Anyone Heat With Wood?
- Thread starter Geico266
- Start date
Everskyward
Experimenter
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2005
- Messages
- 33,454
- Display Name
Display name:
Everskyward
Is there anyone who heats only with wood? If so, what do you do when you go away for a few days?
gkainz
Final Approach
Hickory? clean, fresh, unstained, untreated hickory? Like, hickory I could put in my smoker under some big old beef brisket?
Edit - just read the rest of the thread and saw the "pecan" comment ... man, now I'm really hungry - time to fire up the smoker, now that we're supposed to be above 0 again.
Last edited:
Geico266
Touchdown! Greaser!
I use only wood until we go somewhere, then I turn the thermostat down to 55. We could drain the pipes, winterize the house and turn the heat off.
RickH
Pre-takeoff checklist
We have a Jotul woodburning insert in the stone fireplace up at the cabin in far northern MN but the place isn't set up for year-round use. The insert is more than sufficient to keep the place toasty warm in the fall. Here at the timeshare unit we're in this week we have a nice woodburning fireplace for recreational burning. I much prefer a real woodburning fireplace to a gas one.
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
The folks I know that have heated only by wood had some kind of backup system to keep the pipes from freezing. Heat tape, backup heating system, etc.
When I lived in New York, most of my heat came from a woodburning fireplace insert.... the hot water came off a oil furnace that also fed a closed-loop baseboard hot water system. But the oil bill was a few hundred gallons a year for backup furnace & hot water. We got probably 80% of our heat from the wood stove. Burned a lot of wood each year.
I'm thinking about getting an insert for one of the fireplaces in my house here in DC. The one I'm looking at is rated up to 27.500 BTU, which is about 1/3 of the rating of the gas furnace.
OffCenter
Pre-takeoff checklist
When I bought my house waaay back in 1977 I bought a Vermont Castings Defiant woodstove. Cost me $400 brand new. That stove has been heating my house all winter every year since then. The house has propane hot water baseboard heat, but I never turn it on. (except to check that it still works.) They ROB you here in Jersey for propane. It's unregulated, so if you try to save propane by using less, they charge you more! The last propane filling I got (for the water heater and cooking) was 3.99 a gallon! Thieves!!
As for the question about going away, we are homebodys who hate winter so we never go anywhere in winter. If I did, I would have to leave the propane heat turned on LOW.
I gather up whatever wood I can find for free and buy some from a local guy who sells it as a hobby.
I've been doing it so long that it's completely normal to me.
Right now as I sit here typing this in my living room, it's 78 in here and 17 degrees outside. Ahhhh!!
As for the question about going away, we are homebodys who hate winter so we never go anywhere in winter. If I did, I would have to leave the propane heat turned on LOW.
I gather up whatever wood I can find for free and buy some from a local guy who sells it as a hobby.
I've been doing it so long that it's completely normal to me.
Right now as I sit here typing this in my living room, it's 78 in here and 17 degrees outside. Ahhhh!!
Obi Heed Kenobi
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2007
- Messages
- 10,918
- Display Name
Display name:
iBo Deeh Ibonek
Woodstove and white oak will run you out of a room in short order.
P.S. - build yourself a woodsplitter. Your life will be so much better.
Last edited:
Let'sgoflying!
Touchdown! Greaser!
anyone know a good way to make a 'log' out of hardwood pallets? I have a limitless supply of these and was toying with cutting them up, somehow making logs out of them so they don't burn so quickly. Wire? Nails? Something combustible would be nice.
Obi Heed Kenobi
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2007
- Messages
- 10,918
- Display Name
Display name:
iBo Deeh Ibonek
(Chuckle!)
I suspect we get the two Dave Taylors together (one a Doc of Jurisprudence, the other, a Doc of Critter Care), we might see some stuff blown up for fun!
I suspect we get the two Dave Taylors together (one a Doc of Jurisprudence, the other, a Doc of Critter Care), we might see some stuff blown up for fun!
Geico266
Touchdown! Greaser!
Wire tie them so the flat sides are togeather. Experiment to see what works best, use an airtight stove so control combustion.
AdamZ
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2005
- Messages
- 14,869
- Location
- Montgomery County PA
- Display Name
Display name:
Adam Zucker
Do you use it to heat or more for ambiance? I think a bag of pellets is what $4-5.
How does pellet burn compare to wood?
The one thing about pellets that concerns me is the whole grid failure thing. If G-d forbid we have a major catastrophic event and the power grid comes crashing down One can always cut down wood, chop it and burn it. Pellets ya gotta get at the store. I hear they burn a loooong time though.
DutchessFlier
Line Up and Wait
Yep!!
We have a Country Flame R-6 wood buring heater with a Catalytic Converter installed in the flue. My house is a raised ranch, the stove sits in the far corner of the downstairs room which get way toasty and the heat travels upstairs and does the rest of the house. It is work, but I get away with burning about a full cord of wood to supplement the oil heat system, and I save lots of $$$$ on fuel oil. I can bank the stove around 9-10PM and its still going strong at 6-7AM
We have a Country Flame R-6 wood buring heater with a Catalytic Converter installed in the flue. My house is a raised ranch, the stove sits in the far corner of the downstairs room which get way toasty and the heat travels upstairs and does the rest of the house. It is work, but I get away with burning about a full cord of wood to supplement the oil heat system, and I save lots of $$$$ on fuel oil. I can bank the stove around 9-10PM and its still going strong at 6-7AM
timwinters
Ejection Handle Pulled
We have a traditional fireplace with an insert, a stove and an underslab hydronic radiant heat system. We also have conventional heat but don't use it much unless were gone. As other have stated, cutting wood is one of my favorite things to do and we have plenty of trees on our place and a couple of other pieces of land we own.
I get a kick out of this one. I couldn't find the exact regulation just now but firewood must be sold by the cord or fraction thereof. It's illegal to sell firewood by any other measurement such as rick, rack, face cord, truckload, etc. because they're all undefined. I believe this is a federal thing but I'm not sure. I do know that it's illegal in Missouri...but no one pays attention to it...you'll see ricks, face cords and truck loads for sale in the paper every day.
I get a kick out of this one. I couldn't find the exact regulation just now but firewood must be sold by the cord or fraction thereof. It's illegal to sell firewood by any other measurement such as rick, rack, face cord, truckload, etc. because they're all undefined. I believe this is a federal thing but I'm not sure. I do know that it's illegal in Missouri...but no one pays attention to it...you'll see ricks, face cords and truck loads for sale in the paper every day.
kevin47881
Final Approach
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_rick_of_wood
In these parts, wood is sold by the truck load but one must be cautious as to what constitutes a truck load.
I just cut and split my own and enjoy the work out. Although, tomorrow I am going to use a friends splitter. Go figure. 
ClimbnSink
Ejection Handle Pulled
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2007
- Messages
- 6,997
- Display Name
Display name:
Greg
It is in the UCC I believe. To be legal the wood has to be stacked and measured either before delivery or after. No one does it though.
Geico266
Touchdown! Greaser!
Now there is a skill kids today no nothing of, banking a fire for the night.
The snow was too deep here for me to get to my wood supply so I had to buy my first fire wood ever. The commercial wood seller says; "Fill your pick up truck for $75." He stays in side and does not even watch. Nice time I'm opening the doors and REALLY filling the truck up!
Last edited:
timwinters
Ejection Handle Pulled
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_rick_of_wood
Only if you're burning 16" logs. I burn 24" logs thus my rick is 4x8x2. This is why a rick, rank and face cord are undefined because the volume varies depending upon the length of the logs.
A cord, being 4x4x8, works with both 16" and 24" logs. It's three ricks of 16" logs and two ricks of 24" logs. This also illustrates why a rick doesn't have a specific volume.
I didn't write the laws, I'm just aware that they exist...at least in some states. Not that anyone pays attention to them anyway. 10 years ago or so, when I lived in Springfield, MO, the local newspaper would have the law published at the top the firewood section in the classifieds. Immediately below most people were still advertising wood for sale by the face cord, rick and truckload. It was always good for a chuckle when reading the sunday paper. :smile:
Only if you're burning 16" logs. I burn 24" logs thus my rick is 4x8x2. This is why a rick, rank and face cord are undefined because the volume varies depending upon the length of the logs.
A cord, being 4x4x8, works with both 16" and 24" logs. It's three ricks of 16" logs and two ricks of 24" logs. This also illustrates why a rick doesn't have a specific volume.
I didn't write the laws, I'm just aware that they exist...at least in some states. Not that anyone pays attention to them anyway. 10 years ago or so, when I lived in Springfield, MO, the local newspaper would have the law published at the top the firewood section in the classifieds. Immediately below most people were still advertising wood for sale by the face cord, rick and truckload. It was always good for a chuckle when reading the sunday paper. :smile:
Last edited: