The Famous Annual "Really Heat With Wood" Poll

[Iska3]

We use 100% dry seasoned wood for our main heating with the LP boiler as a back up but we never used it last year.

Our house has hot water baseboard heat and the LP prices were killing me. (we have a big old 4 bedroom farm house with very insulation and poor windows) In year past we had an inside wood furnace.

Last fall I took out the old wood furnace and installed an OWB. We heat with nothing but wood for the house and now an unattached Garage/ Shop and Craft Room. House is always warm and at time the butter melts in the dish. I also like the free hot water. Using LP would be average a cost of 600.00 per month during the winter. If need be, I could afford to buy my wood at those prices.

The only LP is for cooking. Used about a 15% of a 500 pound tank so I'll have enough LP for the next 5 years.

 

[Nuzzy]

Have you looked at the common problem, especially with propane. remove and clean the "carryover" slot that transfers the flame from one burner to the next burner. Take them all out and use a thin file like you get with a torch for cleaning the tips. Clean all the slots out on the wings of the burners and try it. Better than a fifty fifty that's the issue.

I have not, and will try it out. Thanks!

 

[meatwagon45]

This time of year I let the furnace kick on to keep the house around 68 degrees. Wood stove keeps the house around 77 - 80 degrees all winter. My thermostat is set for 68 so if the fire ever goes out the oil furnace kicks in. We have a space heater in the kids room because the insulation sucks in there. I took a little trick I learned on the farm to control that too. I spliced in a thermostat into an extension cord so the thermostat is on the other side of the room. Works really well and the wife is happy with it.

(ps - I own an oil company and heat with wood so I am my own worst enemy )

 

[woodbooga]

In truth, we're at about 80% wood heat, 10% oil, and 10% solar via numerous south and east facing windows that really help pick up the slack.

Our house isn't anywhere near as old as Marc's - circa 1860 or thereabouts. Old connected farmhouse, where the barn is attached to the main dwelling through a rear passageway off from the kitchen ell. One of the features of these places (typical post-bellum NH and Maine architecture) was the ventilation. The barn sucks air out of the main dwelling to prevent the odors of the livestock from pervading the house. Drawback is it sucks the heat outta the house - long after Nellie the cow and the Rhode Islands reds have gone.

No biggie 150 years ago when people tended to remain more active indoors than they do now.

There's also a farmers porch that a previous owner closed in - back at a time when heating oil was 10 cents a gallon. We close that off. Makes a big difference.

 

[jcappe]

I heat 99% of the time with wood. The propane furnace is set to kick on when my water temp gets below 120 deg. from the OWB. The only time it kicks on is if I don't load enough wood and get caught with a real cold snap. It's like an alarm clock in the morning though, I can hear the LP kick in and I'm straight out of bed to fill it up.

 

[Turkeyslayer]

I want an OWB.

Me too bother, me too

 

[USMC0802]

Hoping the new stove gives me 100% wood heat - that's the intent. I have electric baseboard that was here when we bought the house and we had a heat pump installed when we replaced the central air, but I'm hoping neither one of them ever comes on.

 

[OhioGregg]

All most 100% wood heat. Have a fake (electric) fireplace in living room, and one that looks like a small wood stove in back room. Usually use them in the fall, to take off the chill when needed. Untill we get some steady cold temps, usually in November, around Thanksgiving, then start up the indoor wood furnace. Have propane furnace also, but havn't used it in some time.

Gregg,

 

[Upidstay]

I'd say I'm about 80% wood heat. I'm just to lazy to get up at 3 am to reload, so I will hear the furnace kick on first thing in the morning on cold nights. I'm gone 10 hours a day from the house, so I'm sure it kicks on also during the afternoon too.

 

[avason]

I heat 100% with wood and get my hot water from it too. I made a big mistake when I built my house. I buried a 1000 gallon liquid propane tank for about 5 grand and bought a boderus furnace and water tank. I just started to use the furnace because I stopped burning in the summer. I guess my point is I should have not buried my tank and bought a cheaper furnace. It was a waste of money!! I love my burner!!

 

[Tesen]

I try to heat 100% with wood, tend to get around 60% - 90% with wood due to work, school and family. I slacked bad this year, due to long workdays and school, I wanted to spend my free time with the family so have not collected as much as I wanted.

Feeling it too The body was never really in shape, but I could haul logs up a decent slope to my trailer, now splitting some hickory and pin oak yesterday, ugh feeling it today!

Tes

 

[sunfish]

95% now

We were 100% for 25 years, put central heat and air in 5 years ago, elec heat pump that isn't enough but keeps the house from freezing if we're gone for a few days.

I work in my shop (1700 sf) full time and it's 100% wood heat.

 

[logbutcher]

Nice responses all....thanks. Informative.

Not more than a generation ago, few heated whole houses 24/7. It was too expensive for most. Most in northern Europe heated only small areas until VERY recently where they spent the most time.

No need to "get up and load the stove @ 0300". Silly. The temp in our place does get colder in the morning....so ? My job to do the stoves in the morning so that SWMBO can be warm and cozy arising from a night's rest. Even on the below zero mornings the house is rarely below freezing.

So try it: shut off the thermostat(s),and really heat with wood; whether a wood stove, OWB, insert, wood furnace. And why heat bedrooms anyhow ? Homo sapiens prospered well for centuries without central heating. Get a down comforter---big one---open the windows in winter ( the Swiss and Scandinavians do) with no, repeat NO problems with their procreation.

JMNSHO

 

[Erik B]

We have been getting around 75-80% of heat from burning wood. We have a small Hotshot fireplace insert made by Earth Stove that we bought back in the early 80's. I haven't heard anyone talk about that brand of stove. It certainly is nice to limit our puchase of fuel oil to only 100-150 gallons per year rather than the 600 we used before we got our wood stove. Having our own land to harvest our wood is a good thing.

 

[stihl sawing]

About 99.99% with wood, On rare occasions we will turn the gas heater on. When it does turn cold enough for the stove it will not be shut down until spring.

 

[JRB31]

100% wood heat for 5 yrs, took the furnace out and turned that space into a pantry.

 

[blakey]

I have heated 100% with wood for the last 9 years with an owb and about 75% for the 4 years before that with an indoor wood furnace at another house. I have a decent oil furnace in the basement but have not bought any oil for 9yrs. I would have to replace the tank and get an inspection before they would fill me now.

I do cheat a little and buy the odd grapple load of logs. I am heating a 5 bedroom brick farmhouse,dhw and occasionally a couple other small buildings. I think even with buying logs the savings are substantial. When we installed the owb furnace oil was pushing 60 cents/liter now I think it is close to a dollar. I wish I had all the money I saved somewhere, not sure where it went.

 

[Marc]

Nice responses all....thanks. Informative.

Not more than a generation ago, few heated whole houses 24/7. It was too expensive for most. Most in northern Europe heated only small areas until VERY recently where they spent the most time.

No need to "get up and load the stove @ 0300". Silly. The temp in our place does get colder in the morning....so ? My job to do the stoves in the morning so that SWMBO can be warm and cozy arising from a night's rest. Even on the below zero mornings the house is rarely below freezing.

So try it: shut off the thermostat(s),and really heat with wood; whether a wood stove, OWB, insert, wood furnace. And why heat bedrooms anyhow ? Homo sapiens prospered well for centuries without central heating. Get a down comforter---big one---open the windows in winter ( the Swiss and Scandinavians do) with no, repeat NO problems with their procreation.

JMNSHO

Ehh... there are parts under my house that I'd worry about freezing water pipes without the heat coming off the feed/return lines and without cycling the boiler loops.

We may have reproduced well and without problems since the time humans were nomadic hunter gatherers, but I'd argue there are better ways of measuring quality of life I am working in the direction of more heat from wood, but it's not practical for some folks' living arrangments.

 

[USMC0802]

Ehh... there are parts under my house that I'd worry about freezing water pipes without the heat coming off the feed/return lines and without cycling the boiler loops.

We may have reproduced well and without problems since the time humans were nomadic hunter gatherers, but I'd argue there are better ways of measuring quality of life I am working in the direction of more heat from wood, but it's not practical for some folks' living arrangments.

Exactly. I can't tell my 7 month old to suck it up and wear a hoodie to bed. I could just dress her in a hoodie for bed, but I have a feeling she sleeps better when it's comfortable for her and when she sleeps better, the wife and I sleep better and that's worth it.

 

[wood4heat]

It's gotta get into the 30ies before I can really start using the wood stove. Any warmer and I either roast the family out of the house or burn such a smoldering little fire the glass on my stove door goes black. Right now the electric heat may come on once per night if even that. Sometime late October/ early November it should be cold enough to burn in evenings. Depending on the winter I could be burning 24/7 anywhere from December through February. After that I'll go back to evenings/ weekends until spring.

I'm still looking forward to the first fire of the season. This time of year I always get jealous of all you guys who are already burning.