[Songdog]

Just curious on what the actual percentage of people who still heat with wood is ? I have 8 friends along with myself that I know of around here who heat with outdoor boilers and a few with wood stoves.As a whole,I know that we few in number compared to the amount of homes around.I know it's alot of work,but I still enjoy cutting as odd as some may find it.The boiler heat is no camparison to the heat from the furnace and keeps the water plenty hot too.Not to mention that it saves me a tank of propane ea. month which I was going through like clockwork prior to install.

 

[SmallieKing]

We supplement with a wood insert once it gets below about 35. Hate the mess, but nothing like warming up by a big fire.

 

[Songdog]

We supplement with a wood insert once it gets below about 35. Hate the mess, but nothing like warming up by a big fire.

After carrying in wood for years,that's why I installed the outdoor unit.No more mess in the house and a little safer.

 

[Muddy]

We heat our house with a wood burning stove. Propane got to be so cheap for awhile that I starting to question if it was worth the work. We are saving a ton of money now with the inflated price of propane. It feels good to know that in this crazy world I have 2 years of heat stacked in the wood pile ready to go.

 

[BeerBatter]

I am so glad I’m on wood heat

 

[fishless]

Insert,love the heat and cost,don't like the mess and dust

 

[AKAbigchief]

Outdoor boiler here too. I heat my house, garage and shop with it. I’d never be able to afford propane to heat what I do

 

[Lewis]

I sold some timber a few years back. I have about 4 years of firewood cut, split and stacked in an old barn just from the tops. When it's 30 or below the wood stove is fired up. I have plenty more on the ground I need to cut from dead Ash trees.

 

[Southernsaug]

We supliment with wood heat. Our stove is in the basement and we have an outside entrance, so the mess stays down there and easy to sweep up on concrete. I don't keep it humping at night and the fuel oil furnace comes on when it dies down. Once I stoke it up in the morning the furnace is quiet all day. Even when the furnace runs the air intake is right close to the stove, and the basement air warmer so it gets hotter. I compared when we just burnt oil and, a normal winter was 4 tanks of oil, now we're back on wood I burn 150-200 gallons a year. I figure it saves me $1,500.00 a year or more. I cut off my own woods so all wood is free. I like cutting wood too. I try to keep two years worth cut at a time. I also burn wood for my Maple syrup evaporator. Normally I have about 15-20 cords stacked, but I started bundling some for a local supply store to sell and they sold about a cord a month or more and took me down to 8-10 cord.

 

[Bvil]

Wood burner in the basement here also. The basement and most of the house stays nice and toasty but the corner bedrooms and master bath can get a little chilly if the furnace fan is not running. We just turn the fan on manually few times a day and it warms all the cold spots pretty fast. The furnace draws air from the basement so it works very well.
We have a geothermal furnace so our heating cost isn't that bad to begin with but saving money doing something that I enjoy is always a win. I can't keep up with the downed trees in our woods so wood availability is never a problem.
Our furnace hasn't kick on one time since we switched over to heat last fall!

 

[Songdog]

Outdoor boiler here too. I heat my house, garage and shop with it. I’d never be able to afford propane to heat what I do

No doubt.I was averaging about $670 a month in propane prior to investing in the boiler a few years back.

 

[c. j. stone]

Since I live “out there” with an all electric house(no gas on my road), though I still have the old, inefficient electric boiler installed, I‘m using a hearth stove til really cold, then an outdoor Central Boiler furnace to heat my circulating baseboard hydronic system. An older model but has updated digital controls. In retirement, I simply could not afford to heat the house with electricity! Call me weird but I love cutting, burning wood, esp for the free exercise!( Get free wood mostly from 4 acres of woods in back.) I never cut a standing, live tree and previously have been able to round up enough from blowdowns and deads(occasionally buying cheap slab bundles if I can find it.) But this year, due to cancer treatments during nicer weather months, my low energy level impacted getting my usual 3-4 chords prepped. Having to buy cheaper “bulk“ wood logs w/ deliveries when I can find it on clist or FB mktplace. As I age, this all gets harder to maintain but I plan to continue as long as I’m able! Problem is, wife can’t do this work and if she opts to sell the property, in my ‘absence’, not many buyers want to bust az(or do any work!) to heat their house! Never considered this when I started heating with wood thirty years ago!😟

 

[OptOutside440]

I heat my home with a wood burner and have the furnace vents closed on main level woodburner is on. This year installed a second thermostat to basement area so furnace only heats that and I keep it set at 55. Upstairs is nice and toasty from wood heat. Recently just bought a fan that moves the air without electricity. Works well. I don't like the noise from the fan installed with the wood burner. Stay warm!

 

[Doboy]

Lol, CJ,, looks like I was typing, same time as you! (2 peas in same pod! ;>)


Since 1980, I'm still Burning wood in the garage in one of my homemade potbellys,,, & in the living room fireplace insert it's 24-7,,, & occasionally down the cellar in another homemade potbelly w/ beer-keg BOILER tank on top.
lol, that homemade BOILER is something that I had to try,,, that I just jury-rigged up. I fire it up when it gets really cold out. It'll keep the water around 110*- 120*. (The oil furnace takes the water to 180*. So I think I need to weld up a SS header tank & put it inside the woodburner.)
My Fuel oil furnace hasn't kicked on for 5 years, until now.
lol,,, My son & I just 'serviced' it & fired it up 2 weeks ago, & it might kick on once or twice a night now.
I figure,,,,,,,,,, 550 gallon oil tank, x 5 YEARS = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$! One chunk of change & FREE EXCERSIZE!
BUT,, I'm starting to get old,,,,, & a tad lazy when it comes to carrying wood downstairs. :<(
Man,,,,, I wish I put in an outside wood burning boiler, 30 years ago!

 

[hoplovestofish]

Woodstock soapstone Fireview wood burning stove. Purchased in 1995 still going strong.

 

[Fish-N-Fool]

We have electric heat pump as a backup and whole house generator with dedicated propane tank. But we heat with a Buck wood stove on first floor living room. The house is well insulated. It keeps the entire house warm to our standards and the only time the heat pump has been on is if we let it burn out and leave it out for a period of time. I think it has been on around 3-5 cycles this year so far which I figure is good to have it kick on and cycle every 3-4 weeks.

I'd say out here where I am in rural southern Perry cty close to 50% of homes on township roads heat with wood to some extent. Move into the small villages and that changes significantly, but quite a few wood burners out my way.

 

[Fat Bill]

Built my house in 1983 and designed my heating system. I have a natural gas boiler and a Chappe (French made) coal boiler plumbed in series. I also have a bypass for when we are not home. In the living room we have a soapstone stove that we use until temperatures are in the mid-30s during the day and then go to the main heating system. We figured that the coal boiler saved about $100 per month in the mid 80s. Can't imagine the savings now. I use wood during the day and augment it with anthracite coal during the nights. I use about 1 ton of anthracite per year. Lots of firewood though. I also put in a "coal door" when I built the house and can't imagine how many steps I saved throwing the wood into the basement rather than carrying it through the house all winter long.

 

[Songdog]

We have electric heat pump as a backup and whole house generator with dedicated propane tank. But we heat with a Buck wood stove on first floor living room. The house is well insulated. It keeps the entire house warm to our standards and the only time the heat pump has been on is if we let it burn out and leave it out for a period of time. I think it has been on around 3-5 cycles this year so far which I figure is good to have it kick on and cycle every 3-4 weeks.

I'd say out here where I am in rural southern Perry cty close to 50% of homes on township roads heat with wood to some extent. Move into the small villages and that changes significantly, but quite a few wood burners out my way.

Thanks for the percentage stats.A buddy and me were out driving around and were just noticing that the declining number of wood piles and lack of smoke coming from chimneys.Just figured that we are getting to be the minority around here in northern Pickaway for burning.Guess it has to do with lots of city moving this direction.Not to mention that most of this new generation out here wouldn't dream of doing work that don't involve pushing a button and looking at a screen.lol !!

 

[Misdirection]

I have an electric furnace with heat pump in a ranch we had built in 2008. We also have two zero clearance wood burners, one in the family room and one in the basement. If it gets below 30, one of the woodburners is running and will heat the whole house. We use the furnace ductwork and fan to circulate the heat. It works quite well.

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk

 

[Ron Y]

I heard that the outside boiler's use twice the wood as a inside airtight, is this true ???