How do you think the wood heat "newbies" did this past season?

[gtstang462002]

I haven't been on the site much this winter as I have been in GA training for the military only to break my leg and end up in a military hospital(still here today) trying to grow a 1/2 of bone. My wife back home has done very well for herself and I must say I am very proud of her. She has only burned 1/4 of a tank of oil over the winter. The rest of the time she was feeding the old '70's treemont fireplace insert. I left her with a nice pile of firewood before I left for GA in October and there is probably 2 or 3 cords back there that needs to be split still. She has been conning her dad into coming up and splitting it for her. But it appears that winter is finally over in MD and those rounds will sit there until I get back probably.

 

[Steve_in_SEMich]

Wife & I new to wood-burning for heat. Installed a Harmon Exception last Fall, had about 14 face cord (needed 2 more) of white oak, ash, & silver maple. Smaller learning curve than I thought, other than this winter was longer than the last 5. I have 15 face cord drying now, with a little more ash coming down in May. Trying to get the the better half to be a little more selective on what wood to toss in the stove and when. No draft issues, burns almost 7.5 hours with the harder species before refilling, glad we had enough budget for installation, stove, hearth, and splitter. Of course, last year's propane pre-buy price was $2.19, this year's was just announced (about 5 months earlier than usual) is $1.49. Lengthens the pay-back period, but the exercise, outdoor time, sawing time, and warmer house are all better. We used to keep our house at 60 degrees when not home, 65 when home. Since the stove, 68-78 degrees near the stove, 62 & 68 in the bedrooms. She likes the stove but misses the fireplace. I do not. Used a Stihl 026 Pro until December, then added a MS 361 and increased production to keep up with the splitter and stove. :biggrinbounce2:

 

[tatra805]

Not new to wood heating but the first season in the new house.

All went perfect. Anyone noticed that it takes little time to get used to 27 celcius inside... We only noticed when having visitors complaining about how hot it was inside.

Our stove is at one end of the house. To heat the other end we need to keep running our gas powered central heating. (which also makes the domestic hot water)
We are heating a surface of 500m2 half ground floor half 1st floor.

What interests me more than the romantics are the numbers.

With the heating saison now over and our gas bill for the last year in the mail we made a little calculation.

Wood consumption: 12.5 m3 @ 26 euro/m2 = 325 euro
Gas rate per month: 80 euro x 12 months = 960 euro

Total consumption cost: 1285 euro/year or 107 euro/month. or 2.57 euro/m2/year

Investment cost Wood: 2000 euro
Investment cost Gas: 13 000 euro

Total investment: 15 000 euro / 20 years / 500m2 = 1.5 euro/m2/year

That gets us at : 4.07 euro/m2 per year.

I am interested to see other peoples calculations escpecially of an OWB setup.


My neighbour is heating 400m2 with gas only and ends up with a gasbill of 150 euro/month !!

Following the same calculation he is at 1.29 (invest) + 4.5 (consumption) = 5.79 euro/m2/year


That makes a difference of 1.72 euro x 500m2 = 860 euro.

hmmmm,.... time to go to the Stihl dealer for some new toy i guess

 

[shaunbagone]

good thread. Im two years into my Daka furnace. It paid for itself last year. I keep learning by trial and error, and alot of help and info from the veterans on here. I have a huge pile of ash and oak outside right now that needs to be split for next year. I did run out about half way through the season and i knew i would. I did really good finding alot of "now" wood here and there. I will be all set for next year. Im also going to do a few things to make my furnace more efficient and i want to put a stove in my living room where my POS open fireplace is now.

 

[valekbrothers]

After lining the chimney myself and buying a used Northern Leader wood furnace, I was off and running burning the well seasoned pile of old ash trees I got with the acreage.

Just wondering what model you have? Any likes or dislikes about it?

I am looking at a model 20-27 that looks to be in good shape. What did you have to give for yours?

Thanks, Chuck

 

[hangnail]

it was our first year with a jotul 400, however burning isnt new to me, but new to this house.

old house, virtually no insulation, old drafty windows, and a small fireplace. ideally a jotul 500 or 600 would have been better for our square footage, but it would not fit.

so besides that, we ran out of wood,and early. i estimated that we would burn 4 cords, we did, but we really need 6. it sure was nice not to recieve an oil fillup for almost 8 months.

was it worth it, absolutly, the amount of savings paided for the stove and the wood ( i didnt have enough time or resources for me to do it my own, but i have a few cords no for free. )

now we may be moving, so I will be pulling out the liner, the stove and the 3 cords of wood to where we end up, should be fun

 

[tals2]

Just wondering what model you have? Any likes or dislikes about it?

I am looking at a model 20-27 that looks to be in good shape. What did you have to give for yours?

Thanks, Chuck

Chuck:
I have a Northern Leader model 18-37. They aren't the newest things in the world (mine was manufactured in 1980) but so far I like it. Good sized firebox, decent burn times, seems well made. I had to give $500 for mine which was probably a bit much considering the fan that came with it def. wasn't the stock fan--some dirty old squirrel cage fan that wasn't even attached. In fact, so far I am using it by just putting a household fan right behind the hole in the back. The air comes out the top and up the grate in my living room. I'm glad I got it when I did though--it saved me a lot of money already this past winter.

 

[husky455rancher]

this was my 3rd year heating 100% with wood and no backup.

it was a eventfull year. the insert gave me problems causing a nice carbon minoxide backup into the house. i thought the stove was cleaned. turns out there was a buildup of ash that no human could ever get to. so i dumped the stove on its back and shook it out. she ran like a brand new stove afte that.


i also got the shenandoah this year from my buddy. its a fantastic stove but she loves the wood. its in the cellar and i can heat the cellar to 78 or so and the living area to 71ish no matter how cold it gets outside. it also provides perfectly even heating where the insert dosent.

well i admit i wasted alot of wood learning the new to me stove. i too packed her full almost every time. i only realized towards the end when i was in serious wood conservation mode that it wasnt necessary. the fieldstone foundation i have holds the heat in very well and i can let it die down quite a bit before i repack it. also no need to pack it full unless its bed time

but ive come up with a plan for next year. im gonna use the insert for the beginning and end of the heating season. during the dead of winter ill use the shenandoah in the cellar.

 

[Scootermsp]

Still saving $$$$

Last weekend when it was 90F, it was strange to see the OWB smoke! I had the Central A/C on and the OWB on as well for DHW. I am putting 3-4 pieces of wood in every 3 days or so. New England can still get chilly in May so I'll keep it fired up. If the smoke isn't bad I may just leave it going all summer. Last year from Mid-March to September I used 219 gallons of oil. My two 330 gallon tanks are FULL and I'd like them to stay that way.

 

[magnumR/T]

I grew up on wood heat because we were poor. Fortunately in my adult life the memories of being poor have made me very frugal. So I put an insert in the crappy fireplace and used 8 chords of mixed hardwoods to heat almost 2500 sq ft house, and only spent $300.00 in oil for those lazy days my wife won't load during the day when I'm not home.