Famous Annual "I Really Heat With Wood"

[Biker Dude]

Before I got the OWB hooked up I was burning through a 500 gal propane tank full ever 5 weeks on average. Now I use maybe 200 gallons a year between the cook stove, clothes dryer, and the water heater. Of course, I burn 12 to 15 full cord of wood in a winter so I still have some insulating to do.

 

[HUSKYMAN]

I only have a 250 gal propane tank and fill it once a year. I have a propane stove, propane dryer, and hot water. I only fire my propane furnace once a year to clean out the cobwebs and make sure it works.

Propane for last year cost $250

 

[slowp]

You forgot us

You forgot us PNWers. We are noted for getting electricity from our publicly (oh no, we must be socialists!)and privately owned, salmon killing dams. There's one coal plant in Centralia (Madsen's area) and one in NE Oregon. The coal plants probably send power to Collyfonia. We also have one nuke plant. Oregon demolished theirs.

Most folks have electric heat here. But a lot just use that for backup out here in the sticks. I think I 3 cords of firewood which should do for this winter. We had our first frost Sunday night. It took four little pieced of wood to heat my house up yesterday. New house, smallish, and good insulation. It don't get much better

 

[blackdogon57]

OWB - 24/7/365 all heat and hot water. Have 2 indoor woodstoves for backup. Oil furnace still in place but not used since OWB install.

 

[yooper]

I heated with wood until one of my sons had serious allergy problems. then put a new natural gas furnace in my house. it costs me about 800 bucks a year to heat with gas so its not to bad. some day I may go back with wood as I give many, many cords of soft wood away each year. I keep the hard wood to burn out at the camp, I will always have wood heat there. I just keep a few windows open when the fire is going.

 

[Adkpk]

In the city we get steam from Con Ed. It's hot in this apt the windows are open all winter.

Weekender is a small cottage with ele. heat which is at 55 all the time and a heater in the crawl space at 45 to keep the water line from freezing and to keep the mice warm. I am up there doing woodwork most of the winter and keep the wood stove burning 24-7. The heat rarely comes on.

Plus I have planted thousands of trees in my lifetime. Keeping it green is my profession. I feel good about that.

 

[Circle B MN]

My CB provides all the heat for the house. I have an LP furnace that I never fire other than perhaps once a year just to see if it still works. I use LP for the dryer and hot water.

 

[BIG BEAM]

We're more like a 3.5.We set the furnace on 60 and when we get home the wood stove takes over.Weekends we use wood only.When Jan. rolls around we switch to the coal furnace only until the end of March then we go back to oil and wood.I like to have versatility except when I have to C&S 2 furnaces and a wood stove.
DON

 

[bayard]

99.9% wood

from nov to april all wood .we use a wood oil boiller.3 or 4 times it went out and the oil came on ,the house is 73-75 most days.kenny

 

[bore_pig]

We set the furnace to about 60. Doesn't run all that much though. Through the year it's 200 gallons or less, and that's with the cooking stove using lp too. Mostly wood!

 

[KMB]

Oops. I misunderstood 'fossil fuel' and voted wrong. My wood stove keeps most of the house comfy. When it gets 'colder', the electric furnace kicks in.

Kevin

 

[TJ-Bill]

we're 100% wood. We have baseboard electric heat and that only comes on if we get home and she's in a bad mood.. Power bill stays in the $110-130 range summer through winter.

 

[audible fart]

100% wood heat, no exceptions. 2 bedroom ranch house, sealed and insulated. I have a forced air oil furnace that hasn't been used for 10 years; it sucks- guaranteed to blow filth
Particles around, smell like diesel and make you angry. So it's retired forever. I have too much wood not to use the stove full time, which requires that I open a couple winders sometimes to let the heat and premium second hand cigar smoke outside to hopefully kill the neighbor kids. My electric bill used to hover in the $35 dollar range all winter, now that they raised the rates it's closer to $50. I can make this joint TROPICAL on the most frigid day of the year. In the "in between" times I just put on long johns which of course is only a one time purchase investment. I know some of you favor "snuggies" to long johns, especially when sawing in public, but I don't go there.

 

[husky455rancher]

all wood here no backup. i disconnected the oil burner at the start of last winter. even before that i only used it to heat the water.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Huge Gap in Alternatives

What about, "My woodstove heats over half of the house?"

There is huge gap between the second alternative and the the third. The third alternative doesn't even make any sense. Please rewrite the question. Thanks. opcorn:

 

[unclemoustache]

Last year we turned off the boiler and heated only with wood (not counting the water heater). We turned it back on after we ran out of wood, and I couldn't steal any more from my neighbor.

However, we were unemployed then, and we slept VERY cold upstairs. We closed off portions of the house, and our parlor room got down to about 35 degrees some nights. That was a little less comfortable than we prefer, so we'll see how much we use gas help this year.

 

[CUCV]

The past couple of years I have used less than 250 gal oil and 1.5 cord of wood. We didn't turn on the furnace until after Thanksgiving last year. Some day I will get my house set up for 100% wood burning.

Growing up at my folks I think we went 24 years 100% wood (4 cord/year) for heat and hot water until my father had to rebuild the wood furnace. We had a heat pump for hot water in the summer and a composting toilet to boot!

 

[danrclem]

I was aiming at 100% wood heat last year but right after Christmas my son wanted us to go to Florida with him for a few days. We were gone for four days so I turned the furnace on to make sure that no pipes froze.

This year I don't think that I'll be able to go 100% wood heat because we have a four month old granddaughter that my wife baby sits and when it's too warm to burn wood but too cool for the baby I'll probably fire up the propane heater that I have in the family room.

Maybe 100% next year.

 

[Maplekid]

We are 100% wood heat. OWB heats he house and hot water. The gas bill is higher in the summer than the winter. The dryer is the only thing that uses gas in the winter.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

We have gradually switched over to all wood. This year we have installed a shaver. Last year we used one tank of propane and then had them come pick it up and take the beast away after a non requested fill up. I am excited to be free at last......Lanny

Free from the propane salesman, slave to the OWB . Wanna go away for the weekend? Gotta find someone to feed it since you have no backup.

I voted for "Rarely used fossil backup", not because that's what I've done for years, but because that is our intent this year for the first time. Got our Jotul Oslo in February. Heated the rest of the season with it no problem (1750sq ft) with less than well seasoned wood. This winter, all our wood has been split and stacked under cover since March/Apr time frame, next year will be even better. In a couple years, we will be in cycle so that the wood we're burning will have been split and under cover for 2 years.

Ian