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It just got to the point that heating my house with fuel oil anymore is gotten out of sight. I now have to pay 4.00 dollars a gallon for heating oil. I have installed a insert into my fire place and heat with wood. I have 5 acres of woods and get some of my wood from there. I have found I can be very comfortable now and not worry what it is costing me to keep my house temperature around 80%. I also find I am not the only one that enjoys the heat.

reynoldston said:

It just got to the point that heating my house with fuel oil anymore is gotten out of sight. I now have to pay 4.00 dollars a gallon for heating oil. I have installed a insert into my fire place and heat with wood. I have 5 acres of woods and get some of my wood from there. I have found I can be very comfortable now and not worry what it is costing me to keep my house temperature around 80%. I also find I am not the only one that enjoys the heat.

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i also heat with wood i have a wood stove i put in 3 years ago and i love it i get my wood from my brothers woods sometimes or i have a tree trimmer that gives me all the wood i want if i go pick it up at his site hes cutting at it took my electric bill from 600 a month for the 2 coldest months to 200 bucks a month pretty much all winter long so far i havent spent any money to buy wood other then what i spend in gas and oil for the saw and truck so its pretty cheap 3 years ago i had two months in a row of 600 a month heating bill i spent 1400 to put in the stove so i figure it paid for its self the first winter

I have been heating my house for the last 23 years with 75% wood heating, on really cold mornings I will kick on the gas heat to take the chill off then start a fire. I love wood heat, like cutting and splitting as it helps keep me in decent shape, no down side for me.:thumbsup:

On very cold mournings I fire up the propane heaters. Only used 25 gallons this year

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Carscw said:

On very cold mournings I fire up the propane heaters. Only used 25 gallons this year

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25 gallons wouldn't go very far here in northern NY. When it below -0 I also fire up the oil furnace in the morning to warm my floors up.

reynoldston said:

25 gallons wouldn't go very far here in northern NY. When it below -0 I also fire up the oil furnace in the morning to warm my floors up.

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I remember using a oil furnace growing up on cape cod. Down here they have no clue what a oil furnace is.

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Carscw said:

I remember using a oil furnace growing up on cape cod. Down here they have no clue what a oil furnace is.

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I suspect the same thing could be said about up there and propane . :laughing: And you would really loose them if you said you were going to air your tires with propane.

reynoldston said:

It just got to the point that heating my house with fuel oil anymore is gotten out of sight. I now have to pay 4.00 dollars a gallon for heating oil. I have installed a insert into my fire place and heat with wood. I have 5 acres of woods and get some of my wood from there. I have found I can be very comfortable now and not worry what it is costing me to keep my house temperature around 80%. I also find I am not the only one that enjoys the heat.

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I have a similar insert and was wondering if you have s liner and what size and material.
I have no liner. The fireplace damper was removed. It's an interior chimney that is brick and the chimney the woodburner uses is 12"x12" with a stainless cap. A sweep that I had look at it and cleaned it when we moved in. He removed the old damper and said it had great draw and just have it swept every 4 cords. I Only burn occasionally but would like to burn regularly and thinkin of maybe installing a liner. It hasn't been swept in 5 years but I haven't burned more than 2 cords in that time.
Any thoughts?

SandburRanch said:

I suspect the same thing could be said about up there and propane . :laughing: And you would really loose them if you said you were going to air your tires with propane.

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Very true.

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Parkmower said:

I have a similar insert and was wondering if you have s liner and what size and material.
I have no liner. The fireplace damper was removed. It's an interior chimney that is brick and the chimney the wood burner uses is 12"x12" with a stainless cap. A sweep that I had look at it and cleaned it when we moved in. He removed the old damper and said it had great draw and just have it swept every 4 cords. I Only burn occasionally but would like to burn regularly and thinkin of maybe installing a liner. It hasn't been swept in 5 years but I haven't burned more than 2 cords in that time.
Any thoughts?

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I did my home work when I install mine. The old fire place damper was also removed from mine and my chimney is brick with a 12X12 tile liner. My wood burner has a 6 in. stainless steel chimney liner insert with a cap on top which I bought as a kit with the heater. The hotter you can run your chimney the better everything will work. I burn over 19 in. long 12 face cord a year and clean my pipes every other year so that is 24 face cord between cleanings. I am running mine hot in the day time and cooler when I go to bed and it never goes out. I try to keep 3 to 4 ins, of hot charcoal to run my fire in and only clean out the ashes once a week and that is only about a haft of a steel pail of fine ash a week. In the real cold weather I will run my oil furnace for a short time in the AM to heat my floors. I like my house warm but if it gets too warm I open the windows to cool it off. I do cut some of my own wood but have found I buy most of my wood from a person that cuts wood for a liveing and only charges 65 dollars a face cord and for that type of money its too much work to cut much of my own.

Don't let the liberals know!! Haha!!!! They will make a new tax on firewood heat! Sad but true.

Been burning wood only for the last 27 years, during the winter 24/7.
I burn about 8-9 cords a year,..have not swept the chimney in 3 years.
The furnace gets only used for backup.

Bison said:

Been burning wood only for the last 27 years, during the winter 24/7.
I burn about 8-9 cords a year,..have not swept the chimney in 3 years.
The furnace gets only used for backup.

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Are you burning 8 to 9 full cords or face cords big differance? I am heating my house 24/7 with around 12 face cords. What type of unit are you heating with? 3 years without cleaning your chimney I would say you are pushing it for a chimney fire unless I am missing something here or are you useing a outside wood furnace.

reynoldston said:

Are you burning 8 to 9 full cords or face cords big differance? I am heating my house 24/7 with around 12 face cords. What type of unit are you heating with? 3 years without cleaning your chimney I would say you are pushing it for a chimney fire unless I am missing something here or are you useing a outside wood furnace.

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Full cords, the house is 2200 ft single level.
i am using a cast iron Yotul 600 indoor woodstove.( this stove is hungry)
The firewood i use is beetle killed jackpine an burns clean as a wistle. i have only 1/2 an oil barrel of ashes per winter.
I check the chimney once in fall before fireseason and it is always clean.
To keep a clean chimney it helps to have a roaring hot fire for a few minutes at least once daily.

pic, at least 8 of these loads.
..the stove

Okay what is the difference between a full cord and a face cord? Or how do you measure each?

mowerguy said:

Okay what is the difference between a full cord and a face cord? Or how do you measure each?

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I believe a full cord is two face cords.

A full cord is 8'X8'X4' , a face cord is 8'X4' by how ever long you cut the wood as a rule in inches. The average around where I live is 16 inches but I cut mine 19 inches.
It all dependents on how long of a peace of wood your stove will burn. Anyone one selling fire wood in this part of the country ( northern NY) sells hard wood and in face cords. Hard wood and soft wood doesn't mean anything as far as the hardness of the wood goes but the type of tree it comes from. Some pines can be hard (soft wood) and poplar is soft (hard wood).

Here wood is measured in a rick, this is the best definition I have ever found about cord and rick.




A cord of wood equals 128 (4x4x8) cubic feet of wood (stacked tightly). The farmers almanac describes a cord as a stack of wood 4x4x8 with stacked to provide an occasional hole for a squirrel to pass through but not the cat chasing it. A cord of wood has a legal definition. Depending on local (state) laws, the stacking requirements may be codified.

A rick, rack, or face cord is only a part of a cord of wood, has no legal definition, and varies locally. A rick or rack is the amount of firewood stacked by 4' by 8' by one row of the length of the stick (thus if each stick is 24" then this rick would be 1/2 cord, but try 14" or 17"). A face cord is the same but the lengths of wood are such that several stacks will eventually add up to a cord (2 stacks of a 24" rick would equal 1 cord, as would 3 stacks of 16", 4 stacks of 12").

I guess I don't know all there is to know as to what a cord of wood is. When I sold my standing woods to a person that was selling fire wood he payed me by the pulp cord as to what ever that is? He was taking out the wood by the logs and then would run it through a fire wood processor.