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Heating the House of the Homeless |
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Thank you very much for your interest in helping the homeless people in Michigan's Thumb. As of this writing (Dec 8, 2011), it is getting colder and our men's dorm with 10 people in it relies on expensive electric space heat. We have acquired a used wood stove very cheaply. For $2,700 we can install a chimney system that would accomodate a wood stove on each floor. For a few hundred dollars more, we would be able to install a means to distribute the heat to various rooms. This would still leave a very warm lounge room and colder sleeping rooms, but would be much cheaper than what we have now. Professional Estimates for Conventional Heasting SystemsOur building that need heat are two-story, 3000 square feet per floor with a bathroom on each floor. Our vendors all recommended installing heating units in each floor with ducts above the ceiling going to each room. However, budget-wise people have said that we can probably heat only the bottom floor and still use the top floor as there is no insulation between floors and heat rises. However, upstairs heat would be uneven and non-adjustible. We would probably need to supplement with space heaters, but this is far better than trying to heat with only space heaters as we are now. The estimates, below, are as we received them from local vendors with the following adjustments:
These prices are all based upon new furnaces and new parts. If we did the work ourselves, it might be possible to find good used furnaces (gas or wood) and reduce the price substantially. At this time, we have the people here at PABC who are sufficiently skilled to do this work. If funds are available, we would prefer any of the wood-fuel options as they do not require ongoing charges. However, it is obvious that the gas furnaces are the least expensive way to provide heat for this winter. Both vendors want half of the cost of the project up front to pay for the materials, and the rest within a month after completion. If anyone would like the vendor's original estimates or any other information, please let us know. If those desiring to help are concerned about how their funds would be used, we would be more than happy to have an outside comittee collect the funds and pay vendors directly. Again, thank you for your concern for Michigan's Thumb area homeless people and PABC's efforts to share the love of Christ with them. For more information on how you can help, click here and scroll to the bottom. |