What and how do you heat your home and possibly shop during the cold winter months??

[ovrszd]

I think there up to about $8-900. But I don't think that's delivered to MO

Yeah, probly not.

So in your example it costs $100-$110 p/cord?

 

[Bocephous]

During the cold part of the year (usually beginning of November to the end of March or so) we heat mainly with a Harman Mark III, which has been in the basement of the home we purchased from my dad since 1986. We burn wood at the beginning of the season and transition to nut coal usually in December sometime. This may change if the price of coal continues to rise.

We recently had our property logged and the logging company left us about 3 tri-axles worth of log length firewood neatly stacked on the landing at the other end of the property, so we should have enough firewood easily accessible for years to come. Previously, I scavenged downed trees from both ours and my dad's property.

We also had a single zone ductless Fujitsu heat/air conditioning unit installed in our living room a couple of years ago, and that provides a cheap source of supplemental heat.

 

[5030]

We were 'uptown' last night eating out, we eat out about once a week lately and I was somewhat taken back looking at the fuel price sign on the Speedway Gas station across the road. Gas prices took a very healthy increase in a matter of a day. Up to $4.48 here. Didn't see the diesel price but I'm pretty sure it was well over $5.00 a gallon so I imagine heating oil here is at least as high as off road diesel which usually runs about 45 cents below the on road price.

 

[Rustyiron]

Yeah, probly not.

So in your example it costs $100-$110 p/cord?

That's the math Rich, but it's pretty much hearsay. I have my own wood and enjoy making firewood from my thining to promote growth. We only need about 6 cords a year and pecking at it with no pressure or hurry not to mention playing with the toys (it's completely mechanical except for the saw work) I'm happy to do it as long as I can.

 

[5030]

That's the math Rich, but it's pretty much hearsay. I have my own wood and enjoy making firewood from my thining to promote growth. We only need about 6 cords a year and pecking at it with no pressure or hurry not to mention playing with the toys (it's completely mechanical except for the saw work) I'm happy to do it as long as I can.

The issue is, the older you get, the harder the work to process the wood for roasting it becomes. Kind of wish someone lived nearby me. I have a positively huge pile of hardwood logs that need to be gone to a loving / roasting home and I'm about to add to it again. No desire to use them for heat at all and really nothing to burn them in anyway. All the small stuff (under 3" diameter) has been roasted on the burn pile. The rest over 3", up to 25 inches in diameter is stacked up in the corner of the hayfield, very accessable from the driveway.

 

[ovrszd]

That's the math Rich, but it's pretty much hearsay. I have my own wood and enjoy making firewood from my thining to promote growth. We only need about 6 cords a year and pecking at it with no pressure or hurry not to mention playing with the toys (it's completely mechanical except for the saw work) I'm happy to do it as long as I can.

Yep, I cut wood now to maintain my timbers. My two Sons burn wood in their shops. Lot more enjoyable to cut now whenever I feel like it, and always on a good weather day.

 

[ovrszd]

The issue is, the older you get, the harder the work to process the wood for roasting it becomes. Kind of wish someone lived nearby me. I have a positively huge pile of hardwood logs that need to be gone to a loving / roasting home and I'm about to add to it again. No desire to use them for heat at all and really nothing to burn them in anyway. All the small stuff (under 3" diameter) has been roasted on the burn pile. The rest over 3", up to 25 inches in diameter is stacked up in the corner of the hayfield, very accessable from the driveway.

In Missouri log piles are only useable the first 3-4 years. Anything stacked any longer isn't worth much.

 

[5030]

It's all fresh cut (this fall) and really needs to season to be useable. I do have someone that will take it (I think at least). About to remove another large maple behind the shop, tired of it depositing leaves and 'seeds' on the cars.

 

[Rustyiron]

It's all fresh cut (this fall) and really needs to season to be useable. I do have someone that will take it (I think at least). About to remove another large maple behind the shop, tired of it depositing leaves and 'seeds' on the cars.

Put it out there on FHC!
I think I've seen you on that site.

 

[5030]

Put it out there on FHC!
I think I've seen you on that site.

You have, I'm Corncob on there. Good site too.

 

[shooterdon]

House is 65-75% wood heat and balance is propane. I used to head my workshop, but it got too expensive

 

[5030]

House is 65-75% wood heat and balance is propane. I used to head my workshop, but it got too expensive

One thing I learned about propane that I did not know from the HVAC folks that replaced our old Bryant condensing furnace with a new Bryant Plus 95 was that propane is hard on the burners where as NG isn't. Propane tends to leave deposits in the burner tubes that eventually upsets the air to fuel ratio and causes them to burn rich and causes the secondary heat exchanger to plug up which is what happened to our old furnace. I said hw so to the tech and he showed me when he pulled the burners. You could readily see the carbon that had built up on the heat exchanger and the flame roll out switch was also tripped. They told me I need to replace them about every 3 years if the furnace was the main source of heat (which it isn't) so I set it up for replacement every 6 years. Not that expensive either (burners) either, like 50 bucks each. Better than having to replace the entire furnace because the secondary HX is plugged with carbon.

 

[RoyJackson]

Oil here, supplemented with 2 oil filled electric space heaters and one standard electric heater.
Oil prices are going to be a ***** this winter.
Fortunately, the house is well insulated, and we keep the thermostats at 62° to 65°. We wear flannel PJ's, insulated pants and other gear to keep warm and the oil usage down

 

[Oaktree]

What is log length? How much do you pay for a load?

Never measured, but I'd guess ~15', maybe a bit longer. Last time I bought it (couple years ago) it figured out to ~$110/cord.

 

[Oaktree]

When I'm around, I heat mostly with wood with a single wood stove in the center of our open floor plan home. (The bedrooms upstairs open onto a balcony hallway running above the wood stove, so leaving their doors open heats them as well.) Our home is very well insulated and sealed. Even so, it's surprising how well a 40,000 BTU stove can heat the place. It won't keep up if the outside temperature is well below 0˚F, but we can stay quite comfortable otherwise.

Woodstove heats my place better than the furnace, especially the upstairs. Furnace is FHA, with ducts only on the 1st floor (house is approx. 200 yrs. old, and no easy way to get ducts upstairs). Heat coming out of the ducts is only 100° or so (just barely feels warm on your hand), and it's just not hot enough to rise up the stairway. Woodstove much hotter.
Looks like some previous owner tried to cut a hole in the upstairs floor to let heat circulate better, but all they did was kind of f* it up. It's a post & beam house, and there's a lot of "stuff" between the floors.
Only room that's kind of cool with the stove is the bathroom, diagonal from where the stove is, and a couple walls in the way. Not so cold it bothers me, but the Mrs. has a space heater she uses when she takes a shower.

 

[JasperFrank]

Fire Wood in my area is basically free. Its the work involved and can you do somthng else with the time to make money, as apposed to saving money. I certainly didn't see this till later in life. Working, I can just have someone else deliver wood at a lesser cost in time, then if I collected and cut it my self. This year we are doing the experiment to see if the wood stove is even worth it, aside from the esthetic reasons.

 

[ovrszd]

I consider myself as having a pretty perspective of heating costs and ways to be most efficient.

I understand lowering heat temp and raising cool temp is cost effective.

Beyond that I have no desire to run my heat temp so low that I have to dress warm to be comfortable.

I also have no desire to run my cool temp so high that I sleep hot.

So our thermostat setting is same heat/cool at 72F. We sleep under a sheet and light blanket yeararound. We sit comfortably in our house dressed normally.

 

[Yander]

in our house dressed normally.

 

[ovrszd]

View attachment 765294

Minus the Bud. Gives me a headache. BL guy.

 

[coobie]

I'll start it off by saying we heat with propane (Bryant Plus 95) for the house and in floor PEX (propane fired hot water heater in the shop, but we also heat with 2 biomass stoves, one in the house and one in the shop.

We burn primarily dried off grade seed corn (which I get for free) plus processed wood pellets. I mix the corn and pellets together and the stoves burn them

Each stove is capable of 80K Btu output though I rarely run them flat out and about the only time the central furnace comes on is when the heat load exceeds the output of the stove in the house. I do keep my in floor PEX system active all winter and hold the slab temperature around 60 degrees, I like warm feet when working in the shop.

My total biomass fuel bill is around 600 bucks (for processed wood pellets) during the winter and I usually consume one 500 gallon bottle of propane as well.

I pre bought propane this year at $1.99 a gallon and glad I did as propane here is at $265 a gallon presently and going higher.

Where are you at concerning heat and what do you use for fuel?

H,mm you pre ought propane for $1.99 here in michigan? Hell of a deal since the cheapest price I found was $2.45 and we are not that far from each other.What company did you purchase from?