The reason i have decided to start burning wood to heat my home

[RIDGERUNNER30]

Hey guys , around here where i live there are a few people i know around that burn wood,mostly open fireplaces not many have free standing stoves for serious heating. one of the reasons for this is were i live is coal country, I myself work in the coal mines , but that is the only good paying job around here and it puts food on my family's table, but being a coal miner and plenty of coal around to buy alot of people burned coal to heat there home, until about four years ago, when the price of a ton of coal doubled,and people started using central -heat and air, I call them a heat pump, but anyways the prices of electcity has went up about twenty five percent just this year, where i live and everybody wonders why? power plants are having to give more for coal now than ever before and people in the coal market expect in the years to come that the price for a ton of coal will keep rising, with that said power companies will charge more for electric, that is my main reason for wanting to burn wood and all the free wood around here for the taking, what is your main reasons you guys decided to heat your homes with wood.

 

[Highbeam]

Because we don't have coal. We have cheap electric here in the NW and cheap pellet fuel but wood heat will always be the cheapest alternative. I have three years worth of firewood in the backyard that is like money in the bank, immune to those price increases that happened to you.

Most of the benefits of wood heat are the same as a coal stove. The radiant heat, the cheap heat, etc. Is your coal price really as high as your wood price? The main reason for us was cost. The secondary reasons are significant such as comfort and a liking of fire.

 

[BrotherBart]

It was 1977. Energy prices were through the roof. It was cold in the house. There weren't any coal mines around where I lived. ;-)

 

[rdust]

Propane is too expensive for my taste so next winter will be my first with wood heat. I've only lived here 2 winters and it didn't take long for me to decide the "pane" wasn't for me. So far I've done well gathering wood on the cheap, I just need it to season now!

 

[jdinspector]

It was 1977. Energy prices were through the roof. It was cold in the house. There weren't any coal mines around where I lived. ;-)

I'm with you. It was 1989, the year I was married. My in-laws had a wood stove in their family room that they used off and on, mostly for ambiance. I took a liking to it and the whole collecting, cutting, splitting thing. I had to wait until 1996 to get my first stove, but I've never looked back. Now that energy prices are going up again (I'm ignoring the little dip of gasoline prices that we've seen over the last year), I'm very happy to have a 3 year supply drying in my back yard. I only hope it doesn't catch on.

Competing for wood in a fairly populated area is difficult. I've found my 2 or 3 dependable supplies and always see misc. stuff laying around. I do brag to friends and neighbors about my low heating bills. But I'm selective about who I tell. Most of them are somewhat lazy people who can't imagine spending time c/s/s wood for use 2-3 years down the road. Besides, it would mess up their pretty yards! There are a couple of enterprising guys in my neighborhood who would be stiff competition for my free wood supplies. I don't tell them about my free "stash" locations. I'm not a hunter, but I imagine it's similar with hunters- you don't tell people where you saw the mystical 30-point buck!

 

[joshlaugh]

I grew up heating with wood. I like working outdoors and heating my house with my own two hands plus it's nearly free.

 

[waynek]

Part of the process to remove the yoke of society was to turn to wood heat. As a back-to-the-land 1960s hippy it was what we did.
Jackpine Savage

 

[BrowningBAR]

I grew up in South Florida for the first 24 years and then I live in Arizona for the next 5 years (not much need for alternatives to heating solutions...just open a window). I moved to PA and I just finished my fifth winter. After buying an old drafty farmhouse it only took me two winter to find a cheap solution to heat the house. This past winter was my third in this house and my first with using wood heat. I am looking forward to this winter as I just got a second stove, a lot of cheap wood and I am anxious to see how much difference a second stove makes with this house.

Now, if someone would lend me 20 grand to replace the windows, doors and add insulation in this place I would be one cozy creature in the winter.

 

[burntime]

Wood heat warms you thru and thru, when others complain its cold you can add another log! I grew up with wood heat in the 70's and 80's. Funny, I think things will turn full circle...

 

[eernest4]

I grew up in South Florida for the first 24 years and then I live in Arizona for the next 5 years (not much need for alternatives to heating solutions...just open a window). I moved to PA and I just finished my fifth winter. After buying an old drafty farmhouse it only took me two winter to find a cheap solution to heat the house. This past winter was my third in this house and my first with using wood heat. I am looking forward to this winter as I just got a second stove, a lot of cheap wood and I am anxious to see how much difference a second stove makes with this house.

Now, if someone would lend me 20 grand to replace the windows, doors and add insulation in this place I would be one cozy creature in the winter.

buy some cement and calk up all the cracks that are leaking cold air into your stone farm house. That , at least, would be a cheap start. Buy some 1.oo caulk tubes and caulk up windows that you dont open; mabe even caulk up doors that you dont normally use, just for the winter. You can always take off the caulk in the spring with a hair dryer & a puddy knife.

When caulk gets hot it softens up. hence the hair dryer.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I grew up in South Florida for the first 24 years and then I live in Arizona for the next 5 years (not much need for alternatives to heating solutions...just open a window). I moved to PA and I just finished my fifth winter. After buying an old drafty farmhouse it only took me two winter to find a cheap solution to heat the house. This past winter was my third in this house and my first with using wood heat. I am looking forward to this winter as I just got a second stove, a lot of cheap wood and I am anxious to see how much difference a second stove makes with this house.

Now, if someone would lend me 20 grand to replace the windows, doors and add insulation in this place I would be one cozy creature in the winter.

buy some cement and calk up all the cracks that are leaking cold air into your stone farm house. That , at least, would be a cheap start. Buy some 1.oo caulk tubes and caulk up windows that you dont open; mabe even caulk up doors that you dont normally use, just for the winter. You can always take off the caulk in the spring with a hair dryer & a puddy knife.

When caulk gets hot it softens up. hence the hair dryer.

Way ahead of you on the caulking! Thank you, though.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Wood heat warms you thru and thru, when others complain its cold you can add another log! I grew up with wood heat in the 70's and 80's. Funny, I think things will turn full circle...

If you've never heated with coal, it would amaze you how even the heat is. I had a free standing Franco Belge (sp?) in Pa in the 70's and kept my little house at 78 all winter on 2 1/2 tons. If you use the cost calculators floating around this site (pellet mill), you'll see that coal even at $400 a ton is still viable with a good efficient system. my brother in law just put in a high efficiency boiler system that auto feeds I believe rice coal.

If I could get it down here in Ga, I'd buy it. Most of my grandfather's family were coal miners in W. Va at the turn of the century. Several were killed in the Monongah, West Virginia disaster. Most people don't even know about it. My grandfather was just a kid and a breaker boy. He was sick that day and his mom kept him home. I wouldn't be here if she hadn't. They really don't know to this day how many were killed because kids and others went in to help the miners but weren't part of the tally. Terrible. Be safe!

 

[chachdave]

In 2002 I bought my 1st house actually it was a townhouse. It had a gas fireplace which I hated. I actually turn the gas line off going to unit so my wife would not light it. Talk about a waist of money. The townhouse was only 1140sq feet. no need for a gas fireplace. In 2007 I got my single family house on 1 1/4 aces with a brick fireplace located on a interior wall. I went 1 happy year with fireplace but for the work need more heat. Last year installed my insert and wow........... I am now a woodaholic. And love the winter. The house just doesn't feel comfortable unless the stove in at 500 degrees. I have oil heat and cut consumption in half.

 

[Brian VT]

Now, if someone would lend me 20 grand to replace the windows, doors and add insulation in this place I would be one cozy creature in the winter.

Obama will give it to you so you can help save the earth ! You'll pay it back with higher taxes, but you'll have to pay those anyway.
Back to your question...I think I'm going to upgrade to a bigger stove in the future. My 1st year burning has been great, and I like that the girls sit near the stove instead of the TV, but I'd like to be able to get this place cookin' and have us all wear shorts in the winter.

 

[stockdoct]

I can afford my gas bills, and I don't mind paying them.

What I HATE is sending money to foreign counties who hate us, paying them for their fuel oil, gasoline, etc ..... billions of dollars each year. As T. Boone Pickens says, "its the largest transfer of wealth in our history". And it's wrong.

So I ride around town in an electric scooter (I get 30 miles for 25 cents of electricity!), I burn wood, and I'm thinking about solar panels to help generate electricity instead of depending on the coal-fired plants.

Sometimes we do it just for the principle of the thing .........

 

[tjnamtiw]

I can afford my gas bills, and I don't mind paying them.

What I HATE is sending money to foreign counties who hate us, paying them for their fuel oil, gasoline, etc ..... billions of dollars each year. As T. Boone Pickens says, "its the largest transfer of wealth in our history". And it's wrong.

So I ride around town in an electric scooter (I get 30 miles for 25 cents of electricity!), I burn wood, and I'm thinking about solar panels to help generate electricity instead of depending on the coal-fired plants.

Sometimes we do it just for the principle of the thing .........

Good for you How do you like your scooter? I was looking at getting a 50cc one. In Georgia, they are giving additional tax credits for things like geothermal heat pumps. Don't know about solar. Check with your state for their incentives. Georgia gives 35% additional tax credit for geothermal above and beyond the 30% the Feds give! Almost a no brainer, except being retired I don't pay any Georgia income tax anymore.

 

[firefighterjake]

Last year around this time I was having the wood pellet or woodstove debate with myself . . . in the end I opted for the woodstove with the main reason being easily access to the family woodlot and I had most of the tools I needed already (i.e. chainsaw, access to a splitter, ATV, trailer, etc.) One of the smartest decisions I have made in a long time.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

There are no taxes on scrounged wood. I have 10% taxes on NG, 8% on electricity over and above the cost of the item itself which I'm sure has profit built in. I see no difference in the distinction of NG used for heat in the NorthEast and Food. Both are necessities.



Matt

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The wife is also from Houston and likes it toasty. I wouldn't like the bills if I had to pay for it with straight gas.

She can feed the stove with free wood all she wants.

Matt

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I grew up heating with wood. I like working outdoors and heating my house with my own two hands plus it's nearly free.

Like Josh, I too grew up with wood heat (and coal at times). Growing up with wood heat and keeping warm I just never could stay warm with oil heat. There is a huge difference.

I too like working with the wood from the cutting to splitting etc. It also saves us a big bunch of dollars and that alone is reason enough. Also, we pay taxes on the land so we naturally use the land and what it produces which in our case is mostly wood and deer.

 

[EddyKilowatt]

Radiant heat is wonderful heat, and the wood stove is good for family life in drawing us all into the same room and away from the TV, computer, etc.

Wood heat is carbon neutral... though it's not an energy source that more than a few percent of people could use, without taking us back to the stripped-bare hillsides of the 1800s.

Building and tending a fire everyday keeps the inner 8-year-old happy!


Eddy

 

[Flatbedford]

I heat my house with wood because I will never find propane, oil, electricity, coal, or pellets for free on Craig's List or laying on the side of the road. I would also never set the thermostat at 75 or 80 degrees in January. I also appreciate the sticking to the man, not tax, self sufficiency aspect of burning wood.

 

[begreen]

I've been a firebug all my life. Must have been a moth in a previous incarnation. And my brother is even worse.

Fire burning tonight with 44 degree soggy temps outside.

 

[Slow1]

Why did I start burning and why am I still doing it?

The economics were my excuse to get started and justify the decision (when oil hit $4.50/gallon we were looking at $2-3K to heat for the winter even with the temp kept lower than anyone else we know).

The desire to burn has always been there - my wife says that she has never seen me unhappy when tending a fire. Thus she likes to have it for me to play with too.

I have a pretty serious 'self sufficiency' bend in my personality. Although it is easier to just call the oil guy (ok, I do it online, even easier) it is still relying on someone else and the cost is something I have very little control over - even with the best research and such I can't get much more than a 5% variance in price from 'market rate' on oil. Now, wood ranges from free to 'who the heck is crazy enough to pay that?' prices. The joy of the hunt!

The cutting/splitting/etc is something that I had not really considered too much before but I'm finding that I enjoy this as much as anything. Perhaps going back to the self sufficiency? I've heard comments here that wood piles are like money in the bank. Perhaps so... the idea of being a year or more ahead is a worthy goal and I can see achieving that. My job is full of unclear objectives - things that are hard to know when you are really done. I KNOW when I'm done splitting and stacking a particular pile of logs and can see the progress as I go. That is very satisfying and provides a nice balance in life.

When I'm cutting or splitting it is unsafe for anyone to be too close to me and I wear ear protection during cutting. I can get lost in my thoughts and not be disturbed... As a father of 3 younger kids this is a very nice thing and allows me to get some ideas worked out while getting some good exercise. I've noticed greater strength in my upper body and my back is clearly stronger from my regular workouts with the woodpile - less aches and easier to pick up and toss the kids about which they love.

My kids are seeing me work for something and are beginning to help. As they grow I expect they will pick up on more chores related to this - carrying wood in, cleaning up, eventually cutting and splitting. They will help as their ability and maturity allow. I see this as good for building character. Carrying wood in the house is something that can be easily verified and relatively safe. It benefits the whole family and thus is a good task for kids to share in the responsibility.

I've actually gotten to know a few neighbors better that I didn't know before. Some have stopped by while I'm working the pile - I have helped one cut down a small tree. Got a days worth of wood out of it, but better than that I think it helped to break the ice with them as we haven't really talked much since they moved in a year or so ago. I've found other friends through friends who burn - swapping information and such. Working with someone to load a haul etc is a good way to get to know someone and helps to build community.

Oh - and the radiant heat from the stove is nice too

 

[BrowningBAR]

The economics were my excuse to get started and justify the decision (when oil hit $4.50/gallon we were looking at $2-3K to heat for the winter even with the temp kept lower than anyone else we know).

Same here, but I wished I was only going through 500-600 gallons of oil! Before wood heating I was going through 1200 gallons with the thermostat sat at 60*. When heating oil hit $4.69 for us last summer we were looking at $5600 for heating (or about $7,000 if we kept the temp at 70*).

Last year I went from spending $3000 per winter for oil to $880 (about 400 gallons). Looking forward to this winter with two stoves.