What would you do? (Sell or burn two cords of wood)

[Dabbler]

Two years ago I split two cords of wood by hand because I couldn't afford oil. I stopped burning wood after three weeks due to a problem with the woodstove. The woodstove is now fixed, but this year I can afford to heat with oil.

I'm not young and the splitting cost me three months of hard labor. Now I'm thinking about all the work and inconvenience involved in burning wood---bringing the wood from the wood pile to the garage, resplitting there for kindling and smaller pieces, carrying it upstairs several times a day, maintaining the fire all day every day for the next four months. Plus the risk of a fire.

I'm wondering if I should sell the wood and go back to oil. I would probably keep a half a cord for power outages. Dry wood is about $450 a cord delivered in my area, but I can't deliver, so perhaps $350 a cord or $525 for one and a half cords. The same BTUs in oil would cost about $940, so oil is a lot more expensive than wood in my area.

However, I work at home, so the amount of time I spend processing wood and maintaining the fire is literally time away from my paid job. I hate to lose the three months I spent splitting this wood, but I'm wondering if it would make more sense to sell it. The last time I ended up with too much split wood it rotted and I lost a lot of it.

Arguments in favor of keeping and burning the wood:

• It's an investment and protection against future power outages, loss of income, and large increases in the cost of oil
• Burning wood reduces wear and tear on the oil burner
• The wood was free, mostly harvested from my property

What would you do in this situation?

 

[begreen]

Burn it in the morning and evening when not working.

 

[all night moe]

Store the wood properly so it doesn't rot. Paying for oil gets old, quick.
Process more wood, during the warm season so it has time to dry. The exercise is good for you.
Nothing beats wood heat.

 

[Giaman]

Sounds like it’s at least good exercise. You can’t put a price on that, lol. I would still burn when possible. As you illustrated, you’ll save more money burning the wood than you would make selling it. If you keep it off the ground and somewhat in the sun it should last for a long time.

 

[Eman85]

If you're counting time spent processing wood as lost wages you should sell and keep working.

 

[30WCF]

All in good fun my friend, you came to a place full of people obsessed with burning in wood stoves and fireplaces to ask if you should burn wood. Just messing.
Sometimes like a tough hunt, hike, pushing through on a game when you feel beat, wood burning can be a Type II fun. There is nothing I want to less when it’s 25 degrees and I’m on the couch in my jammies than to go out in the porch to get another arm load of wood. But, right now, kids asleep in their beds, sitting in my rocker beside a fire, jammies and a bourbon, …need I say more. Plus if your saving it for an emergency back up, make sure you know how to cook on it now while you don’t have too. A 400 stove top ain’t as hot as you think it is when it comes to cooking bacon or bread.

 

[peakbagger]

It always makes sense to have a backup for a power outage event so I would not sell it all but if you regard it as chore then sell it and buy oil. I used to work from home at a desk in my second floor sitting all day, so feeding the fire was a chance to get up and take a break. My wood is effectively free and cutting and processing it gets me out in the woods for exercise.

 

[Ashful]

I think my answer would hinge on what was "broken", and how well is it "fixed". Mentioning a concern with risk of fire in the OP has me wondering if there's more to this apprehension than time, alone.

 

[all night moe]

I think my answer would hinge on what was "broken", and how well is it "fixed". Mentioning a concern with risk of fire in the OP has me wondering if there's more to this apprehension than time, alone.

Good point.....

 

[Dabbler]

I think my answer would hinge on what was "broken", and how well is it "fixed". Mentioning a concern with risk of fire in the OP has me wondering if there's more to this apprehension than time, alone.

Well, what's most important is that I'm now reasonably satisfied with the performance of my stove and not motivated to do anything further to it at this time, but basically a worker installed the pipes backwards and I had smoke in the house. That has been corrected.

The limitation of my stove is it's small size. It's a Canadian CFM previously sold at Home Depot. See the Englander 13 for an almost identical stove. The small size and imperfect draft (short vertical pipe, hole in the wall too low) mean it's not possible to stuff several large logs in the stove for a long burn. They have to be split smaller and criss-crossed. The door needs to be left open a crack for the first 30 minutes. The small size and design of the stove mean that wood has a tendency to roll forward when you open the door, increasing the risk of fire. Quite a few reviewers have commented on that. To prevent rolling I have to split round branches to have a flat edge and be careful how I place each piece in the stove so the wood collapses to the back of the stove as it burns.

I only mention the risk of fire because when you heat with oil you flip a switch and go about your business, as I did this morning. With wood, you have to be constantly vigilant. It's always in the back of your mind, "There's a fire burning in my house."

I've adapted to the idiosyncrasies of my stove. I really do understand the pleasure and feeling of accomplishment you get from burning wood. I love cheating the oil industry. The dryness in the house is pretty horrible (25%, one time 16%!) and not good for things like guitars and pianos. I just started burning wood a few days ago. Maybe I should give this a week or two and see how I feel about it. Previously I was forced to burn wood to save money. Now it would be a choice, which is different, perhaps more enjoyable?

 

[peakbagger]

Having not bought oil for several years but I do still have it as backup along with minisplit for shoulder season. In my house the oil burner is noisy and I definitely can tell when its running. I have wood boiler so I can schedule to run it when I want to.

 

[shortys7777]

Maybe rent a splitter one or two weekends a year and get as much as you possibly can. stack it in a spot you can keep it for a long time so it stays dry and off the ground. Burn when you have time before and after work or throw some pieces in during your lunch break. That's what I would do in your situation.

 

[Garbanzo62]

Personally, I find processing the firewood therapeutic. I would keep the wood. the price of Oil fluctuates. I saved over $1200 in oil last year burning wood. My wood piles are over 100 ft away from my house. All of it has been processed by hand with a splitting maul (I borrowed a splitter for the beech though). I have two old patio boxes at the base of my deck that I haul wood to via a 10 CU Ft dump cart. 3 loads fills them both. If I am burning 24/7, that covers me for about a week. I fill them up from time to time on my lunch break. For Kindling I got a kindling Cracker. They are 50 - 80 bucks on Amazon. They make easy work of turning a split into kindling. Just got a Hydraulic splitter for Xmas, so my maul will be used for smaller jobs where firing up the splitter is unwarranted.

 

[gthomas785]

There are more and less efficient ways to handle wood. I use a 2-wheeled garden cart to bring wood to my back door from the shed. From there I load it into a rack inside that holds a out 10 days worth of wood at a time. I have a wheeled wood box that I can bring to the rack to fill it up and then roll it to the stove. Overall very little "carrying" of wood and I only need to visit the woodshed on weekends. I'd say altogether I invest 4-5 hours a week during the winter into my wood burning habit. Then in March I purchase 3-4 cords of split wood and restock the shed with an hour a day over the course of a month or so. I don't see it as a big time sink honestly but if I were to carry armloads from the wood shed every time I needed to fill the stove, I'd feel differently.

 

[Caw]

Well, what's most important is that I'm now reasonably satisfied with the performance of my stove and not motivated to do anything further to it at this time, but basically a worker installed the pipes backwards and I had smoke in the house. That has been corrected.

The limitation of my stove is it's small size. It's a Canadian CFM previously sold at Home Depot. See the Englander 13 for an almost identical stove. The small size and imperfect draft (short vertical pipe, hole in the wall too low) mean it's not possible to stuff several large logs in the stove for a long burn. They have to be split smaller and criss-crossed. The door needs to be left open a crack for the first 30 minutes. The small size and design of the stove mean that wood has a tendency to roll forward when you open the door, increasing the risk of fire. Quite a few reviewers have commented on that. To prevent rolling I have to split round branches to have a flat edge and be careful how I place each piece in the stove so the wood collapses to the back of the stove as it burns.

I only mention the risk of fire because when you heat with oil you flip a switch and go about your business, as I did this morning. With wood, you have to be constantly vigilant. It's always in the back of your mind, "There's a fire burning in my house."

I've adapted to the idiosyncrasies of my stove. I really do understand the pleasure and feeling of accomplishment you get from burning wood. I love cheating the oil industry. The dryness in the house is pretty horrible (25%, one time 16%!) and not good for things like guitars and pianos. I just started burning wood a few days ago. Maybe I should give this a week or two and see how I feel about it. Previously I was forced to burn wood to save money. Now it would be a choice, which is different, perhaps more enjoyable?

You mentioned the Englander 13 in another thread and again here as being a "small stove" that can't handle several large logs.

The Englander 13 has a 1.8 cu ft firebox which is virtually identical to my Osburn 1600 which is 1.85 cu ft. I'm able to get a ton of wood in there. I heat my entire 1600 sq ft with it...my backup heat only comes on at night if it's below 10 degrees for 24+ hours. I load it up at 11 pm every night and have plenty of coals every morning at 7 am.

Something isn't right here. And please don't take this the wrong way I'm not trying to insult you, I want to help figure out what's going on: Either the Englander 13 is the wrong comp, your draft really sucks, the wood sucks, or you aren't very adept at using the stove. A 1.8 cu ft box should get 4-6 hour burns at a minimum if set up and used properly.

To answer the original question though I wouldn't sell. I'd use it when I can. When I'm home, power outages, ambiance, etc. Use it to augment oil when you feel like it. Nobody is forcing you to burn any given day (unless you are married to a warmth lover lol).

Just reloading my stove. Same size as yours. I'm putting in 5 regular sized splits and it takes up just over half the firebox. It's not even packed in there that tightly I could easily fit 4 more if this were for overnight.

 

[Dabbler]

Just reloading my stove.

If you reload like that, on top of barely glowing coals, don't you need kindling? My stove at that point would need kindling and maybe fire starter.

 

[30WCF]

If you reload like that, on top of barely glowing coals, don't you need kindling? My stove at that point would need kindling and maybe fire starter.

That should take right off once the door is shut or nearly shut. Air should bring those coals back pretty quick.

 

[Caw]

If you reload like that, on top of barely glowing coals, don't you need kindling? My stove at that point would need kindling and maybe fire starter.

Nope. Left the door cracked open for 30 seconds to liven the coals then shut it. It took right off and was cruising at 700 STT within 15 minutes:

 

[Wildflush]

Nope. Left the door cracked open for 30 seconds to liven the coals then shut it. It took right off and was cruising at 700 STT within 15 minutes:

View attachment 322144View attachment 322145

Are you loading on the coals or raking forward first.

 

[Caw]

I always rake forward for reloads unless I'm just tossing a log or two on to prolong the coals. I love my coal rake!

 

[Caw]

STT is 290 right now so I just put 2 knotty pieces of maple on to carry me to my 11 pm overnight load. I loaded them and closer the door immediately. This is 20 seconds later:

After 90 seconds:

 

[Wildflush]

Very nice. I have a short set that I love made for stoves. Use to be my dads I use my coal rake the most. More than my poker. I always rake forward as well. Today lots of coals burning oak. I raked forward then put a long piece of bark to burn them down a bit.

I’m burning a very large maple split in the back with two 6 year old cherry splits. Had to shut air down quickly. Got up to 600 STT quickly. Wife is saying house is too hot now 76 and wants to crack a window 😂

 

[Caw]

Very nice. I have a short set that I love made for stoves. Use to be my dads I use my coal rake the most. More than my poker. I always rake forward as well. Today lots of coals burning oak. I raked forward then put a long piece of bark to burn them down a bit.

I’m burning a very large maple split in the back with two 6 year old cherry splits. Had to shut air down quickly. Got up to 600 STT quickly. Wife is saying house is too hot now 76 and wants to crack a window 😂

I'm with her 76 is too hot lol. My stove room will get to 78 but if the rest ever gets over 72 I'm roasting. I like 68-70.

I also do the bark trick pretty often when I'm burning oak...it just makes so many coals. Especially when you start to push the stove. I save a few big tubs of bark just for coals management.

 

[Wildflush]

I'm with her 76 is too hot lol. My stove room will get to 78 but if the rest ever gets over 72 I'm roasting. I like 68-70.

I also do the bark trick pretty often when I'm burning oak...it just makes so many coals. Especially when you start to push the stove. I save a few big tubs of bark just for coals management.

I have an open floor plan and my thermostat is in the kitchen adjacent to the stove room. My family room (stove room) is 26’ x 12’ so heats the downstairs well even the dining room on the other side of the house. Will reload before bed.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

This is what I would do. Id keep the wood and burn it.. Id get an inexpensive electric splitter and split more. Id get myself a little ahead.. because its always better to be ahead and always cheaper to burn wood when your splitting it in your free time..