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View Full Version : Who heats their house with wood?



Mosh
10-11-2009, 08:06 PM
I figure with fuel prices the way they are, there would be alot of folks heating with wood.

We run a woodburner..
I Burn about 3 cords per season.
I run a Stihl 290 saw, and Tammy and I split by hand.. using a 7lb maul.
About half of the wood comes from the side woods we have.

Normally we would run about 1000 gallons of propane to heat for the year.
With the woodburning, and a few electric space heaters, we get thru the season on about 300 gallons of propane.

The furnace only runs in the early AM,and when we leave the house for more than 4 hours.
With propane at about 2.80 per gallon, I figure the wood burner saves us about, 2K per season.
So who is self reliant?

The nice thing is, we have a wood stove, that we can cook on, if the power goes out.
So do you use wood? How much area do you heat, and how much wood do you burn?

Jason Hall
10-11-2009, 08:24 PM
Mosh, we heat with wood also, and our furnace never runs. I had some trouble In the beginning (about 6 years ago) with our pipe's freezing, but cured that with lots of Insulation. Once ours Is going for the year, It rairly goes out. I have an old McCulough that treats me right. I rebuilt an engine In a tree service guys truck, so he bring's me log's, I LOVE OAK!!!!! I just blew the engine to pieces on my OLD log splitter, I actually got hit In the leg by a piece of the case when the rod let go LOL.

dcreel
10-11-2009, 08:57 PM
We use the fireplace that has a blower that blows heated air through about 50% of the house. We use it in addition to gas heat. Works great. On high it will run you out of the house.

Tri-ZNate
10-11-2009, 08:58 PM
About the only time the wood stove doesnt run is in the a.m. and the oil burner may turn on. We have used motor oil dripping on the fire (piped into the top of the stove with a slow speed pump) to put out more heat. Works great. Last year we didnt burn wood and went through 300 gallons of fuel, I'm hoping to not use over my 150 gallon tank. House is roughly 2000 ft/sq

Gearheadtom
10-11-2009, 09:08 PM
My parents (who I still live with) have a kitchen wood stove at one end of the house, and they also used an oil furnace at the same time. We usualy burn about 2 cords of wood a year.

1985BigRed250ES
10-11-2009, 09:08 PM
we use wood for heat only. our fireplace has an insert that has a fan on it that blows warm air through out the house. our house is approx 1350sq/ft

fabiodriven
10-11-2009, 09:16 PM
I heated my old house through four winters on wood and through those four years we only used 3/4 of a tank of oil. I burned roughly 5 cord a year. I just bought a new house (by myself) and had my stove installed within the first two weeks. I've been burning off and on for those two weeks, and I'm burning right now. I have a Stihl MS250 but I need a bigger saw. I have a 22 ton log splitter. I have never once paid for wood.

harryredtrike
10-11-2009, 09:35 PM
i heat my outbuilding with wood,in a wood burner i made at work.

SeaBass8
10-11-2009, 11:34 PM
I heat my down stairs with a pellet stove. I'll burn like 80 to 90 bags a year.

hublake
10-12-2009, 07:51 AM
I have heated my place with wood for the past 10 years. My natural gas bill last year was around $350.00. I use about 4-5 face cords a year mainly grey backs.(Oak). A number of years ago gypsey moths went through this area and killed alot of oak. Grey backs are what we call oak that has been standing and has lost of of its bark. Hard as rock and just as dry. Do not have to let it dry.

daniel_250r
10-12-2009, 10:50 AM
our tenants pay 1500 a month no joke to heat our house with electric heaters they just won't move out

smokinwrench
10-12-2009, 10:51 AM
I heat our house with wood pellets for the most part. Burn about 2 tons per year.

brapp
10-12-2009, 11:09 AM
i heat my entire house with wood but also have electric baseboard in the bedrooms and main rooms and usualy keeps the house pretty cozy. and i burn mabey 5-6 pickuploads a year.

Yamada
10-12-2009, 12:40 PM
25 cords of wood here. We need 60 cords of woods for my house, my uncle's house and my grandma's house. A couple years ago we had to make 80 cords of woods because we were selling woods for my aunt.

rdlsz24
10-12-2009, 05:36 PM
We have a fireplace in our living room that my wife likes to play with. To me it feels like more warm air goes out the chimney than makes it into the house lol. We have a gas furnace for the real heating duties.

Rob

3 or die
10-12-2009, 05:46 PM
100% wood here. I have a wood stove in he basement that is plumbed into the ac duct work. I sell 400 cords a year so the scrap heats my home for free.

Rm250RF900R
10-12-2009, 06:24 PM
We got 2 wood pellet stoves and the rest is gas.

Banage
10-12-2009, 08:31 PM
#6 I wish i had a stove in my house. We have a pig in our cabin and its all we use. We leave a window open it gets so hot.....even in -30 if there is little to no wind

Bryan Raffa
10-12-2009, 08:50 PM
our tenants pay 1500 a month no joke to heat our house with electric heaters they just won't move out

:lol: WTF!!! :lol: :crazy:

yes we burn wood to off set the Oil burner.. witch got overhauled this year..so were sittin pretty ,, new chainsaw, 22 face cord of tops from last year .. just sitting....ready to cut

when you come over for the ice races.. bring a hand full through the door on the way in.;)

jensenracing77
10-12-2009, 09:54 PM
i use wood for back up heat. i work on ATVs as a side job and make enough to pay the heat bill. i charge $30 per hour so if i cut a full season of wood and had 100 hours in it, it would have cost me $3000. this way i spend 100 hours with ATVs and pay $1000 for the heat bill and have $2000 left over.

litebulblsc
10-12-2009, 10:58 PM
We burn wood to help lower the gas bill. Not sure what a cord is, but we go through quite a bit of wood in the winter.

The Goat
10-12-2009, 11:05 PM
cord 4 tall 16 long

cord of ash goes quick

cord of oak...not so much




If I gotta split wood though, nothing beats splitting ash. Saws go right through it, 24in blocks aren't even that heavy, and the splitter doesn't even cough when pushing it along.

litebulblsc
10-13-2009, 10:56 AM
I split ash by hand. Not worth wasting gas on. Save the gas for the oak and other hard woods.

And if the the cord measurements are in feet, then I guess we only go through about 5 or 6 cords a winter.

johnny's X
10-13-2009, 11:08 AM
We go through 15 cord of wood a year. We heat with propaine so we try not to use it to much. The furnace will kick on in the early morning after the stove has burnt down. Much warmer heat with wood and even throughout the house.

hublake
10-13-2009, 11:08 AM
We burn wood to help lower the gas bill. Not sure what a cord is, but we go through quite a bit of wood in the winter.

A pulp wood cord is 4' high, 4' wide, and 8' long. Most people when talking about using a cord for fire wood are talking about a pile of wood 4' high x 8' wide and the length about 16"-18" in length. In our neck of the woods we call that a face cord.

Mosh
10-13-2009, 11:27 AM
Good to see, more folks boycotting these rediculous fuel prices.
Sad news, Is wood has gotten high priced too.I wanted to pick up 1 more load, just in case.
Normally if I buy some, it is 25$ per full size pick-up truck load..
I called a guy yesterday, and he wanted 75$ for a truck load..
I was like "no thanks".
So, gonna drag the utility to the back 40 this weekend with the saw..

Some of you burn alot of wood.

We just installed a new burner.
Quite larger than the old wood stove, and I have a feeling, I will be wearing shorts in January..

SeaBass8
10-13-2009, 12:08 PM
Cord wood around here (MA) is ridiculous. Last year I called to check price. It went from 200$ to 300$ in one year and it was even seasoned. I said no thanks.

I just can't pay 300$ a cord for the fire place when 90% of the heat goes up the chimney.

I do have an old Prize Herald wood stove that I plan to install in my dinning room.

DeePa
10-13-2009, 12:12 PM
i just pay the gas bill every month...reffing 3-4 hockey games to pay that bill per month sure does beat the hassle of a wood stove and all that goes along with it. Turn the thermostat up and done like dinner.

we used to have one back in the day, but now we have a gas fireplace that gives the living room a nice atmosphere

Yamada
10-13-2009, 12:36 PM
A pulp wood cord is 4' high, 4' wide, and 8' long. Most people when talking about using a cord for fire wood are talking about a pile of wood 4' high x 8' wide and the length about 16"-18" in length. In our neck of the woods we call that a face cord.

You are right. I always forget to say that it is a face cord for the heating wood.

DixiePlowboy
10-13-2009, 12:37 PM
We use wood (oak and hickory) in our fireplace insert w/blower to cut down on our electric and gas bill. Most of my friends and immediate family do the same.

I used my old Stihl 041 that I got for my 12th birthday up until a couple years ago, and my dad has a new 22-ton splitter that I use to make short work of big-to-little chores.

I grew up in my great-grandparents old homeplace using wood and coal.

Billy Golightly
10-13-2009, 01:18 PM
we haven't burnt much wood in our fireplace in the past few years because of the winters have been pretty mild (even for Florida standards we didn't have a freeze till after Christmas) we run the central heat the most with maybe 3-4 truck loads of split wood.

Banage
10-20-2009, 09:20 PM
Haha in FL when it hits 65 they are worried they may freeze to death. Up here we are lucky to hit 65 for more than 30 days a year =)

mopar_man
10-21-2009, 08:56 PM
During the warm months (such as this one), I let the natural gas furnace run since it only kicks on about once an hour. In the colder months, I try and run straight wood unless it goes out during the night or we're gone for an extended period of time.