my fire wood life cycle with hoist!

[BLSXJ]

I moved into my place 3 winter's ago. Starting next winter I will be heating my house with my own locally sourced, carbon neutral, gmo free. fire wood.
for the last few winters I've been burning wood I purchased when we moved in (tandem load of logs).

Here's my system with lots of pictures.... cause everyone (except dial up people) like pictures.

Step 1... grow the trees! this takes many years and some "management" of your wood land


Step 2... Cut down, cut up, split and stack
I cut the tree up into 16" pieces right where it falls... this keeps the saw dust and a lot of the mess in the woods.
I then load the rounds into a small trailer pulled by atv. the rounds are then split as they come off the trailer and the wood is stacked.
My wood storage is located under a screened in porch and is divided into 3 sections.
each section holds ~10 face cords (or 425 cubic feet). the idea is I'm always going to be 2 years ahead, so that the wood has enough time to dry.

this year I'm pulling from the middle section (wheel barrow is in front)

 

[Egon]

Nice storage area.

 

[BLSXJ]

Step 3. the Hoist

For the last 2 winters I have hauled the fire wood up a flight of outside stairs, a recycle bin at a time. that sucks!
So in the 4th section of my wood storage area... I built a wood hoist.
The plan was to build something that could lift a weeks worth of wood. here it is just past section #3 of the wood storage area.


I built the basket (or cage) from 1.5" tubing, some expanded mesh and some rect tubes.
The basket holds about 4 or 5 wheel barrow loads of wood




The opening is roughly 2ft by 4ft and the basket has 1" of clearance on all sides.

 

[BLSXJ]

step 3.5

more wood hoist details
Here is the basket raised up in the screened in porch.
I used a hoist from princess auto (harbor freight for Canuks) rated at 440lbs single line or 880 double.
I built the bracket for the hoist from scrap steel. It rests on two truss's and on a supporting wall.

 

[BLSXJ]

Step 4... the last 30 ft

From the hoist, I take a arm load at a time in to the house.
I'm burning in a Enerzone Solution 2.5 ZC. its one of them new fangled 2 stage burn units.



I've added a forced air distribution kit... to help push the hot air down into the basement of the house, which really helps keep the house at a nice even temperature.

 

[Rustyiron]

You make it look like fun:thumbsup:
A thought, if you had casters on your "basket", could you roll it over to the stack your pulling from eliminating one handling??
You have a very nice set up for your fuel supply logistics! I heat 100% with wood and fully understand working smarter not harder.

 

[oosik]

AH - by Jove, I think I have it. The basket is hoisted up thru a hole in ceiling. Then the firewood is taken into the house. The "hole in the ceiling" must be under a roof so that your snows have no effect. Very clever.

 

[MossRoad]

Nice job. :thumbsup:

 

[BLSXJ]

I will have to admit.... I'm not 100% on wood.... its probably closer to 50%.
The wife and I are away from the house 12 hours a day, 4 days a week. and despite my efforts... the dog wont tend to the fire.
the whole heating system is a air source heat pump (good to freezing) then a propane furnace. its very hard to figure out the electricity the heat pump uses, but my best guess is I'm running 50% wood, 40% propane and 10% electric.

 

[BLSXJ]

just noticed the lean of the wood pile...:ashamed: