Using Wood for heat

Back when I was around 35 using wood to heat my house seamed like a good idea, since I have ceiling heat. Now 36 years later cuting splitting and hauling wood into the house is a real pain in the butt. In 1960 when Dad had a house built he said no fire place, because I hauled wood when I was a kid and I wasen't doing it any more. Us kids talked him in to having a fire place. It was hardly ever used, Dad wasen't going to haul wood. So it was up to the kids. We got tired of that real fast. Stan

AHHH YES,,,But theres nothing like the smell of wood burning on a cold winter day,,mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

In the 50's my dad said they could heat the house with propane for $1.00 a day, so he quit wood heat. When Jimmy Carter was saying he was going to heat the White House with wood, we built my dad a new house with a central wood furnace in the basement. In 1984 I built a house, also with a Longwood central furnace in the basement. I even built a special wood chute so I could back right up and throw the wood in the wood room. My dad loved to cut wood, so he always kept me supplied till he passed away 5 years ago. I took out the wood furnace and put in a new high effeciency propane furnace. Now I am thinking about putting the old Longwood in as a standby/backup to the propane.

Gene

Precisely why I"m going with coal next year. I"ll burn wood fall & spring, but coal during the coldest part of the year. Ought to give me a considerable break on the cutting/splitting/stacking.

Unless you are a firefighter. I have had houses with fireplaces in them, but after being a firefighter and being in burning houses there is something about wood burning in a house that sets me off.

If I were to go with wood heat it wood be with an outdoor furnace.

we have an H. S. Tarm boiler that we run year round for all of our heat and domestic hot water. It takes 24 standard cords a year, but we have plenty of woods to work with.
Zach

Untill about year 2000 we heated with wood. There was always plenty of deadfall to cut up. We had a Lennox forced air furnace with wood or coal fire box. Kept the house plenty warm. Dad liked to work wood and so did I. We could dry our boots and out door clothes. Injuries and illness took over and we ended up moving south. But it sure beat propane or electric heat,

steveormary

John,,,ya,im not real keen on fire places either,,,,the few people around here that do burn wood burn it in a furness in there basement,,,,Myself i burn lignite coal,,(yuck) in my old hand fired furness in the basement ,,,its ok but nothing to brag about,,,a little cleaner than a stocker i would say,,,,,I heat with electric in the spring and fall and as a backup for when the fire dies out,,,,just trying to save a little $$$$$$,,,,)

I second that. I have also been on both sides of the fire line, as a fire fighter and having had fires. The only wood I will burn is outside the structures, meaning in a wood burning furnace. I want one, but can't afford one right now. DOUG

Yep Stan, sure is hard work even with a handful of tuned up and ready to go chain saws. I give my brother a mixture of two or three big white oak and maples a year. Matter of fact its time to go take down, cut up, and split to season for next year for him before the ticks start thawing out and the ground gets too muddy to drag them out to cut up. At this rate, it'll take us another 200 years to go through all of them trees in that woods, but 30 years from now it will be hard to tell where we took the ones that we took. I aint so sure I'll live another 30 years, and sure aint gonna want to be wielding a chain saw at my age if I do. Its work now. Sure is tough managing a woods to keep it disease free for the other trees. A losing battle, but keeps my brother's heating bills down.

Mark

This house was built in MN in 1926, and had the wood boiler in the basement as the only heat until 1971 or 72, when daf put in an oil boiler beside it. Then 1974 hit, and we burned more wood than oil anyhow...

Dern thing cracked about 5 years ago, the wood one, gotta replace it.

--->Paul

I heat with almost all wood. Cutting spliting and hauling wood is good for my health. I have 2 young boys who seem to love filling the wood room with the atv and trailer and as long as I keep them beleiving that they "get" to do it rather than they "have" to do it, they will always want to. Gas used to prep one winters worth of wood is so minimal it isnt worth discussing. Keeps the woods cleaned up and the home toasty. I love it.

If you use 24 face cord that you could have sold for 60.00 per that would be 1440.oo to buy gas. around here if you deliver the wood goes for 85.00. you save on the electric bill,, the fan runs all the time with the add-on wood burner. having a wood splitter on the front of my bobcat helps to,,split wood setting on my butt,oh did I say its got a cab&heater?

We have natural gas forced air furnace for main heat source, along with a big fireplace in the living room. The house is such that when we keep a good fire going, I can keep the furnace from running at all when temps above 15 or 20 outside.

Also, I heat my shop entirely with wood. Home made stove. (55 gal drum lined w/fire brick) By putting a thermostat controlled blower behind the stove to circulate heat, I can keep the shop "tee-shirt warm" in zero degree temps.

I've got roughly 22 acres of woods that I'm gradually clearing, so plenty of wood. I broke down and bought a hydraulic splitter this past year. No problem with packing wood, I've done that since I was old enough to carry wood anyway. We burn 16 to 18 ricks per year. (Rick is a regionally popular term for 1/2-cord.) We burn a mix of red oak, white oak, beech, hickory, some walnut, a little hard maple, and some hackberry.

We like the smell of the fireplace. Watching a fire is extremely relaxing. And there's nothing quite like the heat you get from good hardwood fires.

How hot have you got to get wood, to get it to boil?

I enjoy the cutting /splitting /hauling. For people that don't have a passion for it, it would be a nightmare.

My dad being 80 is set with a good retirement income, but heats with wood to save fuel costs. Last year he only used 110 gallons, but he enjoys going out to split a wheelbarrow full every other day to "keep in shape" during the winter months.

As an Insurance Inspector, every time I encounter a wood stove on an inspection, I have to turn in a "Supplemental Wood Stove" report. The report goes into minute detail about distances to walls, to the floor, whether the surrounding surfaces are combustible, chimney constuction, etc.

If a wood stove is UL Approved and professionally installed with non-combustible floor and walls nearby, insurance companies normally have few problems. However, you wouldn't believe the contraptions some homeowners cobble together. I did one a couple of weeks ago, where the stove itself was OK, but the chimney was laid concrete blocks with no liner. There was combustible creosote everywhere. Creosote was running down the sides of the chimney both inside and outside the house, running out of the cleanout trap, on the outside it had run down the chimney and onto the roof, etc. The chimney simply could never get hot enough to keep creosote from forming.

Plus, they had a big box of green wood, intermixed with sawed up pieces of pressure treated lumber, next to the stove. All the while the lady of the house was telling me how much they enjoyed the wood stove. Company policy prevents me from making any comments whatsoever to a homeowner, either positive or negative. All I do is photograph and report what I see at that point in time but I'd have liked to have been a mouse in the corner when an underwriter saw all of that.

212 degrees I would guess.

Hot water heat, with the big cast iron radiators in each room. The furnace is called a 'boiler', even tho you are in real, real trouble if it would ever get the water hot enough to boil!!!! Then you would have steam heat, which is a whole different animal.

Never understood why they call them boilers when the object is hot water, _not_ steam.

--->Paul

It is some work, thinking that around here you need at least one good chainsaw, a tractor with a bucket and forks, truck or wagon to haul it etc. at least that is what I do to bring in enough to feed the stove, an old ashley, with the cast iron top. Transfers heat quickly, and puts out quite a bit of BTU's Firebox is oval and good size, can put 22"-24" in there, but it will burn quite a bit of wood, especially when cold, will also provide heat for about 5-6 hours if you load it right, then stoke, rake or clean out the coals, depending on how much is in there, load er back up again, repeat..... This stove is in the basement, it keeps that area,(1/2 of which is also a 4 car garage) heated, when it's real cold it will get down to the low or mid 50's F, the heat rises up and heats the 1st floor with open joists in about 1/2 the house, keeps the 1st fl. thermostat from calling for heat, it does help quite a bit by keeping that oil fired furnace off. Still a dirty business, ash and some dust, wood debris. With moderate use, especially when cold, I figure it takes about 6 cord. Not air tight, so I could probably find one more efficient, and probably will, but I'm fortunate to have plenty of wood on the acreage here, + there is always free wood to be taken in this area, should be able to keep enough on hand for quite awhile. Dry seasoned wood, burns a little hotter, sometimes too fast and too hot, so often times I mix some in that has moisture, usually dead wood, recently cut, I can rotate some inside, place it near the stove, or vicinity, it dries, and checks nicely, though I burn some that is punked a bit, seems to balance out, not too dry, not to moist, cut an old hard maple, was dead 2 years, had some punk, 2/3 still hard, well even the punked part is hard, still burns nice, when super dry, real hot, though it seems the moisture is more water than anything, it don't sizzle/steam long when burning, and with all the kinds of wood I burn, in the 8"x12" flue, I have no creosote problems, and little to no smoke, so it seems to be burning efficiently as can be done, for the mixture I burn, need it a little hotter, just get some from the seasoned pile, stoke it right and that is it.

Have 2 other large fireplaces, both get fresh air for combustion from the outside,not heated air from inside, each has 4 vents on the inside, bottom ones take inside air in, heat same, 2 blowers return the heated air, one is field stone, the other brick, when they get heated up, both produce some serious heat, keeping both of these going, and a stove, now that would require a large quantity of wood, these fireplaces have 24" x 24" flues, they burn hot, without those heat-o-lator's, probably not efficient, it's been quite awhile since I've had them both going at the same time, but can remember the work involved with just keeping them lit, never mind all the processing and handling of the wood, if I were to use all three, might need 20+ cord, though the place has 6" walls and insulated well, keeping just the stove lit and enough wood for that seems to be quite an operation, never mind those fireplaces. Also on a hill with good sun exposure and lots of windows/glass facing west, so the sun heats the place up, can usually keep this place nice and warm, and have plenty of options to provide heat, that are efficient, but still a lot of work. I like gathering and cutting the wood, seems to help keep you fit, but never gets any easier, the older you get !

Our primary heat is heat pump- electricity is real cheap here (4 cents a KW), and our normal winter temps of about 40 degrees lets the heat pump work at peak efficiency. But we do have a wood stove for backup, and for when it gets cold. Its a cast iron Danish thing called a Morso. What a great stove- real easy on wood, good heat output, decorative looking, with an arch above the main part. Brown porcelain finish. Bought it about 30 years ago, can't get them any more, and it's the only non-negotiable item when we sell a house and move.

Wife's uncle was an old Swede, and a "recreational woodcutter" in his retirement years. Loved to cut wood- had about 20 acres of timberland, and in this country, you can cut about as much as you want on 20 acres and never run out. He was cutting about 20 cords a year well into his 80's- used to sell it to the widows and older folks he knew, then started just giving it to them, as he was in better financial shape than most. Was still cutting quite a bit until he died at age 94. Was still a valued member of the county nnalert organization when he died, and you tried to avoid political debates with him, because you would always LOSE.

no damn wood in MY car. From the movie "Tobacco road", right before the kids dad took the kids new 1941 Ford convert and ripped the rag top off and filled-r up with forwood.

Currently burnin green Sassafrass ICE fall limbs ,,.Hav'nt burned Any split wood this year , Just limby nusuance wood limb falls from IKE and ICE and all the CRAZY damwind in between..lots a uprooted trees in pasture ,Couple days aweek , I Take the saw and Roundbales out to fedd the Cows , Saw up limbs and tops that will go thru the the furnace door ,, saw out a tankful of gas ,, then load up on poles across bale forks a load that will last a couple days, Wife and I LUV the fireplace and most sasafras will go there , trash wood and hardwood in the basement furnace ,,, for yrs had a waterline set up that transfered heat thruout house,, got a central boiler outsidethat caught fire when the dogs got in a fight with a possum under the boiler , and ruptured a waterline duringthe nite couple years back,, gotta fix that too someday

Corn Corn Corn

I use a bushel a day and have been comfy for the last 5 years.

In fact, in '03 the propane company filled my 300 gal tank (at a discount for new service) and have recently send me some pretty Pi$$y setters saying that they now want me to rent the tank for $60/year, as the contract requires me to use 300 gal/year... I haven't had any added since it was filled in '03. Only use gas for stove, water heater is electric

My chimney clogged up tonight as I lit the fire. Smoked up the living room and tomorrow I have a new job to do, Bummer!

Pellets or corn the only way to go