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How are you going to heat this winter?

First_WarriorFirst_Warrior Posts: 3,140 ✭✭✭✭✭
Just wanted to know what you folks heat with over the winter. We have been burning wood for the past 30 years. We heat two buildings with wood, my studio and our house. I bought a load of red oak ( 22 logs ranging from 22"dia to 14" dia 16 feet long) took a week with a borrowed wood splitter and a chainsaw and I got this stack. The double stack is 32 ft long and about 3 ft wide. I've got another log load coming that's all black locust. The wood warms you twice, once when you cut and split it and once when you burn it. image

Comments

  • RainRain Posts: 8,958 ✭✭✭
    Texas.
  • honorknight7honorknight7 Posts: 523
    Natural gas forced air heating, if I'm lucky
    "borrowing" a bums old blanket under an overpass if I'm not
  • StubbleStubble Posts: 8,177 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Open doors and windows....
    Hey, you gonna eat the rest of that corndog?
  • EulogyEulogy Posts: 2,463 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It doesn't get that cold where I live. When I do get the fireplace going, its more for looks then heat.
  • bbass2bbass2 Posts: 1,059 ✭✭
    Natural gas with fireplace to help. The fireplace insert isn't vented so it doesn't throw enough heat to make that the primary heat source.
  • BrianakBrianak Posts: 255
    Since we bought a new igloo we are now using natural gas forced air.
    Been nice not having any heating or cooling bill the last few months. That will change in a month or so.
  • FireRobFireRob Posts: 1,890 ✭✭✭
    Rain:
    Texas.
    Stubble:
    Open doors and windows....
    Yep, and on really cold days put on pants and long sleeves or just wait a few hours maybe at most a day or two then put shorts and a T-shirt back on
  • First_WarriorFirst_Warrior Posts: 3,140 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You guys are breaking this old man's balls. In Jan sometimes I spend all day in my insulated coverhalls. I carry the firewood into my studio with a wheelbarrow. There are ski slopes over in Banner Elk eight miles from our home. Don't enjoy shoveling snow but got to. My truck and Lucy's car are four wheel drives.
  • WaltBasilWaltBasil Posts: 1,757 ✭✭✭
    Natural gas, forced air, etc. But I do plan on buying and installing a wood burning stove one day. I was going to do that this year, but my idea of saving up for buying an RV next year took over any plans for that wad of dough. Maybe in a couple years. Love the smell of a house heated by wood. That's a fine pile of wood you've made.
  • dr_frankenstein56dr_frankenstein56 Posts: 1,612 ✭✭✭
    I heat the same way you do.

    Mine consist mostly of Ponderosa Pine, Mesquite, Juniper, Alligator wood, Pecan and what ever sombody lets me cut out of there yard. My stack is about the same size of yours and I use probably about 3/4 of it this heating season.

    I do actually have forced air heat... however, i live kinda remotely and so its propane fired. My house is like impossible to heat with propane for resonable cost. So wood is what i burn. Which is hard sometimes because of the fact that this is the desert.... arent a whole lot of trees around here.

    Aj
  • WaltBasilWaltBasil Posts: 1,757 ✭✭✭
    dr_frankenstein56:
    I heat the same way you do.

    Mine consist mostly of Ponderosa Pine, Mesquite, Juniper, Alligator wood, Pecan and what ever sombody lets me cut out of there yard. My stack is about the same size of yours and I use probably about 3/4 of it this heating season.

    I do actually have forced air heat... however, i live kinda remotely and so its propane fired. My house is like impossible to heat with propane for resonable cost. So wood is what i burn. Which is hard sometimes because of the fact that this is the desert.... arent a whole lot of trees around here.

    Aj
    ... and people start missing trees out of Old Messilla.
  • dr_frankenstein56dr_frankenstein56 Posts: 1,612 ✭✭✭
    WaltBasil:
    dr_frankenstein56:
    I heat the same way you do.

    Mine consist mostly of Ponderosa Pine, Mesquite, Juniper, Alligator wood, Pecan and what ever sombody lets me cut out of there yard. My stack is about the same size of yours and I use probably about 3/4 of it this heating season.

    I do actually have forced air heat... however, i live kinda remotely and so its propane fired. My house is like impossible to heat with propane for resonable cost. So wood is what i burn. Which is hard sometimes because of the fact that this is the desert.... arent a whole lot of trees around here.

    Aj
    ... and people start missing trees out of Old Messilla.
    LMAO my biggest supplier is actually the WSMR Golf Course.... but this year wasnt fruitful... the wind didnt blow as many over as i had hoped.

    Aj
  • 90+_Irishman90+_Irishman Posts: 12,408 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Live in a town home so it's has heating here in CO for us, house stays toasty warm at about 74 degrees all winter. Our old place used to have a wood burning fireplace which was amazing but we had to move out of there years ago which stinks. No fireplace of any kind in our current one, not even a fake. Hope that when we end up buying our first house I can find one with a real fireplace, I've missed that smell and ambiance.
    "When walking in open territory bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask them to stop. If they do not stop, destroy them."
  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Besides monthly heating bills one of my biggest concerns is an ice storm knocking out power for extended periods. I lived through several ice storms in my life and I would rather be prepared as not. My new house is all electric. Central heat but, it's electric. I've lived in many houses but I've never had to deal with electric only heat. I'm thinking the electric bill will be big through the winter. Plus we might have another really cold winter this year.

    I'm thinking about adding a franklin stove and burning wood. I'd have to get a generator to power the central unit's fan to circulate the heat throughout the house if there's a power outage. And I'd have to add a flue/chimney as there is not one now. I've never burned wood in my house but my dad's always heated with wood so I helped him when I was still living at home. He's the expert in the family for advice on wood burning.

    Or I could add a propane tank out back then install a line into the house to fire up a large enough heater to keep the house warm. I'm researching wall mount gas/propane heaters. I'm figuring I'd still need a small generator, if there's a power outage, to circulate the heated air using the central unit's fan.

    Another option is a generator big enough to run the whole house. I figure I could get a propane fueled generator rather than gasoline.

    Any suggestions for a 1300 square ft all electric home? I don't want to totally depend on the electricity. I want to consider options to reduce costs of electric heat and ways to heat during electric outages.
  • WaltBasilWaltBasil Posts: 1,757 ✭✭✭
    Bob Luken:
    Besides monthly heating bills one of my biggest concerns is an ice storm knocking out power for extended periods. I lived through several ice storms in my life and I would rather be prepared as not. My new house is all electric. Central heat but, it's electric. I've lived in many houses but I've never had to deal with electric only heat. I'm thinking the electric bill will be big through the winter. Plus we might have another really cold winter this year.

    I'm thinking about adding a franklin stove and burning wood. I'd have to get a generator to power the central unit's fan to circulate the heat throughout the house if there's a power outage. And I'd have to add a flue/chimney as there is not one now. I've never burned wood in my house but my dad's always heated with wood so I helped him when I was still living at home. He's the expert in the family for advice on wood burning.

    Or I could add a propane tank out back then install a line into the house to fire up a large enough heater to keep the house warm. I'm researching wall mount gas/propane heaters. I'm figuring I'd still need a small generator, if there's a power outage, to circulate the heated air using the central unit's fan.

    Another option is a generator big enough to run the whole house. I figure I could get a propane fueled generator rather than gasoline.

    Any suggestions for a 1300 square ft all electric home? I don't want to totally depend on the electricity. I want to consider options to reduce costs of electric heat and ways to heat during electric outages.
    Lowes (as well as others I'm sure) well those natural gas gennies that start up in the event of a power outtage. Enough power to run your whole house, dryer and central air, all at once. Range from $2-5k for the units themselves.
  • dr_frankenstein56dr_frankenstein56 Posts: 1,612 ✭✭✭
    Bob Luken:
    Besides monthly heating bills one of my biggest concerns is an ice storm knocking out power for extended periods. I lived through several ice storms in my life and I would rather be prepared as not. My new house is all electric. Central heat but, it's electric. I've lived in many houses but I've never had to deal with electric only heat. I'm thinking the electric bill will be big through the winter. Plus we might have another really cold winter this year.

    I'm thinking about adding a franklin stove and burning wood. I'd have to get a generator to power the central unit's fan to circulate the heat throughout the house if there's a power outage. And I'd have to add a flue/chimney as there is not one now. I've never burned wood in my house but my dad's always heated with wood so I helped him when I was still living at home. He's the expert in the family for advice on wood burning.

    Or I could add a propane tank out back then install a line into the house to fire up a large enough heater to keep the house warm. I'm researching wall mount gas/propane heaters. I'm figuring I'd still need a small generator, if there's a power outage, to circulate the heated air using the central unit's fan.

    Another option is a generator big enough to run the whole house. I figure I could get a propane fueled generator rather than gasoline.

    Any suggestions for a 1300 square ft all electric home? I don't want to totally depend on the electricity. I want to consider options to reduce costs of electric heat and ways to heat during electric outages.
    You have to choose that battle wisely.

    My suggestion for that kinda of emergency fore-thought would be to choose 1 room that everybody can stay in until the situation passes. one would figure that an emergency of this type occurs once to twice a year and if your prepaired enough for that, it keeps a few extra bucks in the pocket and calls for family closeness in daughting times. Unless you want to show the neighbors up... with the full package running while there sitting in the dark looking at you.

    propane would work for you well for that type of situation. A 250 gallon bottle would be enough for running the genne and the central heat for the amount of square feet your heating. I have 2 central heat units in my house (one for each side) and in a month we consume a 250 Gallon bottle, This is maintaining 76* with a heater duty cycle of about 20 min burn every 35 to 45 minutes. So we could probably assume, you would get about a months life out of a 250 running full tilt. current prices for our neighborhood have had the fuel at 2.41 a gallon, so you would be looking at roughtly 450 to 650 dollars to fill the bottle. So we could probably guesstimate total investment would run you around 2900 to 3500 bucks depending on your abilitys to install, codes requirements, fuel charge for your location and bottle purchase cost.

    Now if you went to firewood, the cost can be reduced if you follow the one room emergency spot and forget about moving heat around the house. But if you need to heat the entire area, wood kinda looses its luster if your house has many turns and is difficult to move heat without central air. The disadvantage i see with wood, are all in yourself. how much do you want to work to be prepaired for the situation, the more wood you stack the better off you are. I dont know what your firewood resources are like, so this may be easy or difficult. A stove does no good if in the middle of a freeze you run out of wood, or if the cost of wood is too high to maintain your heat level.

    For me, I average 8 cords of wood a season, and it takes me from the end of winter to when it starts again to be prepaired for our winter which are super wimpy compared to east coasty guys. But i run 3 fireplaces, from 1630 until 0600 the next day to maintain the heat level while were home. It makes for a full time job during the winter. But Its a great way to stay in shape... and cut some pounds. but I probably have maybe 10 more years of doing this before my body wont let me.

    Aj
  • First_WarriorFirst_Warrior Posts: 3,140 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Athough we burn wood for our primary heat source we have secondary sources also. Our house has a kerosine fired Monitor 41 that we run when we have to leave and don't want to leave our Vermont Castings wood stove unattended. The Monitor works good and we burn about 250 gallons of fuel each winter. My studio has a ceiling hung propane fired radiant tube heater that i only run in the morning as I fire up my Consolated Dutchwest woodstove. Both of these heat sources need electricty to operate. When I built my studio I laid the building out to face south and added a 24 inch overhang on the roof. I've got large windows and the overhang allows the sun into the building in the winter but when the sun is higher in the summer the overhange shades the windows. Passive solar is what someone called it. One thing about woodstoves is the work involved. Wood in, ashes out, clean the flue, etc. Chimney fires are a threat and if you have one that gets really hot it can crack a flue liner. If the liner is fractured the cresote finds it's way into the cracks as you burn more wood. The next chimney fire you have the cresote can burn in the cracks and migrate into what is around the chimney, like framing. A lot of folks up here burn wood and there are houses lost to chimney fires every year. So, everyone stay safe and if you have a chimney fire shut off the oxygen at the stove and it will go out. You may want to sleeve the flue with stainless steel pipe. I got to get up on our roofs and punch out our flues, tomorrow, maybe a cigar for a reward afterwards.
  • blutattooblutattoo Posts: 1,294 ✭✭✭
    Where I live we can't burn fire wood on a lot of days since the particulate matter just hovers over the valley and causes smog. On those days it's a natural gas furnace. Luckily our gas company is pretty cheap here, since my wife can't tolerate anything less than 70 degrees year round.
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    First Warrior:
    Athough we burn wood for our primary heat source we have secondary sources also. Our house has a kerosine fired Monitor 41 that we run when we have to leave and don't want to leave our Vermont Castings wood stove unattended. The Monitor works good and we burn about 250 gallons of fuel each winter. My studio has a ceiling hung propane fired radiant tube heater that i only run in the morning as I fire up my Consolated Dutchwest woodstove. Both of these heat sources need electricty to operate. When I built my studio I laid the building out to face south and added a 24 inch overhang on the roof. I've got large windows and the overhang allows the sun into the building in the winter but when the sun is higher in the summer the overhange shades the windows. Passive solar is what someone called it. One thing about woodstoves is the work involved. Wood in, ashes out, clean the flue, etc. Chimney fires are a threat and if you have one that gets really hot it can crack a flue liner. If the liner is fractured the cresote finds it's way into the cracks as you burn more wood. The next chimney fire you have the cresote can burn in the cracks and migrate into what is around the chimney, like framing. A lot of folks up here burn wood and there are houses lost to chimney fires every year. So, everyone stay safe and if you have a chimney fire shut off the oxygen at the stove and it will go out. You may want to sleeve the flue with stainless steel pipe. I got to get up on our roofs and punch out our flues, tomorrow, maybe a cigar for a reward afterwards.

    We had a chimney fire once when we lived in Washington. It is indeed a scary thing. Luckily, I had a few items called Chim-Fex which will put out a chimney fire in short order. They look like a railroad (or trucker's) flare and they light the same way. You just light it and put it in your stove or fireplace and as it burns it produces a gas that won't support combustion. So the chimney fire just gets snuffed out. If you can find any in your part of the world, I recommend their use. We'd have lost everything if it hadn't been for Chim-Fex.
  • jd50aejd50ae Posts: 7,900 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Personal heat generators (Sophie, River, Cally, Molly, Little Guy) under the blanky.
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