| Author | Message | ||
     Wolfridgerider |
Coal produced electricity that is... Didn't someone say the price of coal produced electric would be going up if they got elected... I live in a 2500 sq. ft. ranch with a couple of vaulted ceilings. Its a all electric home that I upgraded the HVAC about 3 years ago. (heat pump to 19.5 seer, new unit in the basement and programmable thermostat) My monthly "budget" electric bill kept creeping up. Even after all the upgrades, I still had a bill that would have been over $800 bucks if I wasn't on the "budget". I was ready to sell and move back to the burbs for the cheaper natural gas heat. One of my friends said I should look into wood burners. (Some of you may remember the thread about the install) This past winter was the first full winter with the wood burner. I am VERY happy to say we dropped our electric usage by 2/3rds. I wish I could say we dropped the bill by 2/3rds but the bastards keep raising the kilowatt hour rate.  Good thing I like cutting firewood...  Now I keep trying to think of ways to catch as much of the heat as I can. I have added a "hood" to the black pipe that is hooked up to my cold air return. My garage is hotter than a jalapeno jockstrap when the fire is rolling. Hopefully I will be able to pull some of that heat into the house this coming winter. So if you have ever thought about heating your home with a wood burner, I would say you should jump in with both feet. Mine is a Englander 28-3500 and it cranks! | ||
| 86129squids |
Ummm, Mark, it's 95 degrees here in Mur-vil, you're making me sweat!  I've got a good buddy who lives in a nicely appointed, modest trailer type home, he uses a pellet heater in the winter. I'll be looking into my options soon, as my main gas unit failed last winter, and we resorted to space heaters. I said "ouch" every time I opened a utility bill... | ||
| Fireboltwillie |
love woodstoves! saved our family tons of money on Long Island back in the day. i would say be careful if you plan on pulling warm air from the garage into the house system....a car running in the garage would have it's exhaust pulled into the house. maybe you can figure a way to preheat water for your domestic hot water.... | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Ash is plentiful in my neck of the woods thanks to this little guy. Its been standing dead for the last few years and is ready to burn.  | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Fumes from the Garage are the only downside. In the winter months I tend to get bored and hunt for things to do. Sometimes that involves spray painting motorcycle or Jeep parts. I can't do that anymore.  But playing with the fire is a good way to pass the time | ||
| Etennuly |
I like playing with fire! And I like wood heating.    I like not paying utility folks more than I have to.  | ||
| Poppinsexz |
Price is always going up Coal was the cheapest power generation we had. Nice setup, I've got two wood burners but usually only fire up the one. It is especially nice when the power goes out. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Had an englander pellet stove in my old house. Loved it. Fairly tight spec-house, not huge, split foyer and the stove was at the base of the stairs in the basement. Now I have an admittedly gorgeous stone home that was built by a custom home builder for himself and his own family. Larger (3 levels) traditional farmhouse style with an efficient heat pump. Even in -20 winter weather I can keep efficient with my new ecobee thermostat locking out the aux heat circuit for as long as possible. I like the heat pump. Simple and gives even temps throughout the house. That said...I get lots of sun and am considering some solar. Starting the research phase now... | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
Wood is great on a small scale. However, if everyone decided to burn wood for heat we'd have an environmental apocalypse. Let's keep it a secret. Pellet stoves that can burn multi-fuels are probably the way of the future. I've been told they can burn corn, cherry pits, compressed silage... I think that's pretty cool (warm?). Remember that there are no ways to cheat the laws of conservation of matter and energy, and the earth can only keep up for so long. Coal and oil is still the easiest way to make calories. Maybe not the best, but nothing comes close to its bang for the buck. | ||
| Froggy |
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| Johnnylunchbox |
Yeah, Froggy, those guys were professionals. Back in the day we'd have tree-felling parties, and someone almost always invariably bought the farm. It was exciting though, and we usually knew who was prone to being killed and we looked out for them as best we could. | ||
| Court |
Those guys ARE pros . . . .man . . .could I have screwed that up ! | ||
| Court |
>>>but the bastards keep raising the kilowatt hour rate. Good :-) | ||
| Aesquire |
New York City politicians are working hard to ban wood stoves. A pellet stove in Manhattan is an ecological disaster. Thus my house in farm country a thousand miles away must have the same rules. Big city folk are the most provincial rubes ever. Yet they firmly believe they are the center of the universe. Wise beyond reason. They have limited parking so the entire world must be so. | ||
| Sifo |
Burning wood, as long as the trees are being replace is "carbon neutral". IT'S GREEN! We can't make it work on a large scale though. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
The only trees I have cut down so far have been dead. At some point that source will dry up. I have been trolling Craigslist for "free firewood". There is a apartment complex on my way home that had about 12 trees put on the ground. I was able to get 7 pickup truck loads from them. Most of the wood was already cut to length. The only problem was they where "city" trees. They didn't grow straight up hunting for more sunlight. Lots of knots and such and a pain to split. I have a huge pile of twisted junk wood that will be used at the WV Buell Rally. My wife loves the wood burner. Once I get the fire started she pretty much keeps it fueled. The only time it produces any noticeable smoke is when you load it up. | ||
| Airbozo |
I had 2 150' redwoods taken down because they were bumping my house during high winds. They were both felled like the video above, but one of them slid sideways 6" and took out my strawberries. Still very amazing and when they came down mine and the 2 houses next to me shook. We were all standing outside and cheered at the precision with which they were felled. Maybe the noise encouraged us... Had the trees milled and used the lumber for a shed to house my motorcycles, a deck and enough left over to build a dozen benches, half a dozen tables and some side tables... Redwood is not good for burning. The fireplace rules suck for sure. Where I live they have spare the air days and you are only supposed to burn wood IF it is the only source of heat. My wood burning insert is pretty clean too. Puff of smoke as it starts up and almost none after it gets hot. | ||
| Tootal |
I'm hoping a new regime in the white house will stop this war on coal. The brewery was coal fired until last year. Now it's all gas. A barrel of beer was produced one dollar cheaper when we were on coal but all the new mandates by unelected officials have ruined the use of coal. Another power plant just went under about 20 minutes from me. More people out of work and higher electric bills are our future without a change. So coal is our friend and not the reason for the higher prices. | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
I recently rediscovered my Mr. Wizard's Experiments in Electronics. I'll have fusion solved by the winter. Hang in there !  | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
Wolf, on a serious note, are your parents in the flood zone? | ||
| Aesquire |
Is that stove a little close to that wall? I'm paranoid that way. My buddy heats his house with a Englander wood stove. Much cheaper than the old oil burner in his basement. I've hauled face cords in both my old Ford Conversion van & Caravan. The prices on wood keep going up too. I've got underfloor heat with a propane boiler. Very nice in winter to paddle around barefoot. I added a Mitsubishi split system heat pump. The first winter I tried using the propane as primary, and the heat pump to warm the living space when I got home from work. The next year I tried the heat pump as primary and the propane as backup for when the heat pump struggled. ( below -15 f. ) That was a thousand dollars cheaper. More exotic in ground heat pump systems are more efficient, but I paid less than $5k for mine, doing most of the grunt work, drilling holes in walls.. ( an adventure in itself ) mounting the indoor unit, running pipes, laying the gravel bed for the outside unit, mounting it, and running electric. The crew came in and did final connections and pump down. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Wolf, on a serious note, are your parents in the flood zone? Thanks for asking. All is good at the Gainer Farm. There was some bad flooding in Harrisville. The nursing home needed to be evacuated. But one of the walls collapsed and I don't think any of the residents will be able to move back in. The only Gainer I have any concern for is my cousin. He is a fireman in Charleston. Lord only knows what kind of crap he is dealing with. Thanks again for asking! | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Is that stove a little close to that wall? The exhaust pipe needs to be 18" from the wall. I'm good to go. | ||
| Strokizator |
Moved to the U.P. last summer and installed a Woodstock Soapstone stove. 800lbs of stone and iron and no electricity so it works when the power fails. At temps above 32° we had to open the front door. At -20° outside it was a balmy 73° inside. We used about 2 cords all winter. |
