Heating your home - Rocket Mass Heaters, Electrical Space Heaters, Geothermal, Natural Gas, and more

[@sparkywatts3072]

AT the time it happened most people didn't have a clue just how disastrous it would turn out to be. I'm talking about three-mile island and Chernobyl. Those two events pretty much ended the nuclear power industry in the US. We need nuclear power to help us get out of the mess we find ourselves in at this time. Three-mile island was human caused! If at the first sign of a problem everyone had just grabbed their lunch box and went home the plant would have automatically and safely shut down with no more input from operators.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

(Edit/ I just re-read your response, and I missed the word "if". Yes, you are correct, if operators didn't shut down the emergency coolant pump (because they thought there was already too much water in the core and they would overpressurize the vessel), then they'd have been fine. I'm going to leave the entire response as was written, keeping in mind that I jumped to defend these people, and that's not what you were implying.) That's not true (about people grabbing their lunchbox and going home in TMI). I'm intimately familiar with that event. I'm not sure where you heard that nonsense from, but it's not true whatsoever. You are talking about people who were running INTO the nuclear reactor site when it was at risk of meltdown, not running to their families. These people are damn heroes, not pariahs. Sorry, to be so blunt, but that's just so insulting to these people who were willing to sacrifice everything, themselves included, to keep their communities safe. I won't stand for badmouthing of those people, they are heroes. What IS true however about that event is that it was human caused. Chernobyl was even more so. The main contributing factor was a tolerance to live with equipment deficiencies and lack of rigour in maintenance practices leading into it. Living with equipment that was out of service, and not pushing for repairs. Focusing on production and not safety. It's a common theme with all the early nuclear disasters and these poor safety cultures are what fostered the current safety culture of today. There were also lessons learned through TMI specifically on human machine interface with the control room - both the panels and the alarms, and how they are fed to operators. The operators on shift that day were FLOODED with a ton of nuissance alarms, which distracted them from the actual problems they needed to face. They also had one alarm in particular that led them down the exact wrong procedural response. Times are VERY different now. Reactor designs are done in ways to ensure passive shutdown of systems, and not operator based responses. Alarms are done in a much more manageable way, with alarm suppression during important transients, so that operators can focus on the things that matter, and not have to scroll through 9 pages of secondary side alarms when the core cooling is compromised. But most importantly, the safety culture around nuclear plants is just night and day different now and back then. We are talking about 40-50 years of improvements. It's like comparing safety features and practices in cars in 1950s versus the 1990s. Seatbelts, airbags, better brakes, etc.... also improved regulations and rules of the road, (driving drunk, etc). It's just literally night/day different, it might as well be another situation entirely. That's the case for nuclear, but times 1000.

[@sparkywatts3072]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacyI'm sorry I gave the wrong impression about the workers at the plant. It was not my intension to deride them at all. (I've been an electrician, Instrumentation tech, and a meter and relay technician in coal fired power plants for over 30 years but never a word-smith.) The part about shutting down automatically I got from the head of the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) some years after the accident. I forget his name. I have worked on setting priority alarms at many annunciators to help operators in such situations.

[@suburbanbiology]

Fantastic conversation on the physics of heating!! I am honored that you included my video in this. Thank you so much!! Keep up the great work my friend!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Cheers 🍻

[@aprilmrose]

Fantastically informative video as always! Thank you so so much for all the work and thought you put into your content. Can't wait for the 3 hour version!!!!

[@Debbie-henri]

I grow my own trees to fuel my woodstove. Before those trees were there, it was a piece of pasture used to feed cows. So in that sense, I've changed the land use for the better - a great deal better. Also, I switched off the electric water heater and heat any water I need for washing, washing up, tea making, cooking in kettles on the top of this stove. I have even cooked meals on the top of this woodstove, there's not a lot of room for cooking anything complicated, and it's a little slower, but fine for soups and other simple meals. Currently, I'm listing which trees are to be felled, coppiced and pollarded this year to provide fuel after they season. Waste matter like pine leaves and little twiggy branches that I can't be bothered to deal with gets consigned to my 300ft long brash hedge or to one of 7 brash heaps - which provide ample nesting/wildlife shelters and break down to produce wonderfully rich soil. Of course, fuel trees don't necessarily have to be grown with just fuel in mind. A good many of my fuel trees are hazelnut trees, which are then coppiced to rejuvenate them and keep them productive. A portion of my up and coming pines will be used to replace fence posts, the rest used as brash, firewood, mulch, resin.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

This is true land stewardship here.

[@tomasarana8450]

Can't wait for the 3h long version. I'd be interested in learning more about the chemistry of combustion reactions. Things like energy density of fuels, does efficiency change with different oxygen concetrations? What makes one type of wood burn differently form another type? How hot is hot enough?

[@nategrossman2539]

Thank you for another fine video, its so nice to listen to people who actually know what they are talking about. Love the channel!

[@jerryhoefs5803]

As usual, another excellent video, Thanks Keith.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Thanks again!

[@barbarasimoes9463]

I had geothermal installed over a decade ago. The existing ductwork in the house could be used, but I did need to have a well dug and the unit installed in the basement. At the time, it cost about $20K...Ten of that was for the well and the other ten was for the equipment, installation, etc., but, at the time, fuel bills were well over $5K a season. I figured that in four years, I would break even, and after that, it was "free!" Now, that I have solar, which runs the pump, it really feels like it is free. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has the room to have a well dug or who has a pond. If you already have the well, it is a no-brainer. It's clean, and it provides whole house a/c in the summer. While wood provides a very penetrating heat, this system requires nothing except me turning on the thermostat in October or November. No hauling wood into the house and having thawing creepy-crawlies because of that. No stacking wood in the heat of July...One of the best decisions I ever made!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Awesome post, thanks for sharing!

[@lgrantsimmons]

We've been heating with wood on this farm since 1979. With over 60 acres of mixed forest, just using the dead trees provides more than we need. We generally burn elm and ash that are struggling to survive in this region now. Cleaning up the dead trees for heat helps us to better manage our forest land.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

This is the best way, where it's practical - especially if burned in high efficiency/heat capture methods like I mention in the video. All that dead wood would just rot and release the carbon back anyways. The only thing to think about, is to harvest wood as sustainably as possible. If you are taking dead wood (and while still leaving some deadwood for habitat for crucial lifeforms who depend on it), and/or running a coppice, then it's as sustainable as it gets.

[@alexking358]

I work in the energy sector. A lot of good info in this video.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Cheers :)

[@johntibando9649]

Great video helped me a lot thanks for doing

[@maureenodonnell9600]

Hello Keith, I so enjoyed your talk on energy sources, their efficiency/carbon output and how they correspond to permaculture . I live in Colorado with an elevation of 7000 feet. My home is 1 1/2 stories, log, and 2000 square feet. I am fortunate to have a solar array (don’t know the wattage) as my house is all electric. One heating system you hadn’t mentioned is the ETS system, energy thermal storage. These units are promoted by my utility company and am on a “time of use” billing system. I heat with a combination of 2 ETS heaters, a Hearthstone wood stove and oil filled floorboard radiators in the guest bedrooms. I also have a 10x30 foot sunroom which easily heats the house on the coldest sunny days. My monthly electric bill rarely runs over $100.00/ month, more if we have a week of snowy days. I am always looking for more ways to conserve on energy use, but believe I’m doing pretty good so far. Thanks again for all the videos you do, your hard work is appreciated.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Incredible! I'll have to look into these deeper, thanks for the rabbit hole!

[@Mikhail-Caveman]

You are very knowledgeable and have a great passion for helping people with these things! Thanks Man!

[@thearmchairgm7308]

Worth noting for resilience's sake that you don't necessarily want the most efficient heater when you have to choose how it is powered. I believe a gas fireplace and the natural draft water heaters use the heat of the combustion to power the appliance electrically, meaning that you get less heat per gas (more twists in your heat exchange means colder exhaust and you'll require a fan to blow it out of the venting system), but you still have heat/hot water if the power goes out.

[@Shaboynga]

I have had that video saved for a few months hoping I get to emulate it one day. I’d like to incorporate it into an attached greenhouse…pipe dreams…

[@ChaletSuisse]

Interesting video, thanks! I never heard of masonry heaters, the comment sections always has a few gems of info like that! Here's a few things I do to generate heat without using the regular heaters : I have a spare computer that I don't use much since my workplace gave me a laptop. I mine bitcoin with it and after electricity it generates about 60 cents a day. Not much but it keeps the area around my desk at about 16 degrees with all heating off around the house! I also keep my oven cleaning for the coldest days. The self cleaning heats up my small house in no time and I get a clean oven at the end! Gotta make sure you run an air filter though. Of course grow lights are also a nice source of heat that converts into happy plants! Last thing I recently learned is that ceiling fans have a switch to reverse direction, one is for summer, the other for winter allowing the fan to suck cold air up and push warm air back down instead of making a cooling breeze. That's all I can think of right now but I generally try to be creative and generate waste heat from something useful!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Man, mining bitcoin (a system to disrupt the corruption and power that is pushing us towards extinction) and then use that "waste heat" as a resilient source of home heating is about as permaculture as it gets! Especially if that heat is generated through nuclear or solar. Man, now we're talking!

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

Heating/cooling is a good topic for you. Both the production and the conservation. There's a lot of people who think insulation is to keep the cold out. That is also evident in summer when they think they can cool their homes by opening the windows when it's 30C outside!

[@lithiusx]

Looking forward to the 3 hour version

[@susanbradleyskov9179]

Thank you for this! Oh, and man I appreciate you. So does my physicist partner!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

❤️

[@jcriverside]

One apartment I lived in had those motel blower units under the windows for heat and a/c - crazy expensive to run. I got an oil filled radiator that plugged in from Target, and it heated the rooms MUCH more cheaply, I guess because it was 1500w vs the in the wall unit with I assume a special higher wattage outlet. I do much prefer my home heat via radiator than blown at me. Thanks for this! Go ahead and do 3 hours on the topic 😃🍿

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Great comment! I think a longer heat related video would be a good idea at some point. Just need more free time!! The difference in work put in for a video like that can be 100x as much.

[@douggibson9084]

Excellent information Keith, great video. I believe if you have the choice your biggest long term bang for your buck in Ontario or Canada is first have a blower door test on your house. Secondly manage what wasteful area your family can tackle first. Your want to try to bring your current house as close to a passive house standard to make it more efficient with the heat (carbon foot print). This thinking is like financially trying to make more money because you're running in a household deficient. Looking at your expenses and reducing them is more in your families control then finding a job that pays more more. So insulate your home to make it more efficient and less wasteful with the heat we use. Something to thing about. Again thank you for your time making these videos very helpful.

[@drekfletch]

He mentioned insulation briefly but I agree; any discussion about heat sources is incomplete without discussing heat-loss.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

100%. Just like in finances, step 1 isn't looking at how to produce more. Step 1 is looking at how to reduce losses.

[@John-Rambo81]

Most people who heat wood, find trees that are dead or needing cut down anyway.

[@arborday33]

Keith, if you've not heard of them, please look into masonry heaters. They're basically RMHs that can be installed to code, more costly though.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Indeed, I was going to replace my fireplace (which we don't use) with one, but the price was shocking. One day maybe. The tech is good.

[@seanboyd2898]

I was coming into the comments to see if that was mentioned here. I have seen it mentioned that if one can get a system going that willow works for fast growing wood that one can coppice to have continual root systems for a (slight) carbon negative as the root system remains in the soil. But I do not know if that runs into the problem of the scale of coppicing required to get the wood required. Then again, my interest in that method starts from the research into using similar methods for mid-scale power generation for small towns as the waste from the town is run through a willow (or other fast growing tree) grove which grows fast in the high nutrient soil and can then be coppiced for power. And that method is of limited effectiveness in northern climates where the ground freezes.

[@nickdmartin]

There is one electric heater that I like that I don’t think you mentioned. I use an electric radiator type heater that has oil inside the radiator. I am hoping the oil helps to retain heat and the radiator helps distribute the heat into the air without fans.

[@maryyett4637]

I am growing a perpetual firewood system using pollarded black locust trees. These are nitrogen fixing trees that improve the soil. They also grow back really quickly when cut down at ground level ( coppicing) or cut higher up the trunk above browse level ( pollarding) utilizing the intact mature root system. This means that the tree is not killed when firewood is harvested from it. In fact, this management system greatly extends the life of the tree. There are known coppiced trees in Europe that date from the Roman Empire. Black locust wood also has one of the highest BTU ratings of any firewood, meaning it gives off a lot of heat when burned. I am not sure exactly how many black locust trees it will take to provide all of my firewood needs here in Northern Ontario, cutting them in rotation so that some tree tops are ready to harvest for firewood( or fence posts) every year. I burn these tree tops as roundwood, approx 4 to 6 inch diameter, so they do not need to be split, which saves labour. I am aiming for 100 to 150 black locust trees and have about 75 already growing at different ages, as I plant more every year. These trees also spread by suckering and typically turn into groves, which is advantageous if there is enough room on your property, which is true in my case.

[@allisonmastropierro3242]

Hi, I planned to do something similar with black locust but someone recently told me that it’s a known fact that burning black locust can really irritate allergies, that was her experience. I don’t know if she had an old wood stove and that contributed. What has your experience been?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I do a sumac coppice here. A lot of people do birch coppice, it works well also. Black locust is great because it's some of the highest energy per cord wood on the planet.

[@Debbie-henri]

Ah, I am also starting to grow some Black Locust, also to provide some of my firewood needs. I have planted mine in close proximity to my only Walnut tree, because they are supposed to be tolerant of the inhibiting chemical Juglans species produce

[@maryyett4637]

I am unaware of any allergy related problems from burning black locust in a well made wood stove. Smoke of any sort leaking into the home breathing air is a bad idea, though. I have not noticed any black locust related increase in my own allergies.

[@maryyett4637]

I have noticed that black locust grows well close to black walnut trees. I plant a "support/fertilizer tree" of black locust a couple of feet away from each new black walnut tree sapling that I plant in my expanding food forest. The walnuts with a black locust companion grow noticeably faster than those without one. I now plant a black locust ( or sometimes another N fixer)close to all the baby big overstory trees in my young food forest.

[@yougoman1]

New wood stoves with a re-burn like a catalytic converter, Blaze King brand are very efficient at turning wood into usable heat.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Yes, they can approach 70-80% or higher of heat extraction. They work on the same principles as rocket mass heaters (trying to recombust the exhaust), just without the thermal mass of the cob bench. The main difference is that a RMH burn can hit 1400F/700C because it burns mostly sticks and twigs, whereas a normal stove only hits around 400F/200C because it usually burns mostly heartwood (typical firewood is mostly heartwood), which is lower than what temp is needed to burn creosote (~700F/350C). However, any wood stove is a far improvement over a fireplace, and the ones that incorporate a re-burn are the best of the best. Combine that with building lots of thermal mass around it to store excess heat and slowly release it, and now you are starting to get an elegant and efficient heating solution using wood.

[@shineyrocks390]

😂 I just moved to Las Vegas my heating issues are no more. I think I'm going to become an air-conditioning salesman 😅. Happy Thanksgiving

[@pattibando3104]

Very interesting. Thanks for the explanation on heaters. ❤

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

using natural gas that is a waste/captured product of other processes, is actually environmentally beneficial. Natural gas is a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2. When Natural gas is burned, it is converted to CO2. Thus lessening it's impact. I just thought, I could make a rocket mass heater in my basement while still using the current wood stove! I have to consider that some more! I'm experimenting with how to make my firewood harvesting draw down as much carbon as possible via increasing plant growth. Basically, I need to spread seeds and replant with trees as I go.

[@RyanAuty1]

Yeah I agree that we should take a step back for the heating fuels. But I also have witnessed people heating their home @ 23degC during winter months. Also the psychology of people seem to turn it hotter the colder it gets. Which is increasingly inefficient as the temperature difference broadens. Money is the only motivator it seems now adays.😢

[@andersonsprairieviewfarm2552]

There are wood stoves and furnaces that are knocking on 100 percent efficiency, my gas furnace is no where near that. Wood can be a very good alternative and renewable source.

[@comitatocentrale2022]

Hi, I just got ahold of some Jerusalem artichoke tubers. They unfortunately have some tunnels made by some insect which made me wander if the best option is to plant them directly now (here where I live it’s about 0 celsius during the night and 7/9 during the day), or to plant them in spring to avoid insect damage. Btw I have 9 tubers that’s why I don’t wanna waste any. Thanks a lot for your help!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

They are pretty hardy and should survive even being halfway eaten by insects. I'd say the best plan would be to plant in the ground but save 2 or 3 in a pot in the basement or garage (if it doesn't get too cold in there), just incase.

[@hikingaftersixty]

Thanks for this very informative video! It answered several questions I had about space heaters. I have a question about wood-burning fireplaces, of which I have several but seldom use for the reasons you stated. You did not mention retrofitting an open fireplace with an enclosed wood-burning fireplace + fan to direct heat into the room rather than up the chimney. This is something I’m considering. Would the resulting ashes make a worthwhile soil amendment, albeit not charcoal? Alternatively, my neighbours retrofitted their fireplace to connect with a cast iron stove. The resulting heat, passively exchanged, is tremendous while burning small amounts of wood. Thoughts? P.S. I’ve finally joined your Patreon page to encourage you to keep on creating content. Please don’t stop! You are my most trusted site for permaculture plus information. Thank you for all that you do!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Putting a wood stove into the fireplace is a great move. The fireplace brick acts as a thermal mass of sorts (as does the wood stove of course). This is doubly good if you also time your cooking on it also. To put it into perspective, a typical fireplace is only 10% efficient, whereas a wood stove is in the range of 70-80% effective. It's a MASSIVE difference, and can be made even larger if you can get as much thermal mass around the wood stove as possible.

[@gerrywalsh6853]

Worked with a company that specializes in geothermal the pumps would crap out at 10-15 years. So get spare parts if you are going to drop 50000 or up make sure you can maintain the system. I totally agree with you on wasteful systems. I see it more and more after reading pa yeoman scales of permanence. Jest the energy required to maintain the badly designed roads and homes imagin if things had longevity and efficient we can do it.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

That last part is really important too. It's very likely that the West (America, Canada, etc) will go through a decline simply because we have pushed the design of our cities to the point where we're losing more money to just keep them maintained (roads mostly). Climate Town has a really good video on this, with Not Just Bikes, on how inefficient urban sprawl is. More roads per capita, more maintenance per capita, etc. It's very likely that an emerging country can design proper cities (walkable cities), built with the internet-of-things technology, and in 100 years be the new economic superpower, just simply from gains due to raw efficiency and low maintenance. China has a lot of that going for it. A lot of it's power comes from other things also, but all their cities are being designed from the ground up in high tech, low maintenance ways, whereas the US and Canada are trying to retrofit gasoline/car based cities. In many applications, it is more expensive to retrofit things than it is to build them from the ground-up. (think about wiring in a new home with next-age internet, communications, EV charging connections, etc... you have to gut the walls first, versus just having that stuff go into all new builds). At some point (and we may be there right now), all your economic gains are being spent just on maintenance to keep an outdated system afloat, and you are just barely swimming/starting to drown.

[@offgridwanabe]

You never mentioned Solar as a heat source.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I knew I'd forget something! Well, I kind of mentioned it in passive with the passive solar designs, but I didn't mention a specific solar loop for heating the home, or water. So much material to cover!

[@offgridwanabe]

Thanks for all your work on the videos lots of good information for consideration.@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy

[@ninemoonplanet]

Keith find Martijn Dollars and the stove/heater he's put into the stone house he's restoring. The piping and redirection of the heat is quite unique. The actual stove/heater is made of stone itself, uses heat absorption and release. There are heat exchangers that have definitely improved on their efficiency, but not high enough in my opinion. A "dirty grid" may be a less effective heat overall. Certainly if there's a combination of sole/wind/run of water electricity production plus those same done for heating, then we might just kick that addiction to fossil fuels.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

❤️

[@ninemoonplanet]

Martijn Doolard, tired fingers make silly mistakes.

[@ForagerLife]

How much wasted wood went up in smoke from unmaintained forests this year? I wonder how many homes could have been heated and how many forestry maintenance jobs it would have taken to harvest/maintain it all. Either way, it went up in smoke. It happens here all the time. The county just lights portions of woods on fire (controlled burn) because it takes less effort to maintain it that way. Either way, the wood burns.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Exactly. So lets do it in a smart way to maximize how much heat we're getting out of the process. Wood stoves? Cooking stoves? Rocket Mass Heaters? Amazing. Open fireplaces? Brutally awful.

[@JB-yg3ew]

What about heating with Bitcoin mining, using excess power generation, solar, wind micro hydro?

[@drawyrral]

We are burning more oil now than ever before.

[@stamperitis]

Heat pumps apparently don't work at - 30 celcius and guess what? - 30 is very very common here in the prairies. We have many wind turbines dead laying around not being recycled after their short lives. Maybe at some point when they invent better technology that is actually able to be used to - 40 or - 50 like what they get in the Yukon we can address the issue better. Fingers crossed some engineer who actually lives and works in the cold can figure it out. Our winter sun exposure here where I live isn't enough to get any power from. I totally don't trust nuclear energy. Seen too many documentaries on what happens with the spent material.

[@MsCaterific]

💗

[@daveheller4488]

One needs to know, when there is a 110V heater running, if it is balanced at the panel. If the electric meter has 15A of 110V running through it it is reading, and charging the same amount as if 15A of 220V were running through it. Much better to have a 220V heater as it is automatically balanced.

[@MathieuFournier]

How much value would I get in replacing my electric baseboard heaters with newer ones? Also, heating water with electricity, am I better off with on demand or water tank?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

On demand water heating can reduce energy consumption, because you eliminate heat loss of holding hot water in a tank that sits around losing heat all day (even if insulated, it's not perfect). Replacing electric baseboard heaters with new electric baseboard heaters would be low to zero value. Again, heat is the waste product, so it's not like "new" electric baseboard heaters do the job any better. The only thing they may have is added fans to blow the produced heat to spread it around faster, but in terms of heating a room, all that matters is the heat itself. It will spread around eventually anyways.

[@Double0pi]

I'm curious what your take is on radiators vs. forced air. I'm finally back to a house with radiators after 6 years in a house with forced air. I hate forced air--it blows dust (and in my house, pet hair) everywhere. But I know absolutely nothing about whether forced air or radiators are more efficient. (The house I'm buying also has radiators.) P.S. At some point this winter, I'd like to see what (and how) you grow in your basement!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I've always liked forced air due to better mixing, etc... but you are bang on, it comes at the price of having it blow everything around. If someone in the house is allergic to stuff, it can really flare those allergies up. I'm still trying to figure out what to do in the basement grow area. This summer it has slowly become the accumulation spot for all the kids old stuff, so I have to get down there and clear that out, and regain my grow area!

[@nyurr2196]

RMH stove might be good to keep your chickens warm! You could build a pretty small demonstration size one. I am sure the ladies would love it!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

That's a lot of work to heat chickens! Maybe if I was retired though.

[@CajunGreenMan]

If you look at the entire life Cycle of natural gas derived from fracking, the carbon emissions are about equal to oil and coal.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Numbers used can vary for sure. Often the numbers are taken based on using these for electricity, and not for heat, so it's important to know what you are looking at when reading a paper/study. Again, I'm not a huge fan of using ANY fossil fuels for energy, as should be pretty clear - I think we are walking towards extinction. I think we're only in this state because we've (collectively, the world) have slept too long on nuclear. Typically, numbers on burning NG for energy puts it at roughly half the impact of coal. I'll link something in a separate comment (youtube blocks links sometimes). Also, often methane leaks are used in emission data, and that's something that should be addressed immediately. Plugging leaking methane leaks is probably the lowest hanging fruit that we should tackle, in terms of climate change issues. Often companies go out of business and just walk away from wells, and now it's on the taxpayer/government to fix. But yes, my comments on natural gas being better than oil is limited to just that. That's it's better than oil. And it's better than electric, if the electricity is created by burning any fossil fuel - because to burn the fossil fuel and turn it into electricity (and lose half of it) then transmit that electricity (and lose 20% of it) and then turn that electricity into heat is just astronomically stupider than just burning it for heat in the first place. So I agree with the general concept that fracking is stupid. However, it's definitely not worse than coal. And also I'd rather see people use fracked natural gas than to use oil. It's a stepping stone, and one that we should promptly get off of.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy

[@nicoledoucet6125]

Thank you for another great video! I was wondering if you've seen the video on Citrus in the Snow from Russ Finch in Nebraska? There is a passive solar greenhouse now in Armstrong BC, close to my home, manufactured here in Canada now from Russ Finch's design that also offers tours which I'll be going on soon! I'm here in Kamloops BC and have an old home with a fireplace that I usually have covered up to not lose heat through but wondering if there's a cooktop fireplace insert that could also produce biochar or would the biochar need to be in a more enclosed/oxygen deficient containment? Not sure if that makes sense?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

You can put a tin box inside the stove and put small holes (to avoid explosion) and it should char decently. I have seen that video, it's a great one

[@mvbelinskiy]

I'm planning to implement a heating system with wood furnace and water based thermal accumulator which is matched to the power of the furnace and allows to reach 80-90% efficiency capturing the heat (that would otherwise just go to the chimney) and giving it back to the system for days. Additionally, if you have enough land area to plant a forest and later harvest it for wood, then such system becomes pretty self sufficient. As an additional way of heat utilisation such system could be equipped with indirect heating water boiler. I think this is so much better than relying on electrical grid or natural gas, or even solar (due to extremely low efficiency in winter time).

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

That's the way :)

[@beggink894]

Could you touch on the efficiency of the "new" heat pumps that don't use any geothermal?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

New? I thought these were the old tech - air exchange. That obviously wouldn't work in the cold, so I don't really know that technology well because it isn't available up here. However, it's always more efficient to exchange heat where there is a larger delta T, so just by the science, the earth based ones will always operate more efficiently, require less cycling, smaller pumps, etc (just because the temp gradient is larger, and the heat exchange happens more readily in contact with earth or water instead of with air). Now, keep in mind, there could be some technological advancements in that field that I'm not aware of, and I'm not an expert on it. But just based on the science, I'm skeptical. I think it's likely a tradeoff of minimizing installation cost (no geothermal piping) but also then getting a trade-off in poorer performance (a trade-off so large that I'm dubious if there's any point). I always tend to lean towards a more expensive upfront cost (if the Return on investment is reasonable), but more efficient and effective system. I would personally go with geothermal if we built new.

[@davidwalker2942]

Much needed info. Thanks. I have a comment and a couple questions: I ran across the subject of inverter-driven variable speed heat pumps. They are air to air (so far in North America) and the benefits of these products allows operation down to 5F or less, and significantly increases efficiency (SEER and HSPF) compared to conventional air source heat pumps. The claims are that they are adequate to areas like Minneapolis and Detroit. Please your thoughts on this. 1. You talked about natural gas from oil. In Ohio now much of the gas comes from fracking which seems to have many negative environmental aspects. Where would you place fracked natural gas on the spectrum? For people in other parts of the world, please comment on use of liquified natural gas (LNG). 2. I concur with the benefits of creating and sequestering carbon as a useful by-product in a wood stove by burning the wood with sub-stochiometric levels of oxygen. But would this tend to create creosote deposits in the chimney even if the wood is well seasoned to reduce moisture? Regards.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Variable speed inverter driven heat pumps are just like a traditional heat pump, only that they run constantly and instead of cycling on/off they vary their speed/flow characteristics. The technology outside of that is pretty much the same idea. As far as the range where they could be used, that all depends on what kind of temperature they can tap into, and that would be site by site dependent (usually based on if you can drill or not, which would depend on if you are on some kind of soil, versus say the Canadian Granite Shield). For example, I don't think you could use them in Sudbury Ontario (although I could be wrong), but that's more to do with the Canadian Shield than it is the technology of the heat pump itself. The other consideration is cost - they are much more pricey (but save money in the long term). 1. This one I cannot possibly answer in a comment. It's just so deep. I'm very much against fracking for many reasons. 2. Creosote comes out of the smoke when it gets really cold, and if the creosote wasn't burned in the burning process. A traditional fireplace and chimney burns quite cold actually, usually around 400F (200C), and because of that, the creosote doesn't burn (which burns at around 850F/450C). The creosote then deposits out on the chimney and then has a risk to catch on fire later on. If it does, the fire burns at around 1100F, which can exceed what the chimney can handle as it's not typically designed for that, and you can transfer that heat to the surrounding wood, and catch the entire house on fire. For a rocket mass heater, large heartwood (typical firewood) isn't used. Instead, smaller diameter twigs and sticks are used. These actually burn much much hotter, upwards of 1400F/700C, due to the composition of the wood (more ramial wood). Because of this, it's actually hot enough to burn the creosote off in the combustion zone, and isn't carried through the rocket mass heater exhaust piping. So no risk of creosote build up. However, the key thing is proper design, so that those hot temperatures are reached. Also, proper combustion zone design, and insulation (see the build video I linked), so that the system can handle those temperatures. I'm going to pin this for exposure, it's a great question. Perhaps if Paul Wheaton sees this, he can elaborate.

[@yougoman1]

​@@CanadianPermacultureLegacyMitsubishi makes heat pumps that can produce heat up to around -30c, Québec uses this type of heating a lot. Rocket mass heaters seems fun until you have to keep adding wood constantly to maintain the burn till its up to temperature.

[@davidwalker2942]

The inverter-driven variable speed heat pump type which I referenced in my comment 6 days ago is air to air, with an outdoor unit which looks superficially like a conventional air conditioner unit. No ground source (geothermal) heat source is required, which reduces installation costs and does not require land to drill or dig. The beauty of the design is that it extends the usefulness of heat pumps to colder regions than older conventional heat pumps . Regards.

[@mistymounthomestead8594]

Look up how much Canada is contributing to the global emissions even if we get to net zero as the liberals wants us to be, we wouldn't make a tiny difference in the climate change except Canadian will be broke. I'm in Ontario and heat with an oil furnace. I love the intelligence you have but I think there is more to consider.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

It's definitely a nuanced topic for sure. I also agree, the worst emitters need to step up. However, I don't believe that's an excuse for business as usual, which is what that statement was pushed out through media to achieve. I bet you didn't know that this sentiment that you passed on was originally pushed from exxon mobil in advertisements and lobbying. And it makes sense - if coal oil and gas can convice us that another bad guy is worse than us, and us doing nothing is better for us economically (and us doing something won't matter), then they can continue destroying the planet at a profit. Think of it this way... US and China are half the emissions in the world. That means that if the other half of the world collectively thinks the same way you did there, then HALF the emissions in the world will continue unabated, and we will walk towards extinction. So while I agree, that the US and China have to change, we also have to understand that the REASON why China is so bad, is because they are the factory of the world. They satisfy the demand that the consumerism of the developped nations create. So we can't just point the finger at them and say "Bad China", meanwhile they are just manufacturing the stuff WE demand. Yes, they are a problem. No, they shouldn't be making coal plants like they are candy, just to get the energy to manufacture our goods. However, like you say, there's much much more to consider.

[@John-Rambo81]

At this point… everyone should be pro nuclear. Its the safest, cleanest and cheapest form of energy available.

[@tourmaline7742]

Disagreeing. I don’t support any energy source that creates a waste product that requires permanent storage. Until nuclear waste can be recycled and reused it isn’t sustainable.

[@nicoledoucet6125]

What about the waste product from nuclear though?

[@thehazelnutspread]

I'll bet you vote Liberal too.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

You'd be wrong.