I'm so glad I don't heat with wood!

littlebitfarm · #1 01/10/10, 10:25 AM

I heated with wood for 19 years. Did my own cutting and splitting. Household of one, so I did all the work. Plus wood heating time is hay moving time at the barn. Just got to be too much. Wood in, ash out, hay out, water out, and manure piled. I am grateful for the experience and it made my home warmer when I couldn't have afforded the heating bills otherwise.

But there is this magic box on the wall of the house. I push this little lever up and get instant heat. With no hauling and no mess. I do miss the smell. Sold the wood stove and put a propane one in so I have back up in case the power goes out. I can still sit in the living room and feel the heat and watch the flames if I want.

I now live in a well insulated house. Total propane (heat, hot water, and cooking) runs me about $600 a year. I have a 1000 gal tank, so better than a 2 year supply on hand.

Sometimes life needs to get easier.

Kathie

wally · #2 01/10/10, 10:30 AM

How funny.I just asked our fellow members that question because of the reason you just stated

stanb999 · #3 01/10/10, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlebitfarm

I heated with wood for 19 years. Did my own cutting and splitting. Household of one, so I did all the work. Plus wood heating time is hay moving time at the barn. Just got to be too much. Wood in, ash out, hay out, water out, and manure piled. I am grateful for the experience and it made my home warmer when I couldn't have afforded the heating bills otherwise.

But there is this magic box on the wall of the house. I push this little lever up and get instant heat. With no hauling and no mess. I do miss the smell. Sold the wood stove and put a propane one in so I have back up in case the power goes out. I can still sit in the living room and feel the heat and watch the flames if I want.

I now live in a well insulated house. Total propane (heat, hot water, and cooking) runs me about $600 a year. I have a 1000 gal tank, so better than a 2 year supply on hand.

Sometimes life needs to get easier.

Kathie

Your only paying a 1.20 a gallon. That is vary cheap. Here propane is 3 dollars.

PhilJohnson · #4 01/10/10, 10:46 AM

I have no other heat besides wood. Only gripe I have is because my house is poorly insulated I have to keep getting up at night. Maybe I would look at wood heat differently if I had a large farm but cutting it up and splitting it don't bother me. It gives me some much needed exercise during the winter

stanb999 · #5 01/10/10, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilJohnson

I have no other heat besides wood. Only gripe I have is because my house is poorly insulated I have to keep getting up at night. Maybe I would look at wood heat differently if I had a large farm but cutting it up and splitting it don't bother me. It gives me some much needed exercise during the winter

You should switch to burning rocks. 12 hour burns are nothing 20 hr burns are common. Leave the 1400's and get to the 1600's, Burn coal.

littlebitfarm · #6 01/10/10, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanb999

Your only paying a 1.20 a gallon. That is vary cheap. Here propane is 3 dollars.

Even at $3 my bill for the year would be $1200. I'll happily pay that.

Kathie

miboje · #7 01/10/10, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlebitfarm

Even at $3 my bill for the year would be $1200. I'll happily pay that.

Kathie

Like many others, we are struggling to survive due to the economy. We could not afford $1200/ year to heat, and I know many others cannot either. We are very grateful to be heating with wood. The exersize is beats anything else, the fresh air when I would otherswise stay cooped up to stay warm, and the deeper appreciation for nature's provisions are not replaceable. Also, when there is a power outage here, I still have my wood cook stove to provide heat and cooking.

If you are a one person show, it would be a tremedous amount of work getting wood in. I may be in that position one day, but for now there are two of us. Thank goodness, but I can see your point, there.

littlebitfarm · #8 01/10/10, 12:05 PM

That's not just heat. That is hot water and cooking too. I really don't think that is a bad price at all. I see here where some people are paying $300 or $400 a month. Mine averages less than $50 a month. At $3 a gallon it would average $100 a month. Still seems like a great price!

Kathie

ronbre · #9 01/10/10, 12:23 PM

yeah cept when the men promise to cut our own wood and don't and we end up buying it..and then they still don't want to mess with it..but the wood heat was THEIR idea.

Yvonne's hubby · #10 01/10/10, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlebitfarm

Sometimes life needs to get easier.

Kathie

Amen to that, especially as the bones get more brittle with age! I dont have the lil lever thingy, I have a knob I have to turn but it sure beats dealing with all that wood!

ladytoysdream · #11 01/10/10, 12:29 PM

When the hubby worked for the farmer for about 17 years, we heated with a big old wood furnace in the cellar. Lots of work to go to the woods, get the trees down, and hauled back to the house and cut up. Stuffed the cellar full and a big pile outside sittting waiting to be used the second part of winter.

Then we bought our 2 acres ,and brought in a new double wide about 19 + years ago. Hubby got a factory job and we heated the house with 500 gallons of propane a year. We thought things were great. Easier on our backs, etc, etc.
While the price of propane kept going up. The last delivery we took was $ 2.45 a gallon and that was a locked in yearly price too. Current price here locally is $ 3.42 gallon. Just no end in sight.
We made the decision not to be held hostage by propane prices.
Spring of 2008 we took out a loan and bought our OWB. We have Central Boiler 5096 model and very happy to be heating with wood again. This is our second winter. We figure we have enough wood in place, to go this winter easy and the next one also. As near as I can figure we use about 12 to 14 FACE cords a winter. Our last load of wood a year ago, was a tri axle log length load of about 18 face cords, that cost us $ 575. Hubby cut it to length for our furnace. Our house is approximately 1250 square ft all on one level. We added on 4 yrs ago this spring and did all our upgrades -new windows, roof, and siding entire structure. No basement. We only use propane now for our cookstove which is hooked up to a 100 pound propane tank. Cost so far is about $ 11 a month.

My hubby's parents were so impressed by our outside wood boiler furnace that they also bought one. They are very happy also and saving big heating dollars. They were using fuel oil , about 6 tanks for the year.

Would I use propane as our primary source of heat again ?
NO ......
I can keep the house now at 75 plus with the wood, where with propane it was at 68 and I always felt cold with that.
Oh, and all of hot water too now ....we don't use the electric on the hot water heater in the winter. The wood heats it.
So for less than $ 50 a month, we have our heat and lots of hot water.

insocal · #12 01/10/10, 01:03 PM

My dream home will have propane heat supplemented substantially by wood heat as I am able. And of course as much insulation as possible so I don't need too much of either.

The FIRST step is upgrading insulation.

seagullplayer · #13 01/10/10, 01:10 PM

I pray I can have the where-with-all to still be loading wood in the stove in the year I die...

$600 a year is not bad for heat, but it cost us at least 2X that before we put in the wood stove.

hillbillygal · #14 01/10/10, 01:13 PM

We have our propane stove but since when the propane prices started climbing, we bought an used woodstove and I love it. I just think the heat is so much warmer and I don't have to freak out if the door is being held open as I see the dollar signs fly out. I also like the wood stove since I can put a teapot or stew pot on top of it to simmer all day.

If money were no object though, that little lever on the wall would be pretty inviting!

PhilJohnson · #15 01/10/10, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanb999

You should switch to burning rocks. 12 hour burns are nothing 20 hr burns are common. Leave the 1400's and get to the 1600's, Burn coal.

Easy for folks like you who live in coal central

Guess I'll be stuck in the pre-industrial age for quite a while unless I find a coal mine on my property

Curtis B · #16 01/10/10, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by insocal

My dream home will have propane heat supplemented substantially by wood heat as I am able. And of course as much insulation as possible so I don't need too much of either.

I am right there with you on that. Right now we only have a fireplace for wood heat, but it helps tremendously. For me, I don't think that the propane heat from a furnace is as comfortable as the wood. I will probably allways have chores to do outside, and coming in to the house and standing or sitting by the fire to warm up almost makes me like the cold of winter.

Beeman · #17 01/10/10, 01:25 PM

I've seen 2 people switch from wood to gas and say the same thing. They were very reluctant to switch at first. One was a friend's grandmother who heated with wood all of her life. They finally convinced her to put a gas heater in, one of those brown cabinet ones which worked well in her very small house. After a year or 2 she realized how much easier it made her life. She was probably in her 70's then and lived to be 90. The other is a friend that's disabled with back and leg problems. He heated with wood only for many years and installed the gas heater from my other friend's grandmother's house. It didn't take long for him to agree.

farmergirl · #18 01/10/10, 01:29 PM

We have been using just the fireplace and one little space heater for heat for several years now. Our house is a DWMH that is not very well insulated. When it warms up enough to comfortably work outside this spring, I will be investing money and time in beefing up our insulation. Would love to have some of that spray foam insulation put in the "attic" space above the ceilings. Lately it seems like most of the cold is coming from around doors and windows, and up from the floor. I tore almost all of the old carpet out last year, so I'm sure that's part of the problem.
We have a central heat/ air system that is tied to the propane tank, but never use it anymore because it costs us $10 a day just to run the dang furnace in the winter. Can't afford that.
It's been darn cold lately with this little arctic snap we've had, but we just pile on the blankets at night and wear layers of warm clothes during the day.
I enjoy heating with the fireplace. Sure it's work, but I've found that most of the best things in life are hard won.

ricky · #19 01/10/10, 01:55 PM

re stack cover haul in to the house, stack again, burn, clean the mess, tend the stove ,ash, to take out every day or two, clean the stove and chimney, the mess in the house again. start all over and repeat keeps you getting up every day if you want to stay warm. i would rather bust my back end doing this rather than giving big gas co, electric co, gov tax one more penny of my money thats my choice

FarmboyBill · #20 01/10/10, 02:08 PM

I dont like heating with wood also, tho I probably will for as long as possible. I like top load stoves, but with one, if when starting a fire, you put some diesel on the wood to start it, if it hits some live coals the the smoke comes billowing up, I have to put the diesel jug down. get a match and lite it, or more to try to get the fire ignited to burn off the smoke. and close the door. By then theres alot of smoke in the house. hate that.