6 ms·

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

ttyprintk 5y ago
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.
- dpifke 5y ago
  Most (all?) smart meters' payload is unencrypted, and can be read with a $20 software-defined radio: https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433 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.
  - pettycashstash2 5y ago
    How is your Home Assistant configured? What hardware and did it take a long time to set up?
  - ttyprintk 5y ago
    Thanks this is good
londons_explore 5y ago
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?
- pettycashstash2 5y ago
  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.
  - londons_explore 5y ago
    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).
    - pettycashstash2 5y ago
      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.
- bsagdiyev 5y ago
  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.
  - londons_explore 5y ago
    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!
    - bsagdiyev 5y ago
      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.
    - pettycashstash2 5y ago
      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-million-homes-hurdles-phasing-out-fossil-fuels-german-basements https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/heating-40-millio...

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.

dpifke 5y ago
Most (all?) smart meters' payload is unencrypted, and can be read with a $20 software-defined radio: https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433 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.
- pettycashstash2 5y ago
  How is your Home Assistant configured? What hardware and did it take a long time to set up?
- ttyprintk 5y ago
  Thanks this is good

londons_explore 5y ago

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?

pettycashstash2 5y ago
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.
- londons_explore 5y ago
  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).
  - pettycashstash2 5y ago
    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.
bsagdiyev 5y ago
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.
- londons_explore 5y ago
  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!
  - bsagdiyev 5y ago
    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.
  - pettycashstash2 5y ago
    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-million-homes-hurdles-phasing-out-fossil-fuels-german-basements https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/heating-40-millio...