home heating

[Norman Albers]

After moving a lot a firewood for the cold month of January, I am gratified to see that my electric bill for 30 days is less than $45. This with only a handful of early morning (4 am) heatpump runs with the t-stat set at 65 F. Bear in mind that I have a very mid-sized woodstove, 1.6 cubic ft. firebox, in a 1900 sq. ft. house built in 2003. One and one-half bedrooms are my piano shop.

[cjohnso0]

Sounds cold in there

 

I'm interested in the expense of the firewood over the 30 days, including any labor to chop / move the firewood (as time = money in my book).

 

Also, what part of the world do you live in? Cold climate? Moderate? I'm not sure of the heating cost with wood where I live, but it would (wood?) make a difference.

 

Oh and one more, what's your typical electric bill?

 

Sorry for the inquisition, and I'm not trying to come off badly if it sounds it, I'm interested in the circumstances, as I head with oil and no wood, and it's pretty costly.

 

Thanks

[Norman Albers]

The point is that I have not been cold. One has to work to circulate the heat. I use one or two (9 or 12 inch) floor fans running on low. I live in SW Oregon with "moderate" temps. January had frequent lows in the low 30's, with highs in the low 40's. I cut the firewood, and used to live in a smaller home. As I said, the monthly power bill without the electric heatpump is about $45. As before I live on acreage with plenty of mixed woods to clean up and thin, and already I have half of next years wood split and in piles for drying this summer. That aspect is nice, getting to work and bank ahead on your fuel. Commonly folks around here pay perhaps $100 to heat in these cold months. Yes it is a lot of "shovelling wood", but I never carry it far. Outside I take good loads in my electric garden cart (wheelbarrow) right to the inside garage door, where I put the wood on a trundle cart (like a little old lady grocery or luggage carrier) to wheel it right next to the stove. These tools take the heavy work out of it. I am almost 60 years old, mean, lean, and good with a chainsaw. My hydraulic logsplitter arrives today and I am excited. For $1100 I get 350 pounds of steel from Rockford, Illinois, USA. I am partly retired and choose to do this, as long as I reasonably can. If I knew how to post a photo I'd show you the fire in the firebox. . . . . . . . . I looked up data on the 3-ton heatpump. The COP at 30 degrees F is 3.0. At 40 degrees it is 3.6, then at 50 degrees it is 3.9. Thus in the moderate tail ends of the heating season I will use the electric source more, as load gets light and it's hardly worth getting a good fire going, except maybe once in the morning.

Edited February 27, 2009 by Norman Albers

[Xittenn]

I used to live on some acreage in Nova-Scotia. We had a wood stove and a wood furnace. Our yearly consumption of trees was enormous. We could easily go through a dozen and a half fifty foot tall trees. Then there was the cost of the gas to cut them into manageable size for splitting. And then we had to split them which at the age of six was no daunting task. We still woke up at 5:30 in the morning in the middle of January with ice sickles hanging from our noses 'cause it was 40C below!

 

[Norman Albers]

One must build and inhabit appropriately architected structures for every different setting and climate. I have shared what I have done here because I was fearing to be eaten up with the difficulty of maintaining a large house. This is not at all the case, and it matters that this resource is renewable and not carbon being taken out of the Earth. Remember my house was built in 2003 and is excellently insulated, with Low-E windows and such.

[Xittenn]

Yeah, I don't think we had any insulation..............ok maybe a little. The house was built right around the same time as sheet rock replaced plaster. There are still many individuals in Canada in these sorts of circumstances. It's too bad, that's a lot of trees, renewable or not!

[Norman Albers]

This is a lot of re-educating, rethinking, and rebuilding, my friend!!!

[Norman Albers]

My electric power bill for 30 days from mid-Feb to mid-March is only $40 and I am grinning. I have left the heatpump thermostat at 65 F, so only on freezing mornings has it come on a time or two after 4am, before I am up to load the woodstove. Understand that I live maybe sixty miles from the Pacific Coast, in land which gets about 23" of rain yearly, in the winter half. Pretty much I am only harvesting madrone, sixty-seventy feet high and showing crown death with weak leaves, or totally standing dead brown.

[iNow]

Pretty much I am only harvesting madrone, sixty-seventy feet high and showing crown death with weak leaves, or totally standing dead brown.

 

I don't know what this means. Btw... Nice job on the electric bill. That even makes me grin on your behalf.

[Norman Albers]

This land grows tall fir and pine trees, and much of it was logged in the past forty years or less. A mix of hardwood trees is the first succession, and they are mostly madrone, a wonderful smooth-barked low-ash fuel, and oaks. The madrones reach the end of their life-cycle and show loss of the top crown leaves first. Usually dessication proceeds downward over just another year. In the process I always clear dead lower braches and shrubs and generate burn piles throughout winter and spring. I try to burn them fairly small and as soon as I can light them with matches and paper. Cool burns leave charcoal, or terra preta. I could send you a piece of terra preta Norma.

Edited March 26, 2009 by Norman Albers

[Xittenn]

Why 'Norma' are you suggesting health issues? I couldn't help myself...............

[Norman Albers]

Just branches and leaf piles my friend. My charcoal piles lack the phosphorus kick from dead fish, so maybe I should get some, huh, before I burn the piles??? The neighbors will be enchanted...

Edited March 27, 2009 by Norman Albers

[Xittenn]

Maybe you could make it a BBQ!

[Norman Albers]

YOU GOT IT. I said this back in a thread on terra preta and this is an important topic, read it. A real fish fry. Many people gathered up whatever they could along the Amazon River floodplain as the river receeded. There are long swaths of black, fertile soil still there after 600 years.

[Xittenn]

I did my research!

 

 

bye bye:-(

Edited March 28, 2009 by buttacup

[Norman Albers]

I work too hard for my firewood to try this personally but I recently read of some guy has a charcoaling stove, which burns off the gas of a small wood charge, leaving carbon charcoal. If you bury this you have "permanently" sequestered carbon. Maybe I can figure out charcoaling of a few piles of fir bark which I have. Hell, I could maybe sell chunks to city folks, what do you think, $5, maybe $10? [bIGTEETH]