Moving Firewood

[teeravis1]

This is off topic I know but I am going to throw it out anyway (It's not my fault someone already has mentioned it : ). Speaking about the efficiency factor in wood stoves. How about the pellet stoves! They are much more efficient than the indoor wood stoves, and way much more efficient than an outdoor boiler, plus they are much cleaner and less work. You buy the pellets for 3 to 4 $ per 40 lbs and a good pellet stove is anywhere from 1500 to $3000 and you can get the stove type to heat up to 3600 sq ft, and a forced air furnace type to heat even more sq ft. I have been thinking of buying a pellet stove for the easy clean and efficiency factors. The thought is heavy on my mind because it has been a cold winter here, probably only to get worse and propane costs are gonna kill me, they did last year and this winter is much colder already plus propane prices are definetley not going down. From what I have read online folks that have bought pellet stoves for their primary heat cut their cost of heating in half or better as compared to heating with propane. So does anyone have any expierence with pellet stoves or have any facts about them from using one? What are your thoughts? I know there are a lot of knowledgable people on here so thought I would throw it out. Sorry for hi-jacking the thread and going on a tangent, but after reading about all the wood burning stuff it got my thinker on the topic!

 

[daTeacha]

Do you have corn stoves in your area? Depending on the price of corn, which is high right now and I personally don't see a big drop coming, the things are cheaper to run than the pellet stoves. If you are in a farm community, you can find dried corn at any feed mill. As a bonus, some of them supposedly don't need any kind of chimney, although that idea doesn't sit well in my mind.

If you are considering a pellet stove, you should at least look into a corn burner.

I burn wood because the stove was here when we bought the house and the woods in which we live provides enough fuel each year without me cutting any live trees. I just cut up dead wood, fallen branches, etc. As I type, there are 3 large dead trees and one medium sized one waiting to be dropped, cut, and split, which will provide enough fuel for next winter and beyond. There are some pretty good sized branches that came down in the last winter storm, too, and a more or less dead maple that seems intent on hanging in there, but may be dead in the spring. In addition, my daughter and son-in-law live in a 6 acre woodlot and have no woodburner, so I can always harvest wood there or through the storm clean-up crew that my church has to help out the community when the need arises.

OOPS, I just read that you're a yoopie. Your growing season isn't long enough for corn to be available cheap. Sorry. Most of your wood is either pine or birch, too, isn't it? That means a lot of volume for the amount of heat you get compared to the oak, locust, and hickory us southern folks have. Sorry again. However, I'm really jealous of anyone living in the U.P. I spent a summer at Houghton and 2 weeks on Isle Royale years back and simply love the place. When are you guys going to secede from Michigan and form your own state anyways?

 

[dynasim]

When I was a kid, I used an extended "toothbar", with the teeth about 30" long, to haul wood. The wood was randomly piled on dirt, and we would run the loader with the toothbar under it(much like hay, which was the original purpose of the toothbar". We would have to hand load sometime, but it was easy.

Chris

 

[SPYDERLK]

When I was a kid, I used an extended "toothbar", with the teeth about 30" long, to haul wood. The wood was randomly piled on dirt, and we would run the loader with the toothbar under it(much like hay, which was the original purpose of the toothbar". We would have to hand load sometime, but it was easy.

Chris

Yes, I think a good way to do it. Same general concept as #35.
larry

 

[joe48]

Outdoor boilers are exceedingly inefficient. They are made for people who have trash wood in their way. Buying wood to feed one of those beasts isn't something I would suggest to my worst enemy.

There are many new high tech high efficiency boiler/furnaces on the market most from europe ,some from the US. I saw one from Norway at the farm show that burned wood or coal and with no smoke. Sorry I can't remember the brand name.

 

[Bill Barrett]

There are many new high tech high efficiency boiler/furnaces on the market most from europe ,some from the US. I saw one from Norway at the farm show that burned wood or coal and with no smoke. Sorry I can't remember the brand name.

Here is one.
Greenwood Wood Furnace - Wood Boiler

 

[ctjstr]

This is off topic I know but I am going to throw it out anyway (It's not my fault someone already has mentioned it : ). Speaking about the efficiency factor in wood stoves. How about the pellet stoves! They are much more efficient than the indoor wood stoves, and way much more efficient than an outdoor boiler, plus they are much cleaner and less work. You buy the pellets for 3 to 4 $ per 40 lbs and a good pellet stove is anywhere from 1500 to $3000 and you can get the stove type to heat up to 3600 sq ft, and a forced air furnace type to heat even more sq ft. I have been thinking of buying a pellet stove for the easy clean and efficiency factors. The thought is heavy on my mind because it has been a cold winter here, probably only to get worse and propane costs are gonna kill me, they did last year and this winter is much colder already plus propane prices are definetley not going down. From what I have read online folks that have bought pellet stoves for their primary heat cut their cost of heating in half or better as compared to heating with propane. So does anyone have any expierence with pellet stoves or have any facts about them from using one? What are your thoughts? I know there are a lot of knowledgable people on here so thought I would throw it out. Sorry for hi-jacking the thread and going on a tangent, but after reading about all the wood burning stuff it got my thinker on the topic!

We've been looking pretty hard at one. Our neighbor has one. Our houses are both pretty new and both about 3500 sq ft. I'm averaging about 300/month for propane, plus another 150 for power in the cold season, Sometimes more. Neighbor had about the same useage and his propane consumption was cut by about half or slightly more. Power useage about the same. He figures he's saving about 1,000 per year with the conversion, although I think its a bit less, using the above numbers. For me, routing the exhaust will be a bit of a pain and will boost the cost to about 3,000, so I'm still debating. Pellets here are about 200/ton.

 

[daTeacha]

When I was a kid, I used an extended "toothbar", with the teeth about 30" long, to haul wood. The wood was randomly piled on dirt, and we would run the loader with the toothbar under it(much like hay, which was the original purpose of the toothbar". We would have to hand load sometime, but it was easy.

Chris

Around here, a toothbar that long would qualify as manure forks, being generally used to facilitate picking up large amounts of "used hay" that is otherwise pretty tough to get hold of. The usual bucket edge kind of slides over the fibrous stuff while the forks or teeth poke into it and lift it nicely. The one I made up extends about 10" and works very nicely in conjunction with the grapple for all kinds of things.

If you have sheep, you get a lot of wasted hay mixed in with the manure and long teeth on the bar are very nice to have.