Frank talk about firewood

His partner in the business burns only soft maple and ash in his high efficiency box stove. He claims that oak and hard maple produce lots of heat but fill the stove too quickly with ashes and unburned coals. In the long run soft maple and ash give a better burn for the effort.

Interesting idea.

They said that black locust was the best wood for heat, and that the trees would mature between 12 and 15 years...and that 1 acre of black locust would heat an average house in an average winter. So the presumption of the article was, if you had 15 acres to convert to wood production, and planted 1 acre of black locust seedlings every year for 15 years, you could become self-sufficient from the heating standpoint. Of course, at the time the state was selling black locust seedlings, so they had a vested interest in consumers buying this story...and the trees to make it work.

Now, I don't know anyone who ever did that...but I'm curious to know if any of you folks ever recall hearing anything similar.

-mike

Soft (Red) , Black, or Swamp (silver)Maple don't last anywhere near as long - but do dry a lot faster when stacked outside.

We use cheap second hand stoves. I do have a Husky chainsaw, but only go through about ten or fifteen gallons of gas per year. We get most of our wood during the summer at a local sawmill. It is all oak tie cutoffs, most pieces less than 16". I need to cut up some of the larger pieces and I also split some up with a maul to make firestarter wood. We do cut wood on a neighbor's land during the winter (too hot in summer for such work). He has about 600 acres spread around the neighborhood, with lots of overmature oaks, etc. which have been blowing down a few at a time over the past ten years. He doesn't mind us cutting, we give him and his wife some free eggs every few weeks, the wood is almost predried, it gets me outside with my sons alone during the winter, I get an opportunity to run different tractors during the off season for something other than feeding hay, and my wife thinks of me as a hero for doing such a good job of heating the house. On top of this, it only costs about $200-$400 per year in cash out of pocket, depending upon how much cold weather we get.

Our cash producing business is extremely slow during the winter, so I have plenty of time and basically no income. In the summer I only get about 6 or 7 pickup loads of oak chunks, and each load takes about two hours to load, unload and stack, drive time included.

I guess the advisability of wood heat depends upon your situation.

Christopher

But what I'm really excited about is my solar air heater. Basically a 4'x8'x4" (or whatever) box on the outside wall with clear polycarbonate over it and a bathroom fan to draw cool air off the garage floor and blow it through the box and back in the garage halfway up the wall. And you can make one yourself (check out oynot.com for the complete scoop). I'm going to make one or two for my barn, too. They say they'll run you out of a 1000' space.

The only truly cheap, safe and clean heat, fellows, is sunlight. My two...

• Solar heater

I've burnt wood for the past 30yrs for heat. My last wood pile supplied me with very dry pine and I'de brun about 4 cords/yr. Well all good things must come to a end and I lost my pine wood source.

I found a place that sells firewood stacked 25ft high on 5ac. I don't care what anyone says, that's alot of firewood for Phoenix. They carry several different woods and the wood guy told me red gum was the best for heat. I burn about 1 cord/yr of the red gum VS 4cds/yr of the pine.

Yes the hard wood has more ash but also yields more BTU per cord. I've tried some of the softer woods but none have the BTU yield of the red gum.

Hopefully this will be my last year with firewood other than back-up heat as I designed my new house to use solar HW for heating.

T_Bone

I've mentioned it here be4, fellows around here run a contruction place, they cut up huge piles of hardwood to sell for firewood. But in their shop, they burn old railroad ties. Got a few miles worth of them 6-7 years ago, when the rail upgraded.

Interesting deal.

--->Paul

• AI R

I burned wood for several years...yeah boy, saving myself MONEY! Let's see, pickup truck, a couple saws, spare chains and files, most of my off days from work, cut and load, bring home unload and stack, split the bigger stuff....carry the stuff inside, a damned mess everywhere...a FIRE burning inside my home in an iron box, 3 or 4 trips up on the roof over the season to keep the chimney clean, go anywhere for the day....come home to a cold house.....go to bed and wake up in the wee hours to tend the stupid fire...or wake up to a cold house....pay higher homeowner insurance bills....have the carpet cleaners in every spring to get the mess out of the rugs....man it was GREAT! Then, I ruptured 2 discs on my back (L4 and L5) loading firewood and suddenly I got smart.

I had to heat with electric after that and therefore I found out what it actually cost me above and beyond what I did when saving all that money heating with wood. In the very worst winters, my electric bill went up $150 a month...but usually, it was less than $100. I could go to work one extra day a month and make twice as much as I needed to cover the added electric cost and sit on my a$$ most of the day while doing it. That was a tough decision to make, but I somehow got used to the idea (quick!).

No more fire burning inside my house. No more filth. No more cold house...anytime. No aching back. Chainsaw....what chainsaw? And after my old heat pump wore out, this new unit (now 3 years old) runs on half what the other one did.

I love the smell of a nice fire. The heat 'feels' good. But, it is a false economy from the word go. Oh yes, I am now retired and no longer have the ability to work extra shifts to pay for the higher electric bill....so don't feed me that 'I survive on a fixed income' baloney. I know what that is too. I'll never go back to heating with wood unless I live in a cave.

This old farm house was built in 1926 woth a wood room, wood boiler in the basement. Up here in MN, was the only heat source until 1972 when the folks put an oil burner in as well. Then the energy crunch of tyhe 70's hit, and went back to mostly wood heating. But it is nice to have the oil backup, keep the house livable when gone for a while, etc.

Here in Minnesota we have a 3 acre grove surrounding the house on a hill, so no need for a pickup at all. Wood is walking distance from the trap door on the wood room. I need the chainsaw anyhow to take care of old trees that fall on the driveway, in the yard, grow into buildings, pasture line.

Minor chopping of wood is better than going to the gym for a workout. Anyhow at this point in time.

So, out of pocket costs are maybe as high as $50 a year. In my case.

Again, here in Minnesota, it's minus 4 right now, and that may be the high for tomorrow - our heating needs are kinda high compared to some other locations. Seems I would need 800-1100 gallons of oil - that can be $2000-2500 a year for heat.

Since the old house was built for wood, there really is no dirt to speak of. Water heat is so much cleaner than blowing hot air around with some furnaces - your electric heat would be very clean as well. The wood in, & the ashes out are all done in their own area of the unfinished basement. Don't see dirt as a problem with wood heat.

Each case is different. You sure make sense in your case, I wouldn't want to use wood heat either if I were you! :)

My comment was mostly at the buggers of the fellows burning creosoted rr ties to heat their metal shop on the edge of town. Some folks get away with things - there got to be regulations against such a thing these days. And the irony of them processing so much regular firewood for sale....

--->Paul

But I've found an alternative: three friends with outdoor furnaces. All I have to do is let them take the scrap wood and the problem is solved. Mind you, I may need to buy a bigger tractor to pull them out when they get stuck, and my left thigh is worn out from working the clutch after two days of loading blocks into one neighbour's truck.

on the other hand...if you don't have the time or place to get the wood, and you don't like the extra labor or maintenence on chainsaws and such, and you don't like being out in the woods. you should stay away from burning wood for your heat. it isn't for everyone, but it's for me, that's for sure.

butch...one note of caution. everytime you open your furnace, make double sure you've closed it all the way up. make sure the clean-out door for the fresh air fan input is closed and nothing has propped it open (chunk of ash, piece of tar, etc.) if it isn't shut down tight the wood will keep burning in between cycles, boil out all your water and melt your wiring, pump, relays...everything in the back works. i learned this the hard way. a piece of junk got stuck in that clean-out one time. cost me about $350 to get it back working.

-mike