Wood Heating?

[Cabin Fever]

Anyone use woodstove to heat their home? Is this your sole source of heat? How much wood do you go through each winter?

I got a used woodstove last fall and I am wondering how much wood I should expect to go through. This isn't the latest/greatest efficiency woodstove, but is airtight. The woodstove is in my basement, where I needed a heat source for the family room, but the heat obviously radiates through the floor, open old laundry shoot, and open basement door, so it keeps it pretty toasty upstairs, which cuts down on the gas bill quite a bit.

I "think" I went through 1 face cord/wk. last winter, when I did burn. I haven't decided if it's still worth my while to cut and split that much wood or if I should just burn on the weekends, when the family room gets used the most anyway.

[fasteddie]

We bought an airtight woodstove about 20 years ago . Havn't used it in two years .We have a 4 bedroom colonial and it heated a good part of the house . It really dries out the air so we always put a pan of water on it for moisture . I had placed a register in the floor in the upstairs hallway to get some heat up there and some heat could travel up the stairway . We used to burn about 6+ facecords of mixed hardwood a season .

I would always panic if I left the house and wasn't positive as to whether or not I had closed the damper .......

I was buying split hardwood in 10 facecord loads for about $50 a facecord but that was a few years ago .

[Geno C]

i have baseboard heating in my house. but last year i bought a pellot stove and ill tell you, best investment! my house is so warm you can walk around in your skibbies lol.

i usually leave it at around 73 but on cold nights or just when were in the mood to be really warm i can blast it up. i can get it so hot in there you need to open windows lol

[ELMER J. FUDD]

Geno, how much are the pellets costing you per season?

[solon]

i use a wood stove on main floor and pellets in basement -

pellets run 250 -275 a ton.

I burn about 5 facecords a year of wood in woodstove - my wife likes it hot in the house so that's why i burn that much wood

[Dinsdale]

There of course several factors;building type,footage,construction,degree days for the season......

I heat a 2 floor building (shop downstairs on insulated slab, and living on second floor)

Around 2200 sq ft total, decent construction, and on average about 5 full chords per season. I always figure 20 weeks (mid Nov-mid April);

A little more than a face cord per week,when it's real cold. That keeps me around 70* upstairs and 65* down. I have a custom air handler to move the air(heat) around, and to shut off any draft from the shop when making a mess down there. (I burn oil if I'm busy to heat upstairs...around 75 gallons/year)

My wood is free...either my property or scrounged....I enjoy cutting and splitting, and the fact I carry the mess in the shop makes it easier I feel. I hated burning in my house and carrying the mess inside. I think I would do pellets in that case.

I think the key for saftey is burning good dry wood, I have never had a problem in 15 years for a chimney. I just give it a good brushing after the season....sometimes twice if the snow melts a bit on a decent day.

[Cabin Fever]

I burn about 5 facecords a year of wood in woodstove - my wife likes it hot in the house so that's why i burn that much wood

Surely that's not burning 24/7 from Oct-March?

[HounderEmily]

My place is a log cabin, about 25 X 30, open plan.  I have a woodstove in the basement.  I do have baseboard electric heaters as a backup, but I think they're dangerous and rarely use them except to speed things up when I've been away.  I just replaced the woodstove this summer.  The leaky old one with warped everything took about 3 1/2 full cords per winter in a cold winter, less in a milder one. I expect that will go down with the new stove.  Once the place is warm, I rarely need to run the stove during daylight hours.  My basement is wet, so I don't have a problem with the stove drying things out.  

[Geno C]

Geno, how much are the pellets costing you per season?

lasy year i bought alittle over 3 tons. i have half ton left from that season... average is 250 - 300 per ton, depending which type you get. i like the hardwood pellets... i have a 2000sq ft home, 3 levels and i have it on the middle floor in the living room. it heats the whole house except the bottom level but i put the base board heat on a little down there, it comes on and all the heats stays down there due to the upper levels being alot warmer. so the base board heat doesn't kick on as much...

going to grab another 2 tons for this season and i should be good.... prob cost me between 500 - 600 bux

[solon]

I burn about 5 facecords a year of wood in woodstove - my wife likes it hot in the house so that's why i burn that much wood

Surely that's not burning 24/7 from Oct-March?

your correct that's not 24x7 - on weekends yes its' 24-x7 - monday thru friday i start at 4:30 at night (after work) and fill it before sleep so it burns till morning

[rock]

i used about 22 facecord last year it was my only heat source in a hotblast furnace

[Cabin Fever]

i used about 22 facecord last year it was my only heat source in a hotblast furnace

Good God man! Are there any trees left around your place??? LOL

Did you cut it yourself or buy that much?

[Cabin Fever]

What is a face cord of split hardwood going for in your neck of the woods? The best I can find it for locally is $55/fc if picked up or $65/fc delivered. It seems like a lot of money, but I also know it's a lot of work too!

I cut and split 9 face cords myself that'll be ready to go. I figure I'll buy 6 face cords and see where that gets me.

[fasteddie]

In my younger years , I bought log loads , cut the wood to length and then split it by hand . That's kinda rough on the wrists ! Then i started buying wood cut to length that I had to split .I found out that i could buy the wood split for $5 more a facecord and bought it split . I havn't bought wood or used the stove in 2 years .

[Doc]

Back in the mid 70's, we had a wood stove installed in a small room off the side of the livingroom. The system worked great in that there was a natural flow back through the entire top floor. I live in the middle of the woods, so the wood supply was easy.

All that was the good news. However, if my time was worth anything, it was probably not the cheapest thing in the world. There was always ashes to remove, wood to cut, skid down to the house and then buck up and split, carry, stack and store. Then there was the carrying wood into the house, along with the occasional weird bug or two that would show up inside. There was a constant film of dust on everything that kept the wife busy trying to keep up with. I had a pretty regular schedule of cleaning out the stove pipe to remove the creosote build-up that is usually responsible for chimney fires. What a crappy, messy job that was. But the final straw was the day we had a muffled explosion inside the stove that actually blew hot coals out on the floor through the damper. I remember thinking that if we hadn't been home, our house would likely have burned down. That was the end of our use of wood for heat, and I can't say that I really miss it at all.

Doc

[Cabin Fever]

I finished off the basement and needed a cheap heat source. I have hotwater baseboard heat upstairs, but the boiler wasn't big enough to add another zone for the basement. A friend had a very nice woodstove that he didn't use and wanted it out of his living room. Told me if I could get it out of there, it was mine. Figured a free woodstove and free firewood from my property would work out nice.

It is a lot of work if you do it yourself! I did 9 facecords myself in ~2 weeks span. I wanted to get 15 facecords, but got laid up. I'll buy the rest this year.

It does get old hauling wood in, going up and down the stairs checking and loading the stove, and dealing with hot ashes, worrying about carbon monoxide, etc...

BUT, I must say that the heat it produces feels so much better than the other heat from the HWBB. It like penetrates into the body or something! So nice on a cold, blustery, winter day!

[rock]

i buy logs i use a tri axle worth a year

[SteveB]

You should be getting your wood now for next winter so it seasons properly - that means cut, split and stacked. This coming winters wood should have been done last summer. Should always be a year ahead minimum for most efficient and safe burning.

[Doc]

BUT, I must say that the heat it produces feels so much better than the other heat from the HWBB. It like penetrates into the body or something! So nice on a cold, blustery, winter day!

I don't know what there is about it, but a wood stove does seem to throw off a warmer heat, or at least it does feel warmer even when the thermometer has the same reading. How could that be? ...... But when we were burning wood, I swore that was the case too.

Doc

[Cabin Fever]

Yeah, if we just run the HWBB heat and have it set on 72, we still have to wear sweatshirts and/or sit around with a blanket on. If we have the woodstove going and it has the house at 70 degrees, we're walking around in shorts and tee shirts!

[SteveB]

Woodstoves heat with radiant and natural house currents, so heat transfer is more gentle and objects(people) are heated. Forced air systems are just that - mechanically moving the air. Think about where you sit in the summer to cool down - in a breeze or in front of a fan.

I've been building, servicing and selling woodstoves for 35 years. Love the heat, but like the convenience of a pellet stove these days. But I think everyone needs to go buy a new one this year

[Cabin Fever]

Is it possible to convert existing woodstoves to pellet? Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen a pellet stove, certainly heard of them, just haven't laid my eyes on one.

[SteveB]

No - can't convert. They use an auger to feed to a burn pot, a blower for combustion, and a fan for heat circulation.

[sits in trees]

i've been burning wood for decades, i hate oil companies. i go thru about 4 cords per years and split by hand, i cut the trees from my property, don't need a gym membership, and love burning wood.

[sits in trees]

Pellet stoves are great but your back to the same old problem of having to rely on a company/corp to get your pellets.