Heating with wood

[VincentVega]

I'm old school, read cheap, and do it manly way I have to take a few splits off the biggest pieces but I dont need to go to the gym days I get firewood.

[Bugsinrugs]

My son is a grad student at Virginia Tech. He and his girlfriend are renting an old un insulated house there in Blacksburg. I helped him collect 4 cords of wood this fall. His source of heat is a wood burning furnace in the basement. He has already gone through the 4 cords and had to get another cord. I don’t think that recent cord will get him to spring. Oh well he is young and I’m sure he is doing a lot of spooning with his cute girlfriend.

[ckelly78z]

My Regency woodstove is about 10' away from me right now, and operating with the pipe damper, and the air control over 1/2 closed. The magnetic thermometer on the (outside surface) top of the stove reads 600 degrees, because the windchill outside is -30 degrees. The downstairs of my old farm house is about 68, and the upstairs about 60.....nice sleeping temp with no other form of heat.

[ckelly78z]

As you can see, I had a decent amount of seasoned wood in October. The barn is 40' wide, and the stacks are 7' tall. The last day of January, and I have just started with my 2nd out of two full rows of wood.

In one of the pictures, you can see a pile started for next year, and some of the toys I have to help me accomplish this.

In the background above the backhoe, you can see next years firewood still dead standing, along with many others along the creek.

[mepstein]

I imagine if you heat solely with wood you are pretty housebound during the winter. Right?

[dan79brooklyn]

I grew up in Southern Vermont, and we always used wood stoves.
When we were designing our house in Japan the architect suggested a wood stove.
I’m so happy we put it in. We get 20-30 tree trunks delivered a year which I have to cut and chop and stack. I totally enjoy the work. The winters are fairly mild here, but the stove keeps the house cozy and warm.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by mepstein

I imagine if you heat solely with wood you are pretty housebound during the winter. Right?

It depends on the stove you have, but yep, most of them need regular attention. With the wood I have I need to load my stove about every 2 to 4 hours.
edit:
I should add, that is to maintain a warm house. At night I let it die down and let the house cool down, sometimes to 60 degrees. There will still be hot coals in the stove in the morning. I just throw more wood in and off we go. I don't use the stove in very cold weather and the more frequent attention it requires is one of the reasons. It depends on the wood you have too. I've got some dry ash that goes up like newspaper, and some greener ash that will smolder for hours.

[mepstein]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

It depends on the stove you have, but yep, most of them need regular attention. With the wood I have I need to load my stove about every 2 to 4 hours.

Yikes!

[red-beard]

I heated my House in Western Mass with wood. The main heating system was fuel oil, which was pricey (ha! $1.25/gal...in the 1990s). I used about 3 cords a year supplementing. I forgot the cost back then, maybe $150-200 and reduced my fuel consumption by 1/2. Before wood, I remember spending $300 in February.

[VincentVega]

I get 8-10 hrs on full load on all but the coldest days. Key is an efficient stove, reasonably tight and insulated house and dry hardwood.

[ckelly78z]

The previous owners were using 2100 gallons of propane a year for stictly heating the house (electric appliances, and water heater). I save about $4000 a year burning wood, and it keeps me in shape, and off of my butt.

During a normal Winter day, I load it at 5:00 in the morning, about 3:00 in the afternoon, throw another log in about 6, and load it up for the overnight about 9. This keeps the house at 72 when the outside temp is 25-30. A strong wind, or sub zero temps, or worse yet, a combo of the two like we have had for the last 3 days requires more attention, but what are you planning to do outside in -30 windchills ?

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

The previous owners were using 2100 gallons of propane a year for stictly heating the house (electric appliances, and water heater). I save about $4000 a year burning wood, and it keeps me in shape, and off of my butt.

During a normal Winter day, I load it at 5:00 in the morning, about 3:00 in the afternoon, throw another log in about 6, and load it up for the overnight about 9. This keeps the house at 72 when the outside temp is 25-30. A strong wind, or sub zero temps, or worse yet, a combo of the two like we have had for the last 3 days requires more attention, but what are you planning to do outside in -30 windchills ?

We supplemented. Nights and weekends. During the day, the heat was set to 50F. I remember in the deep winter, the fuel oil truck delivering about 200-225 gallons every three weeks before we started using wood on a regular basis. We probably used 1500+ before and about half that afterwards.

[VincentVega]

Yikes. When I first moved here i filled the oil tank at 3.xx/ gal. Last time. If I had natural gas, wood would be secondary. I spent a bunch of time and money sealing and insulating when I moved here. Only a few old window a left.

[GH85Carrera]

I love my natural gas furnace. Cheap and easy to heat the house even on the coldest days.

My parents had a cabin at the lake in Alabama when I was still living at home. They would let me and some friends use it in the winter time when they did not feel like fishing. The rules were simple, clean up everything to look JUST like it did when we walked in. The only heat in the house was wood in the fireplace. So we had to go split some wood, stack that in the pile, bring in enough for the night, and straighten up everything. We always left the stack of cut wood higher than it was, and cleaned up the place real well so we were allowed to go back. Mostly to drink beer and play cards and act like idiots with no parents around. The best find was a local man that was happy to come over and pick up all the beer cans and haul them off to get rid of the evidence.

[CurtEgerer]

Wood-burners kept me employed for many years. Part of what my company did was investigation of structure fires. And we could always count on a steady business in the winter months. Most improperly installed. Some just lack of cleaning. Many caught fire 15-20 years after installation because of lack of proper clearance to combustibles. The years of heat would slowly lower the ignition point of the hidden wall framing and then it would just take one more fire to ignite the whole thing. "Never had a problem until yesterday!" was the usual statement from the owner. I don't even allow candles to be burned in the house. But obviously I'm slightly biased

[mepstein]

We live in the woods with acreage but are in and out too much to consider daily wood maintenance. All the downed trees go to my neighbor but he helps me with lots of stuff in return. We did go from propane heat to a hybrid system of a heat pump with propane backup. Seems to be working well. I control it with a Nest thermostat so I know if there's an issue when I'm away.

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

Wood-burners kept me employed for many years. Part of what my company did was investigation of structure fires. And we could always count on a steady business in the winter months. Most improperly installed. Some just lack of cleaning. Many caught fire 15-20 years after installation because of lack of proper clearance to combustibles. The years of heat would slowly lower the ignition point of the hidden wall framing and then it would just take one more fire to ignite the whole thing. "Never had a problem until yesterday!" was the usual statement from the owner. I don't even allow candles to be burned in the house. But obviously I'm slightly biased

25 years ago when I installed my woodstove, I set it 24" away from a corner interior wall with metal heat shields, that both have a 1" air space behind them. The stove sits on a raised tile platform that extends 24" on all sides. The 6" black pipe that exits the stove makes a 90 degree elbow into metalbestus triple wall polished stainless pipe, that goes through the wall with a 6" air gap all the way around it (we cut an 18" square out of the wall, and mounted a pipe isolator).

The 3 wall pipe goes through the wall to a 3 wall "T" that has a cleanout underneath. The 3 wall pipe extends for 23' up the outside of the house, and through an angled eve with the same 6" isolator, and another 4' above the peak for good draw.

I generally clean the pipe 3 times a year, with special attention to the stainless cap, that gets partially clogged with creosote. The stove burns so efficient that I usually get about 1-2" of soot, and creosote in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket from all 30' of pipe. I take it seriously !

[Evans, Marv]

I have a question about those chimney sweeping logs. Are they affective in any way? I use my main fireplace in the living room some nights when it's near freezing here, so as many as ten or twelve times a season. It's an insert that draws air from the outside and blows warm air into the room. I tried cleaning the pipe out a few years ago and it had a barely discernible scale of what I took to maybe be creosote. I've looked at it a few times and any coating I see seems to be negligible. Each winter I burn maybe a couple of those chimney sweeping logs and just bought one not too long ago to use.

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

25 years ago when I installed my woodstove, I set it 24" away from a corner interior wall with metal heat shields, that both have a 1" air space behind them. The stove sits on a raised tile platform that extends 24" on all sides. The 6" black pipe that exits the stove makes a 90 degree elbow into metalbestus triple wall polished stainless pipe, that goes through the wall with a 6" air gap all the way around it (we cut an 18" square out of the wall, and mounted a pipe isolator).

The 3 wall pipe goes through the wall to a 3 wall "T" that has a cleanout underneath. The 3 wall pipe extends for 23' up the outside of the house, and through an angled eve with the same 6" isolator, and another 4' above the peak for good draw.

I generally clean the pipe 3 times a year, with special attention to the stainless cap, that gets partially clogged with creosote. The stove burns so efficient that I usually get about 1-2" of soot, and creosote in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket from all 30' of pipe. I take it seriously !

That's the way to do it!

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

I have a question about those chimney sweeping logs. Are they affective in any way? I use my main fireplace in the living room some nights when it's near freezing here, so as many as ten or twelve times a season. It's an insert that draws air from the outside and blows warm air into the room. I tried cleaning the pipe out a few years ago and it had a barely discernible scale of what I took to maybe be creosote. I've looked at it a few times and any coating I see seems to be negligible. Each winter I burn maybe a couple of those chimney sweeping logs and just bought one not too long ago to use.

In your situation (light usage), they probably do a reasonable job, and certainly won't hurt anything. But manual cleaning is the only real way to remove significant creosote and other potential obstructions (bird's nests,etc.), and to actually inspect the flue for damage.