Burned out on burning wood

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Lanningjw

Minister of Fire
Oct 15, 2008
514
Plymouth, Minnesota
I'm new to wood burning and thus far I love it, but I've already decided that I will not have it be something that will put pressure on me. I want to do it because I enjoy it AND that it could save me money. In the end, I'd like to be off of the grid somewhat more, but not at the expense of being miserable. I see no problems with taking a little break.
 
nope, dont have the choice. not because i dont have one, but more of a financial issue with paying for oil. the furnace is on but set to about 60. probably kicks on 2-3 times during the day when im at work and the stoves out. (cant let the dogs freeze)

i do understand what your saying. bringing the wood in isnt as bad however as cutting the tree down, bucking haulsing splitting and stacking. thats when i feel its too much work. but then again its hot outside and the furance doesnt run then either.

splitting the stove duties with another person helps.
 
Blaze King owners are not allowed to take breaks, loading once a month is to much???? LOL ;-)

I take some breaks from time to time. I don't see any harm it, sometimes it's nice to just veg out for an evening and not think about burning wood. It's nice to have that option, some here don't.
 
Humping in a load of wood doesn't seem like that big a deal to me, especially when I consider that my only alternative is to freeze to death. :eek:hh:
 
I cant take a break either (no furnace) but I am tired of it, I guess 30 years burning, a cold winter, a new stove, and age (call me nancy) have a way of wearing on ya.
 
hey lanning- go ahead and take a break from wood burning. so what. wait for a bit of a warmer day so the furnace won't use that much gas. then you can just sit and relax or veg out....and i bet while you are sitting there, you'll be thinking man, i should/could be burning now. after a couple days, you'll be missing the wood heat. guilt and conscience are a hell'uva thing. huh? hang in there!
 
Nope and I hate it when its time to stop burning. My house is never so comfortable as when I am burning. And with my old wood furnace I burn a lot of wood I do hate hauling that 30 gallon ash can up the stairs once of month though. But I also don't have much mess hauling my wood in. Take out the basement window And haul wood from the pile in a trailer or loader bucket through it down stack it shovel all the wood scraps in the stove. And I haul in enough for 1 1/2 weeks at a time. But then again I am a pryo and have a bonfire going most of the year unless its raining or too dry and windy to burn. I have been burning 24-7 for the last eight years at my house. And am working on the design for my cabin at the farm to max open area and easy heat circulation with the smallest sq ft I need to hold our family.

Billy
 
Cowboy Billy said:
Nope and I hate it when its time to stop burning. My house is never so comfortable as when I am burning. And with my old wood furnace I burn a lot of wood I do hate hauling that 30 gallon ash can up the stairs once of month though. But I also don't have much mess hauling my wood in. Take out the basement window And haul wood from the pile in a trailer or loader bucket through it down stack it shovel all the wood scraps in the stove. And I haul in enough for 1 1/2 weeks at a time. But then again I am a pryo and have a bonfire going most of the year unless its raining or too dry and windy to burn. I have been burning 24-7 for the last eight years at my house. And am working on the design for my cabin at the farm to max open area and easy heat circulation with the smallest sq ft I need to hold our family.

Billy

+1 But I am not as gear-up as Billy!
 
With #2 Heating oil at it's highest prices in 10 years, why would I want to turn on the thermostat? It's up .65 cents over last year, and $1.00 over 5 years back. No way I'm taking a break, it's truely a labor of love knowing I'm not shelling out cash to the OPEC kings.
 
I read that an efficiency expert--Ford, Gilbreth, one of those--used to go into factories where he was evaluating for improvements, and would immediately ask to be shown "the laziest man in the factory", assuming that this was the fellow who had already figured out how to work smarter, not harder, and carried on even though thought the less for it.

I have a wood rack in my sunroom where wood can come up to temp and dry out a little if needed. Takes about 8-9 armloads to fill it. Was bringing a sledload of splits to the door of the sunroom one day, looked at it, opened the door and kept right on going. Scoots right across the tile floor, and three of them fill the rack, and it's usually a twice-a-week chore. Read someone's trick on here for overnighting fires, and have been playing with that with good results--still experimenting and learning how to manage my fire cycle.

Those are a few of the things that keeps me going--(pitiful, really) accomplishments of figuring out how to work smarter, not harder at this. Look for those little mental tricks that keep me going until the job's done. And I take the time to celebrate the small pleasures--looking at the full rack and feeling like I'm set for a few days, looking at the wood on the porch and knowing I've got enough for the month out there. It does help, though, knowing that I've only got 8-10 weeks of winter left.

It'll be a few weeks, barring cold snaps that keep Boiler Guy busy longer, before I get my new boiler up and running. So I can't *afford* to let myself not stay psyched. And that's more a mental game than physical.

Plus, I will snug up in front of a fire any day of the week. The baseboards just don't do that much for me.
 
Lanning said:
Last night when I was humping wood into the house I was thinking "man this is alot of work" Why not just use the NG furnace and take a break.

do you guys ever take a break from from burning and use your furnace?

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_GKplugI78wg/TP_NDkvQs5I/AAAAAAAAOXo/u8FiHl85Fnk/s640/DSC_0061.JPG

It's a mutiny! Get out the shackles and give this guy 50 lashes with his fuel bill!

I try to resist taking breaks from burning wood, my furnace runs whenever my back room goes below 62 which is usually once a day around 3am. As long as I can hear it run i'm motivated to make it stop, simple. That feeling never goes away especially now that fuel oil is $3.50 a gallon.

I will be completely sick of firewood, hot coals and ashes come the end of March and will give up altogether sometime in April. In May the darn furnace will still run overnight and I'll let it but not until then.
 
My wood furnace is a little too large for my house, so I let the fire go out quite frequently. There have been a few days this year that I've just left it out and let the furnace kick on when the house got down to about 62-64. Sure, the family complains that it's "cold" in the house, but it just makes them appreciate the wood heat all that much more.
 
Our furnace is set to run at 62*.

It'll turn on in the early morning but I end of loading the stove anyway....if I'm up why not? As far as intentionally taking a break from wood burning NO!

We have 2 dogs so whenever I bring them out I grab an armful or 2 of wood. Then humping the wood becomes no problem, mostly because mentally I'm doing 2 things at once and little things like that motivate me.
 
There aint no quitting in April, you gotta stick it out, take the furnace out of the house. :cheese:
 
I have found myself getting burnt-out in the past when "stresses" started to cave-in on me.
Running out of wood, wood not dry enough, stove not heating/drafting well, chimney gunking-up
too fast, not enough time to gather wood for next year, etc., etc........
All these things in unison can make you want to take a "vacation" from woodburning.

At these times, its best to step back, and take a 2nd look at just why do you burn wood?
Are you putting too much pressure on yourself to make it more than you can keep-up with?
Can you set-up a realistic time budget to get the work done that you need to, or would like to?

For example, I could heat my entire house with one of those outdoor boilers, but I would not have
the time, or the amount of wood necessary to get the job done, without "stealing" from other aspects
of my life. In short, woodburning for me would become "old" very fast......
 
Thanks Jay

I grew up with a wood stove in the basement. But at Dad's it was a real PIA had to haul it in through the house down the stairs and across the basement. We tried everything to make it easier. Putting boards on the basement steps to slide the wood down. The best way we found was a plastic garbage can fill it up take it through the house and walk it down the stairs. It kept all the mess in the can and you could easily move 1/2 to 3/4 of a can at a time. But my house is a lot easier just through it in and stack it along the wall next to the window.

Billy
 
Lately I have been laid off . My wife came home from work asking me what I did all day. I told her "I was busy heating the house all day." I have burned for a month now and love it. I have a feeling when I
go back to work in a week or two I will dread getting up earlier to load the insert. I'm sure a break will come. Like yooperdave says you will be looking at the firebox thinking why are there no flames in there?
 
Every once in a while it would be 10 PM and I'd say, "Eff it, I'm not dealing with it" and I'd let the fire go out. The wife has really stepped up in the last few weeks and kept the fire before I come home from work and that has seemed to help get rid of any wood stove malaise I had.
 
I got sick of it a long time ago. But it is the only heat in the joint and we have no options except for electric. Soooo,...
 
Cowboy Billy said:
Thanks Jay

I grew up with a wood stove in the basement. But at Dad's it was a real PIA had to haul it in through the house down the stairs and across the basement. We tried everything to make it easier. Putting boards on the basement steps to slide the wood down. The best way we found was a plastic garbage can fill it up take it through the house and walk it down the stairs. It kept all the mess in the can and you could easily move 1/2 to 3/4 of a can at a time. But my house is a lot easier just through it in and stack it along the wall next to the window.

Billy
I rember those days I can back the trailer right next to the wood racks now. Oh and my Dad was ok with me figuring it out on my own as long as he didnt have to. (not that he was lazy either)
 
Not weary of lugging it in or burning it, though I could use a break from cleaning up the ash and wood chip mess in front of the stove.

Carolyn
 
Status
Not open for further replies.