Man. I've been running only my wood stove today, and no central. Holy crap does it get warm. I like it.
8 hours of stove heated my house to about 74f.
8 hours of stove heated my house to about 74f.
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Wood Stove
- Thread starter The Hammer
- Start date
Type of wood?
Mostly curious because as I understand it, different woods throw of more or less heat and are better or worse for burning. I don't have the option of doing this in my house though, so haven't been able to experiment.
Have done wilderness firefighter training, though. They had us attempt to get close to a burning brush pile about the size of a barn. Yes. It gets very, very, very hot. You cannot get near it at all. Then, experiencing such things, you really understand what wildfires are and mean for their ecosystems. And why humans are bloody stupid for getting in their way under any circumstance.
Mostly curious because as I understand it, different woods throw of more or less heat and are better or worse for burning. I don't have the option of doing this in my house though, so haven't been able to experiment.
Have done wilderness firefighter training, though. They had us attempt to get close to a burning brush pile about the size of a barn. Yes. It gets very, very, very hot. You cannot get near it at all. Then, experiencing such things, you really understand what wildfires are and mean for their ecosystems. And why humans are bloody stupid for getting in their way under any circumstance.
I'm burning pine wood, which if I remember correctly burns pretty hot.
I've done fire fighter training through the military (every sailor a firefighter), and been through some intense training, like being immersed in a roll-over (when the smoke above you catches fire).
Wildfires are intense. They can be good for some environments, and not for others. It can actually make the soil more fertile again.
Edit: nevermind, pine is a softwood and burns a pretty low amount of BTUs per cord.
What Firewood Burns The Hottest? - Asheville NC - Environmental
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We Never Know
No Slack
Burning pine will clog your flu with creosote quicker than other wood. On the farm as a kid we burned red oak, white oak and blackjack.
What do you mean? I buy pre-split cords, but I tend to chop them a bit more myself, depending on fuel/kindling needs.
Yeah, pine is just really common in the PNW. It's very abundant.
Heyo
Veteran Member
All wood has basically the same energy density - per weight unit. So denser wood has more energy per volume. (Assuming the same humidity.)
"While hardwoods take longer to catch fire and will burn longer, softwoods ignite quickly and burn fast. That makes softwoods ideal for getting your fires going. Once your fire is burning well, you can add in some hardwood logs to keep your fire burning hot and long."
Yep, that's the trick.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I remember for 17 years when we had only a wood stove to heat the whole house since we had no other heat.
For the last 14 years we, now I, have lived in a house with central heat and the electric bill is through the roof. A couple of weeks ago I got a new furnace since the old one died. I have it set to 60 at night and 65 during the day but I might turn it down since it feels like a heat wave, since the old furnace was not working at full capacity for so long.
dybmh
דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
So, we bought a little cabin in the woods this past year. It has a small wood burning stove in the bedroom. The previous owners left us some firewood for it, but, none of it is split, they're whole logs. Small logs, maybe... 3-4 inches thick. Based on my experience with fire, I don't think they're going to burn efficiently.
I asked the chimney sweep who was over about it. He said they should burn fine.
My wife tried to start a fire in it, and it was a fail. I didn't pay much attention to what she was doing, but, the logs never really got going.
The problem is, the logs are so small. Trying to split them is going to be interesting. It's a very small stove, so I can't even buy wood, pre-split, and use that. The previous owner was a contractor; I think he used a chop-saw to process these little logs down to a size that will fit in the stove.
I imagine, if it's going to work at all, I need to get a good strong fire going with kindling first. But, if the logs aren't going to burn efficently, then I'm going to be stuck pretty quick since the stove is so small, it'll be full of half burnt smoldering log.
That's my story.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
You get better with practice. Though it has been a good forty years for me since I did that. But we had one room in a shed that we used for wood The idea was to hit the two walls that ran north south with each split.
We had mostly oak, elm, and box elder. I am almost afraid to go there now. The elm is probably all long gone, Dutch Elm disease, and the oak was being hit by oak wilt.
Our house was pretty old. It was started before the Civil War and had several addons done to it.
Heyo
Veteran Member
Get one of these:
It's made to hammer on the back so you can split logs even if you are bad at aiming.
(Don't do that with an axe or hatchet, you'll ruin them.)
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
We had an old fashioned axe. We would usually try to go after trees that had already fallen in our woods. That way they were already at least partially dry and it seemed a shame to cut down a healthy tree. Just wrap a chain around a log, attach it to the tractor and tow it home. A chainsaw would cut logs, but we had to hand split them.
Our wood burner is old and will not burn whole logs well so we bought an electric log splitter. Far easier than swinging an axe and well worth the investment
We Never Know
No Slack
I think they were talking about what I would call small limb cuttings. Whole pieces that are small.
@dybmh was talking splitting small logs, a horizontal wood splitter would handle anything from about 2.5 inches to 20 inches without the danger of mis****s with an axe
Get one of these:
It's made to hammer on the back so you can split logs even if you are bad at aiming.
(Don't do that with an axe or hatchet, you'll ruin them.)
The misspelling of "faithful" should motivate more forceful hammering, too.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
A good ole chisel and sledgehammer does fine as well. Plus its good pt.
We Never Know
No Slack
3-4 inches thick to me isn't a log. Its a small piece of wood.
Not when you have 8 steres to split. I'd wind up like me on the left and muscles like Hercules on the right.