Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[4570Man]

Natural gas cost me $7.50 per million btus. Wood cost me virtually nothing plus some sweat. $10 in fuel converts a lot of logs to firewood. Natural gas is off the table or you’d never consider pellets. What’s the cost of pellets vs propane?

 

[goeduck]

Pellet stoves seem more like a novelty item and less a useful heat source.

I hope to install a pellet stove in my shop. We have long but mild winters and when we get below freezing it often is only for a few days or maybe a few weeks. I would like to have a pellet stove with a 3 day hopper on it out there. But in the house I do not see them as being cost effective given as much free wood as I have. I cannot keep up with the windfalls as it is. In the shop a longer loading stove (the 3 days) would be very handy.

 

[John_Mc]

That 25 oak probably weighs as much and heats as much as a 40 pine.

I think most would certainly agree with you that Oak makes a better firewood than Pine or Douglass Fir - if you have it.

There is more than 2.5 times as much wood in a 40" round as there is in a 25" round. Yes, Oak had more BTUs for a given volume, but not that much more. Depending on the species of Oak, it can have anywhere from about 25% to 40% more than Douglass Fir. I haven't run the calculation on Pine (and at any rate, the species of Pine makes a big difference: Red Pine has 35% more BTUs than Eastern White Pine.)

 

[hunt4570]

Woke up this morning with a 65* temp now it's 42* and the wood stove is going, what a difference 10 hrs makes.

Two days ago it was 85 and I had the air conditioner blasting, 32 this morning and I just fired up my wood stove!

 

[hunt4570]

You guys with all this nice hardwood are making me cry!! Nearing the coldest part of the continent, we have the worst firewood!! White birch ( most people cant seem to get a year ahead so they burn green or slightly seasoned) Jack Pine (only dead standing stuff is saved for firewood) and Black/white spruce. I dont mind burning Poplar/Aspen. The ole stove uses a bit of spruce when its -40 outside plus a wind!!
And everyone wants the nice big logs, as one cutter said everyone only wants the one nice straight piece from each tree!
Nearing 150 cords this season, almost break, hopefully not break-down, time!

Man that's a lot of trees to cut down! They don't get very big do they?

 

[hunt4570]

There are many people who use them as a primary source of heat, finding it a lot more convenient to buy a ton of dry pellets rather than a cord of firewood which can vary in quantity and quality, depending on the integrity of the seller.

But to me, I wouldn't have a wood stove without my own wood... seems to defeat the purpose! I can count on one hand the number of cords of wood I've bought in my 64 years, mostly after just moving somewhere and needing the wood quick, and I've still NEVER seen a pellet tree out in the woods!

 

[hunt4570]

handi comparison calculator
Fuel Comparison Calculator for Home Heating | Coalpail.com

I don't know.. that comparator only lists "wood" , doesn't say if its oak, pine, or balsa wood...

 

[hunt4570]

I hope to install a pellet stove in my shop. We have long but mild winters and when we get below freezing it often is only for a few days or maybe a few weeks. I would like to have a pellet stove with a 3 day hopper on it out there. But in the house I do not see them as being cost effective given as much free wood as I have. I cannot keep up with the windfalls as it is. In the shop a longer loading stove (the 3 days) would be very handy.

I used to have a Longwood furnace, dual fuel, and it would burn 5 foot logs. Had a kerosene injector on it so when the thermostat called for heat, the injector would kick on and when the logs got going the kerosene would kick off and those loge would go for days sometimes!

 

[hunt4570]

YEOWZA!!! Catching up on my reading I guess!

 

[fruitcakesa]

But to me, I wouldn't have a wood stove without my own wood... seems to defeat the purpose! I can count on one hand the number of cords of wood I've bought in my 64 years, mostly after just moving somewhere and needing the wood quick, and I've still NEVER seen a pellet tree out in the woods!

That is my story too. Other than one year on an island in Lake Ontario, where I had to buy the wood [I still had to cut and haul it}, it has always been my own woodlot.