January 5, 2010 SSW winds are blowing onto our property all week.

Adding up our 2009 energy bills led to a surprising discovery. A berm home is dirt cheap to heat, even in very cold weather! It's been below zero many nights this year. With management of passive solar (opening and closing the curtains with the sun- a no brainer, low tech solution that really works) we have gone many days without even turning on the heat. Just using our oven to cook will heat our house several degrees for several hours on a winter day.

When we do turn on heat, we use our mass storage radiant electric heater. Charge it for a couple hours, and the temp climbs into the 70's in no time. It came with our 1983 built home, and is old technology -- older than the outdoor wood boiler.

Meanwhile, we look out our windows at the non-stop 24 hour combustion of wood drifting onto our property, and we keep asking ourselves: WHY THE OVERKILL? Is the non-stop burn really necessary?

It really is ridiculous. It doesn't take a genius to see the inefficiency of the system, the constant stream of pollutants, the fouling of the air 24 / 7. You would think judging by the exhaust, there must be a massive amount of energy being generated. However, all the burning, all the smoke, all the stench, all the wood cutting and storing and feeding and tending and putting up with complaints. And for what? In comparison to our home, all this is to heat a half dozen rooms dug into the earth and save less than a buck a day.
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