Fire!

With the security system installed at the house and we have iPhone apps that it's connected to so one day at work I get an alert on my phone saying that the smoke detector is going off and Lauren is cooking or something and grab some smoke in the alarm went off so I just was going north but shortly after that I get a phone call from the security company it was I did not see went to voicemail when I Saulet listen to the voicemail and they told me that the alarm is going off and that no one was responding to the alarm so I made really called Lauren she didn't answer texted her and told her that the alarm company was calling the fire department at this point I assumed that it was no big deal will I get a call back from Lauren that she tells me that the fire department is there and everything is fine that the laptop caught on fire.

she told me that there was no need for me to come home and everything was under control she was fine the fire was out no problem obviously went home immediately anyway when I got there the fire department was already gone and Lauren was outside covered and set and red-faced.

The story is that she was downstairs and she was actually cooking but when the fire alarm went off she thought it might've been from whatever she was cooking but it wouldn't go off so she went upstairs walked right past the bedroom back through the back of the house didn't see anything walked back and then she found all the smoke in the bedroom so the laptop had been sitting on the bed plugged in and the charger the powerpack actually is what caught on fire.

She went into the bathroom several times and filled up the big glass jar full of water and put the fire out herself for the fire department actually got here when they did get here all they had to do was ask her to come outside to get out of the smoke to which she argued for a second and then they hooked up a fan to the window to suck all the smoke at the house which did a great job when I got home I couldn't smell any smoke.  But there was lots of smoke residue still on the walls and ceiling we ended up wiping down the walls multiple times and wiping down the ceiling multiple times in multiple rooms especially the bedroom and the bathroom but also in a path from their downstairs and out the window where they have the exhaust fan hooked up bright side everything is fine the only real damage done was the mattress it's still sitting in the garage right now waiting on me to take it to the dump though we order new one just like it.

Outdoor Wood Boiler/Furnace

We moved into our house in February but by the the time winter was done, we had spent nearly $3000 on propane heat in the house. The house is old and not well insulated and drafty so we were literally just pumping hot air right out the window.

I did what I could to prevent drafts - caulking windows and doors, but one big source of heat loss (a warped front door) still remains.  Also the insulation remains the same.

Lauren's dad told us about outdoor wood burner's and using them to heat our house.  The concept is a wood furnace surrounded by a water jacket, the heated water is pumped from the furnace to the heat exchanger through your existing ductwork to heat the house.

Buy furnace, Dig trench, buy pipes, buy corrugated pipe, buy PVC, bye crimps and crimp tool, buy heat exchanger,

Monsoon after trench dug, filled back in partially.  Ray and jake helped fig it back out and bury the pex.

Ray came by while hvac guy installed water to air heat exchanger into the ductwork outside the gas pack and wired up a second thermostat for the wood furnace.  We were out of town.

When we got back, I built a fire inside the furnace, with the fan off and the furnace door open.  Soon the fire took hold.  I opened up the supply and return valves and turned on the fan and the pump, shut the furnace door, and the fire started raging.  I turned on the thermostat in the house, the gas pack fan started blowing (no gas burning, of course), and warm air started blowing in.  1.5 hours later the gas pack fan ran nonstop, the temp in the house had increased by 5 degrees, the temp in the 175 gallon water tank was up to 180, but the wood was almost burnt through.

I added more wood.  2 hours later the gas pack fan was still running, and the furnace fire was on and off raging and smoldering with its fan switching on and off, and the wood was holding relatively steady so I think it will be fine overnight.

7 hours later, at 3:15:  the boiler temp was down to 112 and the fire was down to mostly coals.

4 hours later, at 7, the boiler temp was 151, the house was being heated by gas, and the boiler fire was down to about 25%.  I added a lot of wood, it smoked a lot, blowing to the south

I checked once more before I left for work at 8:15.  The temp in the boiler was 164, fan off, no flames, looked like nothing had burnt.  Was concerned it wouldn't catch back but it obviously did because the house for up to 70 while I was at work.

Got home around 5, boiler temp was at 111, and 95% burnt up, but there were coals.  I added a few pieces of oak in a north/south direction with a fee twigs and they went up in a couple min.  Then I refilled it.  Heavy smoke blowing to the north. Inside the house the temp is 68.

Day 2:  house warm all night despite outside temps in 20s.  At 7:45 am, boiler temp 91, 95% burnt, raking revealed red coals.  Laid down 8 pieces of wood n/s, caught fire right away.  Low smoke blowing west.

I ordered a delivery of green logs from Chris L, and a dump truck load of dry split wood from Matthew U, which lasted just over a month.  I ordered a load of cut but not split wood from MU on jam 2nd.  That wood burned very quickly and the fire went out a lot.

I think the best is a bottom layer of split wood with large log on top.

Anna

We had to call the vet to come to our house and put down Anna.  She had liver failure and they told us that she only had a few days.  I scheduled it for a few days out, but the next day she fell over and she was throwing up - she wouldn't eat.  She hadn't eaten really for almost a week, we could only get her to eat something small by giving her people food but then she even stopped eating that.  When she collapsed that was scary, and we called the vet back and asked him to go ahead and come on sooner.

We spent a little bit of time saying our goodbye to her and he gave her shots and she was gone. We buried her near the fence gate in the backyard and planted a rose on her grave. The roses have bloomed beautifully. We miss her.