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Old 01-03-2008, 07:24 PM   #21
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The guy came today to clean the furnace.

He said that my 18 year old oil-fired boiler furnace is in good condition and that I should not consider replacing it.

He said that it is burning 81% and that new ones burn at 84%.

I live in CT and asked if burning 200 to 250 gallons of oil per month for my 2200 square foot house was normal and he said that one tank (275 gallons) per month in the cold months is what they expect.

He also recommended a chimney sweep that they deal with to replace the one that never showed up in November.

Does this sound reasonable? He works for the oil delivery company, but he seems like a low key worker bee so I don't think that he was giving me a sales pitch.
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Old 01-03-2008, 10:10 PM   #22
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Besides cleaning it, did he do any adjustments?

Seems like reasonable info.
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Old 01-03-2008, 10:47 PM   #23
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I am not sure if he did any adjustments.

He apparently checked the burning efficiency ratio since he showed me on the tag where they write that.

He also did something where the jets are but I am not sure if that is just cleaning the jets.

I looked at the tag he left and it says "cleaned and checked". He wrote on the back "81 eff" and "75 80 *". I am not sure what the second item means.

It was 8 degrees this morning when he did the service.

My house has four zones and the den does not have a cellar and the hot water pipes go under the crawl space. When it is really cold it can only keep the room at 65 degrees. I have a small electric heater that I run and it gets up to 70.

Having read that electric heat is much cheaper than oil this year I was wondering if it would make sense to get another heater or two and run them in the other rooms when I am home in an attempt to cut down on the oil consumption.

I would not run them while I am away since I would worry that they somehow might make a fire if the cat knocked it over or something.

I have also been closing the honeycomb blinds completely at night and opening the ones that the sun hits in the morning to try to get some solar heating. I did replacement windows a few years ago so I am not leaking that much out the windows, but I only have the blinds in the den.

btw - I have been very happy with the blinds. They are a second line made by Hunter Douglas for wholesale customers and can both lower the top or raise the bottom. I generally lower the top 18 inches so I get light coming in but still have privacy.

They were pretty expensive IMO (around $140 per window) but I think it was money well spent. I generally do not mind paying extra for quality on things that I will keep for a long time.

I made a similar purchase of a Tempur Pedic mattress and a nice Mission Style Oak Bed with dresser, mule chest and two night stands. It cost an arm and a leg, but the furniture is really well made (in California) and will last a lifetime.

I almost bought some from Thomasville for the same high price. Luckily I figured out that it came from China and had fake wood on the back that was stapled on and nowhere near the craftsmanship or wood quality. It is amazing what they can pawn off on the unsuspecting consumer.

The only other expensive purchase I made was two scandanavian (Ekornes) leather recliner chairs. They were close to $1600 each, but they are extremely ergonomic and I sit in them every day. I have them set up in front of the TV just like the bridge of the starship Enterprise.
Ekornes :: StresslessĀ® recliners

I was lucky that when I was shopping for them the sales woman walked me around the store listening to my needs and told me that I did not want the couch I was asking for but that I wanted two recliners. She was absolutely correct.

The funny thing was that I did not buy the chairs from her. In fact a salesman at a second store suggested that I go to the third store where I actually bought the chairs after I told him what I was looking for and he was decent enough to admit that he did not have such a thing but used to work at a store that did.
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Old 01-04-2008, 07:11 AM   #24
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My stove is 63 years old. I have some excuses to replace it, but don't see a real good reason yet.
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Old 01-04-2008, 07:27 AM   #25
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My stove is 63 years old. I have some excuses to replace it, but don't see a real good reason yet.
Amazing coincidence. That's almost a direct quote from DW regarding me...
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Old 01-04-2008, 07:34 AM   #26
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I'm sure she has a few good reasons.

I dont remember the television set on the bridge of the enterprise. Oh waitaminit, they had that big 200" plasma set but all it showed was klingons circling...nah...not gonna do it.
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Old 01-04-2008, 10:48 AM   #27
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I meant that the two chairs look and feel like the ones that Kirk sat in. They would have a hard time monitoring space with my tiny 27inch Sony CRT TV.
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Old 01-04-2008, 10:57 AM   #28
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I have replaced a couple of 20-30 year old appliances (freezer and fridge), but wouldnt bother with anything else until they died...there is an additional cost of salvage with anything with refrigerant....can be as much as 50 bucks around our neck of the woods....and might be able to get 50 bucks for a running used appliance so a net 100 right there I agree about the comment about newer stuff not lasting as long...one thing that I noticed with the new freezer and fridge is the better seals on the doors...

Also, the the electric stove element is easy to replace....the part cost me 30-40 bucks last year for our 2nd stove in the basement...
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Old 01-04-2008, 03:49 PM   #29
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Originally Posted by joesxm View Post
I meant that the two chairs look and feel like the ones that Kirk sat in.
Oh I know, I was just kidding. Its an odd moment when I step away from my serious and staid demeanor to josh around a bit, so I can understand the confusion.

Quote:
They would have a hard time monitoring space with my tiny 27inch Sony CRT TV.
Them Klingons would have looked a lot less imposing though.

So these chairs, do they have the little Viewmaster thing that comes up on its little arm to help aim the photon torpedos?
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Old 01-04-2008, 07:45 PM   #30
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The weapons system control was extra and I could not justify the added expense.

That reminds me of a long time ago when I worked in the parts department at a Volkswagen dealer.

You probably don't remember the Volkswagen "Thing", but the parts catalog listed an optional machine gun mount that was available only in south american countries.
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Old 01-05-2008, 06:14 AM   #31
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Oh I sure do remember it. The dad of one of my high school girlfriends had a yellow one.

Those rusted out pretty quick in new england. Thank god.

My wife used to have an old military jeep rotting resting in her back yard, with the mounts for a gun in it. Pretty cool. Would have looked awful in the living room in front of the tv though.
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