Heating Costs

[tjkubota93]

I hear that all too often. Do people really not know that many of these type pests can fly?

Dragging them around in your pickup gives em a head start

 

[AllDodge]

I hear that all too often. Do people really not know that many of these type pests can fly?

Why do they need to fly? If they crawl or fly they move slow. If their in a tree that gets cut up for fire wood and trucked across the country, they spread faster. I hear adds from the Forrest service asking folks not to bring in their own camp fire wood. The pine beetle wiped out ever pine for miles a few years ago around here.

Firewood Map - Don't Move Firewood

 

[goeduck]

Northern Nevada and SE Oregon are dry areas, firewood would be a little scarce. Unless deserteagle71 goes to the western side of Oregon but that is a really, really long haul and require one big firewood truck.

 

[deserteagle71]

Wow! How do you haul it? How much do you use? And from where in OR?

Burns, Oregon area. Right on the edge of some vast forests. Used to be several different guys there that I could get firewood from but now I can find only two. Too much hassle with government agencies to get permits to cut wood. Even trees that have been burned, or that bark beetles have killed - government position is they'd rather see it rot than cut down and burned as firewood. There are areas in northern Nevada where range fires have killed a lot of trees but the BLM refuses to issue woodcutting permits. Used to be 20 years ago, anything "dead and down" could be harvested with a permit but no longer.
Burns is about 250 miles one way from me. Below is how I bring it in. About 5 cords at a time and that lasts me a couple years. I invested in a super-efficient stove with a catalytic converter 20+ years ago; it was expensive but worth every dime. I feed it twice a day and it keeps the house ~75 degrees, the way I like it.

As far as helping bark beetles spread...it is many, many miles to the nearest pine tree from where I live. This is desert around here. They just have to starve to death!

 

[goeduck]

Burns, Oregon area. Right on the edge of some vast forests. Used to be several different guys there that I could get firewood from but now I can find only two. Too much hassle with government agencies to get permits to cut wood. Even trees that have been burned, or that bark beetles have killed - government position is they'd rather see it rot than cut down and burned as firewood. There are areas in northern Nevada where range fires have killed a lot of trees but the BLM refuses to issue woodcutting permits. Used to be 20 years ago, anything "dead and down" could be harvested with a permit but no longer.
Burns is about 250 miles one way from me. Below is how I bring it in. About 5 cords at a time and that lasts me a couple years. I invested in a super-efficient stove with a catalytic converter 20+ years ago; it was expensive but worth every dime. I feed it twice a day and it keeps the house ~75 degrees, the way I like it.
View attachment 591904

As far as helping bark beetles spread...it is many, many miles to the nearest pine tree from where I live. This is desert around here. They just have to starve to death!

Impressive! Trees grow here like weeds so it is interesting to see how you do it from a desert. Very nice. What brand of CAT stove?

 

[deserteagle71]

Impressive! Trees grow here like weeds so it is interesting to see how you do it from a desert. Very nice. What brand of CAT stove?

Blaze King.

 

[Oaktree]

Curiously, how do you west-coast guys get a fire to burn all night with nothing but softwoods? Is it just a fact of life that you've got to get up & feed the stove at 2am?

 

[ultrarunner]

Well... if West Coast includes the SF Bay Area not much worry about burning all night as wood burning stoves are no longer allowed in any new construction and measures keep being floated to remove existing on change of ownership... has not happened yet.

On the coldest winter nights it is Spare the Air where wood burning is simply banned and roving smoke inspectors follow tip lines...

I have all the oak firewood I could ever use and can't give it away locally...

At the new place which is vacant it was 52 inside so I turned on the gas furnace and bedroom gas fire place... they did a good job bringing the temp to 72 for my test.

The next day I checked the utility smart meter for my home which shows usage and real time cost...

$12 (1.60 Therm) in natural gas to go from 52 to 72... for the 10 hours I was there...

Home is 3200 square feet with high ceilings... triple pane windows and 2x6 framing.

Also have radiant in the shop and downstairs... was used one time when new... the builder owner said he never felt cold in the shop which is similar to a walk out basement

The solar PV generated 12 kWh surplus that day... enough to run a portable electric heater for 6 hours???

 

[Diggin It]

Y'all keep a'remindin' me of reasons I ain'ta never gonna live in CA.

 

[deserteagle71]

Curiously, how do you west-coast guys get a fire to burn all night with nothing but softwoods? Is it just a fact of life that you've got to get up & feed the stove at 2am?

I don't believe you read my post above. I feed my stove twice a day, once in the morning when I get up and once in the evening before going to bed (and at my age I go to bed early!).

Most people don't understand how a good airtight catalytic converter stove works. Once the fire is going, good and hot to activate the catalytic converter, you turn the air down and the fire in the stove appears to go out.


But if you look up inside at the catalytic converter, it is glowing orange.


The thermometer in the top of the stove is pointing at 1,300 degrees here, and that big pot of water next to it is hissing steam to keep the air in the house from being too dry.


There is a precise control for the air on the side of the stove to regulate how much heat the stove will put out. This setting, on a day like today (25 degrees), keep my house at around 75 degrees.


I have burned wood for heat all my life. There is simply no comparison between the stoves of years ago and a modern airtight stove with a catalytic converter. No smoke comes out of the chimney - the catalytic converter burns it all up just as it does in your car. Stoves not designed this way waste most of their heat up the chimney with the wood burning up much too fast. I would love to burn hardwood but since it is not available around here I make do with juniper and pine. The other thing that helps with long burn times is to not use small pieces of wood. Bigger the better.