Wood Burners

[Brandon Pattison]

How many guys heat with wood? I got stuck in the woods and this morning's eastern storm didn't help matters. Keeping the wolf away for two more weeks, one truckload at a time. Cutting, dragging brush, loading, unloading, splitting, moving and stacking makes for good Zzzzzzs. What's the hourly rate of calories burned, I wonder. This is why I do curls.

 

[fillthefreezer]

i heat with wood. 5-7 cord a winter.

 

[Sam Millard]

6 cord a year in the house. Thought I was going to use it all this year, but looks like we'll have some "seed wood" in the stack again. Looking forward to knocking them down again in a couple of months

 

[5MilesBack]

It's not our sole source for heat, more like just a comfort thing in the house. But I grew up with a wood burner and have the insert now for burning. I'm good for wood for the next two winters at least, but I always seem to be cutting and splitting........running out of room at the moment. I always have a bit of elm and pine, but also have some maple and aspen curing right now. A little cedar, walnut, and mulberry rounds it out.

 

[Brandon Pattison]

A typical year I burn 15 face cord. That's half of what most guys around me burn in their outdoor types.

 

[Hawker]

I go through about 8 cords a year. Love the heat of a wood stove. In fact I have the door open because it is to darn hot in house now.
I don't do any of the cutting or splitting myself.

 

[stephen b]

Yes- wood heat; the heat that warms you 3-4x plus!

Been heating with wood heat for over 20 years. Does not have to be our only source of heat- but is our main type of heat from late Oct to sometimes April. Have an efficient wood stove and well insulated house, and usually burn 3-4 full cords a year.

There is nothing like wood heat, and my wife tends to run on the colder side- so I have spoiled her with wood heat for many years. Not that I want to stop, but do not think she would let me stop going through all that is involved with heating with would .

On the wet west side of the mountains here in the PNW- electric heat just does not dry you out and heat everything to the core like wood. Plus I think to heat with wood helps with making a house dryer. My home insurance fella said he went to a seminar where they were discussing mold damage to homes here in the PNW, and they said it was not much of an issue years ago when most people used wood to heat their homes. Obviously there are other factors, but they said that wood heat helps with drying homes out.

 

[Chopperman]

We love the wood heat, often make a family outing going for wood which is a short ranger ride from home. Found a honey hole of dry blow down spruce.

Learning how to work and earn an allowance at a early age!

Installed the stove, did the tiling and built the wood box myself.....

With winters like this the pile of wood that I thought would be more than enough is getting very low......

 

[Brodie]

Love heating with wood! Probably one of favourite winter activities gathering firewood and splitting it by hand. Great exercise too
I run a pacific energy Summit wood stove and it is great, finished reinsulating my entire first floor and attic last summer and the house is so comfortable in the winter.

 

[Broz]

We heat the entire house (2600 sq ft) with wood. About 5 cord usually. But probably closer to 6 this winter. Put 500 gal of propane in the tank a 1000 gallon tank 3 winters ago and it is still there. I like that feeling.

Jeff

 

[ericfamilee]

I burn 8 - 10 cord here in south cental Alaska. Not far from my home there is a lot of fire-killed spruce which is small and doesn't need split. We go out with my Bravo snow-machine with a pull behind sled and cut it, drag it back home and stack it in our basement right next to the stove. I put about 3/4 of a cord at a time down here. It gets nice and dry for more efficient burning. We have a Blaze King stove which uses a catalist, so it is very efficient. Keeps our 3,000 square foot home warm and dry. And gives me another thing to do to stay busy during the winter.

 

[littlebuf]

It our sole heat source. We have heaters including the house but they haven't been turned on since we moved in. Lotta work and sometimes I hate it but it's nice not having that bill

 

[fillthefreezer]

We have a Blaze King stove which uses a catalist, so it is very efficient. Keeps our 3,000 square foot home warm and dry. And gives me another thing to do to stay busy during the winter.

i also run a blaze king. man that thing is awesome

 

[Sam Millard]

I burn 8 - 10 cord here in south cental Alaska. Not far from my home there is a lot of fire-killed spruce which is small and doesn't need split. We go out with my Bravo snow-machine with a pull behind sled and cut it, drag it back home and stack it in our basement right next to the stove. I put about 3/4 of a cord at a time down here. It gets nice and dry for more efficient burning. We have a Blaze King stove which uses a catalist, so it is very efficient. Keeps our 3,000 square foot home warm and dry. And gives me another thing to do to stay busy during the winter.

How many of you guys cut in the winter? One of my yearly "benchmarks" is that my year's supply is split and stacked under the lean to by Labor Day...

 

[Nick Muche]

Our home is heated by oil, which is way too expensive compared to what I am used to. It also has a wood stove (I wish it was of higher efficiency) and we burned around 5 cords in it this past winter. I think that it curtailed the usual heat bills as the people that lived there prior to us spent around 8-900$ a month in oil. We have put 300 gallons into our oil tank twice since October, around 2200$ total. I think supplementing with wood has helped.

I don't mind cutting, splitting and stacking it. Much easier to do in the winter IMO.

 

[bbrown]

i also run a blaze king. man that thing is awesome

Also had a Blaze King in my old house - it was a nice stove. It had a nice ceramic "Blaze King" logo/name tag that someone decided they needed more than me during a party. I'm guessing it had to be a stoner....

 

[Nick Muche]

What does a blaze king cost? I am sure there are several models, looking for something medium in size for indoors.

 

[Yellowknife]

What does a blaze king cost? I am sure there are several models, looking for something medium in size for indoors.

Hey Nick,

Blaze Kings aren't cheap, but they are very efficient with interior Alaska wood. I've heat our house 100% on about 6 cords a year. With this mild winter, it actually looks like this year will be closer to five. I have a big Dutchwest I use to heat my office, and it's nowhere near as good of a stove.

Medium size in a Blaze King is the "Princess" model. Give the Woodway a call for a quote.

It's time for me to start cutting again this month. I'm almost a year ahead, but have enough shed space now for another four cords, so I'm going to get on it.

Yk

 

[fillthefreezer]

i have the king model and i think it was around $3000. it runs 8" exhaust pipe :O and its outfitted with dual blowers.

we had a warm streak last week and i kept the fire smoldering. when the house got up to 75 i started opening windows

 

[5MilesBack]

The only real reason why I burn is that I really like cutting and splitting. So I'll take wood from anyone in town whenever they need a tree down or getting rid of some. With the low cost of natural gas financially it wouldn't make any sense with wood if I didn't enjoy it. Heck our monthly gas bills run about $80-100/month in the winter even when I'm not burning.