On 12/22/2013 12:01 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
Oil heat for a home is a foreign concept for us down South because NG or
LP are the most common fuels burned for heating homes. Of course there
are heat pumps with a backup that can either be electric resistant heat
or a fuel burning furnace, then there are wood or other solid fuel
burning sources of heat. Many very old homes have coal burning furnaces
that have been converted to NG but they're not as efficient as more
modern forced air systems. We call the old coal burners, "Octopus"
heaters because there is no blower, the furnace in the basement has
large ducts coming out looking like a tree or octopus and the heated air
flows by convection. The old homes have a coal chute from outside to the
basement and when I've serviced some of the old coal furnaces converted
to natural gas, there is often still coal in the coal chute. ^_^

TDD

Those octopus furnae used to terrify me. Could not stand the sight of
one. Just some primal fear.

I got to help take out one, when I was adult. It had about 500 pounds of
sand on top, for thermal mass. We scooped it off with a shovel, and took
out to the back yard in bags and buckets. The new furnace saved a lot of
fuel money.

--
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Christopher A. Young
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