How about them propane prices?..

ccbchevy said:
I think I really am going to look into one of those wood burners that are located away from the house and it pipes the heat in, anybody have any idea what they run? total cost. I see alot of them out near me but have to know if the cost is worth it, oh and I can get natural gas their is a line 1/8 mile away from house, here is the catch DTE wants 10k to run it down the street to in front of my house (and you have to use them cant hire your own contractor) and another 500 to run it and hook to my house, would split the cost with neighbors but because we are out in BFE only 2 other neighbor could hook up. still would be about 4k to run, does not seem worth it and cant understand why I have to pay them to hook up so i can pay them more to use they gas, sounds stupid to me.
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Outdoors wood burners are still somewhat costly. The real problem
Is acquiring the needed wood. If you have a free supply, go for if.

There is work & maintenance involved. But if you would need to
purchase your wood, then no, an outdoor unit really isn’t going to
save you much & be worth it.





LT1Pat said:
Geothermal is by far the best option, and not as much as people think.
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That will be my next system as "well". The more folks learn about these,
the more you'll see these becoming popular.
 
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4Gas$ said:
Outdoors wood burners are still somewhat costly. The real problem
Is acquiring the needed wood. If you have a free supply, go for if.

There is work & maintenance involved. But if you would need to
purchase your wood, then no, an outdoor unit really isn’t going to
save you much & be worth it.








That will be my next system as "well". The more folks learn about these,
the more you'll see these becoming popular.
Click to expand...

Wood is no problem I live on 5 acres and 4 of it is wooded and my in laws live on 3 with about 2 wooded.
 
ccbchevy said:
Wood is no problem I live on 5 acres and 4 of it is wooded and my in laws live on 3 with about 2 wooded.
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Most outdoor wood boilers out horribly inefficient. If you want a boiler look into indoor gasification boiler with some type of water storage. Search EKO or Garn to get you started if you're interested.
 
I've heated with wood for some years now, 2 years of propane use and I was done with that. To heat with wood and do it right it does take a lot of time and work. Good thing I enjoy every aspect of it except stacking! :lol:

Any of you guys with wooded property that want standing dead or downed tree's removed let me know. If you're somewhat local I may be able to help :lol: Here are a few pictures of the sickness, stacks have changed some since the pictures but you get the point. :)

DSC_0613_10684_zps9f9ab6b4.jpg

DSC_0623_10694_zps2a66b9c8.jpg

P8280127_zps10dcd200.jpg

P8280130_zps430506ca.jpg

DSC_0622_10693_zps3cd678d0.jpg
 
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BigWheelinBubba said:
Damn that's some Paul Bunyan shit! :eek:
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Sad part is that's not all of it. :lol: It's a sickness I tell ya! I spend way too much time on forums dedicated to burning wood, it's turned into a rather addictive hobby. :roll: It's well worth it though, I couldn't imagine what my propain bill would be for this season.
 
What kind of heater do you use Rick? I thought hard about a wood burner inside, but from my experience with them they just get the house silly hot and can be kinda dangerous especially if there is kids and or pets around. I really did not want to cut another hole in my room for the chimney either. My only other option would be a wood burning insert for my fireplace, but im not convinced that would heat my house up as well as the Pellet stove.
 
SuperStang90 said:
What kind of heater do you use Rick? I thought hard about a wood burner inside, but from my experience with them they just get the house silly hot and can be kinda dangerous especially if there is kids and or pets around. I really did not want to cut another hole in my room for the chimney either. My only other option would be a wood burning insert for my fireplace, but im not convinced that would heat my house up as well as the Pellet stove.
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Currently I'm burning a Blaze King Princess free standing wood stove. This is my second stove, my first was a Lopi Endeavor and it offered little control over the heat output. It was a roller coaster ride dealing with the temp. swings. The Blaze King has much better control which allows me to maintain a pretty flat indoor temp over the course of the burn. I load twice a day this time of year and in the fall/spring type weather I can get 24 hr burns. I have a kidco hearth gate around my stove to keep the little ones safe.

An insert can do a nice job heating the biggest issue with an insert is for them to work you need power similar to a pellet stove. Of course a small generator solves those issue.
 
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Yep, you've got the wood bug bad!

Hey, there are worse things in life. At least
yours keeps your family warm & saves money!!!



nitrousrick said:
I've heated with wood for some years now, 2 years of propane use and I was done with that. To heat with wood and do it right it does take a lot of time and work. Good thing I enjoy every aspect of it except stacking! :lol:

Any of you guys with wooded property that want standing dead or downed tree's removed let me know. If you're somewhat local I may be able to help :lol: Here are a few pictures of the sickness, stacks have changed some since the pictures but you get the point. :)

DSC_0613_10684_zps9f9ab6b4.jpg

DSC_0623_10694_zps2a66b9c8.jpg

P8280127_zps10dcd200.jpg

P8280130_zps430506ca.jpg

DSC_0622_10693_zps3cd678d0.jpg
Click to expand...
 
First time in 15 years I didn't pre buy, go figure!
Nov-Dec was $700 to fill it. Dec-Jan $989! When the hell is spring gonna get here?
 
My parents have multiple tanks and usually buy a whole truck worth when they do. I think they paid $1.66 a couple years ago, they're hoping to make it to summer. Usually they burn about 700 gallons a season but they've already burned that this year.

I heat with #2 in a boiler or with wood in a Pacific Energy Super insert. So far I've burned about 125 gallons of #2 and 7 face cords of wood. Usually I only use 9-10 face cords (about 3 full cords) a season and the last time I filled the fuel oil tank was 2010 prior to this fall when I spent $1000 for 250 gallons. I've begun running out of wood and the snow is so deep I can't get cut standing deadfall. So, I ordered 6 facecords of Oak cut and split from some hilljack douchebag (517-206-2707) in Jackson and he subcontracted it out and I got 4 face cords of wood from some tree service guy (517-812-7422 Tree Master in Jackson). The wood was mostly Cherry and River Birch and extremely wet (30-45% with my moisture meter) in random lengths and diameters so I spent about an hour cutting the 24"+. logs short enough to fit in my insert. Plus when I stacked it I ended up two face cords short. Of course, neither douchenozzle responded to any contact. I've found that the people that deliver wood to be extremely unreliable (been trying to buy wood from Broadscape Landscape Supply in Brighton for over a month but they keep flaking out). So, if you don't have a source for wood... I'd find another heating source.
 
wrath said:
My parents have multiple tanks and usually buy a whole truck worth when they do. I think they paid $1.66 a couple years ago, they're hoping to make it to summer. Usually they burn about 700 gallons a season but they've already burned that this year.

I heat with #2 in a boiler or with wood in a Pacific Energy Super insert. So far I've burned about 125 gallons of #2 and 7 face cords of wood. Usually I only use 9-10 face cords (about 3 full cords) a season and the last time I filled the fuel oil tank was 2010 prior to this fall when I spent $1000 for 250 gallons. I've begun running out of wood and the snow is so deep I can't get cut standing deadfall. So, I ordered 6 facecords of Oak cut and split from some hilljack douchebag (517-206-2707) in Jackson and he subcontracted it out and I got 4 face cords of wood from some tree service guy (517-812-7422 Tree Master in Jackson). The wood was mostly Cherry and River Birch and extremely wet (30-45% with my moisture meter) in random lengths and diameters so I spent about an hour cutting the 24"+. logs short enough to fit in my insert. Plus when I stacked it I ended up two face cords short. Of course, neither douchenozzle responded to any contact. I've found that the people that deliver wood to be extremely unreliable (been trying to buy wood from Broadscape Landscape Supply in Brighton for over a month but they keep flaking out). So, if you don't have a source for wood... I'd find another heating source.
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Wrath, stay away from the oak if you're in a pinch, oak takes the longest to season out of any of the good hardwoods. I let all my oak season for 3 seasons before burning it, I count seasoning time from the time it was split and stack. Most of the tree service guys count wood left in log length as seasoning time but it seasons very little in log length.

Look for ash if you need to burn it now, while not ideal most are standing dead and ash has a low moisture content to start even when they were alive.(low 30's)

Best advice I can offer is to purchase enough to get years ahead and season the wood yourself. You can't count on purchasing seasoned wood. I try to stay about 3 years ahead as a minimum, right now I'm about 4 years ahead.
 
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nitrousrick said:
Wrath, stay away from the oak if you're in a pinch, oak takes the longest to season out of any of the good hardwoods. I let all my oak season for 3 seasons before burning it, I count seasoning time from the time it was split and stack. Most of the tree service guys count wood left in log length as seasoning time but it seasons very little in log length.

Look for ash if you need to burn it now, while not ideal most are standing dead and ash has a low moisture content to start even when they were alive.(low 30's)

Best advice I can offer is to purchase enough to get years ahead and season the wood yourself. You can't count on purchasing seasoned wood. I try to stay about 3 years ahead as a minimum, right now I'm about 4 years ahead.
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I bought the firewood for the first time ever in hopes to start two-years-from-now-piles because this has been a really slow year for cutting wood for me. I don't burn it unless it's under 20%. Most of the wood I burn is 8-15%. It's hard to get there, basically you have to keep it in single rows, 12-16" off the ground, and loosely covered. Kind of a nuisance but if the wood is dry then I don't have to clean the chimney as often.

I like cutting wood but this year has sucked. I just spent two hours getting a path to some dead trees to cut. If I'm lucky I'll get a face cord cut today. I pretty well destroyed the plow (blew the frame through the moldboard) on the garden tractor ramming banks so I have to fix that now also.
 
When I was in college and lived in Big Rapids we would burn a couple full cords through our insert a winter and it was more of a hobby/game - get it going when I got home and pack it full enough to heat the house through the whole night. There's no doubt we saved money, but I had really light carpet downstairs and I hated bringing wood in and tracking dirt and shit through the house. The insert we had was really efficient too. I remember that I had to crack a window in the room to get it lit from dead cold, otherwise it would get smoke in the room. We got the wood from a guy I met that was hanging around the Amish in the area.

I've had enough of that crap though. Growing up in Maine we would burn 8 full cord a winter and I would split, stack, and lug that shit every day from when I was 12 years old. Gets old real quick. Here in Poland I think burning wood is a luxury. Everyone burns a shit load of coal and you see/smell it in the air every night in the winter. The only time I have smelled wood smoke in the air was over Christmas.
 
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