Heating and fuel is the theme of today:
Took delivery of an extra top up of 2.6metric tons of brown coal this morning. Bunkers are now very full, and this prompted us to start thinking about conversion of another larger animal pen to act as primary ( larger) bunker for next season.
300Kg of older and dryer coal bagged up and moved to furnace room with the aid of an electrically propelled wheel barrow. That'll keep the furnace running another ten days or so.
Emptied the furnace dust pan ( daily activity) and did a full de-coke ( weekly action), then finally mopped out the furnace room floor...whoever was the imbecile who had that floor tiled pale grey????.... a quick look in the mirror will reveal the culprit:-( Still it looks good when clean and because it shows up dirt really well, serves as a useful incentive to keep things ship-shape in there.
Finally I bagged up and brought in chopped firewood and kindling for the stove sufficient for the coming week.
That's enough for one morning I think . hope
Now time for lunch...
All that chopping, splitting and hauling about is the reason I have abandoned wood as my primary heat source. I have reached the age when it is sometimes impossible to do those chores and there is no one else to do them when I can not.
It was also nice to be able to flip a switch this morning when the inside of the house had gone to 15c overnight with the outside temps at -20c. I had the place back to comfort level a half hour and a cup of coffee latter.
I think back to all the times when I walked into a cold house and fought the wood stove all evening to get the temperature comfortable just in time to go to bed.
I am with MB on wood heating.
When I was younger, more fit and lived in New Hampshire, we heated with wood and I put up six cords of firewood each spring and summer to use in the fall.
I moved to West Virginia in preparation of retirement, my task was to convert what had been mostly a weekend and summer cottage to a full-time, year-round residence.
The wood cookstove in the kitchen was replaced with a modern gas unit and the woodstove moved to the cellar where it could more efficiently heat the house and was in closer proximity to the wood supply. It is NOT used as the primary heating system, but would serve as short-term backup if we got snowed in for an extended time, were out of LP gas and unable to get a timely delivery.
The cottage has electric baseboard heating, but this is set only at a maintenance level to keep the pipes from freezing if away. During cold winters of long duration well below freezing, electric by itself at its minimum setting maintains the living spaces at 12 degrees C. Just like living in Scotland.
The living room fireplace was converted to a gas insert, which maintains the main floor in comfort in extended below zero weather. I was advised by a friend ten years older than myself that while cutting wood, splitting it and stacking it is wonder exercise to maintain your fitness and provides great personal satisfaction when in your 40s and 50s, it becomes rather a nuisance in your 60s and slowly becomes impossible by your 70s. He advised me to get a 1000-gallon LP gas tank, a backup genset and modern gas appliances. I did so and have been thankful.
I also decided to support the local economy and have a reliable "younger" handyman who keeps the cellar wood bin full, cleans the gutters, trims the trees, chips and mulches the leaves and small branches, while cutting and stacking the larger limbs suitable for stove wood in an emergency. I repay him with garden vegetables, and reloads from his empty brass for his Remington 760 .30-'06 deer rifle and .357 Ruger Blackhawk revolver.
Barter is alive and well in America's heratland.
Agreed with both MB and Charles. I wouldn't want to rely on heating the house solely by burning wood. You're right its gruelling and challenging work, requiring an almost year-round activity.
Like you Charles, we've converted what was effectively a weekending cottage into our permanent residence.
But we have been lucky enough to be able to install modern heating and cooking while retaining the historic wood-burning stoves. We've had to sacrifice a bit of living space to do this of course, but we retain a pretty much bullet-proof fall-back system that will keep us warm, cook our food and boil water, all completely grid- independent.
Interestingly, our Aga-type wood burning stove is still in frequent use, as we're convinced that food cooked on it has a better taste. This stove is located in a reception room at the very heart of the house, and from stone cold can have that room up to comfortable living temperature ( 21 C) in 20 minutes or so. We're just planning a couple of weeks away, which means the main furnace will be off and only anti-freeze heating of the central heating circuit will be left running. Our expectation is to return home to a very cold house (5 - 10C) and in preparation I brought in wood today that will get burned to give is fast heat in the house while the main furnace gets up to speed, a process that'll take an hour or so in all probability.
Back to opening remarks: Wood burning as a backup and a prep is fine, but modern technology is far more labour saving and would be stupid not to use if its available.
We live in a bungalow with gas ( mains ) central heating, we have a multi fuel stove in the main living room, and we have to use smokeless fuel. When the stove is lit it cuts the gas heating out, with doors open temperature is a minimum 22C - 23C throughout the house. We use about 3/4 ton of fuel over the winter, keeping the fire lit 24/7 through bad weather. Fortunately at 74 I am fit enough carry fuel, clean out the ash and maintain the fire, I dread the time when I am not. The fire as I write this is keeping a pot of coffee nice and hot...... nice.
When we built this place we decided on lpg gas (big bottles) to take care of heating,hot water and cooking as the primary source ,this has turned out well and proved very economical due to the amount of insulation used, But we also wanted a backup hence the wood burning stove ....with the ability to cook and boil water if a grid down event came our way ....but the reality is we use the wood burner most days ....its simple... we love it and it does not use that much fuel ...plus there is nothing like the glow of a real fire , the bonus is wild child will create something on that small hob space...like LS points out the taste of the food is better by a mile ....wild child misses the Rayburn ...but has got to grips with this sucker and our little place is filled with wonderful smelling food most days.
As MB and Charles point out (quite rightly) the work required to maintain a wood burner is hard work especially when age catches you up....age is a sly old bastard ...always giving reminders at the most inconvenient moments.... yep...the bastard comes a knocking on my door a lot lately , but i am lucky to have the sil and grandsons to help out if i need it .
What i particularly hate about sly bastard is the fact he wants me to relinquish my crown and more important my title .....and if i do not....the sly bastard holds all the cards anyway! in the event sly gets me ....guess what....i'm taking the bastard down.....with me !
Sorry SS but you are fighting a battle you can not win!
None of us gets out of this deal alive and all we can hope for is that we make it to "old man" status, even with all its problems.
Dying young is against the survivalist code.
Come to think about it, I have already beaten that bastard, as you call it.
Hauling wood is one way to let the bastard beat you.
I have had two heat attacks. The first one was achieved back when I was 50, while reducing two 75 foot tall oaks into stove sized chunks.
I stopped doing that kind of crap as much as possible and have slipped another two decades past the reaper.
Fact is that I have a big oak down in the back yard right now, but I will not be the one that clears it out.
I still have a wood stove available, but it is on the back porch and used for recreation. It can be moved into the house if necessary for a long term disaster. There is a cord of wood stacked and waiting if needed also. I just hope I never need it.
Its a bloody enigma MB .....me logging up trees...and you crawling under cabin floors ....but i do understand necessities and vanities ....thing is ....does sly bastard understand ? the difference....i fear not !
(3 January 2018, 21:46)Straight Shooter Wrote: [ -> ]Its a bloody enigma MB .....me logging up trees...and you crawling under cabin floors ....but i do understand necessities and vanities ....thing is ....does sly bastard understand ? the difference....i fear not !
The trouble with us men is in our head we are always 18, if only our bodies were.
Having the right tools for the job is not only a great time saver, it also reduced the stress on poor human bodies! We have a rufty-tufty chainsaw for the crappy stuff, and have invested in a nice log-splitter this year (6 tonne ram - lovely!). It has really cut down on the workload for OH - and even I, mere female, gets to play with it! You can have a lot of fun with machinery!