Reducing my dependence on fossil fuel

[oakwoods]

This is my 31st year heating with wood (half my life). With the skyrocketing fuel prices, the firewood pile looks better all the time. I've been using the BX24 to haul logs out of the woods for six seasons now. My back thanks the little orange work horse every day. I can't imagine getting firewood out without it. I estimate that my total fossil fuel input to cut, haul and split 7-8 cords of wood at less than 10 gallons (diesel for the Kubota and gas for the saw and splitter). The firewood saves me approximately 1,000 gallons of fuel oil. At today's prices that's big money.

 

[Ductape]

I'm with you ! We've been heating with wood for years. Only way I can afford to heat our 1800's house (seriously!!). Unfortunately, we don't have enough land to sustain my firewood habit, which leaves me scrounging wood where ever I can. I do my best to stay a full season ahead, so it usually works out just fine.

 

[groundcover]

Copy that ! I thought my payback at just over a hundred years but every time it gets dark the price of fuel goes up ten cents ! Looks like I will break even with the tractor, saws,trailers,splitter and stoves in under eighty now :laughing:

I have been heating with wood for many years but now I would really like to heat domestic hot water as well. Would love to stick a wood gasafication boiler and water storage in the bacement and shut down the oil boiler that pretty much runs just for our hot water but guess that would run my break even point out to a hundred fifty years!

 

[DAY]

As they say, wood heats you twice! My 1783 PA stone dwelling has insulation in the attic, and nowhere else! I supplement the natgas with wood, and Spring seems to come later every year. There are federal programs that give a tax credit for weatherizing old places, but you need to owe taxes to benefit!

As we said in the sixties, "save water- shower with a friend." That goes double for sleeping warm. . .:thumbsup:

 

[oakwoods]

I put in a Harman wood-fired boiler that is tied into my oil boiler. A circulator keeps tha water jacket in the oil boiler hot and that's the source of our domestic HW. During the warm months I switch over to my roof top solar HW heater that has an electric HW tank back-up. We still run the oil boiler in early fall and late spring when firing the wood boiler doesn't make sense.

 

[groundcover]

Oakwoods , what do you burn, 8-10 cords or so ? Sounds like a sweet set up you have there. Funny no one sells a wood fired hot water heater. I have seen the wood stove water jacket and one that Lehmann's sells and a couple that hippies have made out of old gas fired water heaters on utube , but then it is back to the $10,000 boiler .

 

[Grateful11]

We pulled our old Insert stove out last fall after finding 4 good sized cracks in
the firebox. We paid dearly for that this past winter. There's going to a woodstove
back in this house by this fall one way or the other.

 

[oakwoods]

I burn about 6 cords in the house and another 2 in the garage/workshop. I also cut 2 cords more or less for my mother-in-law to burn in her little Vermont Castings stove. M-in-law is 85 and still going strong.

 

[groundcover]

Still beats burning oil! As we said in the '70s OPEC kiss my ash !

 

[jmanatee2]

I am with you, We heat completely with wood in the winter,... mid Dec to Mid Apr we have our boiler paired up with the oil boiler so we get our domestic hot water from the wood we burn too.. In the winter we shut the oil of completely.


This has saved us thousands.