kravietz 🦇 on Nostr: A friend from #Ukraine posted a photo of how windows in his Kyiv district look like ...
A friend from #Ukraine posted a photo of how windows in his Kyiv district look like when there’s a blackout - this one already lasts 6 hours. Some people rely on gas or battery packs, but he started using a bio-ethanol fireplace for heating and basic light.
He says it works surprisingly well in terms of heat produced, which makes sense because ethanol (C2H5OH) has a pretty high energy content of 30 MJ/kg as compared to ~10 MJ/kg for most wood.
Ethanol burns cleanly, producing no ash or carbon monoxide (CO), only water vapour (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) so it doesn’t require a chimney. After a while, it will increase humidity in the apartment but with ventilation that most flats have, it won’t deteriorate air quality too much.
The biofuel is unsuitable for consumption as it may also contain highly toxic methanol, but many people in Eastern Europe also distil their own ethanol which is cheap and easy, especially if you have a garden with apples, plums or any other fruits. This is indeed a great way to heat your house at low cost.
At this point my colleague asked “okay, but why do I need a fireplace at all if I have all the moonshine”? But here’s a catch: alcohol, when consumed, does warm you up by the benefit of calories ingested, but then it also dilates your blood vessels leading to much faster heat loss. This is precisely why, when drunk, people get a red face and generally feel very warm. The process of losing heat is much faster than the calories produced from alcohol metabolism so net, you’re losing calories.
If you drink in a properly heated place this is not a problem, but drinking in a cold place in winter is generally bad idea because you first lose all your body heat and then fall asleep due to intoxication, which can be potentially deadly.
He says it works surprisingly well in terms of heat produced, which makes sense because ethanol (C2H5OH) has a pretty high energy content of 30 MJ/kg as compared to ~10 MJ/kg for most wood.
Ethanol burns cleanly, producing no ash or carbon monoxide (CO), only water vapour (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) so it doesn’t require a chimney. After a while, it will increase humidity in the apartment but with ventilation that most flats have, it won’t deteriorate air quality too much.
The biofuel is unsuitable for consumption as it may also contain highly toxic methanol, but many people in Eastern Europe also distil their own ethanol which is cheap and easy, especially if you have a garden with apples, plums or any other fruits. This is indeed a great way to heat your house at low cost.
At this point my colleague asked “okay, but why do I need a fireplace at all if I have all the moonshine”? But here’s a catch: alcohol, when consumed, does warm you up by the benefit of calories ingested, but then it also dilates your blood vessels leading to much faster heat loss. This is precisely why, when drunk, people get a red face and generally feel very warm. The process of losing heat is much faster than the calories produced from alcohol metabolism so net, you’re losing calories.
If you drink in a properly heated place this is not a problem, but drinking in a cold place in winter is generally bad idea because you first lose all your body heat and then fall asleep due to intoxication, which can be potentially deadly.