Heating with wood.

[BraggSurvivor]

I'm just curious, how many members here at WSF heat there homes with wood? I just got back from a trip back east and was suprised at how many rural homes and farmers heated their homes/shops with wood.

For myself, I use a Jotul airtight stove that heats my home completely during the winter. My gas bills run between $32 - $50 a month and most of that is carrier charges. My shop and quonsets are heated by a WoodMaster 6500 furnace that takes 60" length wood and burns for about a week at a time. With rising heating prices the initial cost of the furnaces will pay for itself in no time.

How many of you burn wood or are considering it?

[Rick]

Bragg - My home is all electric with heat pump but I do have a fire place that burns most of the winter. I can't kick too much about electric rates or the cost of heating my home. I have double insulated windows and about 18 inches of blown cellulose in the attic. That keeps the rates pretty low. My biggest expense is my water heater.

[BraggSurvivor]

Bragg - My home is all electric with heat pump but I do have a fire place that burns most of the winter. I can't kick too much about electric rates or the cost of heating my home. I have double insulated windows and about 18 inches of blown cellulose in the attic. That keeps the rates pretty low. My biggest expense is my water heater.

Have you thought about an airtight insert vs the open fireplace?

[crashdive123]

I did when I lived in the Seattle area. Small wood burning stove in living room with a blower. Heated the entire house nicely. We had an oil burning furnace. Didn't use it once in the several years I lived there.

[Rick]

I have but I like the open fire too much. My brother in law has a stove in his basement and one in his living room and those things will run you out. He had a wood stove in his other home with a fresh air return just above it. The return had a thermostat for the furnace blower so the wood stove would kick the furnace blower on and distribute the heat through the house. That was about the most efficient set up I've ever seen.

I just like to watch the fire.

[crashdive123]

Helped a friend build a home up north. Large, two story home. Built it with what I think were called air floors. Basically metal ducting, covered with a thinset type material, slate floors, ducts in the walls, ducts under the flooring on second floor. Family room had a wood stove (pretty good sized) with a blower. House was on the water (Hood Canal) and about 5,500 sq. ft. That one stove did a nice job heating the entire house.

[BraggSurvivor]

I have 6 covered "wood bunkers" on the property that are rotated every year. I clean an area of dead fall/dead standing and fill or build another bunker as needed. All wood that is solid and larger than 5" is used for heating fuel. Any punky wood or branches is piled and sent through the chipper and put back into the soil. In the picture there is a 20 ton hydralic splitter (tarped) that attaches to the tractor. Makes the job fast and easy.

Here is a pic of a typical wood bunker:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v258/Bructer/IMGP0420.jpg

[Rick]

Of course, if you don't live where there's cold and snow you don't need the wood.

[flandersander]

whats an airtight stove? simply a steel stove? we have a geothermal furnace. not sure how it works really but we only pay about 1000 bucks a year for heat. we have a wood stove aswell.

[LadyTrapper]

Airtight means just that...airtight..
so the wood burns slow and efficiently. Yes they are metal stove with drafts that will open but also close and seal tight for a longer burn. The more air a fire gets, the quicker it burns up and out....wasting and using ALOT of your wood.
We have an airtight woodchief in the living room and one in the basement, it is 88 F in my house right now even with a foot of snow and blustering northeast wind outside...pheww!!!

$500 worth of hardwood will do the winter, around 7 cords. We cut some of our own and throw in a bit of slab wood for mix. THe slab wood is soft wood, which burns up faster of course, but burns hot!!!

[crashdive123]

Lady Trapper: Where in Nova Scotia? I used to spend my summers at my grandparents in Riverport. About halfway between Lunenburg and Bridgewater.

[Sourdough]

Airtight stoves are now illegal to sell in America. You have to build it yourself. Here is the test. Can you close all the dampers airtight, so the fire smothers and goes out. About 1985'ish the EPA started regulating wood stoves.

There was a company named Airtight that made sheetmetal woodstoves for wall tents. In 1984 they sold for $14.95 each, after EPA 1985 they were put out of business. I bought the last ten stoves the hardware store had for $20.00 each, and sold them to other guides for $100.00 each.

After that we had to make them out of 15 gal. or 30 gal. lubrication barrels. With a wall tent when you leave for the day you want to be able to smother the fire out. Plus the charred wood is easy to re-fire.

[Rick]

They say the best wood to burn is the closest but here's a nice chart that gives you the burning characteristics of different woods:

http://extension.usu.edu/forestry/HomeTown/General_HeatingWithWood.htm

[crashdive123]

There was a company named Airtight that made sheetmetal woodstoves for wall tents. In 1984 they sold for $14.95 each, after EPA 1985 they were put out of business. I bought the last ten stoves the hardware store had for $20.00 each, and sold them to other guides for $100.00 each.


Ahhhh. The great entrepreneurial spirit..nice job Hopeak.:D

[wareagle69]

whats a gas bill?
i use wood stove and am looking at a wood boiler to heat all my buildings

[Ole WV Coot]

:) I bit the bullet last year and dropped a bundle on all new windows, storm doors etc. I don't have gas but have a very good heating and cooling system installed a couple of years ago. Finally got the house maintenance free outside but the Buck insert in the basement has paid for itself many times over. We have an abundance of wood and you can't beat the heat on a cold day. The furnace seldom kicks on. I predict someone will try to "save the environment" and ban wood burning soon. My all electric house plus outbuildings is around $50.00 monthly thanks to the Buck.

[BraggSurvivor]

whats a gas bill?
i use wood stove and am looking at a wood boiler to heat all my buildings


How do you heat your water? What do you cook on? Electric?

[LadyTrapper]

Lady Trapper: Where in Nova Scotia? I used to spend my summers at my grandparents in Riverport. About halfway between Lunenburg and Bridgewater.


We are on the south western shore...just cross country from Lunenburg and Bridgewater which are about a 3 hour drive from here. Small world eh?

[LadyTrapper]

They say the best wood to burn is the closest but here's a nice chart that gives you the burning characteristics of different woods:

http://extension.usu.edu/forestry/HomeTown/General_HeatingWithWood.htm


What a great resource Rick, thanks alot for that!:D

[Rick]

My pleasure. Enjoy.

[BraggSurvivor]

Airtight stoves are now illegal to sell in America. You have to build it yourself. Here is the test. Can you close all the dampers airtight, so the fire smothers and goes out. About 1985'ish the EPA started regulating wood stoves.

There was a company named Airtight that made sheetmetal woodstoves for wall tents. In 1984 they sold for $14.95 each, after EPA 1985 they were put out of business. I bought the last ten stoves the hardware store had for $20.00 each, and sold them to other guides for $100.00 each.

After that we had to make them out of 15 gal. or 30 gal. lubrication barrels. With a wall tent when you leave for the day you want to be able to smother the fire out. Plus the charred wood is easy to re-fire.

hopeak, I search wood stove sales in US and seems sales are still available. Am I missing something?

[Rick]

It looks to me like the new rules required wood stoves to be more efficient but did not ban them. Here is a link to the EPA Wood stove site:

http://www.epa.gov/woodstoves/basic.html

Another link:

http://hearth.com/what/epa.html

[Sourdough]

They are not "Air tight". You can 'NOT" smother the fire out. The want them to burn very hot. I am house sitting a friends house this winter they have a new wood stove that the dealer said was AIR TIGHT, It AIN'T. if it get 2" or 3" of glowing coals, and I fill the stove with rounds. It roars so hot it is frightining, And this is with the damper closed. But what they call closed now is half wide open. On a true AIR TIGHT stove you can put the fire out in the firebox if the chimmny is on fire. I will pay $1,000.00 for a good small "TRUE" Air Tight stove. A small one. If fact I need three.

[Sourdough]

The new stoves are made for entertainment, not wood pile management. They are made to show lots of pretty flames through the glass door. The EPA want full combustion the only way it to run it very hot. Which is fine on Friday night for 4 hours. But if you were heating with a new stove you will burn about 5 to 6 times as much wood. One thing some people do is weld the pretty door shut, and cut a opening in the end and but in a new door and damper. So you tell me how it helps the environment to burn 5 or 6 times as much wood. Not to mention the chainsaw fuel, bar oil, truck fuel to transport, etc..

[wareagle69]

well first i go to the back yard with an axe swing a couple of times yell at little brown dog to get out of the way, then i watch the tree fall down go boom yell at lbd again then i take bow saw and cut up tree into sections go get horse to pull sections back to log pile yell at lbd again for barking at biskit then get up logs into little pieces of wood yell at lbd for barking at squrreil that lives in wood pile then haul it into the house and let it sit there after all that who needs a fire i'm tired i'm taking a nap and hey look its lbd again to snuggle and keep me warm, sorry what was the question again?

[Sourdough]

My little Brown Dog is more useless than your little brown Dog. But he does eat the squirrels all but the tail. He even eats the head. There are tails everywhere.

[trax]

When I was up north, I heated my house with a woodstove, two story, 4 bedroom, family room and laundry room, living room, kitchen, dining room two baths...it took about 12 cords/year. We had some pretty long and cold winters. I made some ducts between the floors in two rooms and had a blower fan.