Controlling wood consumption. Anyone try it?

[ChoppyChoppy]

I move on average 8-10 cords a week. I'm not worried about the couple cords I burn at home.

At the shop, we probably burn 3-4 cords a month. (Never measured it)

 

[dave_dj1]

I would like to add that if I'm home during the day I tend to use more wood than I really should. By that I mean that i end up putting wood in the stove when in fact it really just needs the coals stirred up and some air given to it to burn them down. At night I load it between 9 and 10 and it burns fine until 5-6 am so roughly 8-9 hrs and the house will be above 72 most days. If I'm off to work I load it up before I leave at 6:30-7 and have a nice bed of coals when I get home at 4 or so, again, another 8-9 hrs and a warm home. If I'm home all day I put wood in at 5-6 am, then again at noon, then maybe at 5 then at bedtime, it's a very hard habit to get out of, I've been trying for two years...LOL

 

[coutufr]

I see what you mean and I did ask myself lately if I should control better my use of firewood. My conclusion is that I shouldn’t. My wife is always cold and having a very warm house makes her happy. Also being myself a compulsive scrooger, I have plenty of free firewood. I sincerely enjoy cutting and splitting it and desperately need the exercise To each their own but having a warm house for my family is my luxury in life. What you can do is get yourself a catalytic wood stove and lower the heat output at night and when you are not at home. If your house is not too big you will be ok. My brother is very focused on saving money and he keeps his house at a low temperature all winter and he must be saving quite a lot of pellets doing that. Right now he is still burning 2 bags of pellets a day. My wife is from Europe and they do not heat their houses. Outside temperatures are almost always above freezing and they just put on more clothes.

 

[babybart]

I would like to add that if I'm home during the day I tend to use more wood than I really should. By that I mean that i end up putting wood in the stove when in fact it really just needs the coals stirred up and some air given to it to burn them down. At night I load it between 9 and 10 and it burns fine until 5-6 am so roughly 8-9 hrs and the house will be above 72 most days. If I'm off to work I load it up before I leave at 6:30-7 and have a nice bed of coals when I get home at 4 or so, again, another 8-9 hrs and a warm home. If I'm home all day I put wood in at 5-6 am, then again at noon, then maybe at 5 then at bedtime, it's a very hard habit to get out of, I've been trying for two years...LOL

I tend to burn less wood if I am home all day, I can keep the Mrs. out of the stove! I'll get the 8hr burn where she thinks it needs loaded in 3-4hrs...

 

[Mustang71]

Running a wood furnace is different than a stove. Unless you have a furnace with a thermostat you arnt going to get any where near an 8 hour burn. 3 hours would be nice.

 

[JeffHK454]

Running a wood furnace is different than a stove. Unless you have a furnace with a thermostat you arnt going to get any where near an 8 hour burn. 3 hours would be nice.

You live in a colder area than I do but sub-3hr burns just suck! I've got a low-tech USSC 1600 and get 5-6 hrs of heat from 8 normal sized Ash splits...I'm afraid better burn times and more consistent wood usage is only gonna come from a better burner.

You and me are in the same boat, I just can't pull the trigger on the $5,000 Kuuma.

 

[Mustang71]

You live in a colder area than I do but sub-3hr burns just suck! I've got a low-tech USSC 1600 and get 5-6 hrs of heat from 8 normal sized Ash splits...I'm afraid better burn times and more consistent wood usage is only gonna come from a better burner.

You and me are in the same boat, I just can't pull the trigger on the $5,000 Kuuma.

I don't think i could fit that much wood in my furnace. 4 logs and it's full to the top of the fire bricks. If I could fit 8 that would be awesome. I've been going about 2 hours now on 3 logs/splits.

Knowing the price that I'd pay for a top of the line gas furnace, spending 3 times that amount of a hunk of steel that burns wood seems crazy to me. Maybe if I had only wood heat it would be worth it but I just supplement with wood.

 

[laynes69]

I couldn't imagine a 3 hour burn in anything! I've been waking up early (5 to 6 a.m) to tend the woodfurnace due to the sub zero weather. Still the house was at 68 after a 9 hour burn with no LP usage, and a good bed of hot coals (zero degrees, -10 chills). I loaded 2 large splits and 3 med splits.

 

[Mustang71]

I got longer burn times with the baro in place but it killed the heat output and created some crazy creosote. If I got 6 hours of heat coming out of my duct work it would be 80 in here.

 

[svk]

Too many variables. Control the wood use by how warm you want the house. Better to cut more wood and be pleasantly surprised if you have leftovers.

A winter day back in MN could mean +30 or -40 and calm winds or 30 mph gusts. In other words it might mean 2-3 half load stokes per day or if it's really cold I'm loading it to the brim every 2 hours for softwood or 4 hours for hardwood.

Burn uglies/trash wood first followed by softwood and then hardwood for deep winter. I like hardwood for warmer days in late winter because a a small load burns slower than softwood so you don't get cooked out.

 

[muddstopper]

This what I got to look forward to;
...WIND CHILL ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT EST /11 PM CST/
TONIGHT TO NOON EST /11 AM CST/ MONDAY...

* WHAT...Very cold wind chills expected. Expect wind chills to
range from 5 above zero to 10 below zero.

* WHERE...Higher elevations of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia
and Southwest North Carolina. << thats me

* WHEN...From midnight EST /11 PM CST/ tonight to noon EST /11
AM CST/ Monday.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The cold wind chills will cause frostbite
in as little as 30 minutes to exposed skin. These conditions can
lead to hypothermia, or even death, if precautions are not taken
when exposed to the cold air. Those venturing outdoors should
dress warmly...making sure all exposed skin is covered.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A Wind Chill Advisory means that cold air and the wind will
combine to create low wind chills. Frost bite and hypothermia can
occur if precautions are not taken. Make sure you wear a hat and
gloves.

My smoke dragon is hungry, but I stay warm. My burn times are down to about 4-5hrs between fillups. I loaded the stove last night at around 10pm and at 7am you could hear that little scream from the stove saying FEED ME!. Still had a good bed of coals, but you could tell the house was cooling off. If you want heat you got to open the drafts, and that burns more wood. My wood is a mixed bag, mostly white oak, but I dont sort when I stack, so I have everything from pine to popular, bradford pair to walnut, mixed in my stacks. It all puts out heat, but at night, I try to fill the stove with the biggest whiteoak splits I can find and fill in the gaps with the splinters and shaving from the wood splitter.

 

[Mustang71]

I have enough wood split for 7 months of heating. That's if I keep it to my regulated amount. In the fall I use less and in the spring I use less so I should have left over wood every year. This year is unusually cold and snowy for November December January. Whatever I'm not going to make my amount of wood last 2 weeks this time it' almost gone after a week.

 

[JeffHK454]

I don't think i could fit that much wood in my furnace. 4 logs and it's full to the top of the fire bricks. If I could fit 8 that would be awesome. I've been going about 2 hours now on 3 logs/splits.

Knowing the price that I'd pay for a top of the line gas furnace, spending 3 times that amount of a hunk of steel that burns wood seems crazy to me. Maybe if I had only wood heat it would be worth it but I just supplement with wood.

Yeah but the fuel is "free" for the wood burner!

There are a bunch a reasons for wood heating..mine's to give the middle fingers to the gas man but yours could be different. I've also got a high efficiency gas furnace that's set to come on at 64°.. It's kinda of a game to keep it from running.

Imagine saying..I'm only gonna use "X" cubic feet of propane/Ng a week .. not realistic.

 

[Mustang71]

Well I keep it to one tank a year. I have the wood sitting here it's not split or covered. How do you determine how much to stack if you don't try to monitor burning.

I shut my gas furnace off when burning wood because if they both kick on at once it's one blower trying to over power the other.

 

[babybart]

Well I keep it to one tank a year. I have the wood sitting here it's not split or covered. How do you determine how much to stack if you don't try to monitor burning.

I shut my gas furnace off when burning wood because if they both kick on at once it's one blower trying to over power the other.

I heat with wood and only have electric baseboard heat as backup... I split and stack as much as I can and burn what i need to so i dont have to use anything else! I cant fit everything in the wood shed but as I use it I can move more in. I figure on 10 cords a year as I have a huge 1811 stone house, anything less burned is just a jump on next year.

 

[blades]

monday morning 6am -9 deg F predicted + wind Chill

 

[JeffHK454]

Well I keep it to one tank a year. I have the wood sitting here it's not split or covered. How do you determine how much to stack if you don't try to monitor burning.

I shut my gas furnace off when burning wood because if they both kick on at once it's one blower trying to over power the other.

We must do things different...I've always got more wood than I need split and stacked and ready to burn. The wood I'm burning has been split for almost 18 months..I try to always have 7 cord covered and ready for the upcoming season. I've got another 6 or so seasoned cords that I could use in a pinch but it's all covered in snow.

I use the 7 cord number because it's the most I've ever burned in a single year..bad winter about twelve years ago. If I where to burn 8 cords this year then that would be my new magic number !

My wood furnace is installed in parallel with my Ng unit..although it's rare I have had them both kick on together and it just cranks a ton of heat till the gas unit reaches the 64° preset and it shuts off , then the wood unit runs solo.

As long as the ducting isn't overly restrictive I don't see what it could hurt, both units are feed from one cold air return and my wood furnace output enters the plenum just above the A coil.

When I say the heat "cranks" I mean the curtains blow up in the air..a lot of CFM moving!

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Can't say I've really factored wind chill into anything.

Yesterday it was 10* with a 30 mph breeze. It wasn't too bad (not windy for here anyhow). Was more tolerable than the day before when it was a few degrees b elow zero.

According to the .gov, 10* with 30 mph wind is -12*. Didn't feel nearly that cold. Was mostly just annoying that sawdust kept blowing in my face all day.

Anyhow, after being outside all day, I'm not going home and freezing there. I'll keep it around 68-70*, pretty much whatever the cost.

Stayed at my brother's for a couple weeks several years ago. I about had to keep my coat on. At first I thought I was getting sick... nope, kept the place at 60*.

 

[Mustang71]

I have a couple years wood cut and will be cutting more soon. I stack and store enough wood for the coldest winter I've had in my 5 years burning wood. That was the coldest winter I've experienced in my 9 years of living in my own house.

 

[stihl sawing]

I didn't do it on purpose . I bought a new wood furnace about 3 years ago cut the wood burning almost in half . The old furnace had 7 cubit feet fire box the new one has 4 the new one will put out more heat from what I read . I had 9 below f one morning this week the house was 68 when I got up . Had a little hiccup now about 72

ain't you the guy that sleeps with his hands and feet in ice water and no covers? Yep yer the one. Link below, what you even need a wood stove for? and no I don't measure no wood. I stack that stuff up and use it as the winter goes on. don't even keep tabs on what I use cause it don't matter. I will use what has to be to stay warm.

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