POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[GoceKU]

I'm afraid to even imagine what electric heating or firewood would be like in Macedonia.

Why?

 

[Shotgun]

Why?

With Macedonia being part of Europe, assumptions are that Russian pipelines being shut down will drive the cost for those commodities through the roof.

 

[great white]

Still working on getting it back together:

 

[Nutfarmer]

Your costs for propane and diesel are similar to what we pay in California. That’s why many of us will burn firewood if we have access to it. To buy fire wood here is around 350 a cord. A cord is a stack of wood that is 4 feet high 4 feet wide and 8 feet long. I like reading your posts from Greece. It reminds us how we all face the same things no mater where we live

 

[GoceKU]

You are right we all face the same things. Only difference is income and climate.

 

[dkemppai]

I paid 385 euros per ton for this A2 known good palles, last year same month i paid 168 euros a ton. We don't have natural gas infrastructure here, propane gas double as well, it is 3.42$ for a US gallon, Gasoline and Diesel are 6$ a US gallon. Fire wood is 80-100$ for a cubic metre, and the monthly income is 10-20% of the ones in the Us.

OK, so round numbers here again. (Hopefully I get these right...Feel free to check me!)

Macedonian Pellet purchase:
$385 * 4 = $1540. Divided by previous 60 = ~$25 per million BTU.
Last year that would have been ~$11 per million, which is pretty darn good!

Michigan Heat pump:
COP = ~4.25. Power here is ~$.21 / KWH. 1Kw-hr = 3412 BTU.
1 Million BTU / COP (4.25) = 235,294 BTU of electricity used. 235,294 / 3412 = 68.96 Kw-hr of electricity purchased, for 68.96 * .21 = $14.5 per million BTU.

Michigan Propane: (Garage heat is propane...)
Last data is $2.75 per gallon.
~91,000 BTU/Gallon. At ~97% Eff, ~88270 BTU/Gallon. 1 Million / 88270 = 11.32 Gallons * 2.75 per gallon = $31.1 per million BTU.

Macedonian Propane:
11.32 Gallons * $3.42 = $38.71 per million BTU.

Michigan Fuel Oil Heat (Assmuing $4.50 per gallon, last data I can find).
138,000 BTU / Gallon * .85% Eff = 117300 BTU/Gallon. 1 million / 117300 = 8.52 Gallons * 4.50/Gal = $38.36 per million BTU.

Pure Michigan Electric heat (near me).
1 million / 3412 = 293 Kw-hr. So 293 * $0.21 = $61.54 per million BTU!

Natural gas in MI: (I Cheated and looked up an on line calculator)
$14.7 per million BTU. (Historically this matches the heat pump really close.

Downside of a heat pump is the $10,000 to $15,000 of the unit, plus piping and other work. However you take an AC unit out of the picture, and there are usually incentives for purchase/installation. So if natural gas was available here, I'd go that route.

 

[GoceKU]

You are good with numbers, if all accountants do this good of a calculation would will be a better place. Your maths is right there is couple of things to also consider. Buildings insulation, here buildings are concrete and clay briggs. The insolation factor is non existent, it takes a lot more heat to keep warm in the winter. Other thing is monthly income, my monthly pay is around 400$. I do work 2 other jobs that sometimes double my income but there are people with less then 250$ a month, so the heating prices should reflect that. 5-6 years ago firewood and coal was cheaper and that is what i used, but it become more expensive then wood pallet.

 

[Nutfarmer]

Starting pay for a farm worker in California is 15.00 an hour. That works out to around 2400.00 a month.

 

[great white]

400 bucks a month?

Holy crap!

That would barely cover 1/3 of my monthly mortgage.

please tell me you don’t have to pay income tax on that too….

 

[GoceKU]

Yeap 400, and i'm in the middle, with two university degrees. That may explain why so many people work in other countries.