Heating with Wood - my considerable experience

I've been heating with wood for several years as part of my approach to frugal living. There is nothing quite like eliminating or greatly reducing the heating bill. It's an example of marketplace alternatives in action. You might consider something similar.

Based on my experience, I'm offering discussion of insights about wood heat. There are many to consider. In my view, you trade labor, space, convenience and a bit of comfort for tremendous savings on the heat bill. And, you get the heart warming romance of wood stove heating.

The idea here is to provide an introduction to these areas to give you a flavor of what heating with wood is all about so you can decide if it's right for you. Wood stove heating isn't for everyone. If you really like the convenience of the thermostat on your wall and you're not at all unhappy with the bill from your energy provider, then heating with wood is probably not for you. In this case, you'll like that Green-Energy-Efficient-Homes.com offers many other tips on energy efficient home heating that you can take advantage of.

If you're new to heating with wood, there will be some initial investments...everything has its price. Review my insights carefully and talk with others before you decide.

Let's consider the good, the bad, the ugly, and the bizarre aspects of heating with wood by looking at various topics that would be of interest to the average person. For many of the topics highlighted below, a more detailed discussion is provided on a separate page. If you desire more information, text links will take you to a new page that examines the topic in more detail.

Enjoy the Sights, Sounds and Smell of a Wood Fire

• The comfort of wood heat - it's different than a traditional furnace with a thermostat. If you're interested in a quick and easy approach to winter heat, you'll probably want to stay with the traditional furnace and thermostat. I like the sights, sounds, radiance and economy of a wood fire, that's why I prefer heating with wood.

Firewood

• It's important to know how much firewood do I need so you'll have enough to get through the winter.
• What about free firewood? It's out there.
• If you're serious about heating with wood, you might want to start up your own Wood Rescue service like I did, and get all the firewood you want at little to no cost. Doing so has allowed me to gather about 10 years worth of firewood over the course of a single summer.
• Perhaps cutting firewood isn't your cup of tea. Firewood doesn't need to be cut unless you get logs or scrap wood that is an inappropriate size for your stove. You can order wood cut and stacked, but you'll pay for it. If you don't mind cutting firewood, you can get it free or nearly so.
• I use a chainsaw to cut pallets and branches, a circular saw for large flat pieces of wood, and a buzz saw for long pieces.
• Be mindful of chainsaw hazards when you're cutting up your firewood.
• Here are basic firewood tools for cutting and splitting firewood.
• What about all that firewood stacking? Firewood must be stacked or piled somewhere so it's accessible to you when you need it. Most often the best approach is to stack the wood. Again, the "fleas come with the dog." If you're heating with wood, you'll have to make stacks of firewood.
• How much does firewood cost? It varies based on type, seasoning, your location, and how much you get at one time. There are many options for obtaining firewood, so you do have choices.
• Do I have room for firewood storage? If you're heating with wood, you'll have to make room for storage of wood. Since firewood isn't provided to your house through pipes or wires, you get to see how much material it takes to heat your house. It takes quite a bit of wood to heat a house, and you'll have to make room for storing it, especially if you have to season it.
• Tell me about seasoning firewood. Anytime you burn wood, you'll want to burn dry wood. That means it has to be seasoned. Burning green wood is inefficient and a source of creosote buildup in your flue. Seasoning your firewood is important.

Wood Stoves

• Here are some handy wood burning stove tips that you might be interested in to help you get the most efficiency and effectiveness from your wood stove
• Let's look at wood stove efficiency. Modern stoves are much more efficient than their predecessors, but wood heat will always be less efficient than other forms of heat. When heating with wood, I'm more concerned about how efficient I'm using my money rather than how efficient my wood stoves are.
• Can wood heat help me achieve energy independence? From the standpoint of heating your home, it certainly can, but most likely it will simply cut a big chunk out of your energy bill. If you couple heating with wood and other independent forms of energy, like solar panels and wind generators, then you're likely to achieve something much closer to energy independence.
• One winter I heated only my office (with a wood stove) and let the rest of the house go cold. It cut my natural gas bill down so far that the utility company came out and replaced my meter the next spring.
  

Starting a Fire

• With respect to wood stoves, do you know how to start a fire?
  
• How about starting a wood stove when it's stone cold?
• Here is my favorite, sure fire method to start a fire in my wood stoves when the wind outside creates too much draft to light the stove.
• There's no need to buy commercial products to get your fire going, simply make your own fire starter using scrap materials and household waste.
• Here is a step-by-step illustrated guide to making your own fireplace starter.

Cooking on a Wood Stove

• Is wood stove cooking feasible? For many stoves it is, but you have to be aware of the limitations. I cook on my stoves, but only as it's convenient. Mostly, I use the wood stove to heat my home and heat water for tea.

Debris, Smoke and Ash

• Some form of wood smoke will always be a by-product of wood heat, so learn how to avoid it, and you and your neighbors will all have a more pleasant experience heating with wood.
• There are ways to achieve clean burning fires if you're having trouble with excessive smoke.
• Keep in mind that excessive smoke is one sure way to create creosote buildup that you'll have to deal with by cleaning the flue and stovepipe. If you don't burn hot fires that are clean, and if you don't clean your chimney, then you run a much higher risk of chimney fires, and you most certainly don't want that.
• What's involved with cleaning out wood ashes? It's not one of my favorite activities, but "the fleas come with dog." If you're going to be heating with wood, you're going to have to deal with wood ashes. Pellet stoves and corn stoves don't have the same issues with ash like wood burning appliances.

Wood Stove Safety

• Is wood stove safety a concern? You bet! Safety first. There are a number of issues concerning burns, asphyxiation, carbon monoxide poisoning and chimney fires that must be addressed first and foremost with wood heat. Only then can you enjoy the comfort and security of wood heat.

Heat Exchangers and Reclaimers

• Can a wood stove heat reclaimer add efficiency? Anything that reclaims heat that is otherwise wasted will add efficiency. The issue is the cost of reclaiming that lost heat. If it can be done easily, safely and with little cost, then these type of accessories are worthwhile.
• Is a wood stove heat exchanger something that I could make use of? There are heat exchangers associated with wood stoves, but mainly they're for outdoor and indoor wood furnaces. Anything that robs heat from the stove and uses it for other purposes is making good use of the energy available that might otherwise be wasted.Here is a peek at homemade wood stove heat exchangers that I use in and on my large living room wood stove.

Inserts, Furnaces, Corn and Pellet Stoves, and Other Variants

• Should I get one of the wood burning stoves or a more modern wood heat appliance? That decision depends on what you're after in terms of convenience, appearance, versatility and cost.
• Are wood pellet stoves a good option for heating with wood? Pellet stoves can be attractive from several perspectives, but they'll likely cost more too. Such stoves will have you heating with wood, but it's processed wood, and that just isn't the same as a wood stove.
• I've heard of corn stoves. What are they and how do they differ from a wood stove or wood pellet stove? It's odd to think about burning kernel corn in a heating appliance, but I know people who are doing just that, with a hopper inside the house and a transfer tube with an auger that feeds from the main corn storage silo outside the house.
• Should I get an indoor or outdoor wood furnace instead? The choice is yours. Wood furnaces offer you options for connecting to your ducting inside the house and using hydronic heating as well. They consume more space, but then they're usually in the basement or garage, or out in the yard where you can afford to dedicate such space for heating with wood.
• Are fireplace inserts worthwhile? What kind of efficiency do they have? My two main wood stoves in the house are fireplace inserts. These type of wood heat appliances have their place. One of the main benefits is they take up no more room than what's already allocated for your hearth.

As you can see, heating with wood involves many issues and many factors that make it both desirable and challenging. Do some careful thinking and planning before you just into wood stove heating.

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