Wood Heat (chicken, gas, building, homes)

[nalabama]

ozarksboy, your point is well taken. Do the catalyst-equipped wood stoves do better in this regard? My use is primarily to save the $.10/kwh cost of electric heat on the house we have bought. Presently it is running $85-$100 per with the thermostat set at 50 degrees. We will be renovating the house, so should be able to pull that cost down to where we can run the electric at a more liveable setting, but until then we see little choice but to run the wood stove. Our electric is coal fire generated; do they do a better job of holding down our carbon load?

[Asheville Native]

I heat about 3600 sq/ft with two wood stoves. Burn mostly oak, locust, hickory, and maple. Takes about 5 chords a season, but that only costs me chain saw gas, and gas for the truck to haul it home.

Not as convenient as turning up the thermostat, but the price is right, especially since the heating system is fuel oil. Besides, right now, it is warm in here, not 'almost warm' if we were using a fossil fuel and watching the $$$. I hear the neighbors heat pump running all the time, that has got to be a budget buster.

[ozarksboy]

Originally Posted by nalabama

ozarksboy, your point is well taken....Our electric is coal fire generated; do they do a better job of holding down our carbon load?

I can see your point regarding coal-fire generators, as well as heating oil, vs. firewood. I don't know which puts more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Perhaps someone with more science background can answer that for me if Josh will let him or her.

[Submariner]

It depends a lot on the design of the system and how well built the house is.

We have a new house, sealed tight with R=60 insulation. 2400 sq ft.

Radiant floor heat, fed by our woodstove. Or it can be fed by our propane water heater [via a thermostat].

Our system also includes a large thermal bank in the basement. By heating up a large amount of water, after the fire goes out, it takes hours for the thermal bank to slowly cool down.

When it is cold outside which can be anywhere from 20* to -20*, we can burn a fire and be toasty at 70* in our home. I stoke the stove at midnight as I go to bed, and at 8am the house will have cooled to 60*.

We fire-up the stove in the morning for an hour, maybe two hours. Then the fire dies out, and we fire-it up again in the afternoon at about sunset. From sunset until we are all in bed the stove burns continuously.

We have just now finished our second cord this season and are starting on our third cord of wood.

We live in a forest, we cut our own wood, and we sell cord wood at $150 / cord delivered.

IF we did not want the house temp to bounce so much, we could turn on the water heater and let it heat the house. We have done this before. but propane costs a lot more as a fuel.

Where we live, we also have access to peat for fuel. We have burned peat, as well as coal in our stove. We once lived in Scotland, where we got used to burning a coal and peat mixture. I harvest peat here for free.

[dsh1127]

We use a wood stove in the winter. I love the warmth from it - even though sometimes we are all sweating and opening up windows, I like that much better than the other option!

I think ours is an Avalon, and it heats our 1728sf 2 story just fine. I'd say we use about 2-3 cords of a mix of Madrone, Oak and Pine. I can stock the stove before I go to bed, turn it down and wake up with hot coals to add to!

[MoNative34]

I have an "Earth Stove" brand smaller wood stove for my 1200sq home. Like others here, I cut my own out in my timber so it's pretty much free heat. The "heat can't be beat"

[simplewife&mom]

My husband and I both grew up with wood heat, but for 10 years have had a propane insert or propane central. A few days before Christmas, he installed a Jotul Castine (I think that's the model) and we love it! I'll take the radiant, cozy heat and woodsy smell over the convenience of central any day! We have access to free wood from our friends and family, and I believe it's $15/cord to cut it in the El Dorado National Forest, which is in our area. If the power goes out, we still have heat and can cook soup on it. Since my husband was laid off in Feb., I am so thankful that we have free heat in our home, and I don't have to cringe when I see the propane truck come trundling up the dirt road to fill the tank! Also, I don't have to be the "thermostat Nazi" and we can let it get as hot in here as we want. We live in a newer, well insulated modular home and boy does our little stove keep us toasty! Here's some pics, hope they work as this is the first time I've added a picture to a posting.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Burning wood is essentially carbon-neutral... burning a tree emits no more CO2 into the atmosphere than it would emit just rotting on the forest floor. So wood heat is definitely more atmosphere-friendly than heating oil or coal-fired electricity (electricity is the most inefficient generator of heat!). You can improve your emissions by purchasing an EPA-approved woodstove (catalytic or non-catalytic). These also have the added benefit of being more efficient as they burn the wood and the wood gases so you get more BTU out of your cordwood.

Fireplaces and old woodstoves are not as efficient and emit more pollutants in the smoke because they do not burn the gases. Fireplaces are notorious heat wasters... most of the heat goes up the chimney and the temp & pressure differential causes cold air to be sucked in through other rooms. Anyone with a standard fireplace who really wants to use it for heat rather than a pretty fire should consider an upgraded stove insert.

The new stoves and furnaces are definitely not as messy or smokey as the older ones as long as they are properly run and maintained. Placing the appliance in the right location and having as straight a chimney as possible with proper roof clearances virtually eliminates smoke coming back into the house when the doors are opened (back drafting). The only problem I've ever had with the newer woodstoves I've used is when someone doesn't set the damper properly or turns on the kitchen exhaust hood without cracking a window (this can sometimes be eliminated if you pipe outside combustion air directly to the stove instead of using room air).

If your home is properly insulated and you have the right-sized appliance, running a hot fire before bedtime and then banking it with slow-burning logs for the night will usually keep the house quite comfortable for 6-8 hours... no more chilly mornings!

A friend of mine has a 3000 sq ft super-insulated "chalet" in the mountains where it routinely gets below -20* for extended periods. He uses between 4-5 cords of mixed hard & softwoods (whatever he's cut from his property that year) to heat that space without supplmentation... so about a cord a month in the winter.

[mkfarnam]

TIPS:

I'm a "Small Engine Repair Mechanic" which includes the repair of "Chainsaws".

So if anyone has any problems with your chainsaw, feel free to send me a DM with your question.

[mkfarnam]

This is a very interesting and educational thread.

Here in Oklahoma, the name "Rique or Rick" is more commonly used instead of the name "Cord". A "Rick" is approx, 1/2 of a cord and is sold for approx, $55-$65.00.
While growing up on a Dairy farm in MI. I remember wr used a pot belly stove to heat with. The 180 acre farm we had was surrounded by woodland so we had all the (hard) wood we needed, which included some pine. I loved the smell of burning pine.