At LEAST 30 years ago I had a physicist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory at my home for dinner. I forget his name. And I was showing off my wood stove. And he said, "If you're going to heat with wood, just bring in a wheel barrow full of wood and put it next to your wood stove." So, this guy was a smart physicist, and he live in the woods of Tennessee, and it's only taken me about 30 years to take his advice.
I've probably done my last fire in the wood stove for the season.
And today I will go Off Grid till after the fall Equinox.
And, you know, I'm pretty lazy ... I don't cut and split fire wood. I buy it from an neighbor who has a machine that cuts logs, splits them, and throws the split wood into the back of a dump truck. So there Mr. Henry David Thoreau.
Great article (albeit discovering it quite late during a dive into your excellent climate discussions!)
We heat with wood (~95% of the time) and it works like a charm up here in the mountains near Whistler BC. Our Regency stove isn't 46 years old but will be one day (hopefully). We go through 4-5 cords of wood/year of mixed but mostly fir variety (and as much hardwood as we can scrounge.)
Our hose is 2500 sq ft and the nights can be quite cold -5 to -20C so unfortunately the woman in my life (brunette) has yet to say "It's too hot in here, I need to take off all my clothes."
Appreciated your heat cost chart. From a rough cost perspective, it costs about $1200-1300 per year for wood. When not using our stove, our heat pump does the work but unfortunately only down to about -2C but it does keep our electricity bill manageable at about $60CAD per month so total energy cost $160/mth. Have been looking at ductless heat exchangers when we are away as without the wood stove our heating bills go stratospheric when we're not here in subzero temps.
Re-reading your climate articles and thanks to that!
OMG! I haven’t laughed so hard since moving out here and sweating that wood AT LEAST 10 times. Per rick. Shopping list: Chinese battery powered wheelbarrow and dog ramps. Ty~
At LEAST 30 years ago I had a physicist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory at my home for dinner. I forget his name. And I was showing off my wood stove. And he said, "If you're going to heat with wood, just bring in a wheel barrow full of wood and put it next to your wood stove." So, this guy was a smart physicist, and he live in the woods of Tennessee, and it's only taken me about 30 years to take his advice.
I've probably done my last fire in the wood stove for the season.
And today I will go Off Grid till after the fall Equinox.
And, you know, I'm pretty lazy ... I don't cut and split fire wood. I buy it from an neighbor who has a machine that cuts logs, splits them, and throws the split wood into the back of a dump truck. So there Mr. Henry David Thoreau.
Yup, up North where you're at, there's probably not much hardwood --
I tried burning a bit of pine 10 - 15 years ago, and even though "seasoned",
it clogged my stove and chimney up with creosote in no-time!
When I burn well-seasoned (couple of years or more) hardwood,
I don't even bother inspecting my chimney, let along cleaning it.
You must need to both inspect and clean !
Actually, when I checked the specs, my heat pumps are 400% efficient. Maybe only 300% at minus 5 oF.
Great article (albeit discovering it quite late during a dive into your excellent climate discussions!)
We heat with wood (~95% of the time) and it works like a charm up here in the mountains near Whistler BC. Our Regency stove isn't 46 years old but will be one day (hopefully). We go through 4-5 cords of wood/year of mixed but mostly fir variety (and as much hardwood as we can scrounge.)
Our hose is 2500 sq ft and the nights can be quite cold -5 to -20C so unfortunately the woman in my life (brunette) has yet to say "It's too hot in here, I need to take off all my clothes."
Appreciated your heat cost chart. From a rough cost perspective, it costs about $1200-1300 per year for wood. When not using our stove, our heat pump does the work but unfortunately only down to about -2C but it does keep our electricity bill manageable at about $60CAD per month so total energy cost $160/mth. Have been looking at ductless heat exchangers when we are away as without the wood stove our heating bills go stratospheric when we're not here in subzero temps.
Re-reading your climate articles and thanks to that!
I commented, but not as a reply -- oops.
I'll add this:
Since I wrote that article I added in a permanent wood ramp, making my house accessible.
And now have a much nicer battery-powered wheel barrow!
It's going down below freezing tonight, so I COULD light the wood stove,
but I'd have to bring in some wood!
OMG! I haven’t laughed so hard since moving out here and sweating that wood AT LEAST 10 times. Per rick. Shopping list: Chinese battery powered wheelbarrow and dog ramps. Ty~
And, on the Other-Other- Hand, you could say "Fuck the wheelbarrow, I'm getting more Ductless DC Inverter Heat Pumps!".
Cool! Thanks.