Firewood / Wood heating

[On_a_slow_boat]

This is my first post, but I have been reading online for about 5 months now.

My other favorite forum that I read has a section dedicated to firewood and heating ones home with wood. I was thinking how moustachian wood heating really is.

A common term that is used is "Scrounging" this is when you acquire wood from downed trees due to a various reasons (storms, dead trees, homeowner removal, new construction..., for example). This wood is usually free of charge and can be used to completely heat or supplement the heat to ones house.

So I was surprised that I have not seen any posts on wood heating. It is:
- Great exercise to cut/split/stack firewood
- reduces your heating costs substantially
- provides a really nice comfortable heat and atmosphere inside the house
- can be environmentally friendly (using scrounged trees, EPA stoves)
- A lot of fun to be out in the woods

[Rural]

I'm all for it, with the caveat to be sure you have permission from the landowner to do your scrounging.

[totoro]

Agree.  We took out the gas fireplace and are installing a high efficiency woodstove for these reasons PLUS a wood fire is just nicer imo.  People sometimes give away wood on CL too.

[NumberCruncher]

Just as a caution - some cities have banned or set limitations on wood burning fireplaces or furnaces due to environmental impacts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_fuel#Environmental_impacts


Immediate health impacts to fireplaces and the like as well
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-fireplace-delusion

[frugalman]

I was just admiring a couple of scars on my forearms that I acquired over the winter putting wood in my wood stove. We have a 4 season cabin which is likely to become our full time home in a couple of years (sell our more expensive city home 100 miles away). We bought a smart splitter for under $100 and both wife and I really enjoyed splitting logs for our wood stove. Full cord of wood delivered was $150, but it mostly needs to be split a little finer. We come up on Friday nights and leave Sunday afternoon. I heated the house the whole day Saturdays on just wood, turned the propane furnace way down. Saves a lot of money and it's fun. It claims 7-12 hours overnight burn but for me that's baloney and the fire is mostly out when I get up in the morning.

[Spork]

We heated our house this past winter almost exclusively with a wood stove and trees from our own property.  I've got a "stack" of logs that is about 5 ft high -- each log about 2ft in diameter/15 ft long that I've got in queue.  I usually will cut/split about a face cord at a time.

caveats:
* I live in the south... It's not nearly as impressive as heating a northern home
* we probably had the thermostat set to 'heat' about 3-4 hours the whole winter... part of that was over Christmas when we had snowy wet guests that were wanting heat NOW.
* I cheat.  I have a hydraulic wood splitter.

[MrsPete]

If you're "scrounging", please do ask the owner's permission.  We own a large tract of land, and more than once we've caught people out cutting up a fallen tree without permission.  This is not only a matter of theft, but IF those people were to be injured on our property, they could potentially sue us.  Yes, you may find too-busy homeowners or little old ladies who'll be glad for you to come in and cut up their fallen trees, but never, never assume. 

Also, recognize that heating with wood exclusively is a big undertaking:  Unless you own property yourself, you're not likely to find enough free wood to heat all winter; and cutting firewood is hard work.  For most people, it's more realistic to supplement with wood. 

[martynthewolf]

Just as a caution - some cities have banned or set limitations on wood burning fireplaces or furnaces due to environmental impacts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_fuel#Environmental_impacts


Immediate health impacts to fireplaces and the like as well
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-fireplace-delusion

Well that article destroyed my romantic dream of having a wood burning fireplace one day...

[totoro]

In my area they have focussed on upgrading to high efficiency stoves.  Our health authority advises that maintenance and high efficiency are key.  Whether this is enough, I'm not sure. 

My current view is that using our high efficiency woodstove is acceptable and desirable.  It is our secondary heating source and it is professionally installed.  That said, I will research this more.

[On_a_slow_boat]

I'll follow up with a few words on "scrounging" as it looks to have caused some confusion amongst the forum posters. There is a huge difference between scrounging for wood and stealing wood.

When you scrounge for wood - you always do so legally and with the landowners permission. Some examples include:
- many people who don't burn wood post "Free" ads on craigslist when they have a tree that has fallen over or was taken down for some reason.
- making friends with tree removal companies, they will often dump wood at zero or no cost.
- towns often designate areas where they dump trees free for the taking

[mpbaker22]

Not actually meant as a reply to anyone on here, but I find it interesting how so many people will live completely unhealthy lives but turn away from things like wood stoves because of their health effects.  Not that it means you should pursue an unhealthy behavior because someone else does a separate unhealthy behavior, but I'm imagining the morbidly obese person yelling at the smoker for being unhealthy ;)

[brewer12345]

If you're "scrounging", please do ask the owner's permission.  We own a large tract of land, and more than once we've caught people out cutting up a fallen tree without permission.  This is not only a matter of theft, but IF those people were to be injured on our property, they could potentially sue us.  Yes, you may find too-busy homeowners or little old ladies who'll be glad for you to come in and cut up their fallen trees, but never, never assume. 

Also, recognize that heating with wood exclusively is a big undertaking:  Unless you own property yourself, you're not likely to find enough free wood to heat all winter; and cutting firewood is hard work.  For most people, it's more realistic to supplement with wood.

Sounds about right.  I scrounge what I can and occasionally supplement my scrounging with purchased firewood.  I always ask a property owner if they want logs just laying there.  Most of the time they are only too happy to have them taken away.  I have also successfully scavenged wood by walking the kids to school on trash day.  Even so, realistically this is a supplement to the regular heating system.  We have a 2800 square foot house so just firing up the wood stove does not cut it because the stove is on one end of the house.  Using the fan that circulates air around the firebox makes a big difference, but on really cold days the heat does not adequately circulate to the upstairs bedrooms.  30 minutes of running the furnace fan (without the furnace on) before bedtime solves the problem nicely.

And yes, cutting and splitting found wood is heavy exercise.

[Spork]

Just as a caution - some cities have banned or set limitations on wood burning fireplaces or furnaces due to environmental impacts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_fuel#Environmental_impacts


Immediate health impacts to fireplaces and the like as well
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-fireplace-delusion

Well that article destroyed my romantic dream of having a wood burning fireplace one day...

I think fireplaces and stoves are way different in this regard.  Once our stove is up to speed, you can't see any particulates (smoke/vapor) coming out of the chimney.  It's clear.  You can only tell it's burning by the heat waves.  This is not some fancy-schmancy catalyst stove either.  (Now, there is smoke/vapor when lighting.  I'll fully admit that.)

Mother Earth News also claims wood is carbon neutral.  I.e, you're only releasing the carbon that the tree absorbs.  (And as a side note, they did a really cool piece about wood powered engines that made me want to build one.)

[Jamesqf]

Just as a caution - some cities have banned or set limitations on wood burning fireplaces or furnaces...

And there's a big part of the answer to the OP's question about why there is not much here about wood burning: most of the people here seem to be (sub)urbanites.

As a non-urbanite, I've used wood heating about as long as I've owned this place.  About 60% of heating comes from the (EPA-certified, low emission) wood stove), 20-30% from passive solar, and the rest from the oil furnace that comes on only on really cold nights, or when I'm away for a while. 

I do get quite a bit of the wood from my own land, or neighbors.  The rest is cut in the National Forest, by permit (currently $15/cord, IIRC).  This is almost always thinning of standing dead trees in fire hazard areas, or logging slash.  And the cutting & splitting provides plenty of exercise...

[NumberCruncher]

Mother Earth News also claims wood is carbon neutral.  I.e, you're only releasing the carbon that the tree absorbs.  (And as a side note, they did a really cool piece about wood powered engines that made me want to build one.)

Linky?


Here's a bit from Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=wood-burning-power-plants-carbon-neutral-high-emitter

"Past federal regulations have accepted the premise that facilities fueled by woody waste are "carbon-neutral" -- merely speeding up the carbon cycle that would naturally occur as plants decompose.

But a study commissioned by Massachusetts last year and conducted by the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences indicated that burning wood for energy generally results in greater emissions of greenhouse gases per unit of energy than using fossil fuel, based on the efficiency of tapping each resource.

The study rested on a number of caveats -- including geographic area, how forestlands are managed and if tree refuse or entire trees were utilized, but its results suggested that moving from coal plants to biomass could actually boost Massachusetts' carbon emissions in the next several decades (ClimateWire, July 12, 2010).

Seems like the "official" word is that total carbon released is still higher with wood and biomass than fossil fuels. High efficiency stoves are definitely a step up from ye old bonfire in terms of emissions.

The lack of car emissions from a mustachian probably have a greater net good on the environment in either case.

[Spork]

Mother Earth News also claims wood is carbon neutral.  I.e, you're only releasing the carbon that the tree absorbs.  (And as a side note, they did a really cool piece about wood powered engines that made me want to build one.)

Linky?

Buried in this article.  Whether it's truly neutral or not... the article is sort of cool -- building a wood-fired truck engine.

[brewer12345]

Mother Earth News also claims wood is carbon neutral.  I.e, you're only releasing the carbon that the tree absorbs.  (And as a side note, they did a really cool piece about wood powered engines that made me want to build one.)

Linky?

Buried in this article.  Whether it's truly neutral or not... the article is sort of cool -- building a wood-fired truck engine.

I've seen a few wood-fired boats on Barnegat Bay.  You can smell them from a loooonnngg way away.

[Jamesqf]

Here's a bit from Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=wood-burning-power-plants-carbon-neutral-high-emitter

Note that that study is for power plants, not using wood for heating.

[Spork]

Mother Earth News also claims wood is carbon neutral.  I.e, you're only releasing the carbon that the tree absorbs.  (And as a side note, they did a really cool piece about wood powered engines that made me want to build one.)

Linky?

Buried in this article.  Whether it's truly neutral or not... the article is sort of cool -- building a wood-fired truck engine.

I've seen a few wood-fired boats on Barnegat Bay.  You can smell them from a loooonnngg way away.

from the article:

I was surprised. First, I had no idea the wood gasifier was even lit. From my past experiences with wood gas, I expected a faint smell of burnt wood lingering around the vehicle. Not here.

and... back to the original topic:  When my wood stove is fully lit (i.e, NOT when it is still starting) I can't smell it. 

[martynthewolf]

Just as a caution - some cities have banned or set limitations on wood burning fireplaces or furnaces due to environmental impacts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_fuel#Environmental_impacts


Immediate health impacts to fireplaces and the like as well
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-fireplace-delusion

Well that article destroyed my romantic dream of having a wood burning fireplace one day...

I think fireplaces and stoves are way different in this regard.  Once our stove is up to speed, you can't see any particulates (smoke/vapor) coming out of the chimney.  It's clear.  You can only tell it's burning by the heat waves.  This is not some fancy-schmancy catalyst stove either.  (Now, there is smoke/vapor when lighting.  I'll fully admit that.)

Mother Earth News also claims wood is carbon neutral.  I.e, you're only releasing the carbon that the tree absorbs.  (And as a side note, they did a really cool piece about wood powered engines that made me want to build one.)

Back at the start of the year when I still had Sky I would watch the shows on people preparing meticulously for some kind of natural disaster, end of world event. They were really interesting and some people had gone to extreme lengths to make sure their families would be safe etc. It was watching that show that I first saw a wood fired engine running a ford flatbed truck. I was amazed, I was so surprised it was even possible.