New insert - questions on how much expected to burn and others

[jttoad1968]

Hi. We are new to wood burning. We purchased our house in northern NJ in March. It is an approximately 2600-2700 sf cape cod style home plus an un heated basement. The house was build in mid 1950s and mostly brick faced on lower level and vinyl on top which has dormers in front and back. The home has an existing wood burning fireplace which is fairly central to the first floor and we are having a Regency i3100 wood burning insert installed in around 2 weeks which is supposed to heat up to 3000 sf. The house has a single zone oil fired boiler with cast iron baseboards and in the wall cast iron radiators in most rooms aside from two that are dormered out on second floor in back is the house. They have newer hot water baseboards. Their is also a hot water heater heated by the boiler. Our kitchen on the first floor was originally at some point a breezeway to the garage and was converted to living space. It has a vaulted ceiling and no heat (it is open to the rest of the house and just gets heat from there). It is definitely colder in there. When cold we have used an edenpure space heater to help. The rest of the first floor ceilings are 8 foot and the second floor they are 7 foot. We are most likely going to burn 24x7 except when away which we will do a couple times to visit my daughter at college.

So my questions are as follows.

How much wood would you expect I will need? I had 4 cords delivered and the wood dealer said they have been seasoning since January. Some is heavier than others and he said the heavier stuff is Oak. There is also supposed to be ash and maple.

To protect my pipes do I need to use the boiler every so often and if so how much?

Any other tips you can share are welcome.

Thanks

 

[spudman99]

Step 1. Get a moisture meter. Most certainly the Oak is not dry enough to burn, and I am sure all species are mixed in your piles. How did you store the wood this summer? Stacked, covered, uncovered, off the ground, in the sun or shade?

Step 2. Go get some Biobricks or other compressed log substitute. While some of your wood may have reached the proper moisture content, most of it has not (depending on stacking above). You can burn a compressed product with regular wood together, that will lower the overall moisture content in the box and allow you to get better or more efficient burns.

Your boiler should be fine in a dormant state for some time, but I would run it at least 1 time per month to make sure the blower, nozzles and contacts are working, flush the air out and to keep some sediment out of the lines. Depending on your heat output of the insert (which is dependent on the moisture content), you may need to supplement heat in the house during the cold Jan/Feb months. So long as the house temps stay above 50deg, you shouldn't have a problem with freezing pipes.

Hard to say how much wood you will use. Since you have little experience, it will take time to learn the reload cycles, how much heat you need/want from the insert and how well it distributes throughout the house. It will help if you keep track of your wood use (roughly) so that upon a successful season you can plan ahead. I would already be thinking about securing 2-3 more cords early next year for seasoning. I suspect you will need about 5-6 cords in total at the beginning of heat heating season to keep it rocking and rolling.

 

[PaulBunyun]

There is no way to tell how much you will burn as there are so many variables that play a factor (seasoned wood or not, efficiency of insert, climate/insulation on your home etc.). With that being said I am on my first full season of burning and also wondering the same thing. I hit the scrounging and cutting hard this year in hopes of getting myself some years ahead. I supplement my heat so I wont be burning 24/7 but only time will tell. As spudman99 said if your burning 24/7 I would bet to be at 5-6 cords. You have a beautiful house btw!

 

[EbS-P]

I second step 2 of spudman’s post. Burning wet works sucks and is no fun. Get a pallet or two and just consider it part of the install cost.

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

There are different versions of being a 24/7 burner.

On one hand you have someone who turns off the traditional heater and pushes the stove hard to keep up with the BTU loss of the house. These people go though a lot of wood.

On the other end you have someone who might light 2 fires a day. At the end the stove is still warm but isn’t really heating the house anymore. It does have enough coals to start a new fire relatively easy. When the BTUs the stove puts out are less than the loss from the house the traditional heater kicks in.

I’m more like the second person. I burn 24/4 and nights only on the remaining 3. I go though about 2 cords a year plus about 2 tanks of oil.


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[orlkc]

Whether you'll need to run the boiler to protect heating pipes depends entirely on where those pipes go, such as whether they go through poorly insulated spots in walls.

We managed to burst a heating pipe the first winter in our current house just by keeping different zones at different temperatures, which let one not run at all on a below zero day. That combined with a pipe routed right over a window header (as we learned later) was enough to freeze. Got a device called a ThermGuard to circulate a couple minutes every few hours after that, which worked until we decommissioned the oil boiler and baseboards.

In the prior house we ran the mini-splits as much as we could, which meant the boiler didn't run at all much of the winter, and never had a problem with frozen pipes.

 

[jttoad1968]

Thank you everybody for the replies.

We have the wood stacked and off the ground but only just got it so it has not been stacked long. The guy I got it from says it was split in January but I’m assuming it was in one big pile.

I already had a moisture meter on my list to get. For the bio bricks, where would I find that by the pallet? I’m very new to all of this.

We are unsure of how well the house is insulated as we have not spent a winter here yet. We just want to offset heating costs mainly. We had natural gas at our last house so jumping back into oil is a shock to the wallet.




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[jttoad1968]

Also sorry, I do have a tarp over the top of the wood but not hanging over the sides.


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[brazilbl]

I can’t say enough good things about the compressed logs (I’ve used bio bricks and finally got a cord of North Idaho Energy Logs (aka NIELS). That got me through this spring and I still have a Half cord left. If you need dry wood any time of the year for whatever reason, you have this option. Google NIELS and you will find their website which will point you to local distributors.

 

[jttoad1968]

I can’t say enough good things about the compressed logs (I’ve used bio bricks and finally got a cord of North Idaho Energy Logs (aka NIELS). That got me through this spring and I still have a Half cord left. If you need dry wood any time of the year for whatever reason, you have this option. Google NIELS and you will find their website which will point you to local distributors.

Thanks. I just looked on their site and they have no distributors in my area unfortunately. Do you know other brands to check? Thx!


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[spudman99]

Bucks Pellets in Fountainville, PA carries the NIELS. While they might be a bit of distance, it is well within a 1/2 days round trip for you.

 

[jttoad1968]

Bucks Pellets in Fountainville, PA carries the NIELS. While they might be a bit of distance, it is well within a 1/2 days round trip for you.

Thank you! I will reach to them


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[brazilbl]

Here’s another option that has been mentioned out here and from what I read, they are very similar. https://www.hearthwise.com/info.html

hope the link works...

 

[weatherguy]

My first year I had 5 cords of oak, ash and maple. I learned quick and stacked the oak on separate pallets to burn the following year. I agree with the poster above saying to get NEIL's, you can mix with the driest wood and get through the year and still save on oil.

 

[Mike.O]

I shared your concerns over cycling the boiler/baseboard and it stressed me out to the max. Trying to play this temperature guessing game where the boiler will kick on, but not work all night. It was nearly impossible to guess and inevitably, the boiler was idle until the middle of the night then carrying the weight until the morning.

As stated above, the ThermGuard is 100% the best investment you can make if pipes are a concern. This switches the boiler to run off time, not temperature. It will also still work off temp too. When its in the low 20's, I go 2 hours off 5 minutes on. and play with it from there. If it's 0, I got 5 minutes on every 30 or 45 minutes. It's great piece of mind.

Also, go for the bricks. I'm pretty sure BioBricks are available by you. I'm in CT and had no problem getting them. Go for the BioXL, used them last year when my wood was less than ideal. Added 2 BioXL to the top of each load and worked great to help lower the avg. moisture content. Used half a pallet all year.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Pallets are an option too. You can also get them for free. As above, mix them in with your regular wood.

 

[jttoad1968]

I shared your concerns over cycling the boiler/baseboard and it stressed me out to the max. Trying to play this temperature guessing game where the boiler will kick on, but not work all night. It was nearly impossible to guess and inevitably, the boiler was idle until the middle of the night then carrying the weight until the morning.

As stated above, the ThermGuard is 100% the best investment you can make if pipes are a concern. This switches the boiler to run off time, not temperature. It will also still work off temp too. When its in the low 20's, I go 2 hours off 5 minutes on. and play with it from there. If it's 0, I got 5 minutes on every 30 or 45 minutes. It's great piece of mind.

Also, go for the bricks. I'm pretty sure BioBricks are available by you. I'm in CT and had no problem getting them. Go for the BioXL, used them last year when my wood was less than ideal. Added 2 BioXL to the top of each load and worked great to help lower the avg. moisture content. Used half a pallet all year.

Thanks for the reply to you and everybody else.

For the thermguard is this something I can install myself or need a boiler person? Are there different models or do I just search for thermguard and purchase? Thx!


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[orlkc]

There's just the one model. http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/ has the install instructions. I hooked them up myself, but did put them in the boiler room rather than at the thermostats.

 

[missedbass]

Your boiler is active year round if it heats the water in your domestic hot water storage tank so cycling the boiler is not an issue. Cycling the circulator is important to prevent the pipes from freezing. I would think that you would have more than one zone to heat a house that size.