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Wood heat is nice, but

3

37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California
I have been burning wood since the early 80's. When I built my house, ceiling heat was the way to go. I soon found as the price of electricity kept raising that was not a bright move. I will never go back to electric heat. Plus most of my heat circuits have been used for my welder, compressor, lathe, and log splitter. I now have natural gas, which wasn't available when my house was built. I have been thinking of putting in a gas furnace. At 74 I don't know how much longer I can be in the wood business for heat. The wood stove does keep the house nice and warm all night. I drop a big chunk in the stove, close it up, and it cooks all night. In the morning throw in a few pieces and it's going again. Anyone use wood for most of your heat?. Stan
 
Yes I know what you mean. I've been running this outdoor wood burner for 7 years. Felling timber,dragging it out of the woods, blocking it, splitting it, stacking it, then having to load the stove every day, at my young age of 65 it's getting old pretty fast. At some point in my life when I really feel I can't do it anymore I just stop using it and pay the oil man. I hate doing it but what can you do.

Kirk
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Same age & situation as you. Used to be no worries, the next generation would do the cutting. The buck has stopped with us, I'm afraid.
 
I have wood heat + LP gas and several years ago put in electric baseboard heat. The LP gas and electric baseboard are back up and price depends which one I use for backup heat. I am 70 years old and see the day coming when I won't be able to cut wood. I usually cut three trailer loads and put wood over on 3 farm wagons and pull them up behind house as I need them.
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That's about it here too,a lot of people buy firewood if they can't get it themselves or they burn oil.
 
I also heat primarily with wood but have oil backup, I am 68 but haven't given thought yet to the day when I won't be able to do the wood but now you have me thinking about it. I used to cut all my wood from my land mostly dead Beach trees but I finally cleaned all the dead trees out so the last 3 yrs. I have been buying log length, but it is still a lot of work.
 
At some age we all have to make the decision to let someone else do the heavy work. I didn't join AAA until I was 81 last year; had to call them last week to change a battery because I can no longer lift that battery. I've done my own maintenance and repair work all my life; now I have to accept someone else doing that work. All part of God's plan.
 
We've been heating with wood for years despite having gas heat. We quickly found out if the stove was kept running the gas heat didn't come on at all.
 
I just came in from fixing the fire. I've got a wood boiler out in my lean to that I coupled with my oil fired boiler with a heat exchanger. This way I can run both. I've cut my own wood from my own property or I wouldn't mess with the wood. The new gas boilers and furnaces are very efficient. If the wood is getting difficult maybe you could have both and run the wood when its really cold or when you feel up to it.
 
I sure admire you older than me folks being able to deal with all that firewood cutting throws at you ! Even as a teenager my back could not take it. I sure do like the LP. Had fuel oil furnaces in the shops before and boy they are a pain to keep going too.
 
Yepper and I share your thoughts. Thoughts are I'll take it one day at a time. For now seems like 10-15 years at least. Wood heat is just good stuff and worth the effort.
 
Kirk, we have an outdoor wood stove also and I wonder what to do when we can't handle the wood process. They manufacture pellet/corn outdoor stoves and I wondered if small squares bales of mulch hay would work.
 

I have been heating with coal for nearly forty years. It is much less work than wood but still difficult for my wife if I am away. I am waiting for bulk delivery of wood pellets, then I will get a pellet stove. Bulk delivery into a bin would eliminate the need for lifting the fifty pound bags, and under some installation conditions the pellets could be augered direct to the stove. Anybody have bulk delivery available yet?
 
You might want to consider a Heat Pump and use the wood stove when it gets real cold and that's when the heat pump gets costly to run plus with the heat pump you have cooling too.
 
I heat 3200 square feet primarily with wood. The shop can only be heated with the wood boiler but the house I still have an LP furnace for spring/fall or if we are gone. I did switch my boiler to a storage type system so I burn half the wood compared to the old boiler. I need a boiler for backup and that is on the "someday" list. I hope to be able to burn for a long time since I am only 39 but one really never knows.
 
"<font color="#6699ff">[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]Anyone use wood for most of your heat?[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]</font>"

Yes, we have a fireplace and a wood stove.

Keeps the four rooms we spend the most time in very comfortable.

We have plenty of "seasoned" wood from the drought of 2011 still available to be cut, split, and stacked.

I will continue using wood for heat as long as I'm able to cut, split, and stack.

After that, Nancy will take on that responsibility.

Turned off the HVAC unit when I retired over five years ago.
 

With over 100 acres in woods here, it would be pretty foolish of me to put good money into another heat source and let the wood rot away. I will be using wood for as long as I can or till I kick off.
 
I've been heating with wood for 40 years and getting to hate it. I can't say I have ever had it as you describe though. No "chunk" to go all night. I load it full. If it is below zero outside, come morning there is nothing left but a few coals. I load it again and it relights. Then load it several times during the course of the day. And when warm temps come? Temps shot up to 42 F yesterday and chimney draft as so poor, I let it go out.
 
Been burning wood since 78 in our house. At 64, and dealing with joint problems, is is not as easy as it used to be. I now hire a young man that is one of my son's employees on the farm to cut up logs into firewood length. I split it on my homemade splitter. Hope to do it 20 more years. My oldest son has said he will have our wood for us if we get too old to do it. Have back up propane if needed and could hook onto natural gas if I run a line about 1300 feet up to the paved road.
Richard in NW SC
 
We heat almost 100% with wood when we are home, otherwise NG. I will do it as long as I can, I like cutting wood, my wife helps me, we have many acres of trees. A lot of it is Black Ash that is probably going to die anyhow, and the paper mill does not like Ash very well.
 
Ask a local realtor how many home buyers in your area are looking for 100 percent wood heat. Supplemental wood heat is great for ambience, but when it's the primary heat source it's a lot of work. If natural gas is available, I would think the resale value of your house will be higher with natural gas heat as the primary heat source instead of all wood heat.

Check your gas cost and connection costs. Connection fees might be high, but you'll get it back when you sell.
 
We have lived here 24 years, and have used wood heat since the house
was built. The heat pump is our "back-up" system. Our wood source has
been mostly free stuff, discovered on C-list. We haul the wood home as
we find it. I've got stuff like chainsaw, log splitter, and a son to help
process it. Woodshed with three open bays is the storage place. Since the
trees I planted are now about 27 years old, I can use some of these for
my wood source. I'm 84 yrs this month, so it'll go a lot slower. But we
enjoy the whole firewood process.
 
Good point.

I wonder how marketable a house is that is heated 100% with wood, compared to an identical house with propane or natural gas heat.

My wife and I once owned a house that we could heat with either wood or propane. We had a wood furnace with its own blower that cut into the same ductwork as the propane furnace. For several years, we heated probably 80% wood. I then did a study of the situation and found I was making about $3 per hour when I was working the firewood. I decided that if I wanted to do something productive in my spare time there were a lot of things more fun and lucrative than messing with firewood. We had also found out the hard way that when the electricity went off, the wood furnace was no more useful than the propane.

When, in the course of human events, we sold that house, the first thing the buyer did was remove the wood furnace and go strictly propane.
 
100% wood heat here since 1976. Outdoor boiler is 19 years old, and I'm 68 years old. Also heat the shop with wood, but not 24/7. I still enjoy burning wood, but I'm starting to think about installing a backup heat source (or two). I plan to burn as long as I'm able to do it without help. Cutting wood is good for me - I lost 25 lbs bringing in last years supply. Boiler burns year round.
 

Hardly a sniffle of cold in the house yet this winter, have yet to light the stove . Even a faint wiff of smoke will constrict and irritate the respiratory system making it more prone to infection.
 
Hi, we have electric baseboard heaters but use for backup only. Too pricey otherwise in this house. We have a free standing certified wood stove in central location in house that works perfect for us. We get our wood free in mountains behind us. There is also a band saw mill not far away cutting special lumber orders that I can get slab wood free. I t is bundled in about 3500lb bdls. They load my trailer free. I love the whole process. Cutting stacking and all. I have a big wood shed, splitter etc. There is no heat like wood heat. Ed Will Oliver BC
 
Our heat source is a outside boiler, this is year number 16 for it. Prior to that, we had an inside add on wood furnace for 15 years. I just turned 60, and still enjoy using wood, including cutting, hauling, stacking, etc. I do get a lot of my wood off craigslist, or people that know I use wood and give me a call. About 3 or 4 times in the 30 plus years I have been here have I actually purchased any wood, and that was a truckload of 8 foot stuff that I cut myself. I fill the boiler twice a day, morning and night and it works great, as well as unlimited hot water. That being said, I converted the house from propane to natural gas 2 years ago. I don't use much gas at all, but it is the backup plan. At some point the boiler will need replaced. When that happens, I will probably switch to gas only. The combination of my age, cost of a replacement boiler, and being somewhat tied to it in the winter will probably all point towards switching to using gas for heat. It might also mean the thermostat won't be set as high as we keep it with wood heat.
 
We all reach points in our lives where we have to make choices, I do not see anything wrong with installing natural gas heat and keeping the wood as a backup. You can cut and use wood if you feel like it, or just turn up the thermostat if not. My grandfather was a professional wood cutter and drainage tile (by hand) installer, he cut over to NG when he was in his 70s and never regretted it. My parents used wood as primary with oil as backup, there were days they did not feel up to the wood.
 
I to have heated with wood since 76, will be 68 in a couple of days, and heat my shop (basement) with wood (with waste oil dripped in) and cut my own wood. Thing is I was reading of "super insulated" construction in the early and mid 70s after the first "energy crisis". As I rebuilt and built on to the 16'x20' cabin I bought I insulated better and better. I now have an average size house and heat it with 2 cords of wood a year and am warm. This is in Rhode Island and while not as cold as other areas of the country it isn't very warm here in the winter and it can be damp. Anyway, I could buy two cords if I had to and still heat with wood. I use maybe a half cord for the shop. Some of the walls I have double studded, that is two offset 2.4 sets of studs with fiberglass in each set. Ceilings are 10" fiberglass with 1" ridged foam under the ceiling joists. I have installed some electric baseboard as a backup but other than trying it after installation I have never had it on. Guess I should give it a test some year. I can only say to those building or remodeling, Get your insulation up to R 20 in the walls and R40 in the ceiling and it will pay you back in $$$ and comfort.
 
I totally agree with the insulation, I built my house about 15 years ago when foam was just coming into its own. I have 24" of blown in glass in the attic and walls are 6" fiberglass, but the walls are drafty due to the insulators not calking the holes and cracks correctly. I would foam the walls if doing again, no question.
 
I would like to put in a chip boiler someday. Would love to whole tree chip and store in a bin rather than cut split handle multiple times.
 
We put in a new firewood boiler 7 years ago,
switched to LP about 3 years ago,
haven't looked back.
Working wood is not convenient for us, and is hard on respiratory allergies.

Our firewood boiler is for sale. Sorry for the picture being sideways, and back side only photo. Background was too bright to photo front side.
Call 845-626-7551 ask for Daryl.
SE NY east side of the Catskills.
845-626-5870 Mike S.
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When I bought my last house it came with a top of the line wood burning fireplace that had a gas log installed in it. We left the gas log in place.
 
I moved into a house that has a pellet stove in the basement family room and does a great job of heating the house (electric baseboard heat). 40 # bag is about 3.20 on sale and will heat for 24-30 hours on an bag on low lowest heat setting and keeps room about 75-80 degrees. I used to burn wood in a previous house and what I spent on fuel, chain sharpening and assorted expenses, I will stick to pellets.
 
You're right, doing a good job with insulation is as important as the amount of insulation. When I worked as a carpenter for a neighbor for a couple of years I saw some "insulation contractors" do some shaky work, fast but shaky. I did all of mine and I will admit it took a long time to cut and fit some of the pieces. I also put 6 mil. poly over it all as a vapor barrier in addition to the facing on the insulation. Knowing what I know about the value of insulation now I think if I ever built again (unlikely) I would be able to heat with candles.
 
I do. I'm 66 and I have the same thoughts as you in the back of my mind, At some point in the next ten years cutting wood is going to become much more difficult. With two bad shoulders, it is already.
 
Our Dutch west wood stove provides 100% of our heat. I do have a NG forced air as a backup or when we're gone. I've taught my girls types of wood, what burns better, how to start a fire, how to run the stove, ash clean out, etc. We like the warmth and enjoy reading by it. But I know it'll get old hauling it in the house at some point! By the way, two of my 10 yr olds friends said, "why do you put more wood in to make it warmer, can't you just push the button?" Ha!
 
We heat our 1800 sq ft house with a Buck 91 Catalytic Insert. I process the wood from dead or dying trees on our 20 acres. Backup heat is a heat pump. I'm only 58, plan on burning wood as long as I'm able.

 
Been heating with wood since 75. Have propane also, but have plenty of wood to burn. Will use wood as long as I am able.
 
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