I should start a new poll "Who pays a stove bill instead of an electric bill?"
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Burning Hunk
Objective has been almost 100% wood. But the first stove 1.5 cf Century was a mistake and ran me ragged season before this last trying to get it to heat my 2500 sf house with rooms closed off to about 1600 sf.
But wood has got in the way too. Only had about 2+ cords that season so only heated from Nov to Feb when I ran out. Still the 1st floor bathrooms get coldest so will run the boiler/baseboards once a day to warm them up a little before a shower and to keep them from getting too cold when it's below freezing -- plus being on an uninsulated slab you need to keep that heat on the perimeter or the frozen outdoor ground will start intruding and the slab will start getting cold -- (house originally had radiant in the slab but that was disconnected before I moved in).
This season had closer to 4 cords and heated with wood maybe 90% from Dec until I ran out end of Mar right after I got the Summit. Gave up killing myself with the Century -- stopped loading it every couple hours and would let the central heat kick on @65F if necessary late at night or in the morn. But dug into next years 6 cords and have been adding free pallet wood scraps until ... (in fact just had a fire this afternoon -- have really gotten spoiled with the 3cf Summit which I got about 2 months ago -- it will heat the whole house into the 70's and I really like starting fires in it
. So when the house drops to 67F I find myself wanting to build a fire. Where before, my threshold for heat was prolly around 65 or less.
So even though the objective was higher, there was propane used for heat these last two seasons, and wood use was only about 75%. Next season should be closer to 95%, but I still use about 240 gallons for DHW and cooking.
But wood has got in the way too. Only had about 2+ cords that season so only heated from Nov to Feb when I ran out. Still the 1st floor bathrooms get coldest so will run the boiler/baseboards once a day to warm them up a little before a shower and to keep them from getting too cold when it's below freezing -- plus being on an uninsulated slab you need to keep that heat on the perimeter or the frozen outdoor ground will start intruding and the slab will start getting cold -- (house originally had radiant in the slab but that was disconnected before I moved in).
This season had closer to 4 cords and heated with wood maybe 90% from Dec until I ran out end of Mar right after I got the Summit. Gave up killing myself with the Century -- stopped loading it every couple hours and would let the central heat kick on @65F if necessary late at night or in the morn. But dug into next years 6 cords and have been adding free pallet wood scraps until ... (in fact just had a fire this afternoon -- have really gotten spoiled with the 3cf Summit which I got about 2 months ago -- it will heat the whole house into the 70's and I really like starting fires in it
. So when the house drops to 67F I find myself wanting to build a fire. Where before, my threshold for heat was prolly around 65 or less.So even though the objective was higher, there was propane used for heat these last two seasons, and wood use was only about 75%. Next season should be closer to 95%, but I still use about 240 gallons for DHW and cooking.
wesessiah
Burning Hunk
almost all wood supplemented by an electric space heater. i've had the same 125 gallons of propane in the tank for a year and a half.
Havendalefarm
Member
Don't have any back up here, had a fire last week.Guess I could count the gas cooktop in the kitchen. But if I gotta count that then I guess I oughta count the amp too,gets kinda warm when I am trying to fill the whole house with tunes.
HJsimpson
Burning Hunk
Last 2 winters and up to April of this year 100% wood. Started running propane furnace some to burn up the 100 gallons in tank before they come get it in July. Im not paying the $175.00 a year for tank lease no more.
I'm in the weekend only catagory. The stove is in our cabin. It is the only heat we use when we are there. Been burning about 12 years. This winter my wife was thhere almost full time. She burned some amount of oak.
I use wood and pellets.
But this was the 5th season in a row with 0% ProPain usage.
Furnace is only there because insurance deems it necessary and its also used for Central A/C
That's truth.
Wood - 2-3 cord a year (mainly basement heat and helps pellet furnace)
Pellets - 2-3 ton a year (half for shoulder in freestanding pellet upstairs and other half for pellet furnace downstairs when it's cold-COLD!!)
3,000 sq ft @ 75* lovin it
But this was the 5th season in a row with 0% ProPain usage.
Furnace is only there because insurance deems it necessary and its also used for Central A/C
That's truth.
Wood - 2-3 cord a year (mainly basement heat and helps pellet furnace)
Pellets - 2-3 ton a year (half for shoulder in freestanding pellet upstairs and other half for pellet furnace downstairs when it's cold-COLD!!)
3,000 sq ft @ 75*
lovin it
Wood mostly. At -20° (& coder) with over 40 MPH wind, furnace kicks on a few times if house gets below 66.
House mostly on the 70s. Furnace keeps things thawed during vacations.
6 to 7 cord/year.
This year burning longer than ever before. 7.5 cord +/-
Hope to shut it down next week (i hope, i hope i hope...)
House mostly on the 70s. Furnace keeps things thawed during vacations.
6 to 7 cord/year.
This year burning longer than ever before. 7.5 cord +/-
Hope to shut it down next week (i hope, i hope i hope...)
Only wood here. No furnace at all, only electric ceiling heatthat is unhooked at the breaker box.
Those ceiling electric heaters can be REALLY expensive... even in warmer climes. I had that kind of heating living on the beach in San Diego and using it cost big bucks.
Hope to shut it down next week (i hope, i hope i hope...)
It is supposed to be nicer in Alaska this week than in Oregon... about the same temps, but no rain/snow like here (at least around Palmer).
I had to restart my stove tonight after a few weeks of it being off. I was almost suckered into buying tomato plants again this year. Almost... geez, it was in the 80s for two week ending last week, and was supposed to be in the 80s again this week... but... now that is not to be.
Cute Bartholemew, cute.
You do read every post ( e.g. Masonry Stove and other posts ). Butt, to satisfy your craving and stay on topic while not doing off-forum conversations,here goes. For you alone
:Two wood stoves ( in sig also ), in two separate wings of the home heat 24/7 with NO central furnace.
One stove ( see sig ) is a 2001 VC Encore cat, the other in a 800 ft² wing without any plumbing is an Oslo.
The Encore heated wing has normal plumbing with a propane space heater for those winter "go away" days ( mountains, XC races, city, visits, assignments ). This Empire
space heater will keep the space, insulated and closed off from the unplumbed wing, just around 55 F.
In this northern coastal Maine climate we burn 6-8 cords ( that's real, full cords. No face, no ricks ) of hardwood SELF HARVESTED from our 60 a woodlot each year. Shoulder season and some summer burns use a little spruce and fir from blowdowns, and standing dead white cedar for kindling.
That softwood is also used for the workshop Tempwood ( great old steel toploader BTW ), and the Snorkel Stove hottub ( aluminum stove IN the water ).
So B², whattya thimk ?
What took you so long?
For the record, I am an 80% wood, 20% furnace. I am simply away from my house for too long of stretches to rock on with the stove for 24/7. I call it 20/7 burning.
I picked Plan B . . . even though I wasn't quite sure if I fit into that category.
I figure I heat my 1,800 square foot Cape (moderately insulated, 1970s vintage, 2-story here in Maine) 95% of the time with my Jotul Oslo . . . starting in the Fall and running until Spring (in fact I had a fire going yesterday morning and evening). Temp in the living room with the stove is typically in the mid to high 70s (sometimes hotter), most of the rest of the house is around the low 70s to mid 70s with the master bedroom and mudroom being a bit cooler (not sure how cool -- just notably cooler).
My wife and I run the woodstove whenever we're cold (generally if the temp is below 70 degrees -- I think the woodstove spoils me) . . . although my wife sometimes just turns up the thermostat to the oil boiler which is set at 60 degrees F. We also run the oil boiler a) if we are away for several days such as our cruise we did this winter, b) if we are away for several hours and the temp falls below 60 degrees F, c) if we are just being lazy or sick and d) I turn it on in the morning and evening if we have several days of sub-zero temps to keep the pipes warm.
Haven't filled the oil tank since 2007 or 2008 . . . I forget which year . . . it was long enough that the oil company thought I no longer was their customer when I called to schedule a cleaning until I told them I just heat more with wood. I may schedule a delivery this summer (shudder) since the oil tank is now down to a little over a quarter tank of oil.
I will admit I do have a small electric space heater that uses a thermostat . . . although ironically enough it's in the boiler room as this is now a rather cool room in the house (part of the mudroom) and I wanted to be sure the boiler's pipes didn't freeze up.
I figure I heat my 1,800 square foot Cape (moderately insulated, 1970s vintage, 2-story here in Maine) 95% of the time with my Jotul Oslo . . . starting in the Fall and running until Spring (in fact I had a fire going yesterday morning and evening). Temp in the living room with the stove is typically in the mid to high 70s (sometimes hotter), most of the rest of the house is around the low 70s to mid 70s with the master bedroom and mudroom being a bit cooler (not sure how cool -- just notably cooler).
My wife and I run the woodstove whenever we're cold (generally if the temp is below 70 degrees -- I think the woodstove spoils me) . . . although my wife sometimes just turns up the thermostat to the oil boiler which is set at 60 degrees F. We also run the oil boiler a) if we are away for several days such as our cruise we did this winter, b) if we are away for several hours and the temp falls below 60 degrees F, c) if we are just being lazy or sick and d) I turn it on in the morning and evening if we have several days of sub-zero temps to keep the pipes warm.
Haven't filled the oil tank since 2007 or 2008 . . . I forget which year . . . it was long enough that the oil company thought I no longer was their customer when I called to schedule a cleaning until I told them I just heat more with wood. I may schedule a delivery this summer (shudder) since the oil tank is now down to a little over a quarter tank of oil.
I will admit I do have a small electric space heater that uses a thermostat . . . although ironically enough it's in the boiler room as this is now a rather cool room in the house (part of the mudroom) and I wanted to be sure the boiler's pipes didn't freeze up.
What took you so long?
For the record, I am an 80% wood, 20% furnace. I am simply away from my house for too long of stretches to rock on with the stove for 24/7. I call it 20/7 burning.
Not much time to spend on PC butt Jags.
This unfortunate too brief 'summer' (sic) leaves short time for diddling online. Stupid saying hereabouts : " Maine has two seasons, winter and poor sledding."
Firewood is harvested stacked in 16"-18" butts--close to 7 cords -- ready for the marathon split and stack in between honey-dos ( like sheetrock repairs and paint ), redoing the ersatz silly 'lawn' ), Vet stuff, volunteer driving for elderly, boards, gigs.
Oh, and fitting out the trawler for her launching when the GD thing is springerized. That';s why I like electric splitters, so the job can be done in between other things: plug and play. No startup, oil, gas, noise ( I can sing
), and randomly get arousedby either right-wing blabbers, or NPR whiners as I chose depending on the species being split. Ash for Limbaugh, Soft Maple for NPR.
And, why Jags are you away for those long stretches ? I like the "20/7" ! If we had kids or fur children at home, we would need a furnace also.
BTW all: where is it mandated that all rooms in a home need to be heated, and at a constant 70
all the time ?
Work and play both take up large allotments of time. Choice of fun or going home and load the wood stove? Fun wins every time. The dang woodstove will still be in the same spot I dropped it 11 years ago.
I BELIEVE ....and so it came to pass that Bartholemew revealed.
I hear banjos astrumming ( see Deliverance please )
About 4 cords, 24/7 in the Fireview. 1800 poorly insulated sqft. Propane furnace makes hot water and helps out the wood stove in the far end of the house and on exceptionally cold nights.
Blue2ndaries
Minister of Fire
100% this past year. My forced-air gas furnace hasn't been turned on for over 13 months, however I am not sure if that is an entirely good thing. I think I need to turn it on just to make sure it is in good working order.
I guess I'm in the weekend category; no wood in the city, and the weekend place runs electric to keep pipes from freezing etc. But the woodstove gets the heat up to bearable pretty fast when I arrive (at least combined with the physical activity on arrival). Main room is toasty most of the time once the stove is running, but electric runs until the heat all over is up to acceptable level (depends on outside weather). Some chill in the floorboards and throughout, air circulating is warmer than furniture and walls, until everything has been running for a full day. Once warm, electric heat kicks on at night once or twice and then occasionally through the day.
Main thing in my particular case is that the electric is slow to bring the house up to comfortable, so would either have to run it full time (expensive) or be really, really chilly for a day or so after arrival. It has made a big difference in usability.
Oh, and now I love heating with wood. Caveman TV on all the time.
Main thing in my particular case is that the electric is slow to bring the house up to comfortable, so would either have to run it full time (expensive) or be really, really chilly for a day or so after arrival. It has made a big difference in usability.
Oh, and now I love heating with wood. Caveman TV on all the time.
dyerkutn
Feeling the Heat
last winter weekends and evenings only (small stove and long work hours), next winter hopefully at least 75% wood (new bigger stove)
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