Who else plans to heat 100% with wood heat this year??

[cmonSTART]

Yup. 100 percent wood this year. I cringe every time I hear the oil burner kick on.

 

[SlyFerret]

I'm gonna try to make it with wood only... I have ~200 gallons of propane left in my tank to fall back on, but I think we'll make it with the stove OK.

-SF

 

[mranum]

I'd love to do 100% but doubt we'll make that, if I make 70% this first year I'll be stoked. :coolsmile:

 

[kjsnooks]

I will be 100% this year. propane is looking very expensive already!

 

[wellbuilt home]

100% wood for me. I turned the furnace off in the 90s and have not used it much since . There is really no need the stove just keeps burning 24/7 I dont burn until around Nov 15th. I mite start a fire around 6pm and that keeps the house warm for 24 hrs @ 40o below 40o i need to burn a small fire at 30o i could start to get the stove hot . 20o I could run a 3/4 full, at around 12o i really have to start fulling the stove and runing wide open. ( I only get a 6 hr burn time wide open) My basement pipes start to freeze at 15 below 0 and i need to run the washer and dryer before bed. my house is 3000+sf and it would take afew days to get cold @ 30o I have a gas hot water heater and gas dryer , I would love to heat my water with wood My Friend has a hot water boiler for his 3500sf house and he burns a cord of wood a week . thats alot of wood.

 

[North of 60]

Hard to swing it 100% for me. I burn 24/7 but -30c down to -50c for a few months doesn't cut 2150sq ft much slack.
However I think 250 to 300 litres of oil a year is still giving it a good honest try.

 

[11 Bravo]

Can't go 100% due to work hours.....but rely on wood a little more every year, trying to get the wife sold on it more and more every winter....baby steps........as of now our propane use is DRAMATICALLY lower than anyone else we know............

 

[budman]

This will be year four that my back is sore but i am warm. :coolgrin:

 

[jebatty]

Will be the 19th winter of solo wood heat. The money saved allowed me to retire 5 years early.

 

[Apprentice_GM]

We only use wood / fire as well. Of course, it's a lot easier in a temperate climate when it's just nights and the exceptional cold day for 4 months we have to combat. I also use passive solar - replaced a carpeted living room floor with stone tiles and high thermal transfer adhesive to concrete slab - which heats up nicely in the winter low sun. Still warm at night. Put underfloor electric heating as well, just in case, haven't used it yet. In summer the sun is high so doesn't penetrate the window onto the floor and we get the benefit of thermal inertia of slab and tiles for cooling. Works great, totally free, no maintenance

But for heat on cold winter nights - FIRE!!

 

[Cluttermagnet]

This will be my first full season with wood heat. I'd love 100 percent, but would be very happy with 90 or better. No doubt the oil boiler will come on at times. Last winter we started fairly late in the season with the wood burning. It was a fairly mild winter. I'm pretty sure the boiler did not come on thereafter. So we'll see. I'm going to give it at least a couple of years. I'm sure I will get better at it.

 

[savageactor7]

We're close to 100% but still have the propane furnace set at 67* just in case...thinking we have about 40+ cords piled up.

 

[JBinKC]

The last 2 years it has been at 100% so I see no reason why it would change.

 

[JAmuso]

This will be our 1st year burning wood. Last year we used about 600 gallons of oil. If we can cut that in 1/2 i'll be happy - we do use oil for hot water. I know we'll have a learning curve being new to this so i'm not shooting for perfection - YET. We'll have 3 cords of wood and 1/2 ton of bio bricks to supplement. Hope it's enough!

 

[FatttFire]

With two slipped discs in my back, at age 30, I refuse to have surgery! Physical therapy is the way for me, and I am doing better everyday, with a few days of pain every now and then. When I told my doctor that besides physical therapy, the next best thing that made my back feel better was splitting wood. He thought I was nuts. I showed him my wood pile and told him how I was heating with wood and how much money I was saving. He told me I would have to show him this " heat with wood thing" bc his gas bill was huge and his wife was yelling at him about it. Then he laughed and padded me on the back and said not to worry he would just raise my co pay, and everything would be ok! I didn't think it was so funny, but he was joking with me, my doctor has a great sense of humor.

Yes I will be heating with wood 90% this winter, my furnace comes on at 50 when I am not in town!

Jason

 

[Backwoods Savage]

As always, we'll be heating 100% with wood heat. No furnace in this house, only the Fireview...and a huge wood pile outdoors.

 

[hilly]

I intend to, although a bit of electricity comes on for the bathroom and of course we have to keep the greenhouse and shop above freezing!

 

[Tfin]

95% wood heat last year, and that or more this year. I have 1/4 tank (of a 275 gal) of #2 left that will only be used as a backup for if I get home from work late or we spend the night somewhere. I set the thermostat at 62 and the furnace rarely ever comes on.....even during some of our -20 to -30F nights.

 

[greenguy]

This will be my second year with all wood pellets. The first year I had a harmon stove insert in the basement, but I had to leave it at around 95 down there to keep the rest of the house warm. Last year I added a quadfire castile insert in the main floor. Between the 2, I shutoff my furnace in February. The oil company called, after they could only put 18 dollars worth of fuel in, and wanted to know if everything was ok.

 

[Rockey]

With two slipped discs in my back, at age 30, I refuse to have surgery! Physical therapy is the way for me, and I am doing better everyday, with a few days of pain every now and then. When I told my doctor that besides physical therapy, the next best thing that made my back feel better was splitting wood. He thought I was nuts. I showed him my wood pile and told him how I was heating with wood and how much money I was saving. He told me I would have to show him this " heat with wood thing" bc his gas bill was huge and his wife was yelling at him about it. Then he laughed and padded me on the back and said not to worry he would just raise my co pay, and everything would be ok! I didn't think it was so funny, but he was joking with me, my doctor has a great sense of humor.

Yes I will be heating with wood 90% this winter, my furnace comes on at 50 when I am not in town!

Jason

I can relate buddy. I have 2 herniated discs in my neck from years of competitive wrestling and coaching. Mine healed up on their own after wrestling season ended about 5 years ago and never got worse again. I was a gnats hair away from having surgery and glad I didn't need it. The specialist I was seeing said it was probably just a matter of time before I would need the surgery though. I still occassionally wrestle and get involved with coaching just not to the degree I was invlolved years ago.

 

[Ken45]

I expect in cold weather that we will be 100% wood but in the milder weather, I doubt that it's worth it either building small short fires or having a smouldering fire. At milder temps, a heat pump is pretty efficient.

We do have a pellet stove (a big disappointment) with a ton of pellets left over from last year. I'm not buying more pellets this year.

As for back problems, I highly recommend surgery IF YOU NEED IT. I've had three back operations and I'm doing great but I waited for the first one until I couldn't get up off the floor! The last surgery (ten years ago) went so well that I didn't have any pain meds afterward, not even in the hospital.

Ken

 

[Vic99]

My second year burning. Last year 85% of my heat came from wood (compared natural gas cubic ft last year and year before). This year I'm aiming for 95%.

 

[Tfin]

I expect in cold weather that we will be 100% wood but in the milder weather, I doubt that it's worth it either building small short fires or having a smouldering fire. At milder temps, a heat pump is pretty efficient.
Ken

That's when I burn pine.....nice shoulder month wood. Doesn't last long and not as many BTU's as hardwood. Just picked up a free truck load of the stuff yesterday. Will be bucking and splitting it this week.

 

[Bad Wolf]

God willing and the creek don't rise, I should be heating solely with wood by the end of Oct.
I have 7 cords of wood laid in and my TARM should be hooked up by early Oct. For domestic hot water I have solar in the summer. So hopefully I've seen the last of the oil man.

Greg H

TARM Excel 2000
1200 gallons storage
& six solar panels

 

[FireWalker]

With my new Equinox, if my 2400 sf isn't toasty all fall, winter, and spring I will be very suprised. Hopefully I'll be sending little or no oil to my boiler which is kind of a shame as I paid dearly for a good one and it's connected to a nice hot floor loop.