| Author | Message | ||
     Xbpete |
I've been burning pellets and corn in a Magnum Countryside multi-fuel stove for the past 10 years, have a 1900 s.f. house in the northern Adirondacks,,, Pellets run between 225 and 275 a ton and I burn about 3 1/2 tons a season. One 40 lb bag on low setting will burn 32 hours and is good above 20F, a higher setting of 3 or 4 will reduce it to around 17 hours more or less. At 250 a ton average, my cost is $5 a day plus my electric, which runs $200 in the winter, $120 in the summer. But I do have my 91 year old Mom here and she uses an electric space heater in winter in her room and bath for added warmth. Corn was cheaper but I found the sugars built up and really added to stove cleaning and maintenance,,, and mice had a field day in the barn where I store them. Previously heated with wood, no comparison for an aging back,, We really like our stove and would have to replace it with another when and if this one goes south. | ||
| Etennuly |
I'll get a picture for ya in a day or so.  Kinda covered up at the moment, paint work and such, don't ya know. | ||
| Etennuly |
Well you asked for it. My double barrel wood/oil stove. It ain't pretty but it does see some abuse being in a truck body shop. This one is going on fifteen years, the barrels last about nine or ten years depending on moving the stove to dry storage in summer. Rain water leaking down the pipe during the off seasons tends to rust it up a bit faster.   The wood fire gets started to get a little ash and some coals in the bottom of the grate area then turn on the oil to drip on the wood and hot coals. The oil drips out of a 1/16th bronze barbed fitting at a rate just short of running steady at full on. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
I think I'm going to go with a wood/coal burning furnace. This one..  I am surrounded by my neighbors woods. He doesn't care if I go to town cutting up the fallen trees. I plan to put it in my garage and plumb the duct work into basement. The exhaust pipe will heat the garage. The wood will heat me 3 or 4 times... chopping, stacking, hauling it into the garage and one more time when it burns.... and the wood is "free" PLUS!! I will get to buy a new chainsaw. | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
better buy that stove soon http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/05/epa-wood-stooves / | ||
| 86129squids |
Hey all, I gotta quextion, a little off-topic... I'm a complete noob at cutting wood. All I really need any for is to run my chiminea- I just got a good supply of trunk stumps from a big tree cutting operation a couple of weeks ago. Now I gotta cut them down to eighths to use in said chiminea. I have a chainsaw and a newly purchased 8# maul. Tried both, failed both times. I'm thinking the wood is too newly cut, needs time to dry out a bit, then it should split more easily. I'll be buying those sacks of wood at $5 each at the dang grocery store for a while yet, unless I figure out something better. Oh well. I was never raised up to have to do this manly chore, don't know much about it, but it's time to learn. Apparently the chainsaw likes to go against the grain, not with it, and the maul vice versa. Pointers, anyone? | ||
| Aesquire |
Pick a nice size & shape stump to use as a chopping block. Using an axe, maul, or saw on dirt dulls them badly. Make sure your block is level and doesn't rock. Chainsaw good, not precision cabinet grade good. You can't split green wood for diddle, it's too monolithic. Get a chainsaw sharpener, if you are a tool freak. Get one if you are cheap. Buying the sacks of wood is a bit crazy. How many in a face cord? Local price, last I looked was in the $70-100 range. That's a dozen sacks at $5. Get a face cord delivered, build a rack for it, and practice on nice dry wood. Hardwood. Not Pine. What else? Oh, yeah, Steel Toed Boots dull the blade.  | ||
| 86129squids |
Thanks! I've been curious as to sharpening a chainsaw. The one I'm using was given to me- I finally got it to run~! It has a spare chain apparently- not looked at it to see if its old or new. Guess I better learn stuff. | ||
| Aesquire |
A trick I've seen online that works nice is to stack several chunks of wood on end in a car tire on its side and have at them with maul or axe. Youtube has hours on the subject........ also see Red neck hot tub. ( stock tank with fire.... tarp in pickup bed....people are inventive ) Try to think pain when choosing the height of your chopping surface. Too high and it's extra work to lift each piece and they bounce further. Too low and you bend over too much. Just over knee high? Plenty of folk here heat with wood... There is also a number of nifty ways folk around the world stack firewood.. | ||
| Etennuly |
Brad, local Craigs List under "farm/garden" will have a large number of folks who make their winter living cutting and splitting wood. I usually am able to find a 'rick'(1/3 of a cord) of cut/split/seasond wood for about $65 delivered and stacked. That will be like an 8' pick up bed full. For supplemental back up heat that should last about a month or better. I get about three to four weeks on a rick while burning oil in my shop. If I get the wood myself on my property that works out to about $4 per hour for my hard physical labor, to cut, haul, split, stack that pick up load amount. Besides chainsaws can be dangerous and there is a cost for fuel/mix oil/chain oil/chains/bars/gloves/face shield/leg guards/hearing muffs/a vehicle to haul and misc. parts. Stumps suck, that is why they did not use them. They will fry a chain, need to have any mud washed off, be checked for metal fence nails/wire and can be un splitable due to the moisture holding ability and molecular structure of the wood going many different ways. Even if you get them cut up they don't like to burn because stumps won't dry like the rest of the tree will. They can be like throwing a wet sponge on a fire. Grocery store sacks of wood are like buying gasoline at premium liquor prices. | ||
| 86129squids |
Thanks Vern- I'll keep that in mind. What I have aren't really stumps, they're clean, medium size chunks of the trunk. If I can get them split properly, the wood will last a good while, should burn just fine. Otherwise, yes, I know I'm paying too much, but I guess you'd call that the price of convenience. Bring home the stuff for dinner plus a sack of wood, set up dinner and the chiminea fire, easy peasy. Since I'm not depending on the wood to heat the house, it's not a big deal. I will look into buying a load of wood though, once I decide where to store it. | ||
| Strokizator |
I had access to plenty of eucalyptus wood but the grain is so twisty that, wet or dry, I could only split it with a unicorn splitter that worked off my tractor PTO. Of course that's before I saw "the wheel of death". Aptly named.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E4GmFX3Puo#t=96 | ||
| Etennuly |
Finding a place to stack it is important to what you have in that area. The wood tends to hold bugs, spiders and moisture. Stacking to the side of a building will cause bad things for the wood structure from rot, mold, wood eating bugs and such also will need to be away from the garden. Probably best stacked along a fence in the sun. In shady areas it will magnify the moisture induced problems. At this time of year I would consider a half load or less for your situation. If you have none left at the end of heating season that can be a good thing. Tennessee's hot moist summers and fast growing weeds tend to rot dead wood. | ||
| Chauly |
Hint: Split wood from the big end. | ||
| Court |
And strike the splitting edge on the big end. | ||
| Chauly |
Yeah, what he said...  | ||
| Reepicheep |
With a tool, instead of with your forehead. | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
A woodsplitter could work to! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YpOZBHwpT8 | ||
| 86129squids |
Bro, that was the coolest woodsplitting vid so far! Good horsie, have an apple! | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
pulled the trigger.... I bought the above furnace from Southerlands. Retail was $1299. They had it marked down to $919. I spent the evening cleaning out a space for it in the garage. I'm hoping it will pay for itself in 1 season. | ||
| Aesquire |
My experience is that line of logic is faulty. Not wrong, just not the best way to view things. Sure, when you do the sums, later, have a drink and salute your wisdom. But for now it will "pay for itself" the first time you are comfortable in a place you formerly were not. It's like buying a scooter to commute. You may have done a spreadsheet, a power point presentation, and diddle Turbotax to justify your purchase, but if it isn't fun, you won't be happy. Warm stove is happy. The savings is icing on the cake. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
The wood/coal burning furnace is resting in its final location... all nice and level. Holes and duct work has been started into the crawl space.... that was a TON of fun. Chimney has been run to the attic. "All" I need to do now is cut a hole in the roof and one in the furnace. The roof will have to wait until the snow has melted. The furnace may get worked on tomorrow. I am thinking about running the cold air return close to the bottom of the stairs. I think that would be the best place to catch the sinking colder air. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Can't wait to fire it up!  Made a Dual sided air filter for the intake  | ||
| Pwnzor |
I like the 3x fire extinguishers on the wall. Can never be too safe with a box full of fire. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
one is for the Jeep when I go wheeling one WAS for my XB12R back in the day when I raced The last one is for the house. I am in the process of garage clean up to accommodate the new fire breather Did a little consolidating  | ||
| Uncle |
That stove looks a little close to that wall on the left. I'm assuming that's a wood framed, drywall wall? | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
The stove pipe needs to be 18" away from the wall and I'm at 18 1/2" I am going to remove the posters and such before I strike a match. The stove itself gets warm but you can still put a hand on it.... or so they say on the interwebs (Message edited by wolfridgerider on February 16, 2015) | ||
| Etennuly |
FYI The best internal fire box control extinguisher for a wood fire that I have found is slightly damp ashes. I keep a bucket near my stove in the case of a run away fire or overheat. Your new wood stove should have controls on it that help prevent a run away fire. You can toss a shovel full of ashes into the stove on an overheated fire and snuff enough of it that you won't have to discontinue or start the fire over after cooling it down. Nothing works quicker for overheat control. Water makes a huge mess and can damage a hot stove. A fire extinguisher makes a much worse mess and can blow hot embers all over the place and will need a clean up before continuing. You might see what I am talking about if you have one of those days that your fire doesn't want to light. You toss in a little extra kindling or a little shot of girl scout water when all of a sudden it takes off immediately to super hot. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
girl scout water.... now that is funny! | ||
| Etennuly |
girl scout water.... now that is funny! It's winter, I have time to tell you that little story.....Being a Boy Scout at twelve, working on a fire badge  we had rules for building our individual fires. One match, no paper, no flammables other than grass or twigs. Of course everything was wet. In the neighboring field a couple hundred feet away was the Girl Scout camp. They started their fire program about the same time we did just as it was getting dark. Within twenty minutes they had a dozen fire pits all lit with nice fires. We had a couple of smoking fire pits with no flames. Our scout leaders were pointing out the girls success and our failures, so a few of us snuck over to see their secret. The bitches used lamp oil carried in water bottles to start all of their fires! We stole some fire from the girls (they grouped around a couple of their fires leaving the rest to burn out)we then snuck back to our fire pits.....Three of us got our fire badges!   Technically we only used the materials we were allowed to use.....they didn't say where it had to come from or that it could not already be on fire when we found it. |
