[Greenbuilding] A "Night-time SET-BACK" for ypur furnace thermostat", a "FOOLER" and some Ben Franklin's sayings.

[Carroll Hampleman]

From: Carroll Hampleman [mailto:trackthesun at yahoo.com
A "Fooler". and some of Ben Franklin's sayings: "Heating with wood".
FROM: Mr. Carroll D. Hampleman Call me Carroll email: trackthesun at yahoo.com 
Development of simple D.I.Y. "SOLAR" plans for the home-owner. (E-Mail for other info) 
A "FOOLER" (I have seen this many times, written different ways)
Construct your own device to automatically LOWER your household thermostat at night-time, before bedtime, and automatically RAISE the thermostat (Oh, about an hour, or so.) in the morning, before you get up. Less than $10 dollars, or so, and possibly can be constructed with surplus materials found under the workbench AT NO COST! This device will "save" you "dozens" of dollars each heating season, and also serve as a "night-light".
Items needed: ONE 24 hour timer (110 VAC) : approx $5.00 - local Hardware Store. ONE used "Christmas Tree" light. Procedure: Plug the Timer into an electrical outlet. Set it so the small light will go ON, about one hour before Bed-Time - and go OFF about one hour before you get up in the morning. Use a piece of electric lightcord, and string the small light to a position about three or four inches UNDER the thermostat. Note: Can be adjusted, for different "Life-styles".
Theory of operation: At night-time, while you are sleeping in a heated bed, the HEAT from this small light, WILL RISE, and FOOL the thermostat into thinking that the entire house is still warm. THE FURNACE WILL NOT OPERATE ! The entire house is cooled down about 8 or 10 degrees, while you are asleep in bed, and the entire house will be again "warmed up", when you get up in the morning. Go ahead and do it. IT WORKS !! For several years, now, I have had a "FOOLER" at each house I have lived in. CDH) Other information available by E-Mail: 
Ben Franklin’s "Heating with Wood". CDH note: Wood is a "form" of "Solar Energy". Wood is nature’s PERFECT solar storage and solar heating device). 
For EACH "amount of heat" coming from a burning unit, that heat ORIGINALLY came from the Sun! For heating, use either WOOD, or construct your own "Solar Equipment", from simple items noted in the Catalogs of some of the National "Supply Houses". On a "Full Sun" day, my electric "Hot-Water-Heater" is not activated by its thermostat. I can take an "All Solar Shower": All the Heat in the Water is DIRECTLY from the sun in back yard. 
Some of Ben Franklin's sayings about "Heating with Wood.
Ben Franklin (1706-1790) invented the "Pennsylvanian Fireplace". He stated:"By the help of this saving invention our wood may grow as fast as we consume it, and our posterity may warm themselves at a moderate rate, without being obliged to fetch their fuel from over the Atlantic." Franklin recommended that "ignorant servants" not be permitted to tend the stove, since they invariably allowed smoke into the room. He saw this stove as especially suitable for men of letters who, spending much time in their chambers, would be on hand to tend the stove as needed. 
When Franklin was designing the "Pennsylvanian Fireplace" he rejected external firing because without a constant influx of fresh air, the Germans were "obliged to breathe the same unchanged air continually, mixed with the breath and perspiration from one another's bodies, which is very disagreeable to those who have not been accustomed to it."
"These new fireplaces, though they may keep rooms generally free from smoke, and, the opening being contracted, will allow the door to be shut, yet, the chimney, still requiring a considerable quantity of air, it rushes in at every crevice so strongly, as to make a continual whistling or howling: and it is very uncomfortable, as well as dangerous, to sit against any such crevice. Many colds are caught from this cause only, it being safer to sit in the open street. . . . . .Women particularly, from this cause, as they sit much in the house, get colds in the head, rheums, and defluctions, which falls into their jaws and gums, and have destroyed many a fine set of teeth in these northern colonies". 
"Fire penetrates bodies, and separates their parts: the air receives and carries off the parts separated, which, if not carried off, would impede the action of the fire. With the assistance therefore of a moderate current of air, the separation increases, but too violent a blast carries off the fire itself: and thus any fire may be blown out, as a candle by a breath, if the blast be proportionable". 
listed by Carroll D . Hampleman Your local Library has this information.