The hardcore woodburners

Badfish740 · Jan 8, 2015

Just curious if anyone else notices this too. In my area a lot of folks burn wood in some capacity or another and it's usually pretty easy to spot the chimneys for the woodburning appliance in the house-either Class A stainless or some other type that I'll spot smoke coming from on startup. Usually you start smelling wood smoke outside in October and you see the chimneys smoking when the days get shorter and the air gets crisper. However, this morning when I left the house at 7:00 a.m. with an outside temp of 7 degrees, my woodburner chimney was the only one working while everyone else's gas and oil appliances were working overtime! I guess that explains why the neighbor across the road (who has a wood stove) once asked me what I needed all that firewood for ;lol

brant2000 · Jan 9, 2015

There's a few on my road that always have at least one, sometimes two, chimneys going. Then there's the others that live on the road that I'm sure drive by and think we're all either nuts or just downright broke off our a$$es. Sure, I can afford to heat my house, but I can also find many other good uses for the $2500 a year I save. Guess it just depends which side of the fence you live on decide who's the crazy one.

Knots · Jan 9, 2015

You can usually tell who's hardcore in the spring. The hardcores are processing wood. The others wait until September to think about wood...

The good thing about being a hardcore: when the power goes out, nothing really changes. "I was loading the stove anyways..."

claydogg84 · Jan 9, 2015

I'm surrounded on 3 of 4 sides of my house with wood burners, but none of them heat 24/7 with wood. I haven't needed my baseboards once and we hit -2 without the windchill yesterday morning. It's nice to not rely on oil..

Badfish740 · Jan 9, 2015

Knots said:
You can usually tell who's hardcore in the spring. The hardcores are processing wood. The others wait until September to think about wood.

I have another neighbor who orders two cords of wood every September from some guy who swears that this stuff was all cut and split over a year ago and is seasoned and ready to go

And every year about this time he starts complaining that about the no-good-SOB who sold him those two cords that are now hissing and spitting like an angry cat inside his stove. Good guy, but for some reason he keeps falling for the same line every year.

maple1 · Jan 9, 2015

claydogg84 said:
I'm surrounded on 3 of 4 sides of my house with wood burners, but none of them heat 24/7 with wood. I haven't needed my baseboards once and we hit -2 without the windchill yesterday morning. It's nice to not rely on oil..

I looooove my baseboards, but they're hooked to a wood fire, & my oil burner along with the tank it was hooked to left the premises a couple years ago. That was very liberating.

I've got this years wood in the basement, working through it, and the next two years heat & hot water nicely piled around the yard. But will still be out when spring dries off looking to get further ahead. I'd be looking at around $4k a year to heat with just oil - but even if it was 1/4 that I would still be using wood. Can't beat the heat & comfort.

Knots · Jan 10, 2015

Badfish740 said:
I have another neighbor who orders two cords of wood every September from some guy who swears that this stuff was all cut and split over a year ago and is seasoned and ready to go And every year about this time he starts complaining that about the no-good-SOB who sold him those two cords that are now hissing and spitting like an angry cat inside his stove. Good guy, but for some reason he keeps falling for the same line every year.

There's a mental block with a lot of people that prevents them from getting even one year ahead on firewood. I'm talking about people who understand the reason, but still can't summon up the will to do it. Oh well, by prioritizing wood I guess I'm letting something else slide, but being warm when it was -15 the other night was important to me!

firefighterjake · Jan 10, 2015

Seems like around here the amateurs are the ones who start burning when it's wicked cold ... days like today and this past week is when I tend to see more chimneys belching out wood smoke -- chimneys that for the most part haven't been used much for most of the fall.

Not surprisingly ... this is the time of year when I start to also see an uptick in chimney fires and fires involving the careless or improper disposal of ashes.

firefighterjake · Jan 10, 2015

Not sure if these folks are full time burners ... but it does illustrate what I've said for a number of years -- the improper disposal of ashes is a big cause of woodstove related house fires.

http://www.centralmaine.com/2015/01/09/oakland-fire-blamed-on-disposal-of-wood-ash/

mass_burner · Jan 10, 2015

I'm surrounded by "ambience burners". I did notice last week, the coldest day of the year so far, both neighbors had non-stove fires going.

Warm_in_NH · Jan 11, 2015

I love when the wife drives and we go for a ride. I check out all the chimneys, wood piles, wood sheds, outdoor boiler set ups, smoking chimneys, heat signatures, etc....

Last week in CT saw an outdoor boiler set up with at least a 25 foot tall stainless stack on it stabilized with guide wires! I was impressed by their efforts and creativity.

See some pretty neat set ups and some horrifying ones too if you pay attention.

gzecc · Jan 14, 2015

Warm_in_NH said:
I love when the wife drives and we go for a ride. I check out all the chimneys, wood piles, wood sheds, outdoor boiler set ups, smoking chimneys, heat signatures, etc....

Last week in CT saw an outdoor boiler set up with at least a 25 foot tall stainless stack on it stabilized with guide wires! I was impressed by their efforts and creativity.

See some pretty neat set ups and some horrifying ones too if you pay attention.

I always tell my wife how I enjoy driving through the Pennsylvania countyside looking in peoples back yards.

firefighterjake · Jan 14, 2015

gzecc said:
I always tell my wife how I enjoy driving through the Pennsylvania countyside looking in peoples back yards.

As long as you stop at gawking at the back yards and don't start gawking through their windows you should be OK.

Leastaways they tell me that there is a fine line between admiring another man's house . . . and being a peeping tom.

Warm_in_NH · Jan 14, 2015

firefighterjake said:
Leastaways they tell me that there is a fine line between admiring another man's house . . . and being a peeping tom.

Ha! About a 1/4 mile down the road is "that house", you know the one where they keep to themselves, rotted camper in the yard returning to mother earth, never see anyone but the vehicles move around so you know there's life there.
I was walking by one day with the dog in the summer, looking at how their addition was built. As a carpenter I like to check these things out, I can't tell you what color the house is half the time, but I can tell you what kind of siding it is, window style, layout, roof frame, etc.....
So I was looking at the way they built this thing and some guy starts screaming at me from inside! "Hey! Why don't you just come in and take a f'n picture!" then his wife starts screaming at him calling him all sorts of names. I just started cracking up and kept walking.
Now the dog growls at the house every time we go by and I've never seen nor heard from them since, but the vehicles still move around.

So yes, there's a fine line there somewhere......

Fsappo · Jan 14, 2015

Warm_in_NH said:
Ha! About a 1/4 mile down the road is "that house", you know the one where they keep to themselves, rotted camper in the yard returning to mother earth, never see anyone but the vehicles move around so you know there's life there.
I was walking by one day with the dog in the summer, looking at how their addition was built. As a carpenter I like to check these things out, I can't tell you what color the house is half the time, but I can tell you what kind of siding it is, window style, layout, roof frame, etc.....
So I was looking at the way they built this thing and some guy starts screaming at me from inside! "Hey! Why don't you just come in and take a f'n picture!" then his wife starts screaming at him calling him all sorts of names. I just started cracking up and kept walking.
Now the dog growls at the house every time we go by and I've never seen nor heard from them since, but the vehicles still move around.

So yes, there's a fine line there somewhere......

Alternate ending:.....some guy starts screaming at me from inside! "Hey! Why don't you just come in and take a f'n picture!" So I calmly walked to the door and knocked...

Knots · Jan 14, 2015

Warm_in_NH said:
About a 1/4 mile down the road is "that house", you know the one..

Stay away from my Christmas decorations...

...and don't touch my truck!

firefighterjake · Jan 15, 2015

Hehheh . . . yeah . . . I've got a few of those types of folks living on my road.

Worse one is a nutjob who has claimed his wife is dying . . . and apparently has been on her death bed for the past 20 or so years.

One house that looks like it would be bad, but the guy is actually pretty nice is quite interesting -- house is falling down, but the guy who worked for years as a janitor as a virtual zoo with various exotic animals in pens on his property . . . and for the past year or two has apparently started collecting concrete statues of animals which he has placed on his stone wall for all of us to admire.

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The hardcore woodburners

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