Our oil furnace continues to be a thorn in our side. Things have been going fairly well since we learned how to bleed the lines so we could get the blasted thing to start again after it runs out of fuel. But, now that the cold weather has settled in, the furnace is renewing its attempts to $@%* us off!

Yesterday, while Tyler and I were in the basement we noticed the furnace wasn't running. We went upstairs and checked the thermometer to find that the house was a balmy 55 degrees. We finished up our work in the basement and poured our emergency supply of diesel fuel into the tank and made plans to order fuel the next day.

After the furnace was running again, Tyler and I tried to figure out why the tank had run dry (obviously it was because we used up all the fuel). But, after the last time our tank ran dry, we learned that we could run the house off of 5 gallons of gas for almost two days. So, we figured if 5 gallons could last 1.5 days, then 100 gallons would last us 30 days. However, this figure was determined while we were having 40-50 degree weather. For the last 5 days, we'd been enjoying temperatures in the teens.

At 4 in the morning on Monday, Tyler and I learned what a huge difference the outside temperatures makes on your furnace's fuel consumption. Tyler and I both awoke about the same time, saying the same exact thing... "Why is it so cold?" Fearing the worst, I jumped up and read the thermometer. In shock I saw the number, 49, staring back at me. It had only been 11 hours since we had put 5 gallons of gas into the tank. What should have lasted us over a day, didn't even make it half a day!

So, at 4AM and 16 degrees, Tyler and I made an emergency trip into town to grab some more fuel. We spent the 10 minutes into town and on our way back fantasizing about how we were going to blow up the oil furnace when we replace it with our geothermal system next year.

What has the whole experience taught us? First, that oil furnaces SUCK when the tank has to gauge on it. Second, that our house leaks heat like a sieve. Third, that it's going to take ~10 gallons of gas a day (or $25-30 a day) to heat our home during the really cold snaps. So, even though I'm hoping governments around the world will step up and stop global warming, I won't be horribly upset if El Nino keeps our neck of the woods warm this winter.