Poll...Dependance on wood heat

[firebroad]

This winter will be my second with a stove, planning to get 60% or so wood heat. generally weekends, afternoons, Can't let dog get cold, Can't have a fire with the dog at home alone. Having trouble training her to keep fire consistent

I am in the same boat, except for the dog. Last year I burned nights and weekends, but found I could not sustain a long fire for an overnight burn most of the time, let alone during the day when I am gone 11+ hours.
I am hoping to correct that deficit as my wood becomes better seasoned, and I become better seasoned. Right now I have a little more than 4 cords stacked, and hope to get another 4-6 this fall. It is not practical for me to forage my own, as I live on a half acre lot with no nearby forestry resources, and no pick up truck, so I depend on delivery. Still, not having that oil waster burning all the time is very satisfying. As Scotty and others have stated, there is nothing like coming in from working out in the cold to a warm, bright fire and a good cup of coffee (or whatever). The faint scent of the woodsmoke as I approach the house welcomes me, comforts me.
I will be able to retire in about 7 years as long as I don't expire before then. Perhaps by then, with the help of all of you, I will have mastered the fine art of the overnight burn. I look forward to the day when I can tell my oil supplier that his services are no longer required!

 

[NSDave]

I am in the same boat, except for the dog. Last year I burned nights and weekends, but found I could not sustain a long fire for an overnight burn most of the time, let alone during the day when I am gone 11+ hours.
I am hoping to correct that deficit as my wood becomes better seasoned, and I become better seasoned. Right now I have a little more than 4 cords stacked, and hope to get another 4-6 this fall. It is not practical for me to forage my own, as I live on a half acre lot with no nearby forestry resources, and no pick up truck, so I depend on delivery. Still, not having that oil waster burning all the time is very satisfying. As Scotty and others have stated, there is nothing like coming in from working out in the cold to a warm, bright fire and a good cup of coffee (or whatever). The faint scent of the woodsmoke as I approach the house welcomes me, comforts me.
I will be able to retire in about 7 years as long as I don't expire before then. Perhaps by then, with the help of all of you, I will have mastered the fine art of the overnight burn. I look forward to the day when I can tell my oil supplier that his services are no longer required!

I'm going to be on burn season #2 this year, new stove just in in March, so I've got to figure the new stove out and get used to burning wood ! Last years I was doing evenings and weekends, It wasnt' cold enough to need an overnight burn ,and I wasn't comfortable trying. This year I'm going to work on my extended burn times and see what I can get. If I was home longer I'd burn more often, Electric heat and electricity in general are ridiculously expensive in Nova Scotia.

 

[dafattkidd]

We heat our 1700sf living space with wood probably 85% of the time if not more. I also have a basement apartment that I rent out that is still heated with oil. Either way my oil consumption has been cut down by about 75%. For us in this drafty house that is a big deal. Best of all the house is way warmer than oil heat. Our friends love coming to our house in the winter.

 

[begreen]

In the winter we heat 90+% with wood, but in the shoulder seasons only about 50% when it's 45-55F and we're on the heat pump above 55F. In milder weather it's cleaner and more efficient to use the HP.

 

[colin.p]

I put 50% in the poll, but probably, I rely on the stove more than that. If my house was "tighter" and the stove was bigger, then closer to 90% usage. Even with buying my wood, I still save considerably on my oil bill.

 

[joescho]

Firewood Insert downstairs. Keeps the basement warm, pipes from potentially freezing, and sends some heat upstairs. Pellet insert upstairs that can really crank it if I need it. Otherwise, electric heat. Although I have all thermostats set about 65, the only one that really turns on is the bathroom baseboard. So I would say I'm at about 85%, but I'm not dependant on the stoves.

 

[mole]

98%+ of my heat for the last 25 yrs and 100% of my hot water for the last 2 yrs.

 

[woodsmaster]

100% wood for heat and hot water year round. Have electric heat and hot water but dont use it at all. I have a boiler with storage though. When I had a wood stove it was about 90% wood and 10%elec. heat only.

 

[Hiram Maxim]

Over the last 5 almost 6 years 80%-90% comes from Wood!

I heat my garage shop with NG
This last Winter was so crazy... I used my Natural gas furnace a lot because it was so warm and I was lazy

I dont have to burn wood, But I enjoy the Heat and the comfort of knowing I will have a small gas bill.

Sense I Bought my Englander30 in Dec 2007 My Natural Gas Bills have never been more than $800 for the entire YEAR, and that's with a NG water heater and heating my garage......

 

[Dix]

Burners broke. Might fix it this fall. Might not.

The 2 stoves do an awesome job, and it's wayyyy cheaper than oil.

 

[lopiliberty]

I use wood heat 99.9% of the time to heat our 2400 sqft house. We have a heat pump, but I refuse to run it but once a month in the winter to make sure it still works. As someone else in this thread said its nice to have your windows open in february and know its not costing you a dime

 

[precaud]

Over the last 8 years, I've gone from 100% nat gas to 100% wood to mostly passive solar with wood backup.

 

[JeffRey30747]

The propane company filled me up for another year this week. From last May I have used 35 gallons or about $78 after taxes and that includes the cooktop for our dual fuel stove. Our hot water is electric, though.

 

[firebroad]

The propane company filled me up for another year this week. From last May I have used 35 gallons or about $78 after taxes and that includes the cooktop for our dual fuel stove. Our hot water is electric, though.

That's pretty good, Jeff. Wish our prices were like that. Where I am, oil prices are just the same as propane. Natural gas is relatively affordable, but there are no pipelines out here.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I'm in the 90%+ category. In shoulder season it just makes sense to use the furnace at times. I've used about 100 gallons the last two years combined. Which is a hell of a lot better than 1,500 gallons every winter.

 

[clemsonfor]

Id say i am about at 80% or more wood heat. Our electric is pretty pricy in my area (not by california standards or anything). Home with almost no insulation. Stove room is insulated and i have r19 ceiling but the rest of the walls of my first floor of 2500sqft are uninsulated. keeping it warm (66F) on the heatpumps will cost me upwards of $250 month in the coldest months here. This last season was the first full seson of wood. Yea it was mild but i did not turn the heatpumps on once. Worst power bill was maybe $125ish. My flat rate running no heat or air is about $95ish dollars. The difference this winter over spring fall months i guess is that i ran fans 24/7 to move air (not much power i know) but i think the majority of it was from the water heater that sits inside but in an unheated closet that is cooler than home as well as just the loss of heat to the very cold pipes under the house causing us to have to run more hot water to shower with.

 

[BoilerMan]

100% wood, if you don't know how to build a fire.......... you freeze.......... Had my oil tank filled two years ago, and it's still over half due to DHW in the summer only, completly independent system, not connected for heating at all.

TS

 

[Lead Hot]

This will be my second year at about 50% Waiting for the stars to align and go 90+%.

 

[BrotherBart]

It don't matter if ya heat 100% or 50% or whatever. Yer a wood burner. Use it however it makes sense. Safely.

 

[Larry in OK]

We put the stove in last year thinking to use it for supplemental heat to knock down our NG bill. The NG furnace ran less than 2 hours last winter and most of that was just make sure it still worked "just in case".
Last winter was unusually mild and I didn't keep good track of how much wood I burned but it was something less than 2 cord and some of that pretty marginal as to dry enough. I've got 5 cord CSS out baking in our 100* summer getting ready for this winter.

 

[rkshed]

This winter will be my second winter burning and it is our primary heat source.
I work on bikes on the side so I bartered labor for a smoke dragon, every bit of the wood I have c/s/s is free (craigslist and neighbors) and i'm hooked. Enough to last through 2013-2014. So our total investment for start up was about $125.. Seriously.
Bought no oil last year and figured we used about 15 gallons total when I wasn't home to keep the stove cookin'.
The best part has to be not having to cough up $450 for each oil delivery along with the house being MUCH warmer than it ever used to be.
Just need to find glass doors for my Garrison II so I can watch the flames.

 

[gmule]

I would have checked 100% instead of 90% except that I used my propane fired furnace 3 days last winter. I was out of town and didn't want any pipes to freeze.

 

[Ashful]

I'm in the 90%+ category. In shoulder season it just makes sense to use the furnace at times. I've used about 100 gallons the last two year combined. Which is a hell of a lot better than 1,500 gallons every winter.

Now there's a guy who's used more oil than me! Where's clemsonfor? My average is 100 gal below your former numbers.

I suspect the results of this poll would be much different if run during heating season. Not many casual burners hanging around hearth.com in July.

 

[StihlHead]

99.9% wood heat here. The electric is not that reliable in winter here and I can lose electric service for a few hours or a few days at a time. Wood stoves keep heating even when the power goes out (imagine that!). I do have a pair of electric oil plug-in heaters that I used before I moved in here permanently, and I will plug them in if I go anywhere in winter for more than a day if temps are below freezing. I also have a forced air electric furnace that I never use. Cost is too prohibitive, even at 10 cents a KWh.

 

[Pallet Pete]

Unfortunatly our furnace has to run a for a couple of hours while we ware gone in the dead of winter. 13hr days gets old but we usually have enough coal to start up a nice fire when we get home. We got insulated last year so I can't wait to see how big of a difference that will make for us this winter !

Pete