End of winter assessments.

[Eric Johnson]

Wrong initials, Harley, but I had to think about it for a second!

They're very nice, tolerant people, by the way. One complaint in 3 years doesn't sound like a big deal, but I know they hated to do it, and it makes me feel bad that perhaps they were suffering in silence all that time. Usually the wind blows the other way and out into the woods behind our houses, but still......

That's one of my main reasons for upgrading. Also, the boiler I have isn't quite big enough to keep the house above 70 when it's below zero for a couple of days in a row, in part because I try to be careful about the smoke, and that precludes firing it hard at times when conditions warrant. And for 3 years worth of basically free heat, I'd say I got my $300 back. The only downside I can see is cutting my wood consumption in half. That's about the only thing keeping me off the streets all summer.

But yeah, BG, I'm going to fire the living daylights out of the EKO, just because I can. Maybe my neighbors will let me use it to heat their pool in the summer. That's a big gas bill for them.

 

[Todd]

Hey Eric,
what ever happened to your quest for a Wood stove? I thought you were looking into one awhile back.

 

[Eric Johnson]

That was one thing I was considering last winter, but there were some technical hurdles that I never got around to solving. And my wife said she's not interested in having wood hauled into the house, etc. So that's that. The new boiler will make it unnecessary in any event, and we still have a couple of fireplaces if we really want to snuggle in front of a fire.

 

[jqgs214]

Nothing like a good "snuggle" in from of the fire!

 

[adrpga498]

I have learned the true meaning of the "sweat spot " when reducing the air intake to extend burn time( and create good secondary burn flame) and not lose stove top temp. My top reads between 500* degrees and 550 when I'm 3/4 closed for longer sweat spot burn time. I used to add wood when I relied only on the single wall stack temp read 300 or below. Stove top reading is the best indicator for me. Now if I can continue hitting the sweat spot on my tee shots I'll have a good summer.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I get sweat spots too, but usually only on my tee shirt when I'm splitting wood.

Nice looking Holtzs there, adrpga. Is that your wood?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Minimum eighty degrees? Good grief!

Corie, if I go outdoors and freeze my buns, I refuse to have even the hint of cool or cold when I am in my home. Why shouldn't one be comfortable? Now if I am doing some physical work, then the temperature goes down. Besides, keeping it really warm forces the ladies to take off more clothing! So there are two good reasons to keep it nice and toasty indoors.

 

[scfa99]

I'm pretty happy, from 2/06 until 3/07 I've only used 601 gallons of LP. Before the Quad we used 1600 gallons and froze. My lockin price is 2.20 a gallon = $2200 in savings this year, on top of the 1600 the first year. Oh forgot to mention my tank is 70% full too, they won't be back til summer. what a feeling.

burned approx 3 3/4 this year have 3-4 cords ready for next year, have a bunch of rounds bucked that I need to pickup.

 

[Highbeam]

I learned that my wife likes burning wood while I am gone and oddly notices and appreciates the significant savings in electricity. I never knew she was as frugal (cheap) as me. I mentioned a back up system using forced hot water and she started in on how much energy the boiler would consume.

I learned that the wood selling man's definition of "dry" and "ready to burn" is not the same as my definition of ready to burn. I now have 6.5 cords drying out in the yard plus another 3 to pick up from a scrounge score. I want the control over wood moisture.

I learned that 20% may be an accepted measure of dry wood but 20% is much wetter than 15%, reducing burn times and output.

I learned that burning a high ash producing wood like red alder actually leads to longer burn times compared to a denser but less ashy wood like doug fir despite the much lower btu rating. This is an odd one. The ashes seem to hold those coals longer and extend the burn so that restarting the fire in a warm stove is very easy. The ash producing wood is much different than just leaving a bed of ash on the firebox floor.

I learned that after dinner on a cold day putting non burning friends or family in a 76 degree room including a 550 degree stove with a glass of bourbon in their hand and a comfy chair will make those non-burners wish they had a stove. They will stare at the flames and tune out the distractions, they will speak freely while gazing at the fire and will sip slowly, slowly.

 

[Gooserider]

I learned more about the best sizes of wood to split - will save some work as I've been splitting smaller than I need to.

I learned that my smoke dragon is cheap because we own it already, but I would really like to replace it with a more modern stove - keeping an eye out for bargains....

I'm starting to get more and better PPE to use with the chainsaw

I'm almost through with burning for the season, and still have wood left, but I think I'd have been in trouble if the season had been more typical. I need a more efficient stove, or to get more wood split, maybe both. I'm probably not going to build another woodshed though, as I can restack after consuming some wood if needed.

I'm already started on cleaning up some small stuff on the property, but will need to get at least one load of log-length - IMHO scrounging would cost more in vehicle abuse than we would save in wood costs - would be different if we had a pickup instead of a mini-van...

Found a bunch of good people on Hearth.com

Gooserider

 

[Robbie]

Gooserider, check on ebay for a stove, they seem to have lots of stoves.

You might get lucky and find one near where you live.

Sounds like you got a plan, thats great. ;-)

I'll tell ya, I too have learned a lot, there is so much to remember when "practicing" wood burning.

I realize you need all kinds of wood and all sizes, but how in the world do you keep it all "exactly" where you need it when you need it ? %-P

Kindling, thats a whole new chapter...........



Robbie

 

[velvetfoot]

I learned that splitting wedges can disappear in the woods and probably should be painted flourescent orange.

 

[BrotherBart]

I learned that splitting wedges can disappear in the woods and probably should be painted flourescent orange.

The same is true with pry bars. I took a six foot long one into the woods to pry a log open to free a saw one time. Found it the other day. Fourteen years later.

 

[Rhone]

What did I learn this winter...

I need shorter splits, the 22" I was putting in there fit tight in the back and prevents air circulation to the back. 20" should be perfect.

I like long splits, previously I had 16" splits but my piles couldn't stack much higher than 5'. With 22" I stacked them 8' tall.

I have to do something with the way my piles look. They're ugly, and lean every which way, I had to straighten some out after a while they were going to fall. They are stacked on a hill that leans away and down from the house, it's tricky.

I learned a better way to get my fire started without using paper. I put 2 or 3 splits in the back and pile my kindling against it. Rip off a wood fiber strip from one of my oak splits, light the end, and hold it in the kindling pile until it gets going. No paper, I don't knock over or have to move the kindling once it's going, it doesn't collapse on itself since it's leaning against the splits, I just add the front splits in once it's going and I'm done.

Chipmunks hibernate. Had one living in my wood pile in summer and was concerned about destroying his home come winter. Looked it up, they find a place to hibernate in winter and don't usually pick wood piles.

I'll blow out the air intake and secondary air tubes, and wire brush my secondary air tubes before I start burning come fall.

Insulating a house doesn't mean one will reduce their wood use as much as expected, I keep the house warmer instead.

A chimney that doesn't draft well is worth every penny extra to fix/change it so it does.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Unfortunately, wedges are a consumable item for me. Either I keep hitting them with the chain until they're unusable, or I lose them. The lost ones are always brand new and unscathed. The ones I don't lose are chewed up beyond recognition.

I lose other tools, as well. After losing a nice Swedish hatchet and a Home Depot hammer, I finally decided to start driving my wedges in with short clubs, cut as needed from branchwood or saplings. When I think I'm going to need to drive a wedge, I cut the club before tackling the tree. Then I make sure to keep it close at hand. One less thing to keep track of.

Still snow on the ground up here, but I can't wait to get out into the woods.

 

[jason1238]

From my first year burning wood for heat:

I learned that there are actually decent, well mannered, real-world educated folks on the web...here.

I learned that 74 degrees is plenty warm enough for the house, unless it's achieved with electric heat. Not sure how that works, but I'm OK with it!

The Quad 3100 Millenium is the perfect stove for my house, and functions exactly as advertised. It's a no-frills steel stove that throws LOTS of heat! I think I'm the only one on the board with one though...again, not sure why, but I'm OK with that too!

Like Highbeam, I learned the hard way that the woodman's version of "ready to burn" and mine aren't exactly the same. I now have about 3.5 cords of red oak that I will make "ready to burn" myself for next year.

Birds can come down a cold flue pipe, but they can't fly back up it.

A good chainsaw is worth it's weight in gold, and PPE is a MUST, not an option.

And most importantly, I learned not to read BrotherBart posts with a mouthful of any liquid or food...unless I want to clean my keyboard and screen :lol:

 

[drizler]

I learned that I am very glad to have a multifuel as opposed to a strictly pellet stove. Switching to whatever is cheaper is far better than hunting for deals that don't exist. I also learned that it is just better to stock up on corn and pellets in the late summer or early Fall to get it the cheapest. Waiting for harvest when you don't live in corn country is not effective as all the local farmers feed their own to the cows. I learned that the price of corn is about doubled in the last 1-1.5 years thanks to the great ethanol plant give-away program that keeps the profits coming in spite of its obvious failings. I learned that busting my pellet pot stirrer was a real blessing in disguise. Just digging out the clinker every day leave my stove running so much better and reliably,no clinker buildup on the stirrer fingers ect. A 5 to 1 corn to pellet ratio keeps it purring like a kitten with no soot fallout getting all over the place. This surely save electricity to boot as thats one powerful little motor driving that stirrer. Noise lever with no stirrer is fully half of previous levels.

 

[adrpga498]

I get sweat spots too, but usually only on my tee shirt when I'm splitting wood.

Nice looking Holtzs there, adrpga. Is that your wood?

Yes the holzs' are mine thank you. Except 1 burned over the last season. I have replaced with anew.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Do they work as advertised? I might have to give that a try. I think I learned about Holz Houzens (sp) this year for the first time too, I think. From MoHeat, I believe.

 

[Codeman812]

Chalk me up to trying out the Holz, as well as your trick Eric. I might even get a moisture meter to see if there is a difference. But I do have to get a chainsaw and a splitter and I just replaced my well pump and a new tank. The meter may have to wait.

Do they work as advertised? I might have to give that a try. I think I learned about Holz Houzens (sp) this year for the first time too, I think. From MoHeat, I believe.

 

[Gooserider]

Gooserider, check on ebay for a stove, they seem to have lots of stoves.

You might get lucky and find one near where you live.

Sounds like you got a plan, thats great. ;-)

I'll tell ya, I too have learned a lot, there is so much to remember when "practicing" wood burning.

I realize you need all kinds of wood and all sizes, but how in the world do you keep it all "exactly" where you need it when you need it ? %-P

Kindling, thats a whole new chapter...........



Robbie

I've got a new listing watch on e-bay, haven't found it to be really helpful so far - lots of smoke dragons are coming up, and lots of non-stove junk, but nothing useful... I'd like to get something watching Craig's list, but I'm not aware of any setups to do that - are you?

My method is to keep all sorts of sizes mixed more or less randomly in the wood shed, and filter as I was loading the cart to go inside. I've learned though that I don't use kindling as fast as I thought I would, so now I'm dedicating one of my smaller shed spaces to just kindling, and keeping it seperated from the splits. I probably should, but I haven't really found it worth while to try and keep the different sorts of wood separated - I do have my woodsheds divided up into "bays" that enable me to fill and use the wood in stages so that I'm rotating the stock by burning in about the same order that I cut and split the wood to start with.

I normally have three containers of wood in the house at any time, a five gallon bucket of kindling, a smaller bucket of bark and other small scraps ("magic powder") left over from splitting, and my HF log cart with a hundred or so pounds of splits on it. I have a second frame that holds whatever was on the cart when I need to refill it. The cart gets refilled every day or two, the other two just as needed, which depends on how hard and steadily I'm running the stove.

Gooserider

 

[adrpga498]

Do they work as advertised? I might have to give that a try. I think I learned about Holz Houzens (sp) this year for the first time too, I think. From MoHeat, I believe.

I can't say the Holz dries wood faster, although the splits in the center were very dry without the need of a tarp. They are just as dry as any other splits I've burned. The most important factors that I liked was the large amount of wood stored in a small area. Keeps the yard neater by appearance. At the moment I have 3 holz's and 1 linier cord ready for 2007-08.

 

[jqgs214]

I learned the Chinese or Canadians (whoever assembled my stove) cant weld worth a hoot.

the more wood the merrier

my "wood guy" brings me dry wood cheap @150.00 a cord

home depot has a sale on insulation till june buy 300.00 and get 100.00 gift card back and I might make 2 trips

the more wood the merrier

I need an ash rake but cant find one I like. If someone know a a really small garden like stell rake let me know.

fat wood with the color enhancer powder is really cool and makes for a festive St. Patty's day green fire.

the more wood the merrier

68 is too cold when burning with wood and too hot when its the gas man

I need a truck
a chainsaw
ppe
a splitter

(wood burning is expensive) never gonna pay off that stuff

the more wood the merrier ( id I mention that yet?)

 

[davetherave1]

Hi, for those of you making your own pellets at home, and have some left over to sell to neighbours, list them free on http://www.PelletBase.com . You can also list your stoves / boiler services etc

 

[Henz]

I learned that I need 7 cords to get through the winter..7 solid months of burning. I also need to insulate my floors whcih I am having down with isopropeleyeneeee this summer professionally. I also learned that I LOVE BURNING WOOD