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Oil or gas
If you've seen a buried propane tank, then they're probably code approved in your area. I don't know about my area, but I'd be surprised if simply burying a tank is acceptable. A gas impermeable pit with a gas detector is likely requirements. I'd check regs carefully.
Propane from a leaking tank could travel underground and enter a house. Occasionally you hear about explosions due to methane from abandoned septic systems that traveled underground for considerable distances. Same is true for gas mains, but gas lines just have joints--no valves, tank certification years or refills. I’d just as soon not have any chance of underground gas migrations rather than depend on the putty stuffed around the basement entrance of my underground electrical service—that’s one of the purposes of the putty.
We has a new oil furnace installed three years ago. There have been two warranty repairs so far, and the electronic ignition occasionally fails to start again. My dealer says he's been having reliability problems with virtually all burner control equipment of recent manufacture--there are only three manufacturers of ignition transformer apparently. Anyway, I don't know if the problem is dirty rural AC, or that so many safety checks are built in that the equipment became safe but unreliable or the new stuff should just be sold in a box store.
I do know that it doesn't take too many times for the reset button to be needed before you're running to check the thermostat every time you feel a chill. My experience with oil could be better.
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Some people around here have outdoor wood furnaces that feed hot water tanks and radiators. I've heard that these furnaces aren't as efficient as modern wood stoves and are initially pricy. I guess they burn quite a bit of wood, but they can be cost effective in the long run if the price of wood is low. It is around here.
A new electronic ignition transformer on our new oil furnace hasn't entirely fixed its start failure problems. There is a resister that is in a circuit that senses presance of flame. I'm starting to think that if the utility voltage is low or sags when the furnace is starting up, then the problem might be the rural AC rather than the furnace. Low voltage may result in too low a voltage or current for the circuit to test normal.
I wish I could remember if the furnace came on when our utility voltage was 85V while a tree was on the 14KV utility lines. I suppose I'd have to come up with a device to log utility voltage changes for a conclusive diagnosis. If AC is the problem, I'm ware that there are devices that can adjust for short and long term voltage problems.
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Small ducting and high rpm blowers do make more noise than old style larger ducting. That's a downside to high efficiency furnaces I've heard. We ended up with a medium efficiency furnace with a passive air-intake heat exchanger because they're supposed to be quieter.
Even the medium efficiency is better than the 30-year-old oil burner it replaced. Frost forms in the chimney above the roof during very cold weather. The oil guy says that reducing the blower speed slightly should fix the problem.
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Steve: Thanks for the comment. That’s the sort of thing I was thinking of. I don't know how the UPS system works, but I think in terms of resonant core transformers to dampen short-term voltage changes and automatic adjust auto-transformers for long term changes. The UPS thing may be a simpler and less expensive approach. My oil company owner would love it if I came up with a solution. He's about going nuts responding to trouble calls on new oil furnaces and can't find anything wrong.
Too bad my backup generator isn't auto start. I really don't think that running electric motors on 85V (which happens around here) does them any good. A very good auto-transformer would fix the problem even though one probably would pop a circuit breaker if it actually had to adjust voltage that much.
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If it's a battery/inverter approach, the starting current probably is limited by the inverter circuit components rather than the battery. The unit also would have to isolate itself from the utility AC, or the higher voltage would back feed the utility.
I maintained an old omni-range while in the Air force. The equipment was fed through an auto-transformer, because utility voltage isn't reliable enough. A sensing circuit adjusted the auto-transformer tap up or down to achieve a desired output voltage. I'm not sure what the total AC load for the site was, but the transformer itself wasn't very large.
The advantage of auto-transformers is that they have high current capacity. Their disadvantages are that they can't compensate for short term voltage changes, and that increasing the output voltage increases the input current draw.
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