How much wood

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What is displayed in this pic is 5 days worth of wood burning 24/7 with an "air tube" wood stove placed in the basement heating about 1800 sq ft.. This is with temps 18*-40* and is mostly red oak. Just with wood, I can keep the house between 65*-68*.

I am thinking about getting a gassifier wood furnace mainly for its ability to extract as much heat energy out of the wood as possible. This would be at least an 8K further investment as I would also have to mount ducting in the cellar.
Right now I do not know if it's worth it. I do not buy my wood but harvest all of it myself. I may burn wood for another 10 years. If a gassifier would not save at least a cord to two cords per year, then I don't think it would be worth it. Just wanting to hear what amounts folks are burning with this type of wood burning gassfier. Right now using around 5 - 5 1/2 cords yearly.

 

[RNeumann]

Well let’s see- $8000 to save 2 cords (max) a year for 10 years. That’s 20 cords of wood for $8000!!!!!
I’d save my money and effort and blow an extra 6-12” of insulation in the attic- 75-80% of heat loss in a typical home is lost through the ceiling. Just my SWAG

 

[BLSXJ]

I agree with Neumann, 8k to save maybe 20 cords. that's valuing the cords at $400 each

and there will be no "added value" to your home with a 10 year old wood burner in it.

 

[CobyRupert]

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I guess I'm measuring in sweat equity. Don't know how I'll feel about wood gathering at 80. Not knowing anything about this type of burner was hoping someone would chime in and say something like " I saved half my wood gathering and am down to 2 and half cords to heat the whole place". I alway move toward wishful thinking first and then try to get educated secondly.

 

[Rustyiron]

Arrow even if buying a gasser works out to a break even situation in 10 years, your not going to move are you?
Added insulation and sealing out the wind along with better windows & doors if necessary will help you out regardless of the heating source that I'm assuming will eventually be elec., gas, or oil.:thumbsup:
Insulation, is the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[LouNY]

One of my brothers has a wood gasifier boiler, he has had to rebuild it once and its coming up again in a couple of years.
He went the whole hog route when he installed his, a 1500 gallon water insulated reservoir in the basement with copper exchangers for in and out, he loads the burner once or twice a day and does a complete burn to heat the reservoir then uses that heat storage to heat the house. It does use less wood then the old outside boiler but not a lot less requires cleaning and tinkering.

 

[Rustyiron]

I guess I'm measuring in sweat equity. Don't know how I'll feel about wood gathering at 80. Not knowing anything about this type of burner was hoping someone would chime in and say something like " I saved half my wood gathering and am down to 2 and half cords to heat the whole place". I alway move toward wishful thinking first and then try to get educated secondly.

I'm heating with an indoor wood boiler (gasser). 40x64 shop with 16' ceilings & 3 12'x14' doors that leak around the edges along with our small attached house. The shop is 60* 24/7 all winter, (usually Dec. to March) & the house stays at shorts & tee shirt temps with about the same wood, 5 cords. It is radiant and that may make a difference over hot air.

 

[MossRoad]

It looks like you have 79-80 pieces of wood there. For 5 days, that's about 20 pieces a day.

We heat our house primarily with wood and the most I've ever burned was 6 cords one year. So I burn about 5 cords on average. Very similar to you. I burn about 36 pieces per day when its cold out, less when its 20-40. So I'm guessing we are about the same.

Heating with free firewood is a losing proposition if you put any value on your time at all. Add up how many hours it takes you to hunt, gather, cut, split, stack, un-stack, load, shovel ash, etc.... every year. Then multiply that by $10 per hour.

For me, it's 1 day to cut down all my trees for the year... 40-50 telephone-pole-sized locust trees.
Then it takes 1 day to haul them all out of the woods to the landing.
Then it takes me 4 days to cut it into 16" pieces and haul it home.
And another 4 days to split it.
So, about 10 days.
8 hours times 10 days = 80 hours.
80 hours at $10 per hour is $800.
Guess what? I save about $800 in heating bills each year by heating with wood.
Add in the cost of the wood stove, chimney pipe, any increase in insurance costs, etc...
Add up the cost of a chainsaw, chains, maintenance, fuel, tractor wear and tear, fuel, etc.. onto that as well, and you come up with no net gain by heating with firewood in most situations.

The main reasons I do it are because:
A. I have 20 acres of woods loaded with thousands of black locust trees (probably one of the best firewood's available). I want to clear out the locusts to promote the hundreds of sugar maples that are in there for maybe syrup production when I retire again, or lumber, or just a nice maple forest.
B. I like the excercise firewood production provides.
C. I like being outdoors.
D. I like the feel of the wood heat over the feel of the gas furnace. It just seems warmer and cozier.

But I have no illusions that it saves me any money when I put a value on my time.

As others have said, you'd be much better off putting more insulation into your house, sealing up the exterior, upgrading to energy efficient windows, converting to LED lightbulbs, etc...

 

[4570Man]

The LED light bulbs will save money because wood heat cost less than electric heat but that's not exactly helping the heating cause. I get enough sawmill reject logs to heat my house. That cuts the time for firewood to probably 3 hours a cord to cut and split. Following LD1s logic ( and I didn't say he's wrong) burnt in my high efficiency stove oak firewood makes twice as much heat as its market value in nature gas so I'm still saving money by heating with wood.