I can't be the only one

[Wisneaky]

I can't be the only one who is wanting to start that fire. This time of year drives me crazy. Day time temps in the 70s and low 50s at night. Not cold enough to start a fire because the inside temp doesn't drop below 70 at night. I love burning wood and hate waiting for it to get cold enough. If it was up to me I'd live some place cold all year round so I could burn wood every day, unfortunately my wife has a different say about that idea.

 

[JRHAWK9]

yeah, I'm chomping at the bit as well. However I want to wait as long as I can before doing so. I don't want to waste wood.

The thought of sitting around the house with a fire going watching football gives me warm fuzzy feelings...lol

 

[Wisneaky]

yeah, I'm chomping at the bit as well. However I want to wait as long as I can before doing so. I don't want to waste wood.

The thought of sitting around the house with a fire going watching football gives me warm fuzzy feelings...lol

Good game last night!!

 

[JRHAWK9]

yes it was......the 3rd quarter had me concerned though. Rodgers is sure fun to watch.

 

[Wisneaky]

yes it was......the 3rd quarter had me concerned though. Rodgers is sure fun to watch.

I just wish we didn't so many player injuries this year. We are still doing good though.

 

[kennyp2339]

I've been on the fence with wanting to burn this year (the last 2 years were epic in the woodstove world) I just came home today, the temps never got out of the mid 60's and the forecasted low tonight is the mid-40's.
I was planning on doing a thorough chimney / stove cleaning today anyway, After I get done I might have to crack open a pumpkin spice beer and make sure the stove works good.

 

[McKraut]

yes it was......the 3rd quarter had me concerned though. Rodgers is sure fun to watch.

!

I was surprised we won, but very happy. It is lonely here being a Packer fan in Steeler territory!


To respond to the original thread, I believe that the pyromania gene is XY linked.

 

[JRHAWK9]

!

I was surprised we won, but very happy. It is lonely here in Steeler territory!


To respond to the original thread, I believe that the pyromania gene is XY linked.

I grew up 3 blocks north of Lambeau and used to be one of the kids lending my bike to the players during training camp every year. In the 70's and early 80's, my second favorite team was the Steelers.

 

[brenndatomu]

I can't be the only one who is wanting to start that fire.

We have had two fires in the lil fireplace stove...just enough to bring the house up 2-3 degrees. Burning junky stuff, a lil Pine and mainly bark. I have a huge pile of really thick Black Oak bark, burns as long as the pine and hotter I think

If it was up to me I'd live some place cold all year round so I could burn wood every day,

Heck, I don't think they burn year 'round even in Alaska!

my wife has a different say about that idea.

My X wanted to move to Florida, I said "Heck no, too hot!"...she went anyways

 

[McKraut]

I grew up 3 blocks north of Lambeau and used to be one of the kids lending my bike to the players during training camp every year. In the 70's and early 80's, my second favorite team was the Steelers.

My wife's family grew up in DePere. We would visit them and take our kids to the practices. I was always amazed at the small town mentality of the Packers. Amazing town, amazing players, amazing organization, and amazing fans!

 

[laynes69]

I enjoy it, but after 10 years it gets a little old. That why each year I strive in reducing energy consumption to reduce wood usage. For the first probably 5 years, 8-12 cord a year was alot of wood. The less I burn, the easier it is to stay ahead.

 

[BrotherBart]

I enjoy it, but after 10 years it gets a little old. That why each year I strive in reducing energy consumption to reduce wood usage. For the first probably 5 years, 8-12 cord a year was alot of wood. The less I burn, the easier it is to stay ahead.

You will not believe how old it gets after 40 years.

 

[maple1]

I enjoy it, but after 10 years it gets a little old. That why each year I strive in reducing energy consumption to reduce wood usage. For the first probably 5 years, 8-12 cord a year was alot of wood. The less I burn, the easier it is to stay ahead.

That is exactly where I'm at now too - at 53 years old. 20 years in this place burning wood.

I think with my old boiler I was using between 8-9 cords a year. Plus almost a tank of oil in the summer for DHW.

Now I'm in the 5-6 cords range, no oil at all, and maybe $150 worth of electricity for DHW (and the house has been more comfortable). [And the big bonus - no more chimney sweeping]. It's been in steps - first big one was the new boiler, then it was tweaking my burn habits, now with some wood ahead I am trying to make sure there is better wood in my piles. I have burned a lot of windfall spruce in the past 2-3 years, since other circumstances caused me to be almost completely without any wood at all by the end of the first new-boiler burn season - that stuff was easy to get a bunch of in a hurry, and burns great with little drying time, but not a lot of heat in it compared to good hardwood.

Now going forward, I am quite sure there will be a mini-split system in this place next year to handle some of the shoulder seasons, some backup heating, and some summer a/c. Don't know if I'll make it, but getting consistently below 5 cords per year would be nice.

 

[kennyp2339]

I stayed true to my word last night, after a good deep cleaning of everything I lit the stove for the 1st burn of the season.
I run a BK princess and I threw in a half load of pine and then 2 splits of 4" oak, glad to say everything worked well, the load was still burning when I left for work this morning, upstairs was 73 deg (dry heat) outside was 48deg and damp with drizzle.
I am happy that the stove is now ready for the season, all I have to do is just bring my winter supply of wood up to the house.

 

[brenndatomu]

Plus almost a tank of oil in the summer for DHW

I continue to be surprised by how many people still heat DHW with oil...so inefficient. It only costs us ~$20 mo. to run our 50 gallon electric tank. I think there is a myth out there that electric DHW is expensive to run. Even when oil was ~$1.00 per gallon that is still $125-$150 per year more than electric. And that is not even figuring in higher maintenance...

I enjoy it, but after 10 years it gets a little old

You will not believe how old it gets after 40 years

Bah, you know you are ready for a first fire...and you guys love it, otherwise you wouldn't be on here all the time!

 

[maple1]

I continue to be surprised by how many people still heat DHW with oil...so inefficient. It only costs us ~$20 mo. to run our 50 gallon electric tank. I think there is a myth out there that electric DHW is expensive to run. Even when oil was ~$1.00 per gallon that is still $125-$150 per year more than electric. And that is not even figuring in higher maintenance...

Nailed that one. I was a believer in that myth for years, until I made the switch to an electric heater & saw the difference for myself. I knew how bad my oil setup was, but didn't realize just how cheap an electric setup is. Darn near covers the cost of an electric heater in one year.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Is heating DHW with oil more inefficient than LP?? Just curious, as we use LP for our furnace, water heater and clothes drier.

We just had our 500 gallon LP tank filled (for $1 a gallon BTW ). It was last filled in July '14. Burned 261 gallons in 14 months (~18.5 gal/month). Looking at my BTU spreadsheet from last winter, I burned ~120 gallons of that between the first week of March (when I prematurely shut the Kuuma down at the first sign of Spring) till the end of the heating season. From here on out I should be using using an average of 12-15 gallons a month of LP over the course of a year for all three units, as I won't be shutting down the wood furnace so early anymore.

 

[Wisneaky]

Around last march I switched my electric water heater "which was a little over a year old" out and put in a LP water heater. With the LP water heater I am saving anywhere from 20-40 a month on my electric bill over the previous year. It sips the LP, needle on the tank has hardly moved. Plus it heats my water much faster. I can drain the tank and have it completely hot up to 140 degrees in 20 minutes. My electric one would take over an hour to heat back up.

 

[Wisneaky]

Is heating DHW with oil more inefficient than LP?? Just curious, as we use LP for our furnace, water heater and clothes drier.

We just had our 500 gallon LP tank filled (for $1 a gallon BTW ). It was last filled in July '14. Burned 261 gallons in 14 months (~18.5 gal/month). Looking at my BTU spreadsheet from last winter, I burned ~120 gallons of that between the first week of March (when I prematurely shut the Kuuma down at the first sign of Spring) till the end of the heating season. From here on out I should be using using an average of 12-15 gallons a month of LP over the course of a year for all three units, as I won't be shutting down the wood furnace so early anymore.

So at $1 a gallon it cost you $10 a month to run all you LP appliances. Try doing that with electric. LP appliances are much cheaper to run if you ask me.

 

[brenndatomu]

Is heating DHW with oil more inefficient than LP?? Just curious, as we use LP for our furnace, water heater and clothes drier.

We just had our 500 gallon LP tank filled (for $1 a gallon BTW ). It was last filled in July '14. Burned 261 gallons in 14 months (~18.5 gal/month). Looking at my BTU spreadsheet from last winter, I burned ~120 gallons of that between the first week of March (when I prematurely shut the Kuuma down at the first sign of Spring) till the end of the heating season. From here on out I should be using using an average of 12-15 gallons a month of LP over the course of a year for all three units, as I won't be shutting down the wood furnace so early anymore.

Right now LP is probably cheaper to use than electric. We have all electric appliances and our bill goes from a low of ~$40-$50 per mo. in the spring and fall if there is a month where there is no heat or A/C running. We run an average of $70-$80 per mo. most of the rest of the year, a high bill would be $100...that only happens if we run an electric heater in a back bedroom (not very often) BTW, just for reference, it's just the 3 of us, my wife and our 8 month old future wood chopper in a ~3000 sq ft (if you include the basement) brick cape cod home and our local electric rate is ~$0.10 per KWH

 

[Chris Hoskin]

This is where thermal storage really sings. Early season, cool nights, warm days. Run a load of wood through the gasifier once every day or two..... Nice.

 

[brenndatomu]

If I had a boiler I totally would be running storage. I looked at boilers real close at one point but couldn't even come close to justifying the initial install cost, stayed with forced air heat...wood fired forced air, love it

 

[JP11]

Even with my storage.. I'm just not ready to use wood yet. I'm still letting the HPHW heat the DHW.

For the few nights here and there that need a bit of heat, I'll let the oil run.
When I'm ready to heat the 3k SF of concrete up.. I'll fire up the wood boiler. Until then, I'll go with the convenience of a bit of oil. After all. I've bought 100 gallons a year for the last two years, and used maybe 60 gallons total of that.

JP

 

[Bioburner]

$0.10 per KWH

That has got to be the cheapest in the US. Was a big meeting at Becker MN about the new EPA regs that may force that coal plant that produces 25% of MN electric needs to shut down. It is helping keep the states energy costs down. I pay 12 cents with a $25 a month connection fee.

 

[brenndatomu]

That has got to be the cheapest in the US. Was a big meeting at Becker MN about the new EPA regs that may force that coal plant that produces 25% of MN electric needs to shut down. It is helping keep the states energy costs down. I pay 12 cents with a $25 a month connection fee.

Our local coal fired plant is a community owned not-for-profit and yes, it has an uncertain future. They are looking at converting to firing the boilers on gas right now...