Most efficient way to burn wood

[jimmpatrick]

It is the same thing as a rick.

I looked at an old university textbook the other day. Like many of the better ones nearly 50 years ago it was American. In the introduction the authors said all examples were in the metric system because that's the way things were going. Is there still no sign of America joining the rest of the world in the metric system? All volume is measured in litres or fractions thereof. One cubic metre is 1000 litres.
You seem to have ricks, cords, pecks, bushels, pints, quarts, gallons, cupfuls, various spoonfuls in cooking and I don't know what else to measure volume. How many gallons are in a cord for instance?

 

[chopped]

Good Question As my searches in yahoo etc brought no results even close lol I remember in school being taught the Metric and they said that the US would convert within two years. (35 years ago)

I looked at an old university textbook the other day. Like many of the better ones nearly 50 years ago it was American. In the introduction the authors said all examples were in the metric system because that's the way things were going. Is there still no sign of America joining the rest of the world in the metric system? All volume is measured in litres or fractions thereof. One cubic metre is 1000 litres.
You seem to have ricks, cords, pecks, bushels, pints, quarts, gallons, cupfuls, various spoonfuls in cooking and I don't know what else to measure volume. How many gallons are in a cord for instance?

 

[clemsonfor]

I looked at an old university textbook the other day. Like many of the better ones nearly 50 years ago it was American. In the introduction the authors said all examples were in the metric system because that's the way things were going. Is there still no sign of America joining the rest of the world in the metric system? All volume is measured in litres or fractions thereof. One cubic metre is 1000 litres.
You seem to have ricks, cords, pecks, bushels, pints, quarts, gallons, cupfuls, various spoonfuls in cooking and I don't know what else to measure volume. How many gallons are in a cord for instance?

Yea but why would you want to know how many gallons are in a cord? We just have a system that is not really based on other units of measure, i know its hard for some to comprehend esp if your not american, heck its hard to tell some "low information voters" who live here what a cord is after you explain it and the math to get to CUft!!!!!!

I understand metric and can use it as well and convert most stuff, in relative size pretty easy, most americans (not those on here really) cant even fathom it even though its easy???

But what you said thats the problem, a face cord and rick and other things are regional terminioligy and have no real "legal" definition. Therefore its not a unit of legall trade yet still used.

Kind of like common names for plants or trees or flowers. One part of a country calls it one thing and others something else.

 

[GBOUTDOORS]

We do not have a fan on our Harman stove and it heats the whole house just fine. The way your house and stove are setup makes a BIG differance in the heat distribution . Have the gas fire place going right now as I did not bring in enough wood for this morning and all this snow over night caught me off guard and I just don't feel like heading out just yet still on second cup of coffee. Just one more point someone talked about burning mostly pine. We burn a mix of both pine and oak as that is what our woods are made up of and it's FREE. We have about 9 full cords stored from cuttings done last January that we will start to use next fall. I will have another 10 to 12 cord stacked by the time May rolls around and that's just cutting up all the downfalls from this winters storms. That will put me 5 years ahead with wood thinking about selling a few cord to buy some new toys for the tractor

 

[Chilly807]

When we built our house 4 years ago we used in-floor radiant heat with a geothermal heat source. We also added a Regency FJ1100 freestanding woodstove located in the center of the house (kitchen). The stove is rated to heat 1100 sq. feet, our house is 1550 sq feet of living space + 450 sq feet of attached garage.
Frankly, I think it costs me more money to burn wood than it does to fully use the geothermal system, and we aren't buying any wood, just cutting it from a neighbour's property. By the time I factor in gas for the saws, diesel for the tractor, power for the splitter (electric), wear and tear.. etc. it adds up.

Having said that, I love the heat from the woodstove and it was a must for emergency heat anyway. We burn between 1 and 2 cords (128 cu ft) per year. Usually we set the thermostat of the geo system at 67-68 degrees F, then boost the heat level with the stove on evenings and weekends. We both work weekdays, and the cats have enough fur that 67 degrees won't bother them at all during the days.

If we were home all day, I'd say our wood consumption would be about 2-3 cords per year.

I'd recommend buying a stove that is correctly sized or even on the small side for your house and burn it hot, rather than having a large stove and a smouldering fire. If we'd bought the stove sized for 1600 sq feet it would drive us out with the heat, since we use it together with radiant heat from the floor slab.

Sean

 

[buickanddeere]

Any stove packed full and then having the airflow dampened down to a smouldering fire. For all the difference between two and four cords of wood . It's not worth any significant upgrade expense to save two measly cords of wood.

 

[clemsonfor]

When we built our house 4 years ago we used in-floor radiant heat with a geothermal heat source. We also added a Regency FJ1100 freestanding woodstove located in the center of the house (kitchen). The stove is rated to heat 1100 sq. feet, our house is 1550 sq feet of living space + 450 sq feet of attached garage.
Frankly, I think it costs me more money to burn wood than it does to fully use the geothermal system, and we aren't buying any wood, just cutting it from a neighbour's property. By the time I factor in gas for the saws, diesel for the tractor, power for the splitter (electric), wear and tear.. etc. it adds up.

Having said that, I love the heat from the woodstove and it was a must for emergency heat anyway. We burn between 1 and 2 cords (128 cu ft) per year. Usually we set the thermostat of the geo system at 67-68 degrees F, then boost the heat level with the stove on evenings and weekends. We both work weekdays, and the cats have enough fur that 67 degrees won't bother them at all during the days.

If we were home all day, I'd say our wood consumption would be about 2-3 cords per year.

I'd recommend buying a stove that is correctly sized or even on the small side for your house and burn it hot, rather than having a large stove and a smouldering fire. If we'd bought the stove sized for 1600 sq feet it would drive us out with the heat, since we use it together with radiant heat from the floor slab.

Sean

Use to set our heat at 65 wihen we used a heat pump. Had to use blankets everywhere! Bedroom is about the 67 mark but the tv room were cold under about 74f now, just use to the wood heat. Were in the south and have poor insulation so my house would not be this warm with the current wood use if it was say in canada, but for here it works and saves a good bit do to no or under insulation in the parts with it.

As far as reloading, thats why i wanted a large cat stove that can burn a long time. I load it 2x per day sometimes 2.?? if i have a hot catch up fire after i get home before the night load. We both work as well but i can get buy with the 2 loads a day in the winter and 1 per day in the shoulder seasons and still have coals to reload on after 24+ hours.

 

[dave1949]

I looked at an old university textbook the other day. Like many of the better ones nearly 50 years ago it was American. In the introduction the authors said all examples were in the metric system because that's the way things were going. Is there still no sign of America joining the rest of the world in the metric system? All volume is measured in litres or fractions thereof. One cubic metre is 1000 litres.
You seem to have ricks, cords, pecks, bushels, pints, quarts, gallons, cupfuls, various spoonfuls in cooking and I don't know what else to measure volume. How many gallons are in a cord for instance?

There is a lot of metric used behind the curtains here. Manufacturing, medical, chemical and some engineering is metric-based. Practically all containers are labeled in US and metric units from liquid soap (32 ounces, 946 ml) to motor oil.

Getting metric into day-to-day common usage is a problem of inertia. We grow up developing a sense of how far 1/4 mile is, or how thick 1/2 inch is for example, but have no feeling or innate sense of how much space a hectare covers, or how thick is 3 mm without doing some mental conversion. It's a shame really because people don't realize how much going metric would simplify their ordinary calculations.

It takes several years to develop a mental picture of quantities and distances and we still have many things anchoring us to the US system. Residential construction and property deed descriptions are examples. Pipe sizes and tires are two examples I can think of that are still based on the US system, even if the sizes are converted to metric in metric-based countries.

It will be a while before people feel comfortable with cubic meters of firewood.

 

[clemsonfor]

There is a lot of metric used behind the curtains here. Manufacturing, medical, chemical and some engineering is metric-based. Practically all containers are labeled in US and metric units from liquid soap (32 ounces, 946 ml) to motor oil.

Getting metric into day-to-day common usage is a problem of inertia. We grow up developing a sense of how far 1/4 mile is, or how thick 1/2 inch is for example, but have no feeling or innate sense of how much space a hectare covers, or how thick is 3 mm without doing some mental conversion. It's a shame really because people don't realize how much going metric would simplify their ordinary calculations.

It takes several years to develop a mental picture of quantities and distances and we still have many things anchoring us to the US system. Residential construction and property deed descriptions are examples. Pipe sizes and tires are two examples I can think of that are still based on the US system, even if the sizes are converted to metric in metric-based countries.

It will be a while before people feel comfortable with cubic meters of firewood.

I would say that 75% of tires are in Metric sizes?? Not Ag tires or commercial tires but probably 90% of truck tires are metric. Think p275-70-16 or something. That first number is in Milli meters, that middle is a % which is not system based, it means height is in this example 70% of the width which is in MM in this case. The last number is a standard measure as its in inches.

Now truck tires for like offroading are like 35/14/16 or something, that would be a 35" tall tire, thats 14"s wide.

 

[DieselnHooters]

There is a lot of metric used behind the curtains here. Manufacturing, medical, chemical and some engineering is metric-based. Practically all containers are labeled in US and metric units from liquid soap (32 ounces, 946 ml) to motor oil.

Getting metric into day-to-day common usage is a problem of inertia. We grow up developing a sense of how far 1/4 mile is, or how thick 1/2 inch is for example, but have no feeling or innate sense of how much space a hectare covers, or how thick is 3 mm without doing some mental conversion. It's a shame really because people don't realize how much going metric would simplify their ordinary calculations.

It takes several years to develop a mental picture of quantities and distances and we still have many things anchoring us to the US system. Residential construction and property deed descriptions are examples. Pipe sizes and tires are two examples I can think of that are still based on the US system, even if the sizes are converted to metric in metric-based countries.

It will be a while before people feel comfortable with cubic meters of firewood.

Canada has adopted the metric system many decades ago_ the '70s ?_ and its still not fully integrated. For most folks both young and old it goes like this> I am 6ft 2 inches tall and weigh 230 pounds, I commute 30 km to work on a car that does 8 liters per 100 kms , but consumes less when the temp goes above 20 celsius. I live on 40 acres hence I pay taxes on 13 hectares .....you get the picture ?