questions about wood

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Category: Heat and Warmth

Wood newbie here. I don't know a lot about it. I do know that I'm still working on heat sources. We have a fireplace. I know that's not ideal for a heat source, that it can actually draw more cold air into the house. But-- I still have to figure that it's going to be better than nothing.

I also know that wood needs to be dried before use and that means I will need to buy firewood that has already been cut and dried.

What type of wood/woods are best to burn to avoid creosite build up? (Is oak one?)

What do people here feel is a fair price to pay for dried oak that is split and delivered and sold by qty of 'truck load' (most likely pick-up truck)?

How much wood would that be (a truck load/pick-up truck load) ? Translated into cords?

About how long does a cord of wood last? (I know, a lot a variables play into this-- but any input along with any necessary clarification is appreciated).

If these questions were covered at a previous point on this forum, please point me to the related link(s). Thanks.

-- winter wondering (winterwondering@yahoo.com), September 08, 1999

Answers

Kind of wood to avoid: wet wood of any species. I've never had trouble with any kind of dry wood that is available around here (western WIS). Oak is one of the preferred woods, along with hickory, maple, cherry, etc. Elm is hard to split, birch gets rotten easily, pine is light and not a lot of heat per volume of wood, and the pitch could cause problems, although I've never had trouble with it, but I only use a little pine for kindling.

Check into getting some kind of insert or stove to fit in your fireplace so you can heat more efficiently.

Price of wood- free is a good price, just got a 2 1/2 ton truck load of oak board ends and scraps delivered to my house at no charge. Not real dry, but this kind of thing might be available from local sawmills. A friend reports a similar size of truckload in another part of the state of dry oak for $35. Don't know about regular split and dry firewood, but it is usually lots cheaper the further you get from cities.

I will have to check into our wood consumption and post about that later.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), September 08, 1999.


A cord of wood here costs me $140 split, delivered and stacked. I buy from the same guy every year, because I know he has good seasoned wood.

We've relied on mainly our fireplace for heat for the last three winters here in NJ, and it's done just fine. Just shut that room off from the rest of the house with a curtain or something. WE live in this den in the winter. It gets so hot we have to open the windows sometimes. We have a ceiling fan we keep on low to circulate the warm air down and the fireplace itself has a heat circulation device inside of it (sorry I don't know the technical name for it) It also has a huge metal swing arm for hanging kettles over the fire, which I thought was "cute" when we moved in 5 years ago. Now our hungry little lives are going to depend on that swing arm. Weird.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), September 08, 1999.


GET A WOOD INSERT!

You will burn MUCH less wood. The new ones are EPA rated and are 70% efficient. After I got an ember pile going, I blasted out heat for 6 1/2 hours on three logs. My Lopi Answer (No, I'm not affiliated in any way) heats my whole 2300 sf house even though it's rated for 750- 100 sf. (It's downstairs, the heat rises).

Yeah, it cost bucks to put in (about 850 + 500 install including two stories of metal ducting.) After watching the guys, I think they are pretty easy to install and you could get a better price.

The wood insert allows me to turn down the oxygen to about 1/3 of what it normally is for long burn times. I love it and it saves me $$ in wood. I can also drop a log in and forget it for hours (big convienience).

Bryce

-- Bryce (bryce@seanet.com), September 08, 1999.


good advice all! hard wood is best, oak, maple,etc. we pay @ 100.00/ cord cut and split..seasoned. eddy

-- eddy (xxx@xxx.com), September 08, 1999.

yes- get a fireplace insert if possible. Will work much better. We pay about $90/cord- delivered. We still do some splitting on it- and stack it ourselves. Any hardwood is good- dry is important. Other stuff burns too- can use softwood to build a quick hot fire in the a.m.- but use a huge chunk of maple or cherry for an all-nighter burn. Yes- oak is good- don't have that here- but it burns well I know.

Re: how much wood? Well-depends on how much house and how much cold. I make sure to have 8 cords available- we burn close to that amount each year- heat only with wood- two woodstoves- and we go down into the 30 and 40 below range.......

P.S. Get a Chimfex stick or two- keep them closeby. Can save your house if you have a chimney fire. also- get your chimney inspected and cleaned now-especially if you don't know what shape it's in.

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), September 08, 1999.



We have an isert in our firplace that sticks out and looks like a stove. I can cook on the top of it. This insert heats our 2800 sq.ft. house. My DH cuts all our firewood so I don't know the selling price around here. Go to a dept. store and buy cases of fire starter logs. They will start wet wood burning. A case of 24 starter logs cost about $9 at Wal-Mart. I saw them in Wal-Mart this week, so that means by cold weather there will be none left.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), September 08, 1999.

Too many variables, WW. Lots of good answers to some of your questions, but burning wood is different in every area. I recommend that you talk to other folks in your area who burn wood as to what type of wood is best. If you don't know any, talk to a local wood stove supplier. Ask various people who sell firewood through the want ads what they recommend.

Where I live, the preferred wood is madrone, but I doubt if anyone east of the Cascade Mountains has heard of it. And somebody was recommending various hardwoods which we don't have here. So you really can't rely on any of us who don't live in your region.

I know that pine (and other conifers, to a lesser extent) are generally considered inferior in term of BTU's and their propensity to cause creosote problems, but again, that may not be true of the pine and other conifers in your area.

I like to let green wood dry two years, if possible, and "seasoned" wood dry for one year. The dryer the better--more btu's per cord, less creosote build up. Creosote in your flue is very dangerous. It can build up and build up, and then eventually catch fire in the flue (this is called a flue fire, or chimney fire) If this happens, it can damage your flue or chimney,and in some cases can even cause the house to catch on fire.

A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet, when stacked. That's a pile four feet by four feet by eight feet, for instance. A half ton pickup can haul a half cord of wood, depending on how wet, what species, and how bad the driver wants to treat his/her vehicle. It's better to have the seller stack it, and measure it.

You ask about oak for firewood. Again, it depends on what kind of oak you have available. For instance here, we have California Black Oak-- good. Oregon White Oak--better. Canyon Live Oak--produces lots of heat, but lots of ashes. Sadler Oak--scrubby. Tan Oak--not sure. If you're back east, you may have Scarlet Oak, Red Oak, or who knows what all, none of which I know anything about.

How long it lasts depends on how air tight and well insulated the house is; the size of the house; the orientation of the house and the windows, and the climate, like how sunny it is and how cold it gets. Then too, it depends on how hot you keep it. You'll burn twice as much wood heating the house forty degrees above outside air temp than you will heating it twenty degrees above outside air temp.

As you can see, you've asked questions which are almost impossible to answer.

Oh, I forgot one other thing, and that's the efficiency of the stove. I burn half as much wood with my present stove than I did at my last house, even though my current house is twice as big. Mostly it's the stove ,but also there was NO sun at the old place.

Good advice about free wood; my sister used to scrounge wood from all over the place: lumber yards, mills, building sites, along the road, etc.

Good luck, and if you buy a chainsaw, be VERY careful; they are really really dangerous. Even experienced timber beasts get injured sometimes.

Al

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), September 09, 1999.


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-- ExCop (yinadral@juno.com), September 09, 1999.


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