What got you started in heating with wood?

[Whitbread]

Started burning when I was a broke college student renting an 1880s farm house out of necessity as we couldn't afford the propane bill. Took a few years off wood after college, and then moved up to northern michigan to what was supposed to my parents retirement home. Knowing natural gas bills were $380+ a month to keep the just the house in the low 60s, I said hell no! I'd be an easy $1k a month to keep the 4100sqft house and 3600sqft shop at 68° without the IWB in the barn. I run my welding/machine shop business out of the barn so I keep it heated full time. There's so much state woods around me with dead/downed trees, I'll never run out of "free" wood.

 

[aokpops]

I rode dirt bikes as a kid to feel a 2 stroke hit the power band was all need . Been at least 35 years no heat bill

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Bought our house in 1989 and it had a Godin wood/coal stove in it. I didn't think we'd ever use it, but that Winter I took some of the pieces of wood the previous owner had left, tried it and was hooked from then on!

 

[alleyyooper]

Cut many a load of fire wood on a buzz saw as a kid carried many a arm load of fire wood in the house for the old Warm Morning pot belly, Moms wood fired cook stove that needed wood in th summer even and a stove we called the laundray stove.

Would have thought that would have turned me off on wood heat. I enjoy the smell of fresh cut wood like to see the cracks as the maul hits the block and Filling my indoor wood furnace and removing the ashes to sactter into my garden and any icy places in th ewinter despit the wifes ********.

Al

 

[ThatCrazyMtnGuy]

I bought a house a few years back in the middle of Michaux State Forest in Pennsylvania. It had an old 1970s wood stove. I had a guy bring about a cord of wood right before we moved in. The weekend we moved in, we had everything in the house and the moving truck was gone, and then Sandy hit the east coast and our power went out for a day. At our elevation we weren't getting rain, we were getting snow. Didn't matter: that wood stove cranked so hot the whole house was toasty warm.

Ever since then I wanted a wood stove. A couple years ago we moved into another house in the middle of the woods and installed a new wood stove. Never been happier.

 

[skytow]

New house for me in 2007. Oil spiked to about $4.25 a gallon and I was going through a tank per month. So it was about $1000 per month!

Bought the stove and never looked back. I only had to buy a couple of cords one time since and usually burn about 1/2 tank per year of oil. If you look at the economics the saws and the splitter are nothing compared to the oil! Plus... wife doesn’t care if I buy a new saw here and there!

 

[4seasons]

I was born into burning wood. My parents only had window air and a wood stove for temperature control until I was in school. Then my dad installed a wood furnace, and later central air. I learned to back a trailer into the basement hauling wood before I could drive. I even started a log business when I was in college. I don't even remember not knowing how to start a fire or run a chainsaw.
My first apartment was uninsulated with baseboard heat. One winter of electric bills was too much for me. Second apartment had central heat and air, but again the electric bill was twice what my parents had even though I had 1/3 as much space. When I bought a house it had a wood stove and window air just like when I was a kid. I did install central heat and air my first year here, but we use the wood stove all winter. When it was just me here one January I got a power bill for $48. Now I have a wife and 3 kids and my winter time electric bill stays around $100 a month vs $150-200 during the summer. That $50-100 a month savings buys lots of chainsaw gas especially if you consider I can cut a winter worth of wood in a week.
I also know that if you use electric heat, the house takes hours to warm up and never feels as warm as with wood heat. A few years ago it stayed around -20°F for lows for a week. Everyone else was freezing pipes and struggling to keep their house 60° terrified of the power going out. I had the living room 80° when I went to bed and woke up to 65°. The only reason I can think of not to use wood heat is if you are physically unable to cut wood or load the stove.

 

[Huskybill]

We burned cut up pallets in the fall when one fire a night kept the house warm just to take the chill out. When I was doing firewood I kept the red oak rhat they call punk wood. The bark was gone to review a reddish color. It burned great. I heated the house and garage for free on what was on the ground. For the below zero nights I’d pull some hickory and white oak out of the pile.

 

[NCPABill]

Poverty.....

 

[Dogsout]

When the price of LP went sky high and I average 1500 gallons a year to heat my house.

 

[Huskybill]

First it was back up to the furnace Incase the power went out. Then with everyone asking me to cut trees with them it turned to burning wood full time. The more trees i cut it became a firewood business when I lost my job. Even when I became employed again I kept my saws maintained and razor sharp ready to hit the forest again. My boss at the time asked me about what would happen if I lost this job. I told him I could eat my lunch anywhere plus my saws are itchin to go. With all the resessions and bad times I made it through I survived it all and was arrogant. I focused on making money and I did. Never give up, anyone can do it, soon after I met up with ex coworkers who ate crackers to survive. My kids still ate good. If I ate steak they ate steak first. You can hustle firewood.

 

[Marine5068]

A 275 gal. fuel oil tank and a $600 fuel bill every 2 months.

$600 actually not bad.
Here you'd pay more.
I have a friend with a 1200 sq ft home and uses an oil furnace that pays about $3000-$4000 a heating season (4 months).

 

[Marine5068]

I've been cutting firewood and using saws for over 40 years since I was a "tween" and I live in one of the largest Boreal forests in the world so I've been out playing in it forever.
I bought a house in the woods off of the gas line grid with only electric baseboard heat.
Right away I installed a premium wood pellet stove and replaced an old wood stove in the basement with a new EPA model.
House is open concept and both stoves work amazing.
I use wood pellets for the main burn season and supplement heat with the wood stove during extra cold snaps and for shoulder seasons.

 

[djones]

$600 actually not bad.
Here you'd pay more.
I have a friend with a 1200 sq ft home and uses an oil furnace that pays about $3000-$4000 a heating season (4 months).

You're right, $600 every 2 months isn't bad, NOW, but that was 15 years ago. If it was a very cold winter then $1000 per month was the norm. Now I buy one tank per year and only use 3/4 of it from April to October and I turn the thermostat down to 65° for that time span. My OWB heats the house, domestic hot water and the green house from October to April. It has paid for itself many times over in savings.