Published on 12, July, 2020
I've been running one of those cheap chinese diesel heaters for a while now, (this is year three) to keep my garage warm in the winter and keep the damp out.
It works out at 5P a kilowatt hour if you run it off the correct fuel, (red diesel, apparently available form some BP garages) but I already had laid up a stock of kerosene form back when it was 70P a litre, so I was already ahead of the game even before I discovered that you can run the thing off used motor oil, thinned down with either kerosene, stale petrol or diesel...
***SAFETY WARNING*** Do not do this without a great deal more research. Mine made scary noises when being asked to run at full chat whilst swallowing a more experimental fuel at 03:45AM, and I've shut it down pending an investigation tomorrow.. I'm fairly sure that's why there are so many alterable combustion parameters, but this IS both experimental and "frowned upon by the sensible and well adjusted" activity for good reason.
In ecological terms burning waste oil in one of these isn't so bad as it is effectively a little forced air furnace, although like anything else where the government does not take a huge cut, it is frowned upon.
If you haven't gathered by now, our leaders have great plans for humanity, involving the likes of you and me owning nothing, eating insects and being the carbon (((they))) want to reduce.
Making the basics like heat and food as expensive as possible initially, then later dependent on your "social credit score", is part of the plan, so don;t expect fuel costs to ever noramalise.
Petrol went up to £1 a litre about when oil went to 100$ a barrel, but now oil is price fixed at 60$, did YOU see the price go down??
Being able to surreptiously burn practically any inflammable liquid for heat for 100 quid gives you a bit of respite from the evil clowns who currently direct the course of human events. We've added solar cells and a feed in invertor to reduce our electric bills, plus are controlling consumption more carefully, and I believe that the extra heat being introduce to our house by my alternative heat sources, will cause the Central heating to run at reduced duty cycle.
Electric is 35P per kilowatt hour, Gas is similar these heaters run at 5P a kilowatt hour, or half that if you run 50/50 waste oil/diesel mix. The stale petrol and waste oil I just scored, mixed, and started using this week costs me NOTHING per kilowatt hour...
I'm working on a system to scavenge heat from the exhaust With a surplus car EGR heat exchanger (10 quid from ebay) and convert it into electricity using a load of peltier elements so I can get rid of the charger.
(I bought a second spare heater this year, by way of an insurance policy, when they were ridiculously cheap (75 quid)
NEXT up SOLID FUEL...
I'm desperate for plumbing information if there are any "proper" plumbers out there, as I want to learn how to implement a gravity fed boiler radiator combo, and I also really, really, want to know if I can safely insert a pre-heater into my central heating circuit ahead of my combi boiler. I'm thinking of using a surplus diesel "block heater" as fitted to many cars found in scrapyards, which then means I can pre feed the boiler water that has had some heat already added by means of burning waste oil and solvent rather than american Compressed Natural Gas.
When (if) we get our table top fusion reactor self running, then the problem will be solved for quite a LONG time, but for now, this is as good as it gets in terms of "free energy"...
people like you are the reason i come here i hope you are storing that kerosene properly
Taking a bit of a risk (by my standards) with barrel supported off the ground, and no "bunding" which I don't like, but I draw from the top of the barrel, with a pump on demand, into the smaller heater jerry or tank. So leakage is only possible if the barrel actually fails, which is statistically unlikely. I've a thousand litre "proper" tank in storage waiting to go to my land when I can secure it* so I can take maximum advantage of the pricing that comes when you buy 1000litres at a time.
* I discovered THESE this week, which in conjunction with the correct signage and if employed using the skills the military tried to impart when I was a kid, might well add the security I require...
https://www.henrykrank.com/alarm-mine-h4990/
I've no interest in hurting anyone who tries to steal my stuff, but making them fill their pants, before leaving the scene quickly I can get into...
And only yesterday, I devised a laser toner or vegetable dye filled "bouncing betty" type of DYE mine, propelled upwards by a hilti cartridge, with the payload dispersed with a soda syphon cartridge when the wire goes tight...So one day I might actually be able to own my own minefield! But for now, I can see an alarm mine being exactly what I need to keep my toolshed safe which would mean next year I can restart cleaning up my land. (I have to leave the tools there as parking and unloading is a PITA, including damage to the vehicle happening) Ideally I want to attend by motorcycle and just pick up the tools and work.
The saltpetre laxative you propose to scare the trespassers.......I have questions, if you will indulge me.
If stage 1 of your cunning plan successfully executes the first time and you successfully scare '7 shades' out of any trespassers by using the mines as proposed (ie with a shotgun blank or sorts)....what then? I assume they will return again intent on "blowing up" your fuel dump (in my experience, scallywags are actually that dumb - I bet they would waste a box of matches before catching on.) = stage 2.
So that would be [two-:-nil] to the Sperg at that point.
Problem is, what next man? What is stage 3?
Kids out there these days (and the more seasoned ne'er-do-wells) get properly tooled up these days from what I can gather. Escalation from the "other side" is a wholly foreseeable outcome if you were to deploy fireworks (literally and metaphorically) at stage 1.
Wise? I think not - purely in terms of the cartridge blank with 12g of gunpowder lying around on your land. Kerosene won't blow the face off an inquisitive 7 year old, but a shotgun blank can!
I reckon a creative soul like you could wrestle up a more creative display that could be delivered by your impressively simple trigger line devices. I reckon you could earn their respect at stages 1 and 2 above with your unquestionable prowess in all matters practical and technological, without the need to resort to black powder. Red or black Hilti cartridges are fun for thrill-seeking grown-ups with a death wish - but frigging lethal in the hands of adolescents and younger.
Your other aspirational proposition to silo 2.9 million BTU's = I think very wise indeed...in heavy oil format.
God's speed Sperg. = another fine pastry of three words.
NB Terms and Conditions of use regarding this advice are as published and no responsibility, either morally, criminally, religiously or through tort is accepted under UK or international law. Amen.
I can reveal this now as I believe the all important Watneys party seven can can no longer be bought...
One takes such a can, opens it with the correct tool (which leaves two triangular openings) and dispose of the beer in a suitable fashion.
When the can is quite empty The desintaed operator simply gives it a good long squirt of lighter butane and you hold the can at arms length initially still carefuly upright and then tipping the can horizontal with one of the two triangular apertures lower than the other.
And as soon as the can is horizontal...
....You apply a naked flame!
Every time I have done this, the can leaves my hand and flies across the room with a most satisfying "WHAAANG" sound, and the onlookers are always suitably impressed...
I'm possibly super lucky and if YOU do it you will bleed to death from the metal shrapnel.
But it's an awesome sound...
In my late teens, me and a friend were "carefully" spraying WD40 across to top of a candle. Wisely, we had the candle on a large dinner plate and were using the long red plastic tube on the can to prevent suck-back and can explosion - we even had a pint of water in case of emergency.
All good fun. No problem - got bored with that and settled back to watch a film in that room, leaving the candle burning, still safely on the dinner plate, on the carpet....where we were both lying out.
Fast forward about 1 hour, candle was nearly out and making the plate hot......the huge quantity of un-burnt WD40 that had missed the candle and soaked into the carpet suddenly combusted. We found ourselves lying in a carpet of fire.
A little bit of safety knowledge is a very dangerous thing in youth !.....and carpets....and petrol.....and WD40......and WW2 ammunition....and spergs.
Sleep well.
I once had a passing requirement for a small fire in my back garden, on boxing day.
I had not had a narrowboat, was very young and had only basic fire making skills which I felt at the time needed to be augmented by the use of a small amount of petrol, which I carefully added to the wood before carefully taking the petrol can a safe distance etc.
Upon returning to the small potential fire I approached form the side cautiously with a long flame.
Nothing happened.
I gradually got more bold with my attempts to get the petrol to ignite, but it was just too cold.
Well I got kind of sucked in from the edge, until I was over the fire looking down at the unigniteable petrol when it did in fact decide to ignite!
Even though I'd used only a sensibly considered starting amount, it went BOOF!! and I lost my eyebrows, some of my front hair, pretty much all of my self confidence, and I gained what appeared to be a facial sunburn, all in a fraction of a second!!
That petrol stuff is dangerous, I'm surprised they didn't make it illegal...
I visualise you as a UK Ron Swanson.....understated, calm but deadly serious......he very much likes "breakfast foods" too......and keeps a landmine on this desk.
I need to create the illusion of great danger whilst actually being very circumspect where the force goes, I'm well aware. I'm also very good at safely creating that sort of illusion..
I've tried legal and signage, I've tried "nice", now it's time for the military approach. Build a beachhead, and hold it, then expand into and control the surrounding area.
Yes, they might well come back for a second attempt, but with proper signage and giving fair warning, I can then deploy paint, & smoke as well as sound.
Once they get the idea of stay out of my fricking buildings unless you like these things, I believe they will react exactly the same as their opposite numbers in law enforcement when faced with effective opposition in their own game, and go pick on the easier meat..
How much effort and exposure to flying paint would you go through to fick with someones strimmer? I'm pretty sure one of those mines behind a plastic bag of emulsion firing downwards will do the trick quite nicely, I'm pretty sure I can fire it from the side or back as well by placing the sensor or trip wire in the right place.
They come equipped and knowledgeable about all the commercial and common defenses, yes I know. Time to add the unexpected.
I own my Iand & I intend to have the use of it, and since the law will not protect my interests, I need to do it myself.
They are lucky that I am not interested in actually hurting anyone, but unlucky in that I'm not going to take this crap lying down. I'm not above covering them in cat *** of which I have an inexhaustible supply either, if I need to escalate past the paint..
Appearing more unhinged than the opposition is a MAJOR psychological edge. The real trick is to make sure that it's only the appearance, and not your reality. It's much harder than actually being "dangerous to mess with, has the same effect, but no one gets hurt... Been doing it for years.
If law and order breaks down, of course, psychology won't work as well as actually being "dangerous", which is an entirely different problem and what the military trains you for. That is considerably easier technology to improvise than protecting your stuff, but in such a situation I will be most likely on some farmland owned by a local criminal enterprise providing electricity and technical services whilst they do the things I'm not so happy to do...
NO, securing my little bit of wasteground so that I can simply go there and tidy it up without some twats reversing what I've done and adding more mess, has proven to be a more serious problem that I would have believed. They seem to think I am some sort of interloper to "their" area, and need to be thwarted.
That's foreigners for you... (Sometimes! Sometimes they are lovely. But the last batch of foreigners who I once resented, but came to have friends in their community also dislike and complain about the new immigrants from the ex soviet union countries... :c)
But It's my owned land in my own country of origin. After waiting a shade under 54 years after I first was told to own property, I bought it with my own gold and some loans from my friends by the skin of my teeth.
I claim the lawful right to clear it up & plant a bloody lawn and put up some sheds and do stuff in them without being opposed.
And if I'm going to have to enforce it myself, my nine stone weakling, 60 plus year old frame doesn't give me the required gravitas. I have no weight to throw about, so safe deployment of pyrotechnics offers the only viable solution I have come to believe.
I'll take any alternative ideas or enter into discussion, but I've done an awful lot of that with people already, and no one has actually had any ideas that I have not either tried, or have to discard as excessively dangerous, dependent on psychology that I can't relate to, or some other fatal flaw.
I deployed a relatively safe and well known sterilising fluid the other day, by means of a misting wand and need to go and check on it's effects. It was a pleasant change to see the usual observers standing just the other sides of my gates trying to look menacing, back off slowly as it dawned on them that I was spraying and getting closer... The psychology will only work though if it actually as violent a defoliant as it was billed to be!
Whatever I do, must look dangerously effective, and create fear uncertainty and doubt as to what they are dealing with. As well as being legal decent and above all, as non-evil as I can manage. It's all a "game" really, that's why I recommend that book in my profile...
I'd rather be getting on with making the Peltier thing than fighting for some freedom to use my own land of course...
"Autism, it's what's for breakfast!"
Fun fact for a Tuesday evening. Aged 9, I visited the WW2 sites of Northern France with my family and found a couple of old cartridges. Proud and happy, they travelled back to the UK with us. Soon thereafter, in my back garden, I was very carefully cleaning out and shining my new "finds".....and looked at the pile of green "sand" I had scraped out from the insides. I wonder what would happen if I put a match to it, I thought.......
At that moment, my respect for the black stuff was seared into my eyes. All as well - but that moment has definitely "imprinted" in my mind. Exactly which patio slab I was on, what the weather was, what time of year it was, etc.
The mind is a wonderful thing.