Wood Stoves: what's new in the world of wood heat.

[Nailhead]

Originally Posted by MeanMoe

I bet that frost heave is an issue in your part of the country also. Friends who live south of Denver say that their basement slab move 3" depending on the season. I agree that, in your case, the install would not be user friendly.

Frost line is somewhere around 24" here (when we actually have a winter), 200 miles north of Denver.

I cannot imagine frost is to blame for their basement slab movement-- I would wager that it has more to do with clay.

As for wood heat, I'll stick with my little Bosca for now.

Lottery winnings and a custom home? Bring on the masonry stove and the personal pizza chef.

[Wingnut037]

Question for you folks from California, any experience burning eucalyptus or avocado wood? Good to burn either straight, or mixing with hardwoods. Only personal experience is from burning the pine and oak we had growing up.

We are hopefully moving into a home with a wood heater here soon, and those seem to be the common woods on CL.

[Manuel Garcia O'Kely]

Wood burning may be regulated by the air quality board depending on where in S CA you live.

Ukes burn hot and fast, sappy, poppy stuff, IIRC.

[NJjeff]

Originally Posted by Nailhead

Frost line is somewhere around 24" here (when we actually have a winter), 200 miles north of Denver.

I cannot imagine frost is to blame for their basement slab movement-- I would wager that it has more to do with clay.

As for wood heat, I'll stick with my little Bosca for now.

Lottery winnings and a custom home? Bring on the masonry stove and the personal pizza chef.

Your right it's not frost heave.

It's Expansive Soil.
It should be rephrased, expensive soil it's more accurate.

[Wingnut037]

Originally Posted by Manuel Garcia O'Kely

Wood burning may be regulated by the air quality board depending on where in S CA you live.

Ukes burn hot and fast, sappy, poppy stuff, IIRC.

The house is above 3k feet, which I believe removes any restrictions. Looks like I will be avoiding the Uke, thanks.

[kobudo28]

We are all well into the wood heating season at this point, enjoying the warmth that wood heat brings. With that, I thought that I would share some thoughts on buring the "bio-bricks" now that I have had some time with them for anyone who may be interested.

Pro's: easy to handle, very little pre-burn mess, low smoke, very low ash, low pollutants (if you care), good heat, they are dry, no bugs in them wither so they can be stacked in your cellar, etc without concern. They take up less space than a cord of word.

Con's: a bit more expensive than cord word, depending on your type of stove they are a bit of a pain in the ass. My stove is a front loader with the draft in the door. These bricks expand when they burn and often fall against the door and the draft pushing smoke/fumes out of the stove. A top loading stove would be better for these in order to get a full load in the stove.

That's it for now and it is January so there is more burning to come.

[small_e_900]

I've been burning them too.
So far, I've burned about a ton of them.
I agree with you. Cleaner burning, no bugs and they stack so well.

Around here, a cord is $250-275 dumped in the yard.

The bio-bricks are $325/ton.

I'll use them again.

This is my first year with a pellet stove as well.
I'll use four or five tons of pellets this year.
I won't know until a get an oil delivery, but I've used probably 400 less gallons of oil so far, and I'll use no kerosene. Last year I used 250 gallons of kero.

The pellet stove will be paid for this year in oil savings alone.

I should have done this a decade ago.

[WIBO]

Originally Posted by Yellow Iron

I get 8 cords ready and burn 4 to 6 and have about 2 left for the next year.
Most the wood I burn is on the smaller size. Oak ,maple, ash, birch.
My stove is 10 years old and the second Cat is done. Ill need a new one this year. They state that big tempture swings cause them to crack Ie a hot fire then add wood that may be wet or have snow on it can cause a swift drop in cat temp and cause cracking.
Id would like to see the new cat design.

Nice Springer...

[garandman]

Originally Posted by Nailhead

What fun is that?

No chainsaw, no forest outings...and no heat during power outages.

The "latest thing" for my friends who heat with pellet stoves is an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).

Some just buy a new one and get on with it - pellet stoves seem to have pretty modest requirements so you don't need a very big one., But one of the guys on NASIOC who works at home a lot :bought a large older UPS from a data center for a few hundred bucks, then replaced the batteries for another few hundred bucks. So he can run modest daytime loads for 4-8 hours before he even gets out the generator. He likes this setup because the switch over is automatic and will also run his sump pump (much higher load than a pellet stove). He has a portable generator (Honda 2000i) and only has to use it when there's an extended outage. His dream is to add solar panels to charge up the UPS, don't know how feasible that is.

OT but I learned in passing that the city of Fairbanks, AK has a UPS that can run the city for up to 15 minutes, giving them time to switch over to a backup power system.

[Big Bird 928]

I have a pellet stove in our house, the no electricity = no heat kindof buggs me, but thankfully I live in an area where I don't have to run it all the time and if I really needed it I have an inverter on my truck and a generator that either one will more than run it in a pinch. My truck has 6 batteries total (4 golf cart and 2 regular) to run an inverter that is capable of running my table saw among just about everything in the house.

[CodeMonkee]

Originally Posted by small_e_900

I've been burning them too.
So far, I've burned about a ton of them.
I agree with you. Cleaner burning, no bugs and they stack so well.

Around here, a cord is $250-275 dumped in the yard.

The bio-bricks are $325/ton.

I'll use them again.

This is my first year with a pellet stove as well.
I'll use four or five tons of pellets this year.
I won't know until a get an oil delivery, but I've used probably 400 less gallons of oil so far, and I'll use no kerosene. Last year I used 250 gallons of kero.

The pellet stove will be paid for this year in oil savings alone.

I should have done this a decade ago.

I didn't have a dry place to store wood this year and I wanted to try the sawdust logs anyway. During XMas break I decided to heat only with the logs. I get them for $2.50 per 3 at the local grocery store (actually the cheapest place around shy of going direct to the manufacturer which is local). It was fairly cold during that time - freezing or less during the nights - and I would burn 6 to 9 logs per 24 hour period, keeping the fire going more or less around the clock (I would start it from coals in the morning).

I burned about twice as much as I thought I would. They are a hassle for me to get started at first, but once going they work okay, most of the time I can get them going from coals okay.

In comparing them to firewood, you really have to compare them by BTU, in which case they don't compare well for cost.

Once the weather dries out (late spring), I intend to put some concrete pads on two sides of the shop (front and side) and have a lean to put over the side to store wood and other stuff under, then get some cords of hardwood to burn next year. But I will still rely mostly on the electric furnace I have for weekdays - it is just not worth it to build a fire in the morning before I leave for work, and I only need heat when I get home until I go to bed and turn the heat completely off - unless it is really cold out.

[small_e_900]

I'm using Enviro Wood Briquettes.
They're made in Berwick Me.
A ton is 84 packages @ 24 pounds each. There are 12 two-pound bricks in each package.

They light really easy, because I use Girl Scout Sticks

I'm using between one and two packages a day, now that it's really cold.

On weekend days I burn all day. I use about two packages.

During the week, I light a fire in the evening and burn through the night. I use about one package a day.


One of the advantages of the bio bricks is that you don't spend a lot of your btu's burning off moisture like you do with cord wood.

Cord wood may be cheaper, shit, it's free if I want to start cutting my woodlot, but I'm getting too damned old to be doing tree work.

I'll back the truck up to the bio brick pile and and then back the truck up to my wood room and save the tree work for the young bucks.

[Mambo Dave]

[Manuel Garcia O'Kely]

Damn hardwood lasts longer than I thought - Last night after I thought the stove long dead, I laid a fire for this AM....went to bed.

Came down this AM and open the stove to light it up...nothing but a coupld of sparks....at some point the thing went up all by itself - and I checked for heat and sparks - too funny.

So much for that idea!

[Piston]

Had the Fireview going for 19 days straight before letting it go out again. Normally I'm good for 4-7 days or so and then it goes out from not being around enough.
It even kept the house temp respectable while putting new windows in 2 weeks ago.