Advantages of heating with wood

[CrappieKeith]

I buy my wood....100$ a cord for oak.
For 600$ in wood I'm making around 4 grand in gas heat. I like my home warm.
Having wood to burn allows me to do that cheaply.
When it gets mild out I can pick up twigs to burn to take the chill off of the house.
So in the last 11 years I've put better then 25K back into my pocket.

I could get wood for next to nothing ,but I'd rather spend my time guiding others on the ice fishing then cut wood.
Oh...no power....my house still stays at 75 degrees.
Here's a few from this weekend.

Then after 10 hours on the ice I can come home to a warm & toasty home.
I get great burn times so my wood never goes out on a couple of loads per day.
This affords me time to do what I really love to do....

 

[John_M]

Big_Redd and others, If my comments about my total cost of burning wood offended you or others, I apologize. My comments were intended only to explain the costs I have and will encounter during this first year of burning. I certainly did not intend to comment about how or why others burn with wood or the expenses they incur for burning. We all have our own reasons for doing what we do and I was just explaining mine. There was no offense intended.

Best Wishes,

John_M

 

[karri0n]

Not sure why so many in this thread are feeling so touchy today, or if people are just looking for a fight.

At the risk of offending someone, I will say that I heat with wood because it's warm, I like the work of carrying, chopping, hauling wood, and it's cheaper than oil. I didn't pay for my stove or my install as it came with the property.

 

[Spikem]

LOL

Rick is very literal. If you say everywhere, then he takes that to mean EVERYWHERE. Now, I've seen some places that burn camel dung because there is no wood to be had anywhere.

Wondering how much a cord of camel dung goes for... I suppose you can burn it just fine a rabbit pellet burning stove lol...

Ray

I leave it to others to split and stack it.

 

[Spikem]

Pretty mild day here and I didn't want to have to relight the fire so I decided to go to the woods in front of my house and just snap off dead branches off the oaks and white pines and lemme tell you free heat is the best Heck I had enough heat to engage the cat and the stove is as happy as can be! Lemme see you do that with pellets or corn! I have loads of these dead branches just sitting here doing nothing and I think they have found a very good purpose.. How much free energy can you think of like I just produced? You can stuff the pellets, corn and other things because wood is everywhere! And to think I almost strayed off to pellets... Just thought I'd pass this along....

Ray

Hey Ray
I'm with you all the way.
Before I read this thread I saw the title and instantly started thinking about why I heat with wood, there was a few minor reasons that I have, but the main number one reason is because I can get the wood for free. If was forced to buy the stuff I wouldn't bother with wood, I'd simply use my back up heat, which in my current case is a heat pump.
As far as ease of collecting it I only have one maple tree in my yard, but I don't have to drive far to find free wood. Still, I probably burned enough wood out in my yard today to heat my house for month or more, it was mostly wood siding boards off my house. I have been renovating my house and accumulating a lot of scrap wood. I did burn quite a bit of it in the stove this winter, mostly for fire starter, but I have way too much to burn as the main fuel and this stuff has been lying around the yard (covered in snow) all winter, I just wanted to do a spring clean of the yard. I still have over half the house to strip of this old pine siding board in preparation for stucco, I plan on stacking that neatly and saving it to burn next winter, so I will essentially be burning the house to heat itself. lol Of course I won't be burning just that stuff, I plan to get some proper cord wood this summer, in fact I am already making plans to do some camping/wood collecting/fishing trips this summer.
>What other way is there of heating your house that you can incorporate fishing and camping into the equation?<

The 1st year I had this stove I heated 24/7 with pallets.. Yes they're free but they are a lot of work... Then I had a neighbor that was building an 8 acre cranberry bog and he dropped all the hardwood onto the corner of my property.. Took me forever to cut and split it but I heated my house for free for 3-4 yrs.. Now I pay for it and I do shop around.. I found a guy on craigslist for $165.00 a cord cut,split and delivered..Most of the wood was white and red oak,maple and little bit of poplar and locust.. I bought 3 cords and that will easily heat my house for a year..BTW if anyone reading this is from southeastern Mass. I can hook you up with my firewood guy, just PM me.. My last firewood guy had excellent firewood but he went up to $275. a cord! I did call him and he said his supplier went way up and I told him no way I will pay that much for wood..

Ray

Ray, as you know, I'm in Middleboro - probably just a few minutes away from you. Do you know of any sources of log length wood? That's what I'm looking for. I went to a local place almost a year ago and got lots of stuff 18"+ in diameter. And probably a quarter of that was elm! No fun! Still, I'm looking to continue with the log length approach as it's typically no more than $100 a cord and I don't mind workin'!

 

[raybonz]

Pretty mild day here and I didn't want to have to relight the fire so I decided to go to the woods in front of my house and just snap off dead branches off the oaks and white pines and lemme tell you free heat is the best Heck I had enough heat to engage the cat and the stove is as happy as can be! Lemme see you do that with pellets or corn! I have loads of these dead branches just sitting here doing nothing and I think they have found a very good purpose.. How much free energy can you think of like I just produced? You can stuff the pellets, corn and other things because wood is everywhere! And to think I almost strayed off to pellets... Just thought I'd pass this along....

Ray

Hey Ray
I'm with you all the way.
Before I read this thread I saw the title and instantly started thinking about why I heat with wood, there was a few minor reasons that I have, but the main number one reason is because I can get the wood for free. If was forced to buy the stuff I wouldn't bother with wood, I'd simply use my back up heat, which in my current case is a heat pump.
As far as ease of collecting it I only have one maple tree in my yard, but I don't have to drive far to find free wood. Still, I probably burned enough wood out in my yard today to heat my house for month or more, it was mostly wood siding boards off my house. I have been renovating my house and accumulating a lot of scrap wood. I did burn quite a bit of it in the stove this winter, mostly for fire starter, but I have way too much to burn as the main fuel and this stuff has been lying around the yard (covered in snow) all winter, I just wanted to do a spring clean of the yard. I still have over half the house to strip of this old pine siding board in preparation for stucco, I plan on stacking that neatly and saving it to burn next winter, so I will essentially be burning the house to heat itself. lol Of course I won't be burning just that stuff, I plan to get some proper cord wood this summer, in fact I am already making plans to do some camping/wood collecting/fishing trips this summer.
>What other way is there of heating your house that you can incorporate fishing and camping into the equation?<

The 1st year I had this stove I heated 24/7 with pallets.. Yes they're free but they are a lot of work... Then I had a neighbor that was building an 8 acre cranberry bog and he dropped all the hardwood onto the corner of my property.. Took me forever to cut and split it but I heated my house for free for 3-4 yrs.. Now I pay for it and I do shop around.. I found a guy on craigslist for $165.00 a cord cut,split and delivered..Most of the wood was white and red oak,maple and little bit of poplar and locust.. I bought 3 cords and that will easily heat my house for a year..BTW if anyone reading this is from southeastern Mass. I can hook you up with my firewood guy, just PM me.. My last firewood guy had excellent firewood but he went up to $275. a cord! I did call him and he said his supplier went way up and I told him no way I will pay that much for wood..

Ray

Ray, as you know, I'm in Middleboro - probably just a few minutes away from you. Do you know of any sources of log length wood? That's what I'm looking for. I went to a local place almost a year ago and got lots of stuff 18"+ in diameter. And probably a quarter of that was elm! No fun! Still, I'm looking to continue with the log length approach as it's typically no more than $100 a cord and I don't mind workin'!

Hey Neighbor,
I haven't seen anyone selling log length around here but I do recall a place in Bridgewater on Rt. 18 I think that logs a year ago.. I don't know the name of the guy.. I paid $165.00 a cord cut, split and delivered this year.. If I hear anything I'll let you know.. My brother in law lives at DeeBee Circle in Middleboro...

Ray