heating woes, who woods& who doesn't??
Moderator: Excalibur Marketing Dude
heating woes, who woods& who doesn't??
This year i bought a new wood stove,(a jotel f400 castine), initial cost was kinda high but i have propane heat as primary and bills were expected to be real high using the propane furnace, who uses wood to heat there house and how has it been for you?? were do ya get the firewood?? (sure makes it nice after a day of huntin in 20 degree to come home to it)!!!!
gone huntin never to return................
Speedball,
Sitting here by the stove in the family room. Installed it in 1976, and I can tell you it's paid for itself at least a 1000 times.
I look for my wood after storms or when people have trees removed. Haven't paid for firewood innearly 30 years. Lots of times there is free firewood offered in the paper free if you haul. I had a small utility trailer thats paid for it self hauling wood. I keep saying I'm going to buy a hydraulic splitter, but keep using a monster maul. A good chain saw is a must along with some extra blades.
Bucktail
Sitting here by the stove in the family room. Installed it in 1976, and I can tell you it's paid for itself at least a 1000 times.
I look for my wood after storms or when people have trees removed. Haven't paid for firewood innearly 30 years. Lots of times there is free firewood offered in the paper free if you haul. I had a small utility trailer thats paid for it self hauling wood. I keep saying I'm going to buy a hydraulic splitter, but keep using a monster maul. A good chain saw is a must along with some extra blades.
Bucktail
my family has a huge outdoor wood furnace, it can use logs 24 inches long. Our heat system pumps water through part of the funace and sends heated water back into the house for heat. Works good because the fire burns all day and all the mess is outside.
"You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, and publicity." - Eddie Rickenbacker, World War I pilot
My woodstove keeps me toasty. Love the free heat. If ya gather wood one hour a week, you should be warm all winter. I use the big ole knotty parts of Hickory, Oak, Maple, for those very cold nights. The knotty parts burn for a long time. Ash burns clean and leaves few ashes. The others ----- well, wood stoves are dirty. Be sure to clean you stove pipe. When that thing lights up, it sounds like a jet about to take off, and it gets real hot-----and will light up your roof!!!!!
Woodstoves require maintance. Keep em clean, and they will keep ya warm. Its definately worth the cost of a chainsaw, pickup, and a little effort. Kiddos complain about the smell of the smoke in their clothes, and the little lady complains about the mess. But when the fire isnt burning they complain about the cold. Seems everone in the house learns to wake up during the wee hours to throw another log on the fire.
It is a dry heat. You may want to put a Tkettle or a pot of water on the thing to keep your nose from gettin dry. If your lucky enough to give it an outside air source, your more into heat than cold. The wood fire requires air to burn, and ya can suck cold air into the dewlling to keep the fire alive. I planned for a woodstove and have a 6 inch pipe comming through the floor to give the stove some air. If not for that air source, I would have to open a window.
Seasoned (a year or so drying out) firewood is best. You can burn "green wood" in a pinch, but will increase the possibility of a chimney fire. A few lumps of coal will make the thing red-hot!!!! I have found that if I spend an hour a week cutting and splitting wood during the summer, Im warm all winter. Definately worth the effort.
You may wish a fire bottle for saftey (recommended) and a couple of railway flairs. If you do get a chimney fire, light the flairs and throw them into the stove then close the door to the stove.. They will suck up all the air---an the fire will die.
I also have free natural gas, but dont use it. Gas smells funny. Its also dirty along the celing of the house if I burn the gas. I prefer my woodstove. I dont mind cleaning up the ashes nor the dirt from the logs. Cleaning the stovepipe is fairly messy, but still worth the time and effort. I clean mine every time it becomes warm enough to work outdoors. I dismantel the stovepipe, take them parts outdoors, and use a wire brush on the insides. Yea, its a mess, but I wont complain.
Free heat is great. Cant be beat. Enjoy your new found woodstove.
If I could find an old cast iron spam stove, I would bring it home in a heartbeat.
Woodstoves require maintance. Keep em clean, and they will keep ya warm. Its definately worth the cost of a chainsaw, pickup, and a little effort. Kiddos complain about the smell of the smoke in their clothes, and the little lady complains about the mess. But when the fire isnt burning they complain about the cold. Seems everone in the house learns to wake up during the wee hours to throw another log on the fire.
It is a dry heat. You may want to put a Tkettle or a pot of water on the thing to keep your nose from gettin dry. If your lucky enough to give it an outside air source, your more into heat than cold. The wood fire requires air to burn, and ya can suck cold air into the dewlling to keep the fire alive. I planned for a woodstove and have a 6 inch pipe comming through the floor to give the stove some air. If not for that air source, I would have to open a window.
Seasoned (a year or so drying out) firewood is best. You can burn "green wood" in a pinch, but will increase the possibility of a chimney fire. A few lumps of coal will make the thing red-hot!!!! I have found that if I spend an hour a week cutting and splitting wood during the summer, Im warm all winter. Definately worth the effort.
You may wish a fire bottle for saftey (recommended) and a couple of railway flairs. If you do get a chimney fire, light the flairs and throw them into the stove then close the door to the stove.. They will suck up all the air---an the fire will die.
I also have free natural gas, but dont use it. Gas smells funny. Its also dirty along the celing of the house if I burn the gas. I prefer my woodstove. I dont mind cleaning up the ashes nor the dirt from the logs. Cleaning the stovepipe is fairly messy, but still worth the time and effort. I clean mine every time it becomes warm enough to work outdoors. I dismantel the stovepipe, take them parts outdoors, and use a wire brush on the insides. Yea, its a mess, but I wont complain.
Free heat is great. Cant be beat. Enjoy your new found woodstove.
If I could find an old cast iron spam stove, I would bring it home in a heartbeat.
Thanx Guys, if i had one wish it would be that i would of bought one with a bigger firebox but for the size of my house 1,100 square feet it will do, next year i have a neighbor that wants to get rid of alot of red oak tree's so i guess the craftsman saw i bought for 75.00 will come in handy(someday i want a stihl), those tree's are 65 to 80 feet tall and two will be enough to heat us for a winter, thinking about giving him a real nice christmas gift to compensate, ya my jotel is a cast iron job with a glass front door, already learned a lesson on how the glass can break, it cost me 175.00 to replace(i'm such a dumb@$$), wow bucktail, that is an interesting stove what kind is that????
gone huntin never to return................
It's a mix here - we've got a fireplace which is inefficient as hell, but at least the furnace stays off for the few hours each evening an weekend... while we burn free wood from the ice storm last Christmas.
Our house has fireplaces upstairs and down - I really wish we had inserts in both - with blowers to circulate the air. But we just can't swing the start-up cost right now.
Maybe when I ain't feeding three teenagers we can afford it - but for now the fireplace gives us a little relief from the gas bill - and it's really nice having the fireplace when the power is out!
Our house has fireplaces upstairs and down - I really wish we had inserts in both - with blowers to circulate the air. But we just can't swing the start-up cost right now.
Maybe when I ain't feeding three teenagers we can afford it - but for now the fireplace gives us a little relief from the gas bill - and it's really nice having the fireplace when the power is out!
I have a Harman pellet stove which is great. It has the heat of a wood stove, the no mess of natural gas and is only filled once every 20 to 24 hours. This winter so far we have not had to use the furnace for heat, only the fan to circulate the warm air. Two levels split ranch (2000 sq. ft.) and outside temp at night around -10 C to -14 C and the house stays at 67 F, 68 F and during the day warms up to 72 F. Pellet stoves are quite efficent. Love mine.
A number of years ago I owned a house that was heated with oil. (lived in the country) The price of oil started to go up so I invested in an air-tight fire insert for the basement rec-room. (Napoleon brand) It had twin heavy duty blowers.
At bed time I would load up the insert and turn the blowers on as well as the furnace fan. The insert generated lots of heat. It was actually too hot to sit there.
The rec-room had a cold air intake which would blast the heat through the house. When the fire died the oil furnace kicked in. I saved lots of cash this way. I didn't actually save cash 'cause I bought a 4-wheel bike for hunting.
At bed time I would load up the insert and turn the blowers on as well as the furnace fan. The insert generated lots of heat. It was actually too hot to sit there.
The rec-room had a cold air intake which would blast the heat through the house. When the fire died the oil furnace kicked in. I saved lots of cash this way. I didn't actually save cash 'cause I bought a 4-wheel bike for hunting.
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Exocet your options and exCalibur8 your sights.
Exocet your options and exCalibur8 your sights.
the propane company already cut my budget in half a month so its already paying for itself, but it will take two years to re-coop the initial cost then i'll be in the green, my pipe is 6" double wall inside the room and triple-wall from the attic to the cap outside, the triple-wall was the most expensive, i need to put a switch on my thermostat to run the furnace fan seperatly,speedball..............
gone huntin never to return................
Getting quotes presently on refinishing our basement. Should be done by spring. Hopefully next year at this time I'm staring at a quality wood stove.
All our wood comes from our property 70 minutes away. Presently I have a wood stove in our garage, and a fire pit outside by the house. I just love burning wood.
Speedball.................. now I've shared with you my little secret, DON'T TELL THE LIBERALS, OR THEY'LL TAKE AWAY MY WOOD STOVE.
Grey Owl
All our wood comes from our property 70 minutes away. Presently I have a wood stove in our garage, and a fire pit outside by the house. I just love burning wood.
Speedball.................. now I've shared with you my little secret, DON'T TELL THE LIBERALS, OR THEY'LL TAKE AWAY MY WOOD STOVE.
Grey Owl
We also heat with wood ONLY. Have a Pacific Energy woodstove. This thing will run 12 hrs on a load of wood, I know, as I sometimes work 10 hr shifts which means 12 hrs away from home. It is also a 85% efficiency stove. Make sure when you buy that you look at the efficiency rating or you may be throwing all your heat up the chimney. Also a lot of smoke from low efficiency stoves/furnaces = not so good for the environment. A lot of cities are banning the use of outside wood furnaces for this very reason.
We have our own bush and just pull out leaners and deadfalls from winds each winter. I have figured it out and it only costs 60-75 dollars a year to heat the place,(gas for chainsaw and four wheeler). Mind you it is a small cottage style home but you can't beat the price.
Mike
We have our own bush and just pull out leaners and deadfalls from winds each winter. I have figured it out and it only costs 60-75 dollars a year to heat the place,(gas for chainsaw and four wheeler). Mind you it is a small cottage style home but you can't beat the price.
Mike
I use a fair amount of wood each year to help heat my house.I have an older Jotul. Had a fellow here a year or so ago trying to sell me a new stove outfit.He said my stove was essentially a 45 gallon drum on legs and that his new stove would save me about 25% on wood.I almost croaked laughing as I have 106 acres with about half of it woods and fence lines.His 25% would save me about 1 or 2 easy Sat. afternoons of cutting .
My oil furnace went tits up on me this past year so I hooked up the electric heaters and started up my wood stove.So far so good.It's been below 0 Celsius for the past few days and no problem so far.As a matter of fact it is about -20 Celsius at the moment. I may go and throw another stick on the fire before I'm off to bed Keep your chimneys clean and always be sure that there is nothing flammable too near your stove.
My wood is there and free for the taking but I do have a fair amount invested in toys such a saw,wood splitter,tractor,axes and such but they are toys that I enjoy and am glad to have a reason to have them. I too cut mainly dead,dying or wind fallen trees.My son and I cut together as he too has a wood stove in his house for free,supplementary heating.
My oil furnace went tits up on me this past year so I hooked up the electric heaters and started up my wood stove.So far so good.It's been below 0 Celsius for the past few days and no problem so far.As a matter of fact it is about -20 Celsius at the moment. I may go and throw another stick on the fire before I'm off to bed Keep your chimneys clean and always be sure that there is nothing flammable too near your stove.
My wood is there and free for the taking but I do have a fair amount invested in toys such a saw,wood splitter,tractor,axes and such but they are toys that I enjoy and am glad to have a reason to have them. I too cut mainly dead,dying or wind fallen trees.My son and I cut together as he too has a wood stove in his house for free,supplementary heating.
If you are still alive your mission here on Earth must not be completed.
Old rock hounds never die.They just slowly petrify.
Old rock hounds never die.They just slowly petrify.
This thread reminds me - there's nothing quite like the sound of a wound up chainsaw to get yer heart pumping - right up there with ratcheting the action on a pump shotgun or the twang-thunk of a crozboo and arrow.
I got a Stihl 029 that ain't the best saw ever built, but it starts regardless of the temperature and hasn't let me down yet - as long as I keep the chain sharp and keep the bar out of the dirt.
I got a Stihl 029 that ain't the best saw ever built, but it starts regardless of the temperature and hasn't let me down yet - as long as I keep the chain sharp and keep the bar out of the dirt.