Plymtom wrote:
I think you'll find he makes it Munchh.. he's a bit of an expert to put it mildly
So if you're getting tea lights for £2 for 100 that's 80p a day + bioethanol, how many rooms Nick, I think I remember you saying it's not the best of places to heat, and if you don't mind me asking, what would it cost you on grid roughly? Our energy bills are scary, but then there's 5 of us 3 of whom are in most if not all the time, the place is never unoccupied, The lounge barely needs heating no matter what the conditions, it does get cold but if you heat it by putting the radiator in there on, it gets too hot.
Ethanol is an off grid fuel. Its not really a replacement and does cost more than my gas and electric to a degree. If I compare the cost with the "average" combined bill as reported on some websites that I have googled for, it comes out more expensive to try and do it all with ethanol.
I like ethanol as it is off grid and therefore it can be used in a power outage. I do also make my own and the cost not including the cost of the electricity and cooling water to run the still does come out less than the cost of buying it commercially, but the quantities I get are only about 3 and 1/2 L per run and it can take 4 hours to do the distillation. Add to that the fermentation time (santisation of equipment, preparation of the wash etc) and you have a pretty time and money (EG earning money time) consuming exercise.
Also home made ethanol does contain some water. Its about 85% ABV or more, meaning 15% or less water. When combusted in the bioethanol burning tins it rusts the tins and sometimes releases a yeasty or dish water smell into the air, which you don't get with commercial denatured bioethanol for bioethanol fires.
I would need to buy Zeolite (a kind of clay that absorbs water molecules but not alcohol) to extract the water and thus increase the alcohol percentage for a cleaner burn.
As a result it is actually better to buy your own if you want to use it, but I personally wanted to get my head around ethanol with a view later in life (make a whopping great still at some point when I get my own place) to making my own in bulk and therefore at a lower cost if I can find good enough suppliers of waste sugar or grass clippings that I can break down with some kind of chemical enzyme process into the sugars that are needed to make this amazing fuel.
If there ever was some kind of major massive economic issue, then fuel for vehicles would be in demand. Ethanol with the waster removed with zeolite can be mixed with petrol or possibly used exclusively in car engines. If it also doubles up as a domestic heating fuel, washing and washing up hot water heating fuel and cooking fuel, it must become a very desirable product. Therefore for me personally I want a good working knowledge of it through practising using it both home made and commercially purchased.
The bugger even tried telling me off for riding badly!
