spring report; wood use

3200/eko 60/9.5 cords slightly above average insulated house.



Barnartist Are you talking regular pulp cords (4'x4'x8') or face cords/ricks (4'x8'x?")

went through roughly 3 to 3 1/2 cords...

Used about 4 1/2 cords and used approximately 1 1/4 gal/day heating oil since Thanksgiving. I was at the oil dealer yesterday and they said I used 500 gallons last year. I laughed. I didn't have the nerve to tell them I am putting up a large solar collector system this summer. House is about 3000 ft2 with 1400 FT2 basement. Overall it sounds low for the house size but I do have a good passive heat gain from south facing windows. I only have about a 10 days of wood left before withdrawal sets in. Does hearth.com have a "Therapy Forum"? I may have to go steal some from my father in law. I just heat with a wood stove that also heats my domestic hot water. I'll probably also install my wood/coal boiler this summer. I may heat with coal for a test try next season.

In case anyone is interested, since I don't have outdoor reset control on my oil boiler I put on a Beckett/Intellidyne heat manager the other day. From minute one it was minimizing burner cycles. If it saves 10-20% as claims I'll be happy.

For a laugh-The house felt drafty last night (big open design). I went to my 14 y/o sons room at 2 am and he had his casement window wide open for the umpteeth time this winter. 10 deg F outside. I got my screwdriver and removed the handles from the windows. I told him if it happens again I will turn the hot water off and he'll take cold showers. I am not paying 3.30+ for oil to blow it out the window.

If memory serves, cold showers for a 14-year-old is probably not a bad idea in any event.

Eric Johnson said:

If memory serves, cold showers for a 14-year-old is probably not a bad idea in any event.

Click to expand...

I have to admit I would be afraid to try that on my 18 y/o daughter, let alone my wife. Women are scary.

econoburn 100,000 heating 1500 sq/ft house that is fair in insulation. Heater in the shop rarely used, and DHW not hooked up yet. I know a lot of you guys will laugh but I went through about 7 pulp cord this year. Jan-march I just installed it in late december and didn't have any wood on hand. Starting to find out that the wood was wetter than I thought and just couldn't get the heat out of it. So I had to keep mine going 24/7 Still working out the problems but gaining a little bit. I sure would like to get so that I could burn that much from sept-march, that would be nice. I threw some 2x4 scraps in one time and found out that it would heat the water up in no time. I timed it once and had a 20 degree rise in 9 minutes. I just wish it would do that with my oak.
Oh ya, I did have to use my fuel oil a fair amount because the boiler wouldn't keep up or in the mornings when the fire was out. Going to make sure that it doesn't do that next year.
Anybody having trouble with their boiler not heating good, try mixing kiln dried wood with whatever you are burning helped me out a lot.

I can think of only two reasons a teenager would have their window open when it's that cold out . . .

1)They are trying to avoid getting busted for burning one, or
2)They are sneaking out (or someone in) at night.

Having been a#2 myself on many occasions back in the day, the only recomendation I have is to close and lock the window after he leaves :lol:

Back to the post . . . .

4,000 [] plus DHW / GW100/ 10 full cord since Halloween

currently scrounging . . . someone give me a headsup if ya see the 'smoke police' :wow:

i dont like to read how people are running out of wood. i have 2 OWB owners on my way to work i check everday on there wood usage. 1 is getting a supply (split and seasoned) form somewhere because he ran out. i think he has a CB?
the other has a CB and hes still got a few logs left. he cuts as he needs i guess but he wont run out. im amazed at how much wood that CB really chews up. then again he does have a rather larger old house to.

I had 8 rows ready for winter. By the end of this week, I'll have 3 rows left. Each row is about 6 ft high and 10 ft across. Pieces are cut to about 20 inches long.

After having an OWB, and adding more radiant floor heat, and adding more insulation to the house, I'm finally back to burning the amount of wood I did before the OWB. At that time I had a regular woodstove in the house, and still burned almost 2 tanks of oil for DHW and rooms away from the woodstove. Now I'm getting all of my DHW from the wood (during the winter) and have used almost no oil - the storage tank even carried me through times when we were gone for a few days. My 3rd season with the EKO, and finally everything has come together. Unfortunately, I won't be in good shape with seasoned wood for next year.

Greenwood 100 w/ no storage. Heating 1100 sq foot log cabin with 6"thick walls. Old leaky windows that we put plastic on. Also heating 40 gallon DHW tank.

Since end of November have burned approx. 6 cords.

Probably would have burned less if all my wood was larger rounds rather than splits.

Pete

ISeeDeadBTUs said:

I can think of only two reasons a teenager would have their window open when it's that cold out . . .

1)They are trying to avoid getting busted for burning one, or
2)They are sneaking out (or someone in) at night.

Having been a#2 myself on many occasions back in the day, the only recomendation I have is to close and lock the window after he leaves :lol:

Back to the post . . . .

4,000 [] plus DHW / GW100/ 10 full cord since Halloween

currently scrounging . . . someone give me a headsup if ya see the 'smoke police' :wow:

Click to expand...

I have the bases covered-My son's window is a 25 ft drop to the ground and I tell him I have a drug test kit ready to go.

I am running low on wood since I came home late Thanksgiving ( I am away for long periods of time) and we had a monster storm that covered my woodpile. I have been digging it out a little at a time but it has been a tough go and couldn't scavenge all of it. I literally dug a cave to get to it. I was thinking of taking a picture at the time and posting it. I had (note "had) a 24 x 32 ft cover-it-shelter crashed to the ground from the snow load. I kept my wood in it. I salvaged the wood but everything else is questionable. It could actually take quite a snow load but a lot of roofs are collapsing in the northeast. We Mainers just keep going.

Pete Antos-Ketcham said:

Greenwood 100 w/ no storage. Heating 1100 sq foot log cabin with 6"thick walls. Old leaky windows that we put plastic on. Also heating 40 gallon DHW tank.

Since end of November have burned approx. 6 cords.

Probably would have burned less if all my wood was larger rounds rather than splits.

Pete

Click to expand...

Oh - and I still have plenty of wood. I put up 10 cords of wood this year.

Tarm solo 40 no storage 4000/sf 7 cords. Installed in Oct.
I used a little more than I expected but I also keep the house
alot warmer.

Ethan

Since early Sept. I have gone through 16 cord, most of it birch. That heats a 2400 sq ft home with baseboard, DMH, and a 700 sq ft garage. ran out of wood first week of Feburary so I hae been out a few hours here and there, gvot about a cord ahead should get me into April. I burn a GW 100 with 300 gallons of poorly insulated storage.

1700 sf house, baseboard heat, non-gasified indoor wood boiler, no storage, used appx 5 cords, have appx 3 cords remaining, no other heat source used.

3500+hot tub+DHW/EKO 25/3.5 cords/no oil

2400 sq. ft. house, 400 sq. ft. garage, no storage or DHW on line. About 4 cords since Dec.

2000sq ft LOTS of wind (and 2 babies) 6-7 full cords and 3/4 tank of oil. Hopefully less wood and no oil next year with a gasifier.

WOW! 3.5 cords
and 16!?!?!?

what a difference.

1500 SF, Hot water baseboard heat + DHW sidearm, 3 kids under 8, Tarm Solo Plus 30, No Storage,

5 (4'x4'x8') cords October - April... We dropped our tstat setting to 64 degrees in December to conserve wood.

Now that the snow is melting I am scrounging enough from my woodpiles to keep me going.

I should make it w/o using the lp boiler at all this season.

I plan to blow in some additional insulation in the attic this Spring.

Stay warm

3600 poorly insulated sf heated to 70-72º plus a 700 sf well insulated shop heated to 60-64º
7 full cords of well seasoned beech up in smoke so far.
As some of you may remember, my underground water lines were compromised in December and replaced in Jan. I believe I wasted at least a full cord heating dirt, probably more.
Insulating the attic and walls and replacing the single pane windows are planned for next Summer. In the meantime I'll be cutting out more dying beech and hickory from my woodlot.

In Oregon, wondering how much to plan for, for first year burning. We are on Mt Hood; probably lows in the 20's and highs in the 40's. I am having a heck of a time finding seasoned wood. I know next year will be better, with going into the year with some seasoned wood, but this year I think I will be burning some not so seasoned wood.