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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2016 4:12:53 GMT
I heated with wood for 19 years. Cut and split it myself. Household of one so lots of work on top of a full time job and caring for livestock. Got to the point I had enough. Propane is cheap here. Bought it this year for under $1 a gallon. I can hear the house, cook, and have hot water for less than $300 a year. My back and hips (fake) say thank you!! Takes us less than a week to get Winters worth of wood. But we're always getting extra. If it is nice and nothing else going on.
Shed holds 4.5 Cord.
Rockpile
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Post by Rustaholic on Jan 14, 2016 4:35:03 GMT
We have been in this house 39 years now and only two years did we run the LP furnace. It was very expensive heat and a very cold heat. I built this house intending to always burn wood. I put in the LP furnace the year our daughter was born and gave her young lungs two winters of LP heat.
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Post by willowgirl on Jan 14, 2016 5:36:46 GMT
We heat with wood, plus some electric space heaters in the back of the house. One runs all the time in my plant room; the other is used only when someone wants to take a shower without freezing their bits off! lol I really like wood heat. It's about 80 in here, and since I spent 9 hours out in the cold today (>20 degrees), it feels really good.
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Post by snoozy on Jan 16, 2016 18:41:16 GMT
Wood heat heats you 4 times: once in the felling and bucking of the tree, once in the moving and splitting of the rounds, once in the stacking of the split wood and once in the burning of it. But true, it is a young person's chore.
And the price of propane is not in our control.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2016 20:13:32 GMT
Wood heat heats you 4 times: once in the felling and bucking of the tree, once in the moving and splitting of the rounds, once in the stacking of the split wood and once in the burning of it. But true, it is a young person's chore. And the price of propane is not in our control. Ok I know some are going to disagree but I feel a Wood Splitter isn't worth the time or money. Most time wood isn't that hard to split and can split it much faster than a Splitter. Found this year our wood needs spitting much smaller in order to handle it not to just get it in the Heater. So far had a couple pieces my wife just couldn't lift it, had to be quartered.
Got a neighbor that can't split wood. I showed my Boys and they still scratch their heads not believing it could be that simple. But have to think I come from splitting wood for Cook Stoves. I figure much easier to work the wood up by the Truck in the woods.
Rockpile
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Post by snoozy on Jan 17, 2016 0:39:30 GMT
On craigslist, people often give away rounds when they cut down a tree. Back when I didn't have any job and no money either, I fetched some nice fat rounds-- alder and Douglas fir -- and wrestled them into the back of the truck, wrestled them out and found that they split so easy -- like butter. I chopped up a couple of cords, which was pretty impressive for a 51 year old lady. I think about how little of this I do nowadays. Now I'm an newlywed old lady of almost 58 and I think, "Now I got a husband for this !"
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Post by vosey on Jan 17, 2016 1:16:51 GMT
Wood, hands down. Yesterday morning it was 0 out, but the house was a toasty 76. We have propane Rinnai heaters but it'd be a fortune to be that warm with them.
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Post by Rustaholic on Jan 17, 2016 13:47:25 GMT
Wood heat heats you 4 times: once in the felling and bucking of the tree, once in the moving and splitting of the rounds, once in the stacking of the split wood and once in the burning of it. But true, it is a young person's chore. And the price of propane is not in our control.
Not true for me. I burn used shipping pallets. They are so easy to handle and cut up. Those tree parts are work to move too many times.
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Post by Jolly on Jan 17, 2016 22:41:12 GMT
As many of y'all know, I have a Hearthstone. It can burn wood, or with a shaker unit, coal. Not that we have much coal down here in Louisiana, but I'm not too far from a coal-fired electricity plant, so you never know what you might run across. But I burn wood almost exclusively.
As for wood...I quit cutting long stuff several years back, Now, I cut around 15" long. Makes it easier to split and easier to handle, even if I do have to fool with shorter wood.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2016 22:54:01 GMT
As many of y'all know, I have a Hearthstone. It can burn wood, or with a shaker unit, coal. Not that we have much coal down here in Louisiana, but I'm not too far from a coal-fired electricity plant, so you never know what you might run across. But I burn wood almost exclusively. As for wood...I quit cutting long stuff several years back, Now, I cut around 15" long. Makes it easier to split and easier to handle, even if I do have to fool with shorter wood. Use to live down there in a House Trailer wasn't hard to heat had to unhook the water at night. Rockpile
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Post by willowgirl on Jan 18, 2016 0:38:56 GMT
We burn a lot of pallet wood, too. I scavenged so much of it the first year I lived here that we're still burning the stuff 2 winters later, lol. I also got a bunch of slab from the local sawmill for $8 a truckload, buy 4 and get 1 free. Had to load it myself by hand, which took a bit of time, but can't beat the price! I watch Craigslist for "free firewood" offers, too. Often we're able to pick up small stuff -- branches or saplings -- that are small enough to not need splitting. We have a nice big stove that will take pretty big chunks, too, which helps.
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Post by Rustaholic on Jan 18, 2016 14:05:55 GMT
We burn a lot of pallet wood, too. I scavenged so much of it the first year I lived here that we're still burning the stuff 2 winters later, lol. I also got a bunch of slab from the local sawmill for $8 a truckload, buy 4 and get 1 free. Had to load it myself by hand, which took a bit of time, but can't beat the price! I watch Craigslist for "free firewood" offers, too. Often we're able to pick up small stuff -- branches or saplings -- that are small enough to not need splitting. We have a nice big stove that will take pretty big chunks, too, which helps.
A couple decades back I used to buy slab wood from a saw mill.
They bundled it so there was at least 1.5 face cord per bundle and they would load them onto my pickup and trailer.
They charged five bucks per bundle. In the bundles it was pretty easy to cut them up with a chainsaw too.
I could only put one on my pickup and it hung out the back too far. I usually would take the trailer so I could bring home three at a time.
If I could do that now I have a much bigger and stronger trailer that could bring home 12 bundles at a time.
That would be so cool to bring home a whole Winter's worth of firewood in one trip for $60
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Post by Jolly on Jan 19, 2016 3:03:28 GMT
We burn a lot of pallet wood, too. I scavenged so much of it the first year I lived here that we're still burning the stuff 2 winters later, lol. I also got a bunch of slab from the local sawmill for $8 a truckload, buy 4 and get 1 free. Had to load it myself by hand, which took a bit of time, but can't beat the price! I watch Craigslist for "free firewood" offers, too. Often we're able to pick up small stuff -- branches or saplings -- that are small enough to not need splitting. We have a nice big stove that will take pretty big chunks, too, which helps. The small sawmills around here got smart a long time ago. When cutting hardwood, they cut their slabs a bit thicker and stack them to the side. As time permits, they saw it into firewood and sell it by the rick.
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Post by willowgirl on Jan 20, 2016 15:11:21 GMT
Actually, the mill that I buy from does that, too. They keep the choicest slabs and sell them by the rick, but still let some go by the truckload. That mill has been operating only intermittently, as it was selling furniture-grade lumber, mostly for office furniture, and most of the production has moved to China now, according to the mill's owner.
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Post by joanie on Jan 20, 2016 18:29:01 GMT
We put a wood cookstove in many years ago and have heated our house with it ever since. It takes some work, but we enjoy working outside. We only use propane for hot water now. For us, wood is a much cheaper way to stay warm.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2016 21:55:38 GMT
We put a wood cookstove in many years ago and have heated our house with it ever since. It takes some work, but we enjoy working outside. We only use propane for hot water now. For us, wood is a much cheaper way to stay warm. We had a Wood Cookstove but it had way too small a Woodbox to keep fire very long. Plus splitting wood for it would work you to death.
Rockpile
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Post by joanie on Jan 21, 2016 21:05:11 GMT
Rockpile, ours has a large burning box. It will easily hold enough wood to burn through the night and still have enough to get fire going next morning. Don't have to split or cut really small for it. All the woods around us are filled with dead ash trees, free for the taking. Ash is one of our favorite burning woods so this works great for us.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2016 2:13:57 GMT
Rockpile, ours has a large burning box. It will easily hold enough wood to burn through the night and still have enough to get fire going next morning. Don't have to split or cut really small for it. All the woods around us are filled with dead ash trees, free for the taking. Ash is one of our favorite burning woods so this works great for us. Ours had a real small Woodbox.
If Ash is what you have. Most here won't use it but we have Oak and Hickory.
Rockpile
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Jan 22, 2016 23:43:31 GMT
We've heated primarily with wood for 16 years...we do have a gas furnace for back-up. We MUCH prefer the radiant heat (and the economy) vs. forced air. We typically have the great room/kitchen/dining at around 70 degrees. The back of the house (bedrooms, etc) are anywhere from 55-65 degrees. I sleep MUCH better in cool temps. When we have run the furnace on occasion - it wakes me up throughout the night...can't stand that hot/cold/hot/cold. Dear hubs finally grew tired of hauling wood (a lot of times it was wet-the tarps would blow off) from 300 foot away out in the weather so in 2014 he built our woodshed. It is located MUCH closer to the house as you can see in the pics. It is 8' wide x 12' long x 8' high. It has a door on the east side as well as the west. We just love our Dutchwest... so do our pets! ~Mari
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Post by shellymay on Jan 23, 2016 0:23:45 GMT
One word.... COZY
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2016 3:11:13 GMT
We can get Slab Wood here for $20 a bundle, can cut wood on Conservation land 3 cord for free, can cut wood on National Forest Land for $20 for 4 Cord.. All of it is Oak and Hickory.
Rockpile
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Post by joanie on Jan 23, 2016 13:20:49 GMT
We have oak and hickory too, but all the ash is dead so people want it cleaned out. We have no problems burning it. One thing, for insurances purposes we have a few propane wall heaters in the house. We had to put these in for insurance. They wouldn't insure us if our only source of heat was wood. We added the heaters and no problem.
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Post by Skandi on Jan 23, 2016 13:56:06 GMT
Intersting on the insurance, no problem at all here with the only heat being wood, they won't insure for storm damage, but that's becasue the roof is in such terrible state, I understand that! I love all the pictures of your wood sheds, mine lives in a heap in the barn, but that has a great advantage.. I don't have to go outside! can go out from the furnace room straight into the barn and bring the wheelbarrow full of wood in. I am however very jealous of the prices, here cutting your own PINE is $78 a cord there's no place to cut hardwoods. getting dried split hardwood delivered comes in at $259 a cord. the cheapest way to buy is old building wood, uncut full of nails etc etc that comes in at $33 a cord but you have to buy a lorry full which is 6 cords.
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Post by snoozy on Jan 23, 2016 17:02:39 GMT
In our county, you can't build a house with only wood heat, you must have some other source as well. I think it is a good policy.
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Post by Rustaholic on Jan 23, 2016 17:49:25 GMT
In our county, you can't build a house with only wood heat, you must have some other source as well. I think it is a good policy.
I am so glad it wasn't like that here in 1977 when I built this house with only wood heat. The two winters that we burnt LPG it was so silly expensive I never want to go back to that.
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Post by snoozy on Jan 23, 2016 18:36:33 GMT
It's about having options.
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Post by Skandi on Jan 23, 2016 19:07:37 GMT
In our county, you can't build a house with only wood heat, you must have some other source as well. I think it is a good policy. My step father burns straw for heat, he just upgraded his furnace to one that takes the 300kg bales, Now that I do not think its a good policy, as if the tractor breaks down, or he is ill (he's had cancer twice) who is going to put the bales in, it burns one every two days or so.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Jan 23, 2016 20:11:17 GMT
In our county, you can't build a house with only wood heat, you must have some other source as well. I think it is a good policy. My step father burns straw for heat, he just upgraded his furnace to one that takes the 300kg bales, Now that I do not think its a good policy, as if the tractor breaks down, or he is ill (he's had cancer twice) who is going to put the bales in, it burns one every two days or so. Hey Skandi! Just talked to my farmer friend in regards to burning bales of straw. That is wild! He's wanting to know what "type" of straw it is? Oats, wheat, etc.?? For the last several years - straw has become quite the rarity in our immediate area... Thanks! Mari
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Post by Skandi on Jan 24, 2016 0:26:10 GMT
My step father burns straw for heat, he just upgraded his furnace to one that takes the 300kg bales, Now that I do not think its a good policy, as if the tractor breaks down, or he is ill (he's had cancer twice) who is going to put the bales in, it burns one every two days or so. Hey Skandi ! Just talked to my farmer friend in regards to burning bales of straw. That is wild! He's wanting to know what "type" of straw it is? Oats, wheat, etc.?? For the last several years - straw has become quite the rarity in our immediate area... Thanks! Mari Mainly Barley but wheat as well, occasionaly rye, I don't think he ever grows oats. He offered us the old one which burns the small bales, but since we would have to buy the straw it would be harder, and we don't have as much storage space for it, it would still be cheap though, a small bale (and they really are small here about 2ft by 1.5ft) costs about $1 and the little furnace used one or 1.5 a day. it is becomming harder and harder to get those small bales though, which is an issue for us homesteaders with no machinery to deal with the 300kg or 1000kg bales! Drat looking at that maths, it is very tempting price wise. EDIT having just looked them up those that take the 300kg bales are aprox 520Kw furnaces, but they make them up to 1200Kw that would keep the house toasty. google "halmfyr" and click on images and youll see what they look like.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2016 18:24:45 GMT
This was such an interesting read! I'm halfway through the replies but I wanted to ask, it seems a few here are using the piping under the floors to create heat. This heat seems to be created by water boiling in a heater/boiler gadget outside? Can this be done with a wood stove too? Get the heat to go through the pipes under the floors connected to the wood stove somehow? Is this sort of what you all are talking about: heatinghelp.com/systems-help-center/loop-system-hot-water-heating-q-and-a/ that one seems to run the heat through the baseboards surrounding the floors versus actually under the floors. What type of floors are needed for this type of heat source? Wood I would assume? Some of you said that you still need an electric pump to work the water boiler to get this heat going, does that mean it can be without electricity as well? If the power goes out? Or is this good because of the residual heat left to still warm the house when the power has been out for a few days? I tried googling this and am not able to find a resource that clearly explains how all this works. If one were so inclined what words one would use to describe this setup to their builders/contractors to have this put in for their home?
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