With gas prices rising, it’s only a matter of time before the cost of petroleum home heat fuels follows suit. If you’ve been considering wood heat but didn’t know where to get started, here are a few basics you should consider
Wood Heating Basics -
Getting Started with Wood Heat for Your Home
You Must have an Ample Supply of Clean, Dry Wood
A wood lot can produce from 1 to 2 face cords of fire wood per acres a year. The best trees for harvesting fire wood include sugar and red maple, hickory, any of the oaks, beech, and hornbeam (ironwood). These are hardwood species that will give you the best return on your investment of labor by burning over a longer and producing a lot of heat.
I burn everything that dies in the woods at my house including elm, aspen and birch, but not much softwood such as pine. Softwoods burn quickly and produce less heat, meaning that you need to refuel frequently and use a lot more wood overall. (Note: Pine does make good kindling for a quick start to your fires.) For a detailed listing of the BTU content of various woods, visit Firewood resource.com.
Firewood should be “seasoned” or dried for at least six months to a year before you burn to reduce creosote in the chimney and air pollution. Green (unseasoned) wood will burn slowly and produce a lot of smoke and particulates. When these build up in your chimney, it increases the risk of a chimney fire. This means you should be planning for next winter now.
This wood shed provides good air circulation and protection from rain and snow.
Plan for proper storage
To cure (dry), wood needs good air circulation. This means a shed without sides or rows with tarps. Personally, I’m not a fan of tarps or plastic because the wind and the sun will tear holes in them in short order, and water will leak in. You should also find something to stack the wood on to keep it off the ground. Old treated 4x4s are a favorite of mine. Above is a picture of my wood shed. You might recognize it from the post about natural back pain relief.
Heating with wood is labor intensive
One thing that most people don’t think about is how much time you will have to invest in cutting and splitting wood to heat your home. If you cut a cord or two of wood, split, and stack it, you will be doing a full day’s work. If you have back problems or other health problem you might want to consider buying your wood from a logger. There is also the task of keeping a fire. Most wood burners will require attention every 6 to 8 hours, maybe longer if you have a good furnace or outdoor boiler.
Wood stoves are not cheap
The initial cost of a wood furnace that will be about $3000 plus installation. Resale value drops quickly so if you don’t think you are in it for the long term any savings will be negated by the initial cost. (You *might* be able to get a deal on a used unit, but don’t count on it.) Quality wood cutting tools cost money, too, and with tools, you generally get what you pay for – it’s worth the extra money to get tools that last.
Pellet stoves may be a better choice for urban areas, because you don’t need to dry and store a year’s worth of fuel. Outdoor boilers are another option. You will loose some BTU’s because of the stove is outside the home, the water has to travel underground to the home and in the heat is transferred to the home via a heat exchanger. If you choose an outdoor boiler, radiant heating is preferable to a forced air system, which would reduce your efficiency even further.
Basic wood cutting tools include a maul, a chainsaw, and an axe
There is additional risk involved in heating your home with wood
Make sure your home owner’s insurance will cover you if you have wood heat, and what restrictions they have on heating with wood. Clean your chimney every year and check for problems. Improper ventilation can lead to carbon monoxide build up, which can be deadly. (A carbon monoxide detector is a good investment for nearly every home, but especially those with combustion appliances.)
Creosote build up is another concern. Mastersweep.com explains:
What most people think of as “smoke” is better termed “flue gas.” This “smoke”, or flue gas is released by the initial fire: the “primary combustion.” Flue gas consists of steam, and vaporized but unburned carbon based by-products (vaporized creosote). As the flue gas exits the fireplace or wood stove, it drafts upward into the relatively cool flue where condensation occurs. Like hot breath on a cold mirror, the cool surface temperature of the flue causes the carbon particles in the warm vapor to solidify.
The actual cause of creosote condensation, is the surface temperature of the flue in which the flue gas comes in contact. This resulting carbon based condensation which materializes inside the flue is creosote. It’s usually black in appearance. It can be the fine black dust called soot, (1st stage creosote); or porous and crunchy, (2nd stage: see photo on left); or it can be tar-like: drippy and sticky, until it hardens into a shiny glaze, (3rd stage). All forms of creosote can occur in one chimney system. Whatever form it takes, creosote is highly combustible. If it builds up in sufficient quantities – and ignites inside the chimney flue: the result is a volcanic chimney fire.
Several conditions encourage the buildup of creosote:
- A flue too large for the wood burning appliance, (e.g.. unlined insert)
- A restricted air supply
- Unseasoned or rain-logged wood
- Cooler-than-normal surface flue temperatures, (e.g.. metal fireplace chimney)
Please note the phrase “volcanic chimney fire” – ‘nuf said – clean the chimney.
Chain saws and other wood cutting tools are dangerous. Anything strong and sharp enough to take down a tree can also go right through you. The chain saw is a tool the demands the utmost respect – poor judgement can leave scars that last a lifetime. You should also invest in steel toed boots, logger’s chaps, safety glasses and a hard hat. Every year professional loggers are killed in the woods – it is definitely not something to do with the boys and a few beers.
I hope this post hasn’t scared you off of using wood heat. I’ve used it as my primary heat source for years, as have many friends and family members. It’s a good feeling to look out at a well-stocked woodpile and know that whatever happens to oil prices, your home will be warm without breaking the bank.
This is a guest post by my brother, Richard Poplawski, who lives in northwest Wisconsin in the old farmhouse that used to be owned by my grandparents.
Featured on Simple Lives Thursday #111.
14 Responses to “Fight Rising Home Heating Costs – 5 Facts You Should Know About Wood Heat”
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A different concept in heating with wood —
http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp
I’d love one of these in every room!
One other thing to consider, when storing wood, is what animals might hang out in, under, or next to your woodpile. Our wood has to be at least 8″ up, so we can clearly see any rattlesnakes hanging out underneath it. In other areas of the country you might be dealing with certain spiders, rodents, etc — just something to keep in mind.
We have geothermal but supplement with a wood insert in the fireplace. We have the chimney guy come out and inspect and he did find a flaw which was easily repaired. We also learned, and I can’t remember if it was the chimney guy, tv or CERT, that you should have a stack of newspapers that can be soaked quickly in water for your fireplace in case of a chimney fire. You throw the stack of soaked newspapers (in one lump pile) onto the fire and it’s the steam from them that puts out the chimney fire. I had never thought of that.
Also, we save wood for outdoor bonfires such as cedar. We never burn that inside.
Thanks Karla, I took a peek and filed that one for later consumption!
We heat our house with wood, using an old (very old LOL) cast iron parlor stove. We do have an oil heater which we use sparingly to keep the house from dipping below 55F, but over the winter we’ve used approximately 1.25 tanks of fuel. To put that into perspective, the average person in our neighborhood uses almost that much in a single month, and has been doing so since October’s big snow. We’ve put about $1000 into oil, which made us very unhappy.
The wood we’ve harvested ourselves from the back woods. UNfortunately it’s been largely green wood, so we’ve been incredibly careful with our flue. It was green or freeze, though, and so we went with what we had to. We only moved here in October, couldn’t afford to purchase cured wood, so… Luckily we’ve lots of experience with harvesting wood, and had all the equipment (safety chaps, big orange stick thingie that turns the logs over, etc *grin*).
The best thing about wood is that it heats you multiple times, unlike any other type of heating. It heats you when you go to cut it down, when you buck it (cut the big tree into fireplace length logs), when you split it (cutting the logs into sticks that will burn), when you stack it for drying, and then when you haul it into the house to burn. *chuckle*
Oh, and you get lots of outdoor exercise, too LOL!
Hi,
I love wood heat, for more then just the cost savings compared to oil. I use wood heat at work, and at home I have oil heat, so every day I experience the difference.
I’ve been following your posts for awhile and I enjoy learning from you, but this article I felt that, while pointing out many important things, it comes off negatively overall. In my head I was summarizing it as “save money, but hurt your back, add a daily chore to your routine, and don’t die of CO2″ and so on. I’m sure that’s not what you intended, and it could be just the way it read in my head, please don’t be offended.
One big difference I’ve noticed with wood heat that doesn’t come up very much is the benefit of dry air! With the way that homes are built now, with everything being so well sealed in the name of efficiency, there has also been a rise of mold issues from moisture getting trapped. In my experience, both personally and talking to others, those with wood heat (and making sure the air is able to circulate in all rooms especially the bathroom) are much less likely to have dampness that leads to mold. That is a huge health benefit if my findings are accurate.
Another think I love about the wood stove? I keep a kettle of water on it, so I always have hot water ready for tea or a little bit of dishes… no extra energy spent for the water tank which might seem like a small cost but it really adds up. I’ve also baked potatoes and other things in the wood stove for lunch at work just because it’s there, and the food tastes and smells so good.
i enjoyed this post and the tips in the comments! here in connecticut we can buy permits from our department of environmental protection to harvest wood from state forests- very cheaply. you are putting in all of the labor but getting the product dirt cheap!
To Sunny, yes the overall tone of the post was intended to be one of caution. When facing a decision as important as heating your home it is important to consider the negatives that go with the perks. If you are building a new home or remodeling a lot of money can be saved by making the right choices in the planning stages. Failing to plan, is like planning to fail. I built my own duct work and installed it, with the help of a heating contractor custom building a few key components, but not everyone has the skills. I work as a maintenance mechanic, I build specialized equipment for my employer and I never candy coat information, if I make a mistake when I give advice it could be a million dollar mistake. I also know older people that had to leave their homes when they could no longer cut their own wood. Retirement is a time when many folks have a restricted budget and have to make the most of every dollar. Same for young families, planning is paramount.
Thanks for sharing! We have been researching and writing blogs lately about the importance of “getting back to basics” and what can be learned from homesteaders in comparison to conventional lifestyles. We feel that the use of wood heating is a great way to begin a simpler, off the grid lifestyle.
Great post! We heat with wood here in Montana since we have access to a lot of dead standing wood in the mountains around here. We live in a valley that has issues with inversion (air getting caught in the valley in the winter) so oddly enough air pollution is a big issue in this small town. We were able to get a tax credit on a new EPA approved woodstove that reduces the amount of particulate put out in the air compared to the old stove we had in the house. We love the warmth of wood heat so the extra work is well worth it!
The right stove makes a a HUGE difference, and I highly encourage folks to do there research to find the unit that best meets their needs and minimizes pollution. I am not a fan of nasty, black smoke bellowing burners. They are less efficient and can be downright dangerous because of increased creosote build up.
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Thanks for all the cautions. We have been considering switching to wood heat, but we thought it would be a lot simpler than that … you know, buy a woodstove off Craigslist, stick the stovepipe out the window, and burn all our fallen wood. Now I’m seeing it’s a much bigger project and should probably wait till next year at least. Better to do it once, right, than get in over our heads and have to start over!
Sheila – Yes, fire is nothing to mess around with, and you and your family’s lives are precious.