Restart the Boiler Game

I got up this morning and checked the fireplace. The fan was off but it was still warm inside and after poking it a bit, still glowing. I ended up burning eight of my Synth-A-Logs along with a couple of real logs. I kind of had to start with real wood and get it going really well before the Synth-A-Logs took hold.

So in the span of five hours, from 6 to 11PM, I warmed the house without firing up the furnace. Because my Synth-A-Logs are made from newspaper I have already purchased and cardboard cores I get for free from work, I'm going to make the claim that it was cheaper to heat the house with the fireplace than it would have been to run the furnace.

Of course, I am not taking into account the time it took me to cut up the cardboard cores to a suitable length and stuff them with newspaper. However, since my time is cheap, it's not a factor in the equation. I am therefore further making the claim that because I heated the house in this manner, I saved about 11 dollars.

Speaking of the furnace, it's time to start playing the Boiler Game. From what I can tell, the record for the Boiler Game is October 21st. Last year, I fired up the boiler on October 5th.

It is getting close to having to fire it up again. It was 37 degrees this morning on my way to work.

The problem as I have recently recounted here is that the boiler is not ready to be restarted. I still have a radiator out of the system and my attempt to plug the pipes that connect that radiator have been unsuccessful.

I'm going out at lunch today to look into the purchase of a tapping kit (I think that's what it's called) in order to thread the empty pipe in the Living Room so I can cap it. The compression joint I have applied does not stop the pipe from leaking.

I don't think I'm going to get that radiator reinstalled into the system before I need to fire up the boiler. I haven't heard from PowderTech, the company that presently has the radiator and is in the process of painting it.