Jump to content
  • Welcome Guest

    For an ad free experience on Online Baptist, Please login or register for free

Heating With Wood


Recommended Posts

  • Administrators

The Basics.

Having lived in Alaska for over thirty years, in temperatures that can reach 50 below zero, I have learned a few things about heating with wood. Although I no longer live in Alaska, I have been able to use what I learned there even in Northern California. As with most things in life, there are benefits as well as drawbacks to heating with wood.

If you are familiar with wood heating this information may be elementary for you. But if you have not had experience with wood heating, or are considering it as a main heat source or a supplemental one, this may be of some benefit to you. I would preface this information with some preliminary insight. First understand that not everything I suggest here may be applicable to everyone’s situation. Many things come into play that may or may not apply to you. One of the most important caveats might begin with the first phase of heating with wood and that is, wood cutting.

You may find yourself limited in your wood cutting endeavors by laws and regulations such as; permits, where you can cut; what you can cut (dead and down, live trees, or certain types of trees); how much wood your permit allows. To start with you may also be limited in your wood cutting by things such as, your physical ability. Wood cutting, splitting and hauling is very strenuous and potentially dangerous work.

Do you have, or can you get the proper tools and equipment you will need? First you will need an adequate truck and possibly a heavy duty trailer to haul your wood. You will need a good quality chain saw, an ax, splitting maul, wedges, both steel and plastic; chain saw files or electric sharpeners; log chain and/or cable; a steel pulley for hard to reach trees; ear protection, safety glasses; good quality leather gloves. Good quality “steel toe” boots are a must, this only becomes apparent the first time you touch your boot with the chain saw, or a cut piece of wood drops on your toe. A peavey is not essential, but can be a big help in moving logs and even lifting them off of the ground to cut stove length pieces without touching the ground with your chain saw. You may not need all of these things all of the time, but having them will save work, time, frustration and inconvenience.

Many people choose wood as a heat source because of the high cost of other sources of heat. But it is important to understand that heating with wood is not free. In the beginning there are unseen costs that will come into play. The first of these costs is time, unless you consider that your time has no monetary value. It takes substantial time and energy to harvest wood. There are also other costs associated with wood heat. If you chose to buy wood instead of cutting it yourself, there is usually a “per cord” cost involved in this.

There are costs that are not generally considered at first. For instance; there will be a lot of wear and tear on your truck. Is your firewood source close, or will you have travel time and expense? Chain saws are expensive, and then there is the cost of gas and oil for both truck and chain saw. If you do not already have the tools mention above, this will add to your initial cost. Most permitting agencies charge a “per cord” fee for permits. Possibly the most important item to consider for wood heating is a good quality wood stove. Many localities require EPA certified stoves that incorporate low pollution features by law. Good stoves are expensive and modern building codes, insurance and safety regulations also demand special double wall, insulated stove pipe installation, which is also expensive. One big unseen cost to wood heating is that of fire insurance; if you heat with wood your fire insurance will increase.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

A cold front is moving through here right now and the low forecast for tonight is 35�F. Wednesday and Thursday are supposed to be 30 and 37. I came home this afternoon, loaded up the hay trailer behind the Massey Ferguson, took it out to the pasture and pitchforked peanut hay to the sheep, fed bottles to the two baby calves, unloaded about 600# of feed out of my wife's SUV into the barn, I then hitched my 16' utility trailer up to the truck, grabbed my Husqvarna, anddrove up the road to cut up some dead oak limbs.  Loaded up and brought it home, cut the logs to length and filled up the woodbox. My daughter then started a fire in our "warm-magic" fireplace while my son and I took a roll of hay to the horses.. When we got back there was a roaring fire in our cozy little fireplace. We have two heat pumps but they're rarely used in winter and I didn't have to cut much firewood this season because we've had an unusually mild winter, even for NW Florida. But 99% of our heating is done with wood.

0329151243.jpg

Edited by heartstrings
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...