Some of you may know that I started graduate studies last fall, and my wife and I agreed that we would use propane for heat since wood cutting is very time consuming. We got our new contract and my wife observed that my cutting firewood saved us over $1200 in heating costs each winter. I'll cut some wood to have on hand for that bitter week that comes in January (sub-zero Fahrenheit) but it'll be warm sweaters after that's gone. Anyone else out there depend on firewood for heat? Do you cut your own? Neighbor Al
Hi Al It hardly ever gets cold enough here to use a heater. I just light a lantern or two. It's mid winter and we're having temperatures in the 30's centigrade. Andrew
my only source of heat is wood. I have a outside wood boiler system. t heats my 30-45 shop and the house thru a force air radiator. I also have a smaller wood stove for inside for when a small fire is needed. as I get older I am pondering a propane furnace tho. it was fairly cheap at .75 cents at year. I have access to down and dead wood on my own property and family land. it would just rot if I didn't burn it.
For roughly 20 years I solely used wood for heating my humble home. Then, for 4 winters I used coal, getting tired of all the work and hassle involved with getting enough (preferable FREE) wood. Then 2 winters ago I had natural gas heaters installed (working with coal gives a lot of very fine black dust) and now have about halve a winter's worth of wood! Next winter I hope to have more wood for my stove........ Nothing beats a good working stove to heat the house! All the best, Wim (When my house was build, I had electric floor heating installed. Never really used it! Pure waste of money, and far to expensive too )
Where I live, even though it's a heavily forested island, unless you have your own supply of good hardwood firewood, the economics of using wood to heat a house is not worth it. I installed reverse cycle air conditioning (heat pumps) about 12 years ago. It reduced power and heating costs by 1/3 and paid for itself over about 5 years. Walk in/turn on... It's much cheaper than buying wood or using gas. It's below 0C in the mornings here at the moment; we run our main living/working/kitchen area at 18C. I still cut and gather wood for outside fires. Cheers Tony
Depends on where you take the wood from. If it's from someone's private land without permission, it's classified as poaching. If it's from the roadside, not so much, but some Councils don't approve. If you are friendly with a neighbour who has a farm on which fallen trees can be harvested, the you are in luck. But ordinarily wood has to be bought the same as coal, gas etc.
All land in the UK and the things that grow on it are owned by someone. If you start chopping down trees you will end up in prison!
Trevor is correct. Any firewood that can be collected from roadside or public place has to be fallen wood (even then, some frown upon it!). Unless on your own property or with permission, cutting standing timber is an offence.
Apart from the legality aspect, in general we're a small island with a large population. If everyone who wanted firewood just went and cut it down, I daresay within a few years, vast swathes of the countryside would be denuded of trees. It's the same reason, for instance, we generally don't go out shooting up the local wildlife for food - it's ecologically unsustainable. Clearly, it's a different situation in other countries where the local population density is very low...
Ah! It is related to the ownnership. It's the same here. I thought that it was simply forbidden to heat with firewood!!
@David Shouksmith Even here in Tasmania, where there are plenty of trees, illegal wood cutting is a problem for wildlife conservation. Cheers Tony
Since I have more than enough land to keep me in good supply of wood, I've always used firewood to heat the house. Both for the central heating and the hot water supply, of course. Practically free. Only cost is the fuel and oil for the chainsaws and tractors and the electricity for the cutter and splitter. But I have become a bit convenient lately, and half a year ago I drilled a deep hole in the ground and bought a rock–water heat pump. A very nice investment. Sure, I suddenly got an electricity bill where I practically had none at all before, but it's worth it! I'm a quite lazy person. But I still have the boiler and kept half the accumulator water volume. Just for those power cuts that happen every winter when a storm comes in. Half the water volume from what I used to have is still enough to keep the house warm (self circulation from the accu tank in the cellar) and the water hot for at least 24 hrs wintertime.
@Carlsson Last time I was in Sweden I saw one of those heat pumps you have. I was very impressed. Cheers Tony
Ah, yes, they do a good work for little electrical energy. I have a hole of 200 m straight down through the rock to pick up the heat. I assume they are common elsewhere in the world too, though. At least in areas where you need much heating half of the year, or more. Perhaps not in Tasmania. Oh, well, it's possible to also cool the house slightly with them...
@Carlsson There are many parts of Australia that are have cold winters, but this technology is rare here. The headquarters of the Australian geological service, Geosciences Australia, uses this technology (Canberra). Cheers Tony
Here traditionally homes were heated with Turf or Peat, a nice clean fuel but labour intensive to harvest. I thinks it's ourselves and the Finns that have the highest use. For the past few years all new builds have to have geothermal or air heat pumps. Centuries ago the country was covered in forests, but uninvited guests arrived and destroyed them.
Geo thermal energy? Excelent. I didn't know that it is possible to do by yourself. What temperature is the water "in the hell"?
Juan, it's not really geothermal energy that's the technology behind heat pumps. I would have to go much, much deeper to get down where you can use geothermal energy. On Iceland they can use it practically directly under the surface, though. The water temp at 200 meters is around 4-6 degrees where I live, but it gets lower during winter when the heat pump slowly is taking energy from the surrounding bedrock. A heat pump just need a decent collector temperature to work. It is like an inverted refrigerator. One reason to drill a hole down the rock is because it's a convenient and effective way to place the collector. It's also common to just simply dig the collector tube down in the soil or even sink it to the bottom of a lake. All it does is to heat the collector fluid that goes out from the pump a few degrees, so as long as the surrounding area is warmer than what goes out of the pump, it will work. The outgoing temperature might even be below freezing, and thus the surroundings also can be below 0 celsius, just as long as it's slightly warmer than the pump fluid. A deep hole is most effective since it's generally hold a pretty stable and high temperature of appr. 3 to 8 degrees celcius.
I use wood for heating the main living room, some wood can be scavenged but most has to be purchased. I pay £75 for "a load" which is about one and a half cubic meters. I keep that room very warm as my elderly mother feels the cold. My bedroom/office/workshop/junk store is heated by a tilley table lamp when needed.
