We've had an unseasonably cold November here in NW PA and I'm new to burning 24/7. So as I watch the wood pile decrease I'm wondering am I maximizing the heat out of my wood. I have about a 1300 square foot house with a semi finished basement. The stoves in the basement. I burn one heaping regular sized wheelbarrow full of well-seasoned wood a day (temps 25-35 degrees). I'm dampening down a lot but wasn't sure if I'm missing something or if this seems to be a fairly average amount of wood to burn per day?
getting the most out of the wood
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Seems reasonable to me. I burn about that and maybe more when it's really cold. I had the same fear, so I picked up an additional cord of wood last week. Have 7 cord on hand with 4 of that a little green (next years pile).
Sounds about right. If you're going to run out this winter, then you may set a cutoff temp- say 30 F. It stinks, but the wood counts more when it's 10 F in January than when it's 35 F in December.
Stay warm,
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Stay warm,
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I used to burn 24/7,but I recently stopped because I felt I was wasting a lot of wood to heat empty rooms. The heat does not reach our bedroom for some reason it is the only room that stays cold. So I figured I would just fire it back up in the morning. Now a wheelbarrow load lasts me 4 days or so depending on how much the wife complains.
im in nw pa. also ,i burn about the same amount as you described ,I think thats normal ,damper it down whe n your not there and overnight and burn only good *DRY*hardwood..sadly it hasnt even gotten really cold yet so be sure to have several more cords for those january nights can be brutal and hunting in your backwoods with a flashlight through 2 foot of snow for any useable wood isnt fun
The past few years I've been getting to get free fire wood without any trouble. But once the oil prices went up people are now selling there downed trees or unwanted log piles. So I know many of you have been buying cords of wood for your wood stoves. Are you saving any money by burning vs using your home heating system? Around here cords of wood averages about $300 per cord.
I think that is a reasonable amount of wood. I also have an Englander 30 and it sure can eat through the wood. How soon do you damper down. I have noticed that the 30NC heats up quick and start dampering down after about 10 minutes and keep dampering in increments until it is slighlty past the tray lip on the front. I would think that an equal catalytic stove would return a longer burn with a bit more heat. Remember to cut more wood next year.
If your paying $300.00/cord for wood,I would think oil would be cheaper,I saw home heating oil advertised at a gas station in PA for $2.26/gal,I would think it would be a little cheaper from a heating oil dealer.Getting back to the OP,I'm burning about 1/3 of a cord/week right now with 2 woodburners running 24/7 but I like to keep the house warm and I've got more firewood than I'll burn in my lifetime.
I've had excellent results with burning short hot fires to appreciably increase efficiency and stretch out the thermal lag cycle. Like a gas furnace does. Only the off time can be hours at a time. This maximizes energy captured from the oxidisation process, allowing your wood to last longer. Our house stays between 70 & 80 degrees all winter. Go to bed at 80 and wake up at 70 or just above. I use a fire brick lined, double barreled Vogelzang in our basement which maximizes the amount of blackbody radiation captured in the home. The entire heated area of my home is about 2900sq feet and I burn 1/16th of a cord a day.
It still pains me to see how many BTU's make it out the chimney though....
Check out:
http://www.rocketstoves.com/
Ideally, I will eventually be using the woodstove to heat our home water supply during the winter, as well as increasing thermal mass.
Regards,
TS
It still pains me to see how many BTU's make it out the chimney though....
Check out:
http://www.rocketstoves.com/
Ideally, I will eventually be using the woodstove to heat our home water supply during the winter, as well as increasing thermal mass.
Regards,
TS
I'm not too worried about getting wood this year. I just scored approximately another two cords of cherry and maple. I was just wondering if I'm running this baby right or not. Thanks for all the replies....looks like I'm burning like I should be.
beau5278 said:
There's much more of a lag time between price drops/rises with heating oil than with gasoline since the heating oil people have to buy their stuff in bulk well in advance. In any case, in my experience, heating oil is significantly but not hugely more expensive than gasoline.
Woodsmoke said:
The best thing I can say to this thread is, WOW! A heaping wheelbarrow full of wood per day in temperatures this warm means you'd best have a lot of wood on hand for when winter gets here!
I do have to admit though that we used to go through a lot of wood too until we got the Fireview. We probably did go through a wheelbarrow full a day in the coldest part of winter before but certainly not now.
We have one of the little Garden Way carts. If I fill that, it will last about 3-4 days during this time of the year.
Woodsmoke said:
Seems like alot of wood to me. How hot are you keeping your house? Are you getting a good air circulation from the basement? I've been going through 1/10 cord or two heaping wheelbarrows about every 4-6 days.
By the sounds of this I don't think I am interested in an Englander 30 anymore! If I put that much through my old fisher in a day it had better be in the teens our else we will be heated out of house and home! (about the same size to a little larger home as well).
pen
pen
I refused to use my oil furnace last year, my first to burn 24/7. This year I decided it was more of a pride thing, but lower oil prices don't hurt. So this year I've been using the oil very sparingly but I think it will make me a wiser wood burner. No reason to waste wood when a little oil will do the job. With 16+ cords in storage I won't run out soon, but no reason to waste what takes a fair amount of effort to collect.
I am heating a minimum of 1800 sq ft or 2700 sq ft if I open the hall way door to the second floor.
My stove is a 1970 front burn all nighter or papa bear clone step stove with the 2 inch hot air tubes as a primative heat exchanger.the stove also has internal hot water pipes which I converted to secondary burn tubes because they leaked water into the firebox.
The secondary burn conversion allowed me to use half the wood I was previously using.
The stove has a HUGE 12 cubic foot firebox, with a two ft x two ft door and is 3 ft deep. for the first 18 inches, the stove's firebox is two ft high and then for the last 18 inches, the fire box is 3 ft high.
the bottom and sides (up 3 inchs, 1 brick width ) I lined with fire brick & this helped to increase my overnight burn time ,by leaving me with a bed of coals in the morning. Although, on some mornings,the caol bed is near dead. But it is never below 66 deg in the morning, although I would rather it be 74*.
I can get 74 in the morning if I stuff the full to the roof, but it is wastefull of a too quickly dwindling wood supply. And I really don't care to start cutting & splitting in the dead of winter.
That is best done in april & may.
The stove would eat a heaping wheelbarrow full every day before I converted to secondary burn.
Now, that same wheelbarrow will go two to three days , 2 days at 20 deg or 3 days at 40 deg.
although,if it gets really cold, like 12 deg, she will eat a wheelbarrow a day if I keep heaping fresh wood on the cole bed.
My house not being insulated at all does not help any.
I am using more wood this yr than last yr , but this yr I am 100 % wood without oil burner backup that I used a lot last yr, to the tune of 1000gal for the winter.
I had my 96 year old mom to keep warm & her bedroom was one that the wood heat didn't get to very well.
She didn't want me to cut the wall & install hot air registers; she wanted & got the oil burner.
I might not have enough wood for the winter. If I fall short,I will find or buy pallet wood to burn.
I didnt figure on using more wood . I took what I used last year as the basis & it looks like it might be short.
I might pick up a tank full of oil, as it is cheap now & just for piece of mind in case I run short of wood.
Next year, march 09 I will order a 6 cord truckload of 20 ft tree trunks to start me off & scronge free wood to boot, which I usually get 2 to 4 cords depending on luck.
My stove is a 1970 front burn all nighter or papa bear clone step stove with the 2 inch hot air tubes as a primative heat exchanger.the stove also has internal hot water pipes which I converted to secondary burn tubes because they leaked water into the firebox.
The secondary burn conversion allowed me to use half the wood I was previously using.
The stove has a HUGE 12 cubic foot firebox, with a two ft x two ft door and is 3 ft deep. for the first 18 inches, the stove's firebox is two ft high and then for the last 18 inches, the fire box is 3 ft high.
the bottom and sides (up 3 inchs, 1 brick width ) I lined with fire brick & this helped to increase my overnight burn time ,by leaving me with a bed of coals in the morning. Although, on some mornings,the caol bed is near dead. But it is never below 66 deg in the morning, although I would rather it be 74*.
I can get 74 in the morning if I stuff the full to the roof, but it is wastefull of a too quickly dwindling wood supply. And I really don't care to start cutting & splitting in the dead of winter.
That is best done in april & may.
The stove would eat a heaping wheelbarrow full every day before I converted to secondary burn.
Now, that same wheelbarrow will go two to three days , 2 days at 20 deg or 3 days at 40 deg.
although,if it gets really cold, like 12 deg, she will eat a wheelbarrow a day if I keep heaping fresh wood on the cole bed.
My house not being insulated at all does not help any.
I am using more wood this yr than last yr , but this yr I am 100 % wood without oil burner backup that I used a lot last yr, to the tune of 1000gal for the winter.
I had my 96 year old mom to keep warm & her bedroom was one that the wood heat didn't get to very well.
She didn't want me to cut the wall & install hot air registers; she wanted & got the oil burner.
I might not have enough wood for the winter. If I fall short,I will find or buy pallet wood to burn.
I didnt figure on using more wood . I took what I used last year as the basis & it looks like it might be short.
I might pick up a tank full of oil, as it is cheap now & just for piece of mind in case I run short of wood.
Next year, march 09 I will order a 6 cord truckload of 20 ft tree trunks to start me off & scronge free wood to boot, which I usually get 2 to 4 cords depending on luck.
beau5278 said:
Redo the math when you try to keep your livingroom 75F with oil vs. wood. It is a more complex comparison.
To the OP: What size wheelbarrow are we talking here? 3cuft or 6 cuft?
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