Burning lot's of wood

[swampratt]

Yep keeping the central heater off and burning wood
Usually 58 degrees down stairs in the mornings.
58-60 up stairs during the night.
Funny when it first turns cold 65 feels cold then you start getting acclimated.

I use an old wood burning insert in the fireplace and it does NOT have any catalyst.
I burn dry wood.
I need heat and flame to get good heat from the thing .. green wood soots it all up.. so I do not use that.

Anyone here heating on the cheap?
Yes cheap as I get my wood for free.. if you must buy wood it is probably cheaper to use the central heat.

I get the house up to 68 or so down stairs before bed time.

 

[aviator41]

We do the something similar. The fireplace tends to run 24/7 from mid November-December into late Feb-March depending on temps. The home heater will kick on at night during frigid temps (like last night. 12 degrees!), but once the fire is stoked back up, we put it on circulate and the how stays a balmy 62-65 inside. just where we like it.

You're right on the cost of heating with wood. If you have to buy a rick of wood or two, it's cheaper to just run the central heat. I've never bought wood but see it delivered to the neighbor every season. Was shocked at the cost! He's pay $80 for a 1/2 rick of seasoned oak.

We actually have our wood pile broken into sections based on the heat it can provide. Lighter woods like cottonwood are separated as it will get a fire going quickly and bring the fire box up to temp fast. It also burns well with slightly damp.

We have scrub oak in another pile. It's dense wood keeps the fire going for a long time and burns well on a bed of coals. Even, high heat and fewer logs to keep the house going.

Then we have pecan. For aroma and smoking nothing beats it (well, maybe hickory). We try to toss a log of pecan in a couple times a day just for the smell.

Of course, we have a kindling pile. It's covered to keep it dry and ready to go at a moments notice. Most people toss small limbs, we task the kids with taking loppers to them to keep the kindling shed full of pieces 12-18:" in length. Keeps them busy while the missus and I stack or split the big wood.

Cedar and other evergreens have no place in our firewood.

 

[swampratt]

cedar and pine is my favorite. Never had any dirty accumulation of any kind in my stove pipes when burning it.
My stainless chimney in spencer looked shiny new after 2 years of cedar slab burning from the saw mill.

Scrub oak even when dry seems to coat the glass in my wood burner.
A little pine/douglas fir or cedar and all is clean. But this is dry seasoned.


We all keep the sticks .
I do not like elm or mimosa it smells like urine.
we all draw the line somewhere.

My favorite smoking wood is oak or Black walnut not scrub oak (blackjack)

Cedar sure stinks when you burn it though

 

[VIKING]

Wood is our only heat. We turn the furnace off around Thanksgiving and never turn it back on. I usually burn pecan since we have so many pecan trees but when it got really cold a few winters ago ( minus 24 at my house) we burned bois darc. I keep around 20 rick of pecan in my barn and most of the wood I burn will have been in the barn at least 2 full years..I never burn green or wet wood..we love it..

 

[pistolpete2002]

I have a fireplace/chimney question. I've always been told you shouldn't/can't burn a wood fire in a chimney that's not all brick. You know most of these new chimneys have the aluminum chimney surrounded by a wood box outside your roofline. I've always been told to run just a gas fire from those because wood will get too hot. However, I've ran a wood fire before with no problems.

Anybody out there with experience want to weigh in? Should I stick with just gas logs or can I burn a real wood fire?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Glock_21]

I have a fireplace/chimney question. I've always been told you shouldn't/can't burn a wood fire in a chimney that's not all brick. You know most of these new chimneys have the aluminum chimney surrounded by a wood box outside your roofline. I've always been told to run just a gas fire from those because wood will get too hot. However, I've ran a wood fire before with no problems.

Anybody out there with experience want to weigh in? Should I stick with just gas logs or can I burn a real wood fire?

Thanks in advance!

I have a similar set up. I have never burned anything but wood. I don't use it all the time but I've never had any problems. I have everything cleaned and inspected every other year. Every year if it does see a lot of use.

 

[swampratt]

My sisters house in Moore is a wood surrounded chimney with a metal stove pipe and brick fire box.
She burns wood all the time.
I ran a wood burning stove that was 4feet wide an old Ben Franklin stove.
Single wall pipe coming off the stove then Metal Bestos stainless double wall going up through the ceiling.

I had that so hot it turned the screen on top to a pretty glowing red.
And the metal bestos stainless pipe was cold to the touch on the outside.


I have no idea exactly how yours is built and how close to the siding the pipe is and what type of pipe.
But I would bet if you ran wood before without issues you should be fine.

What type of pipe I feel is the key and how far from combustibles it is

 

[1krr]

Wood is our only heat. We turn the furnace off around Thanksgiving and never turn it back on. I usually burn pecan since we have so many pecan trees but when it got really cold a few winters ago ( minus 24 at my house) we burned bois darc. I keep around 20 rick of pecan in my barn and most of the wood I burn will have been in the barn at least 2 full years..I never burn green or wet wood..we love it..

I'd love to have some of that bois darc for bow making!

 

[cowadle]

I have been using a woodstock soapstone stove for 14 years. i burn mostly black jack or white oak and it is dry. when the stove heats up and the catalyst kicks in i can barely see a flame but just a small blue whisper at the top of the firebox. I heat aprox 1500 square feet with one stove and it will run you out. the stove will heat all night after the main burn and will be aprox 400 degrees in the morning.

 

[swampratt]

I have seen the catalyst stoves in action...Really funky the way the flames are.
Super efficient.