Oil heat: Good or bad?

image via flickr by meme_crafter

What’s one of the things that Americans are hearing about a lot these days?  The rising cost of oil, perhaps?  Well, I don’t know about you, but everyday on the radio I hear a constant stream of ads talking about the joys & cost benefits of installing oil heat in your home.  Let me say that again…cost BENEFITS.  (?!?!)

Hmmm….well, like many Philadelphians I have an old oil tank in my basement.  My house has long since been converted to forced air gas heat and is therefore no longer in use, but every house on my block used to use oil as it’s primary heat source.  My next door neighbor’s house has never been converted and is still filling her oil tank every couple of weeks, and has told me how much she spends each winter on oil…and the cost is OUTRAGEOUS!  Therefore it amazes me to hear these ads from Oil Heat America talking about the reasons people should install new oil heat systems into their homes.

While reading over their list of benefits, I still have a hard time believing any of them are actually true considering I’ve met people who complain about sky-high heating costs.  Not to mention the fact that Americans are always hearing how bad using oil is for the environment!   But seeing as how I’m not an expert, I thought I’d pose the question to the internet.  With the onset of winter coming, do any of you have oil heat?  If so, do you like it?  Would you consider switching over to oil heat?

As a side note, in last week’s people magazine I read an article about a man named Dallas Gigrich from Seattle who removes old oil tanks for a living.  He drains the remaining oil at the bottom of the tank and donates it to needy families.  They call him the “Oil Angel.”  I thought that was such a great thing to do.  Anyways…let me know thoughts on oil heat.  Everytime I hear one of those commercials, I start yelling at the radio really loudly!  haha.

A Clean Break: Exhibition of Modern Prefab Architecture & Innovations

Some of my friends over at Minima have curated and organized an event for Design Philadelphia 2008 called “A Clean Break.”  It’s biggest highlight is an ACTUAL prefab Weehouse by Alchemy Architects from St. Paul, MN…which is extremely cool!!  The Weehouse is an interesting design that I’ve actually wondered about in the past, and so I’ll be excited to check it out in person.  (It’s especially interesting because it comes in several different variations and can be customized.)  Here’s a picture of the Weehouse getting installed into the Philadelphia exhibition space on Spruce St.

The show also features high design, low waste “innovations” by artists such as Michael Iannone, Daniel Michalik, In Liquid, Bolle Design, Pie Studio, and SMIT.  (Shown below is one of my favorite items by MIchael Iannone, his cork sideboard.)

The event kicks off on Thursday Oct 16th from 7-10pm, but is open daily from 11-7pm, Oct 17th – 30th.   The exhibition is located at 313 South Broad Street at Spruce, Philadelphia. Go check it out!!

Soy-based “Green” Polyurethane

Well guys, I’m about to road test my first eco-friendly polyurethane. After reading a little bit about Low VOC poly on the internet, I decided I’d check into it. First off, it seems that a lot of regular hardware stores aren’t sure what “Low VOC” and “eco-friendly” means. Several people pointed me to just the regular water-based polyurethanes, which didn’t seem accurate.

So I went to the knowledgeable folks at Greenable who were able to give me lots of great info on this soy-based product. It was also comparably priced to regular floor sealers at $44/gallon. I like that it is self-levelling, and supposedly requires none to very little sanding in between coats!! (I’ll have to let you know about that in a subsequent post.) I also spoke to the people over at The Environmental Home Store to see what they offered. They’re actually in my neighborhood, and I really wanted to use their products…but at a cost of almost $85/gallon, I couldn’t justify the cost difference. (Their version wasn’t soybased, but rather some different Low VOC water-based poly that wasn’t self-levelling and seemed to require additional sanding.)

Besides just price though, the folks at Greenable went out of their way to break a 5 gallon container to sell me 2 gallons of satin finish [of which they were out of stock in the smaller size]. I loved Greenable’s knowledgeable staff and their customer service! I have to say that in today’s economy, I really appreciated that they were fighting for my business. It made me really happy to shop there. (So…kudos to Greenable’s staff!)

Meanwhile, soon I’ll let you know how my experience with Acri-Soy Poly-Soy Eco Procote Polyurethane works out. Cross your fingers!

*Update: Thanks to Angelo at Greenable for clarifying what I purchased. Since they broke the 5 gallon container into 2 smaller ones, I didn’t have a label and assumed [wrongly] that I’d gotten the Acri-Soy. At any rate, more info to come on the end result of the floor finishing eco-friendly style. But so far so good.