How much wood will we need as a secondary heat source?

[PapaDave]

Charlie, first, welcome to the Hearth and the good old USA.
Surprised nobody has asked to see the flue outside the house for the basement install. That will be important when deciding what to do with that setup.
Is it possible to get a pic of that? Also helpful would be a sketch of the layout of the house.
I would have to echo the posters who mentioned the need for DRY firewood. That should be your first goal. Get it now.....or barring that, yesterday.
We use about 4 1/2 cord/yr. here, and have (give or take) for the last 6 years in Northern Michigan.

 

[clemsonfor]

Hi, we (me+wife+2 kids and the baby bump) are about to move into a house that has both oil fired hot water baseboard heating and also a wood burning fireplace in the living room and a small wood stove in the basement (I assume to prevent frozen pipes).

My question is if we were to use the oil fired baseboard as our primary heating source what would be the anticipated wood usage through a Central-Maine winter; and would this be the best/cheapest option or would using wood as our primary and the oil furnace just for hot water work out better?

I can't recall the overall sq.ft. but was told it burns about 150 gallons of oil per month in the winter and that the basement and house a well and fully insulated with modern windows and doors. Because we have a baby on the way (due in Feb) I want to ensure that we have sufficient heating, and that means enough wood if it was to be our primary source.

I should add that we are new to the area, coming from England where natural gas and electric are the predominant heating sources, so this whole wood fire thing is new to me beyond going camping.

Thanks in advance,

150 gallons a month!! Id put an insert in that open fireplace and go wood as primary! Even buying semi seasoned wood you would be cheaper! Whats fuel oil now $3.50 gallon! that would mean that you will spend $500+ dollars a month on oil each month. Even if you bought primo REAL seasoned hardwood you will come out way cheaper than that! like half that !

 

[Charlie]

Thank you all; some great advice.
I will get some more pics and post them like before.

 

[Ashful]

150 gallons a month!! Id put an insert in that open fireplace and go wood as primary! Even buying semi seasoned wood you would be cheaper! Whats fuel oil now $3.50 gallon! that would mean that you will spend $500+ dollars a month on oil each month. Even if you bought primo REAL seasoned hardwood you will come out way cheaper than that! like half that !

I suspect $500/month for heating oil is no shock for our friends across the pond. I've not spent much time in England, but I used to work in continental Europe, and fuel costs there were significantly higher than here.

 

[Wood Duck]

I think you have a good chance of getting reasonably seasoned fuel for this winter. First, many firewood dealers may have firewood left over from last winter. It was warmer than normal here in the eastern US, and as a result maybe not all firewood was sold. A lot of the smaller dealers in my area (Pennsylvania, not Maine) stack their wood neatly to show customers how much wood is in a cord. (Yeah, a cord SHOULD be the same everywhere, but that is not always true). If you can buy some firewood that has been stacked since last fall it should be pretty well seasoned. If you can firewood that has been stacked even a few months you should be fine because it is only July and that gives you another four months to season the firewood. Four or six months isn't ideal, but it is better than burning freshly cut wood.

Another choice might be slabwood. When round logs are milled into square boards, the rounded edges are cut off to become slabwood - semi-round, thin slabs. This wood will season pretty fast and might be cheap in your area.

 

[btuser]

I agree with those who suggest you pay someone to check it out and make sure you're ok to burn, then have some fires to see if you like it. Scrounge up 2 cord of wood. Can be a mix of softwood/hardwood, but get it and stack it. This in itself is not that hard and will cost you less than $500 if you get lucky with the stove/fireplace. You may hate it. Your wife may hate it. Personally I love it, but to be honest it would take a lot less energy to convert to a different religion or political party than to go from oil to wood.

I got into the wood burning thing for all the same reasons as everyone else. "Save the world! Greedy oil companies!" Unless you've got free wood and time on your hands its rough to save any money(although it's tax free). Unless you're lucky with the design of your house (pre-1950s) it's tough to move the heat without power, especially in a ranch. I figure after stove, wood, saw, and my time I'd have to burn a lot more to be making minimum wage, and for the most part I'm cutting my own trees. Dropping 4+k on a new stove/install is completely reasonable, but still expensive.

That being said, it's worth it for other reasons. I've got an insert for the family room fireplace (absolutely the worst spot in the house for radiant heat). It will heat the whole 2600sqft colonial down to about 10F if I keep stuffing it. One fan in the doorway and the bedrooms upstairs are 65F and the downstairs is 72F. Have fun with it.

 

[clemsonfor]

I suspect $500/month for heating oil is no shock for our friends across the pond. I've not spent much time in England, but I used to work in continental Europe, and fuel costs there were significantly higher than here.

But the guys from Maine. Thats not across the pond from you or me?

 

[Ashful]

But the guys from Maine. Thats not across the pond from you or me?

Thought he was in the process of moving from the UK to Maine. Don't make me go back and read this whole thread!

 

[weatherguy]

You'll find the winters a bit more harsh than your used too being in mid Maine and depending on the weather pattern this winter you may have snow up to your ass, that said if I was in your shoes I would put a good efficient wood stove in the fireplace, you could probably cut your oil bill by 50-75% and you'll feel a lot warmer having the stove in your living area.

 

[jharkin]

I suspect $500/month for heating oil is no shock for our friends across the pond. I've not spent much time in England, but I used to work in continental Europe, and fuel costs there were significantly higher than here.

Probably not, and I'd also venture to say that 150 gal /month is probably very reasonable for Maine. I use the equivalent amount of energy as that in Gas and I'm quite a bit farther south in a very small and somewhat insulated house.


Charlie-
I'll add another New England welcome. You got lots of good advice and the bottom line Id say is to expect your first year to be a learning curve and assume you will end up relying on the oil for a while as you get the hang of wood. It took me a couple years in the new old house to really get the hang of a modern stove - and this is coming from a lifelong New Englander who grew up around stoves and wood burning.

With time and effort wood will give you significantly lower fuel costs than oil and probably more comfort, but itwill take a lot more time commitment and maybe some $$ for better equipment. Most of us here get great satisfaction from comfort and self reliance aspects of woodburning and once hooked we would burn even if it cost more

 

[firefighterjake]

Random thoughts . . .

Welcome to Maine.

If you're really thinking about just supplementing the oil boiler 1-3 cords would be fine . . . if you're thinking about heating year-round you would most likely want 5-6 cord . . . which may give you some left over wood for next year. My philosophy is I would rather have wood left over for the next year rather than run out in mid Winter.

You may start out thinking that you will just supplement the oil heat . . . and may do so . . . or you may find woodheat to be attractive in terms of the view . . . and in terms of price.

Quick check of my local oil supplier shows me a price per gallon of $3.24 for the regular stuff or $3.64 for kerosene which is used when tanks are outside to reduce the problem of gelled oil. Figuring on the low end . . . at 150 gallons of oil used per month you're looking at a $486 oil bill . . . give or take. Putting in a decent woodstove may mean a relatively quick return on investment depending on how much wood you burn.

By way of reference . . . I live about 35-40 minutes from you. Live in a 1,800 square foot, 1970s vintage Cape with average insulation . . . I was burning 580 gallons of oil each winter . . . now I burn far less as I heat predominantly with oil. I figure I use 5-6 cord of wood each year (season running from some time in September to some time in April or May) . . . haven't filled my oil tank in 2 or 3 years. I know and like the guys who work for the oil company . . . I just prefer wood heat . . . and saving money. I should mention that I keep my oil boiler since I like having it as back up heat for when I am not around and on vacation, for those sub zero nights when the woodstove may not go all night long or when I may be sick and unable to tend the stove.

A decent woodstove is a good thing to have in Maine in the winter by the way . . . Maine does and get extended power outages. The ice storm of 1997 is one that left many of us without power for a long, long time . . . 14 days in my case . . . another good reason for back up heat of some sort.

Existing woodstove . . . as others have said . . . sketchy looking installation. I wouldn't personally run that contraption in my home.

Existing boiler . . . looks relatively new . . . Pensotti or Biasi (I always forget which one is blue and which is red-colored) perhaps?

Price for wood here in Maine . . . figure $150-$225 per cord . . . just remember that "seasoned" wood to us and to me may mean something a lot different to dealers. To me, seasoned wood is cut and split for a year prior . . . a dealer may consider seasoned wood to be wood cut down and left in log form six months ago and then bucked up and split a couple weeks ago. There will be a difference in my seasoned wood and the other definition of seasoned wood.

Personally if I was to try wood heat . . . I would check out UncleHenrys.com (local publication) or Craigslist (I tend to have better luck with the very old and respected Uncle Henrys . . . you can also get print copies at your local general store usually) . . . and see if anyone is offering any decent deals on suitable woodstoves that you could install in the upstairs fireplace as a free standing stove or any fireplace inserts . . . another option for the cheap, but good route is an Englander . . . or if you want a local company I personally like Rocky's Stove Shoppe in Augusta (one of our members here works/worked there . . . but I would give the plug regardless). I would steer away from a basement install as the cement walls look to be unfinished and you will lose a lot of heat down there. As for frozen pipes . . . if you have heat upstairs, typically there will be enough heat downstairs radiating down and perhaps more importantly coming from the ground and domestic hot water to keep things warm.