire villages heating in some places!

EDIT: I asked a friend how much oil they use to heat their 5 person family home in England UK, and their rate of oil consumption is 10x lower!

Sorry I totally misunderstood your comment and intention! Yes the amount seems ludicrous, I'm unsure of what my grandparents burn but they have two massive storage tanks in their basement probably the size of a VW Bug all together. That holds them for a winter from what I gather.

Unfortunately until something better comes along, or incentives are given, I'm sure burning oil (and god knows what else) will continue.

Hmm unsure if that’s correct. I burned 8.12 us gallons yesterday where temperature outside was 28 deg Fahrenheit max and 25 deg min. This includes hot water used for bathing/showering, washing clothes, dishes etc. are you implying In UK Argus is achieved @ .812 gallons. I question that level of hone efficiency, although don't dispute there can be some homes that are quite efficient. I know that for example in Germany boiler rooms tend to be immaculate, neat rooms, not the typical dark basements.

Even in Europe, in places like Germany roughly half of the country's 40 million homes are heated with natural gas, a quarter with oil and almost 14 percent with district heating. District heating in Germany is mainly powered by natural gas and coal, while waste and renewable energies contribute a smaller share.*

So 10 million German households use Oil for heating spaces and water vs approximately 5.5 million in US.

* from https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/heating-40-millio...

2500 square foot average US home, on two floors, has 1250 square feet of roof, 1250 square feet of floor, and 2240 square feet of walls. Total: 4740 square feet. Assume all of these are insulated with 6 inches of cheapo polyurethane foam board insulation, with R value 6 per inch.

So total heat input required for 68F indoors is 5000 BTU/hr. 1 gallon of fuel oil has 138,690 BTU's in, so at baseline, you shouldn't be needing more than one gallon of oil per day, even with your existing furnace.

Obviously, humans generate some heat, as do appliances and stuff, so in reality you might need less. You also probably have losses through leaks and less-insulating windows, so you might need more. All this assumes there is no brick or wood holding up the house (that obviously adds a little extra insulation on top of the foam), and assumes the ground conducts away heat (when actually it has quite a bit of insulation itself).

Something is wrong with your calculations.

Average Heating Oil Usage-Based On Square Footage*

the size of your home can greatly affect your average home heating oil usage.

Below, we list down the estimated fuel consumption for every 1,000 square feet of space in relation to the average temperature outside:

10 degrees Fahrenheit: 3.27 gallons

20 degrees Fahrenheit: 2.67 gallons

30 degrees Fahrenheit: 2.07 gallons

40 degrees Fahrenheit: 1.47 gallons

50 degrees Fahrenheit: 0.87 gallons

In other words, if the average home in the US is at 2,687 square feet, you’d be using 5.56 gallons of oil in a 30-degree day. However, if you have a bigger home with, let’s say, a 3,500 square feet space, you’ll need around 3.5 times more heating oil than what’s listed above. The same goes if your home is smaller.

from https://www.myhomeenergyct.com/fuel/how-much-heating-oil-wil...

It's because the vast majority of american homes are lucky to have 1 inch of insulation, not 6 inches. Usually the insulation is between batons [eg. 1] rather than on top, so you lose lots of heat through the batons. Lots of US homes don't recover heat from exhausted air either.

Basically, poor house design is a big contributor. Foam is super cheap both to make and to install, so I don't really see why the situation is as it is.

[1]: https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11...

agree to a certain extent. Standard wall cavity is 3.5" for a 2x4 wall and 5.5" for a 2x6 wall. 1 inch is exaggerating a bit :)

I’m in the woods, and although power goes out a generator is important to keep the well water and heating going. System has circulator pumps. You are Exactly right

Reply on news.ycombinator.com