Famous Annual "How Much Wood Heat Do I Use" Poll

[logbutcher]

Ok boys and girls, here 'tis, the famous annual how much you heat with wood poll.
Why you ask ? This is the firewood forum on AS. Unlike other forums here, users of firewood compete with other fossil options for heating. From the posts, e.g. "why are those firewood sellers cheating me," or "what kind of moisture meter do I need to tell if the firewood I bought is really truly seasoned," or "why don't I have my firewood ready in October," it seems that many barely use this wood heat resource. Includes OWB, wood furnace, wood stove (NO pellets, corn, biobricks, or roadkill)So, tell the g's honest truth.....

1. 100% wood heat, NO central furnace or ANY backup, AND I harvest/scrounge ALL the firewood.
2. 99 and xx % wood heat with some minor space heating backup, AND harvest scrounge most of the firewood.
3. Most of heating by wood "up from" a central furnace set at ~ 65 F. Buy all firewood C/S/D.
4. Heat with wood only for weekends, romance, entertainment. Buy it all....
5. Wood is heavy, dirty, inefficient. I'm rich and lazy. I'm here just for laughs.

 

[upsnake]

2 - OWB - Heats the house, only run gas if i go out of town, or a random cold day before or after i shut the owb down. - Tree services dumps wood on my property, then i turn that into firewood.


But I was it was the rich part of 5.

This is the first full year, but thinking about 5 cord (full), should do it.

 

[J1m]

Hmm...I don't fall under any of those categories.

As of this past Sunday all my hot water and heat from now until spring will come from my OWB. I do, however, have it plumbed through my oil furnace in case we go away and the fire goes out - so we use the oil as a back up. And then in the spring we will turn off the OWB and heat our hot water with the oil left in our tank.

Oh, and I do a combination regarding wood. I buy 8' logs and then cut, split and stack 'em myself. And also do whatever scrounging can be done in my area...Which isn't much since everyone around seems to compete for the scrounge stuff!

 

[JimmyT]

Nummer zwei---Hope you can read German

 

[Steve NW WI]

2.25 = Wood furnace as full primary heat, propane furnace set to 55° as backup for when I'm gone, also used on them -30F° times in midwinter when the stove doesn't quite keep it comfy in the far corners upstairs.

All my wood is c/s/s by me, primarily from my own woods, with some coming from friends/relatives places who needed a tree down. Considering buying a $8/cord firewood permit for county land just to have more oak in the mix. Other than that possiblilty, I don't buy wood.

8 cords (yup "Real" cords) in an average year, have seen a low of a bit over 6 to last year's high of 10 and change. Lost more propane to a rotted underground line from the tank last winter than I used. Also have propane hot water and cookstove, used a touch over 100 gallons since line was fixed in Feb.

 

[stihl in ky]

About 85 percent wood with a Buck insert with a blower. Gas for a backup. I cut all the wood myself, plus I sell cordwood, and bundles to gas stations and campgrounds.

 

[openloop]

Id say 1.5. I have back ups but treat them as such. I dont run them unless I dont have wood. All of my wood is scrounge wood from friends needing trees gone, and scrounging after storms.

 

[timbur]

#2
I only use electric heater's or turn on the gas range to take the chill off in morning this time off the year , but that will change as soon as I hook up my new Hitzer 254 to the triple wall chimney I'm putting up this weekend . I have a WC90 New Yorker boiler in the basement hooked to in floor radiant for my main heat source for colder weather .

 

[zogger]

1 with a caveat

Vast majority we heat with wood, except for the really coldest nights, and I run the bathroom electric built in wall heater. Just for the pipes. If it wasn't for protecting the pipes, I wouldn't run it, it is just some insurance, that's all. That room is the farthest away from the woodheat, and really doesn't get any benefit from it at all.

I !@#$$@#!! hate !#^&%E busted !@%%^%@ water (*^%#@ pipes.

The cabin we are in is wicked old (near as I can find out, the oldest in this area), and was built in three stages. Started out like a hunnert years ago or older as a one room cabin, a sharecroppers cabin. No utilities. A fireplace. Then someone added two more rooms at one end, like it now has a T shape. Then it turned into a hunting cabin that had bunkbeds all around the walls (heard this from some old timers in the neighborhood). No utilities, same fireplace. Then they added running water and a bathroom and electricity, about the rankest install job ever, from like in the 40s or something. the fireplaces by them got bricked up and wood stoves installed. After that it was a small farm family house. To get to any pipes and fix them, you literally have to guess where the leak is, then cut the floor, there's no clearance to get under there. That's how they put them in, cut the floor, slid in pipes, rebuilt the floor over it. I found that out first major leak I got. I noticed the backyard was getting mushy and had low water pressure, it was leaking for like weeks. Boy was that not fun to fix....

 

[Davej_07]

I fall under #2

Heat about 70% with wood and natural gas for backup. I should go through 3 cords this year, which I scrounge and process myself.

Dave

 

[Somesawguy]

100% wood with a propane furnace for backup. I turn it on a couple times just to make sure it's still functioning.

I go through 3 cord or so a year.
I scrounge my wood, but have bought log length in the past.

 

[Laird]

#1

Although I have fired up the electric oven to take the chill out in the spring after I have shut down the OWB. I usually have someone come by and load it if I have to go away for a day or two.

 

[Fifelaker]

Number 1. But I will buy some if needed. I use about ten full,pulp,real cord a year.

 

[Hedgerow]

Heat 3 houses with wood... 1 100%, the other 2 have propane backup... Will go through ~12 cord... Sell the rest...

 

[ropensaddle]

All wood and as much as it takes. Last year 12 full cord but i have a hungry furnace

 

[CWME]

#1 this year and next.

1.5 for 2013-2014, going to order a truck load of wood instead of scrounging for the wood. Truck parts/tires/gas are not free.

 

[logbutcher]

Interesting to hear how many ways we use firewood, techniques, tools, degree of use, wood burners, and how we get the fuel. Appreciate the responses.

Living in a rural part of the world makes it easy, particularly where it's well forested such as Downeast Maine. Sub factor: The Pee Rule for living well. Most of us don't think about the real cost of "getting wood in"; it becomes more of a lifestyle. And like most 'jobs' 80/20 rules: you got to enjoy at least 80% of what you do, whatever you do. In mid winter @ 5 F, a NW gale spitting snow, with the stoves cracking at full bore, my single malt and SWMBO close by, it all becomes worth the sweat, the %$#@ when the saw(s) crap out, when the stacking is a PITA, and I spark a round in a tree with the chain.

True confession: we have 2 stoves running 24/7. 5-7 cords/year. One is a cat, one a non-cat. 1/2 the house has a thru-the-wall gas heater for short winter trips to the mountains or Canada. The other half gets closed off since there are no water pipes ( some northern New Englanders still shut most of the house off in winter to conserve fuel=="summer kitchen" and "winter kitchen" ). Only this year did I have to buy a trailer of log lengths, since I couldn't harvest last winter. LP gas for cooking, drier, Rinnai "on-demand" water heater all use < 200 gallons a year; strange pricing, the highest rate paid since we use "too little" ! BTW: the Rinnai has been trouble-free for 6 years.

Keep those cards and letters:tongue2: coming.

 

[rwbinbc]

#1 For Me

As I dont have a secondry heat source, We use about 6 cords a years. We sell wood and as of right now I have 1 rick of wood outside. We sold well over 70 cords of wood this year. We have been slacking on our wood pile. The rain lately, We are having problems with getting the wood around. There is still enough wood on one of our properties to set us up for this year. But again I dont like working in the rain. Worst case We have to clean up some trees out back. We are just about done with the 10 acre 133 tops, We are moving to a 40 acre around 300 tops left. Once the snow gets 8"-10" I'm going to be done for this year.


We use a 1 ton with 4'10" sides, It will hold 1 1/2 cords of wood. So 4 loads and We will be set......

 

[Hedgerow]

I don't know what SWMBO stands for... But +1 on the single malt...
:big_smile:

 

[thepheniox]

Approximately 300 blue bins.