Do you think I’m doing any good ?
I’ve been able to buy six cubic feet bags of styrofoam pellets for only 1.40 per bag. I pour them into the block walls of my foundation to suppliment the R10 foam on the outside of my old foundation. It takes about a bag to fill two feet of 12 inch block wall, it flows like sand untill the final tamping with a long stick to get the last bit of insulation in.
Thepellets are treated to be flame retardant but there is very little chance of them catching on fire since they are surrounded by block except where they come up to the copper plate sitting on top of the wall.
Only a little bit of the foundation is exposed to the weather and that is covered with 2 inch thick granite But still here in the land of permafrost,er Minnesota. Every little bit helps.. Besidesif the ground is at 55 degrees and the furnace is trying to keep the walls at 70 degrees that means there is heat flow going out doesn’t it?
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Frenchy, I gotta hand it to you, you do get some better deals than I do, esp. Walnut<G> but, did get a Bosch hammer drill at a grage sale today for $20 with 6 bits<GG>
As to are you doing any good, as you say every little bit helps. Havn't got the ambition tonight to run the numbers for you but think with the R10 on the outside you may be past the point of diminishing returns due to the outer block wall concrete distributing the heat over the entire area of the R10. The payback time is likely in quite a few years, but then the total investment is only a few hundred total and energy price will only go up in MN.
BTW, looking for a couple of forks to put on my front end loader for material handling, any insights on best places to look in Seattle area?? Most people here thing a set of old forks are made of gold.
Hey Art, you know about these? http://www.paynesforks.com
Thanks Jim - I'm looking for something in the scrap metal price range <G>, the "$1950.00 + shipping (shipping call for quote)$1950.00 + shipping (shipping call for quote) is more than my loader cost me!"
Look At their site again
http://www.paynesforks.com/heavy.htm
4000 lb capacity
$450.00 + 125 freight
Junkhound,
the reason that old forks are so valuable is that they wear out.. That's right, the forks actually wear out and need replacement.. since they are made of some fairly exotic metals. ( I forget the exact formula but high cobalt content is one of them)
what happens is the chains in the upright stretch and rather than adjust them up enough so they don't drag or maybe the operator wants them to drag, anyway the heal wears out and suddenly the forks bend as the metal yields. Often enough it's suddenly and then really exciting things happen.. (and often bad)
aside from that you need pin mounted forks (not the hook type that are so common on industrial forklifts) There are far fewer pin mounted forks than hook mounted.
Let me caution you about something. Never and I do mean never mess around with forks that have been heated and bent or welded on.. IT'S OK TO REBEND BENT FORKS AS LONG AS IT CAN BE DONE COLD! Check extremely carefully at the heal of the fork for any sign of cracking.. any at all is reason to forget the forks..
Measure the heal, there are go/no go gauges that will tell you when the forks are unsafe, but more than 1/4 of wear compared to the downshank is reason to never mount those forks on anything but a scrap metal pile.
One final point about using a front end loader for material handling. as you know the capacity of the loader drops dramatically as it's turned. what nobody talks about is lost load center when you install forks over the bucket.. Since the load is ahead of the bucket a simple to lift load will really stretch the capacity of your loader and something that would be a piece of cake in your bucket may cause your tipping on a pair of forks in front of your bucket..
The thermal conduction through the concrete blocks makes filling them with styrofoam pellets a complete waste of time. Sorry. The foam to the exterior on the other hand is very effective if you used the proper type. Polyisocyanurate is not good in wet conditions, while EPS works quite well. The downside to filling is the waste of resources and the problems that someone will encounter during the demolition phase someday. Again I'm sorry to bring bad news, but on the bright side you can stop now and save some energy.
RayMore,
now you tell me, 26 feet left to do, 13 bags left in the garage! Nope it's not returnable. :-( so far 146 feet done!
Actually I began to think that when I noticed beads that were treated to prevent clumping began to clumb after pouring them into the cores.. That's the reason for my question..