New Stove Forum Dedicated to Statistical Analysis of Burning

[TheFlame]

StoveNet - www.stovenet.com

I've wanted to create a forum for quite some time as a hobby, but I never felt I had a decent reason to create one. To make a long story short, I've been doing a lot of statistical type work lately as part of my full-time job, and I've decided to try and apply statistical analysis to wood burning. The site is more than just that, it's a fully featured modern forum, with discussion boards, and a picture gallery, among other things. I'm a computer guy by profession and I can do pretty much anything you can dream up, so bring your ideas!

I'm hoping that by building up a community of stove burners that I'll be able to conduct surveys to gather information about a multitude of stove related topics that can be analyzed to find statistical trends. I plan on reporting all findings on the site so that others can benefit from this work.

The forum just launched yesterday so it's not very active yet, but I hope that changes as the idea takes hold and people decide to participate. The actual statistics gathering and analysis portion is still being worked on, but I figured I'd launch the community now to get some participation. I'm going to need people to participate in the surveys that will provide the data I'll be analyzing.

To the management: I hope I'm not in violation of any site rules by posting this. I've been a member here for several years so I'm hoping it is ok. If it's not, please remove this post and accept my apologies.

 

[Jags]

If your gonna make me do work, I ain't joining. :lol:

 

[Flatbedford]

Being a new guy here, I suppose we will all be new guys over there. I'll bite. The premise does sound interesting.

 

[Jack Straw]

I don't know if it is possible, but I would like to know how much oil/natural gas/ electricity is saved in the USA by burning wood and other alternative fuels.

 

[BrotherBart]

Nice looking site. Best of luck applying stat analysis to something with so many variables. And SWAG applied to the manufacturer's performance numbers.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I don't know if it is possible, but I would like to know how much oil/natural gas/ electricity is saved in the USA by burning wood and other alternative fuels.

Well, National Grid has told me I've used just under 280 ccf of NG to heat my home this year. Each ccf costs $1.52 delivered to my house for a total of $425.60. My neighbors have the same floor plan as I do and pay that each month. I scrounge my wood so it is free. As for small incidentals such as wear and tear, gas, etc. The truck is '92 vintage and only has to drive 3 miles to the local brush dump and back. Not much wear and tear when I drove less than 30 miles at slow speeds. Gas was expensive last year... figure $15-20 including what was put in the saw? How do you depreciate a saw?

Electricity goes up a bit from the furnace being fired and the fans/humidifiers, but not too much. How much of that increase in electricity is from keeping the lights on longer in the morning and evening. Shorter daylight must account for a good part of the bill.

So 3 months of winter is $1200 for the neighbor. It may be $500 for me. I figure it's a good comparison being we're the same age and probably similar temperatures, same floor plan, built the same year... The houses are as close to comparable as you can get. I have a 200 sq ft addition to the back of my home.

It's a lot of work and time to find and process the firewood, but it allows more of our disposable income to be disposed of in a way we want to use it. Savings or spending, it's working harder for us.

Matt

 

[Jack Straw]

I don't know if it is possible, but I would like to know how much oil/natural gas/ electricity is saved in the USA by burning wood and other alternative fuels.

Well, National Grid has told me I've used just under 280 ccf of NG to heat my home this year. Each ccf costs $1.52 delivered to my house for a total of $425.60. My neighbors have the same floor plan as I do and pay that each month. I scrounge my wood so it is free. As for small incidentals such as wear and tear, gas, etc. The truck is '92 vintage and only has to drive 3 miles to the local brush dump and back. Not much wear and tear when I drove less than 30 miles at slow speeds. Gas was expensive last year... figure $15-20 including what was put in the saw? How do you depreciate a saw?

Electricity goes up a bit from the furnace being fired and the fans/humidifiers, but not too much. How much of that increase in electricity is from keeping the lights on longer in the morning and evening. Shorter daylight must account for a good part of the bill.

So 3 months of winter is $1200 for the neighbor. It may be $500 for me. I figure it's a good comparison being we're the same age and probably similar temperatures, same floor plan, built the same year... The houses are as close to comparable as you can get. I have a 200 sq ft addition to the back of my home.

It's a lot of work and time to find and process the firewood, but it allows more of our disposable income to be disposed of in a way we want to use it. Savings or spending, it's working harder for us.

Matt

Matt

I figure that you saved $700, but you have to earn $1000, pay the taxes on it, to get the $700. Does that make sense?

 

[Flatbedford]

I don't know if it is possible, but I would like to know how much oil/natural gas/ electricity is saved in the USA by burning wood and other alternative fuels.

Well, National Grid has told me I've used just under 280 ccf of NG to heat my home this year. Each ccf costs $1.52 delivered to my house for a total of $425.60. My neighbors have the same floor plan as I do and pay that each month. I scrounge my wood so it is free. As for small incidentals such as wear and tear, gas, etc. The truck is '92 vintage and only has to drive 3 miles to the local brush dump and back. Not much wear and tear when I drove less than 30 miles at slow speeds. Gas was expensive last year... figure $15-20 including what was put in the saw? How do you depreciate a saw?

Electricity goes up a bit from the furnace being fired and the fans/humidifiers, but not too much. How much of that increase in electricity is from keeping the lights on longer in the morning and evening. Shorter daylight must account for a good part of the bill.

So 3 months of winter is $1200 for the neighbor. It may be $500 for me. I figure it's a good comparison being we're the same age and probably similar temperatures, same floor plan, built the same year... The houses are as close to comparable as you can get. I have a 200 sq ft addition to the back of my home.

It's a lot of work and time to find and process the firewood, but it allows more of our disposable income to be disposed of in a way we want to use it. Savings or spending, it's working harder for us.

Matt

Matt

I figure that you saved $700, but you have to earn $1000, pay the taxes on it, to get the $700. Does that make sense?

Does that mean he really saved $1000?

 

[Jack Straw]

Flatbed

yes

 

[Flatbedford]

So that's even better right?

 

[Jack Straw]

Flatbed

yes

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Good luck with the site. Make sure Elkimmeg doesn't take up 95% of the posts.

 

[TheFlame]

Nice looking site. Best of luck applying stat analysis to something with so many variables. And SWAG applied to the manufacturer's performance numbers.

Thanks. The challenge of it is what is really driving me. I'm really curious to see if any real decent info ends up coming out of it. The idea is more sound than most people think, I've completed similar survey-and-calculate projects before, except that my audience was always captive instead of voluntary. The tough part as indicated above is getting people to participate in the surveying, since that is how the data will be gathered.

I don't do hands-on IT work any more, so this is a good hobby to keep my interests satisfied. No matter the outcome, my only investment is a few bucks for hosting and my time, which I'm happy to lend.

Thanks for showing interest everybody.