Cobleskill
Treehouser
I have heated pretty much exclusively with wood for 35 years. I really like not giving my dollars to some oversea country that probably hates us, plus not paying the tax on top of that. The heat is pretty nice too.
Post Your Favorite Wood Burning Stove!
- Thread starter MasterBlaster
- Start date
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woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
Curling up by the wood stove after lunch has to be one of the more accessible pleasures in life. 
My dearly departed cat would have agreed that being under the stove is a good way to snooze. Being inside didn't work out for him too well once.
My dearly departed cat would have agreed that being under the stove is a good way to snooze. Being inside didn't work out for him too well once.
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
I've said before when I sold firewood I made about as much per hour as I did at my regular job .Although times have changed and a dollar doesn't go as far ,all told I save nearly as much per hour spent on the firewood verses paying the electric bill .Tonight for example it took me all of 5 minutes to fetch a wheel barrow full of oak .Big deal .
About every second year my wife will moan a bit about all the work of heating the place with wood.
Then I run the numbers for her, and that shuts her up for another couple of years.
Because, yes, it is a lot of work, but with the horrendous oil prices ( $2/liter) here the numbers look something like this:
30 cubic meters of hardwood equals 3500 liters of oil equals $7000 ( yes, that was seven thousand dollars)
Then I run the numbers for her, and that shuts her up for another couple of years.
Because, yes, it is a lot of work, but with the horrendous oil prices ( $2/liter) here the numbers look something like this:
30 cubic meters of hardwood equals 3500 liters of oil equals $7000 ( yes, that was seven thousand dollars)
Thor's Hammer
Wolfish. Sometimes Bites.
Ho much do you pay for wood pellets Stig?
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #56
I wonder if we have wood pellets over here? I've never seen them.
Cobleskill
Treehouser
Ya gotta go further north, Butch. They are popular around here. About $200-$225 a ton.
Thor's Hammer
Wolfish. Sometimes Bites.
Worlds biggest pellet plant is in Florida
http://www.bruks.com/Global/PDF/References/Green Circle/GreenCircle_EN_0812_web.pdf
Cobleskill
Treehouser
Seems like an odd place to make pellets.
Reddog
TreeHouser
If I am not mistaken that is most all exported.
I Remember seeing a number in one of the trade mags that like 75% of the pellets made in the US are exported.
SkwerI
Treehouser
We have the biggest surplus of wood. More trees than most areas of the country and the least need for firewood.
A big outfit near me is taking wood for free right now (and even offering to pick it up at the jobsite) because they have a supply contract to fulfill and not enough wood to fulfill it. They have a big grinder and run dozens of semi loads of mulch per week out of there, but the yard is just about scraped clean right now. I thought they were sending it to a power plant in Tampa but more likely they are sending it to that pellet plant.
A big outfit near me is taking wood for free right now (and even offering to pick it up at the jobsite) because they have a supply contract to fulfill and not enough wood to fulfill it. They have a big grinder and run dozens of semi loads of mulch per week out of there, but the yard is just about scraped clean right now. I thought they were sending it to a power plant in Tampa but more likely they are sending it to that pellet plant.
Thor's Hammer
Wolfish. Sometimes Bites.
I think that plant is Swedish owned. Lots of foreign companies are setting up pellet plants in the US and exporting the pellets. It makes more sense than just buying raw timber, as pellets are far more energy dense for shipping, and the US has (currently) plenty of raw material.
Cobleskill
Treehouser
They ground up a bunch of apple trees here last winter that I think were exported to China. Gotta ask around to check on that.
350-400$ per ton.
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
$400 a ton,good grief coal would be cheaper .
brendonv
Tree Hugger
Does anyone recommend a ceiling exhaust over a wall exhaust for any reason...or vise versa?
Porkbrick
TreeHouser
this don't look pretty, but it worked great. my home brew wood heat hot-tub. i cut the compressor tank in half, put a divider between the top and bottom halves, coiled copper heat exchanger in the hop half, lined the whole thing with a mix of pearlite and furnace cement for insulation. one wheelbarrow of good, dry, wood would heat the tub (around 300 gallons) up to 110-114 degrees in three to four hours. oh... and it all fit in the back of my truck
brendonv
Tree Hugger
Ha, I've been waiting to do that!
Awesome.
My biggest concern was finding a suitable tub. What are you using?
Awesome.
My biggest concern was finding a suitable tub. What are you using?
Porkbrick
TreeHouser
friend of mine runs a winery in my home town, that is a fermentation tank that had a broken top. i cut it in half and voiala, food-grade tub. if i do it over tho i think i will use something smaller, a stock tank or some such. as fun as it is, how often do you really hot-tub with 8 people?
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
You get better draw with a straight pipe, and it is generally subject to requiring less cleaning, and is easier to clean, is my experience.
Cobleskill
Treehouser
Probably cheaper to go straight up too.
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
If you do put your chimney through a wall, it's good to have caps on both ends of the horizontal so that you can push the brush through to clean, inside to outside.
candoarms
TreeHouser
I see this thread is a couple of years old, so I hope you folks don't mind if I jump in here and add a few comments and photos of my own.
This first picture is front view of my Daka central wood burning furnace, made in Pine City, Minnesota. I made a trip to the factory and purchased my furnace there in February 2010.
The Daka wood furnace is tied in next to my propane-fired forced air furnace. The Daka also has forced air. The two furnaces share the duct work in the home. The propane furnace was once our only source of heat in the house, but it now serves only as a back-up heat source, which kicks in only when we're away longer than a full load of wood burn, or about 8 hours.
This next photo shows the duct work which the two furnaces now share. Dead center in the photo is the cold air return, which feeds directly into the bottom of both furnaces. The two round tubes above come from the wood burning furnace and are fed into the hot air duct work above the propane furnace. Inside the large duct, the two round tubes have 90 degree angles installed, facing upward, which prevents all but a very small amount of recirculation between the two furnaces........in other words, almost no blowback.
In the following photo you can see the hot water tube that runs from my wood burning stove to my water heater, which provides the home with free hot water all winter long. There is no pump. No pump is needed. The system operates all on its own, so long as no gas bubbles get trapped in the system. The little black canister at the top is an automatic air vent. Should any gas bubbles form, the automatic air vent removes them, allowing the natural circulation process to continue. There is a similar tube running from the bottom of the water heater to the wood burner. Cold water enters the wood burner from below.......gets heated by the burning wood in the firebox.....then exits the furnace and enters the top of the water heater. A tridicator (fancy gauge) is located at the top of the water heater, which provides us with temperature and pressure readings. A manually adjustable indicator on the dial provides a warning to the operator when the temperature and pressure become too high.........at which time the pressure relief valve can be manually operated if desired. The pop-off valve will function entirely on its own, should the operator fail to manually relieve the pressure.
Here's a better picture of the black automatic air vent, as well as the tridicator gauge. Mounted between the two is the pressure pop-off valve.
This last photo is of the back of the Daka wood burning furnace. Shown here is the optional hot water tube, which is installed off to the left side of the firebox (as seen from the front). The upper tube is the hot water supply which has already been heated by wood and is heading back to the water heater. The lower tube is from the bottom of the water heater and enters the back of the wood burner as cold water......or maybe a bit warm already........as the system is continuously circulating.
Promise not to get too critical of me here. I installed the whole thing myself.
Joel
This first picture is front view of my Daka central wood burning furnace, made in Pine City, Minnesota. I made a trip to the factory and purchased my furnace there in February 2010.
The Daka wood furnace is tied in next to my propane-fired forced air furnace. The Daka also has forced air. The two furnaces share the duct work in the home. The propane furnace was once our only source of heat in the house, but it now serves only as a back-up heat source, which kicks in only when we're away longer than a full load of wood burn, or about 8 hours.
This next photo shows the duct work which the two furnaces now share. Dead center in the photo is the cold air return, which feeds directly into the bottom of both furnaces. The two round tubes above come from the wood burning furnace and are fed into the hot air duct work above the propane furnace. Inside the large duct, the two round tubes have 90 degree angles installed, facing upward, which prevents all but a very small amount of recirculation between the two furnaces........in other words, almost no blowback.
In the following photo you can see the hot water tube that runs from my wood burning stove to my water heater, which provides the home with free hot water all winter long. There is no pump. No pump is needed. The system operates all on its own, so long as no gas bubbles get trapped in the system. The little black canister at the top is an automatic air vent. Should any gas bubbles form, the automatic air vent removes them, allowing the natural circulation process to continue. There is a similar tube running from the bottom of the water heater to the wood burner. Cold water enters the wood burner from below.......gets heated by the burning wood in the firebox.....then exits the furnace and enters the top of the water heater. A tridicator (fancy gauge) is located at the top of the water heater, which provides us with temperature and pressure readings. A manually adjustable indicator on the dial provides a warning to the operator when the temperature and pressure become too high.........at which time the pressure relief valve can be manually operated if desired. The pop-off valve will function entirely on its own, should the operator fail to manually relieve the pressure.
Here's a better picture of the black automatic air vent, as well as the tridicator gauge. Mounted between the two is the pressure pop-off valve.
This last photo is of the back of the Daka wood burning furnace. Shown here is the optional hot water tube, which is installed off to the left side of the firebox (as seen from the front). The upper tube is the hot water supply which has already been heated by wood and is heading back to the water heater. The lower tube is from the bottom of the water heater and enters the back of the wood burner as cold water......or maybe a bit warm already........as the system is continuously circulating.
Promise not to get too critical of me here. I installed the whole thing myself.
Joel
rumination
Migratory Hippie Arbolist
That is a sweet system. How many cords do you go through on average?
And thanks for bumping this thread. I hadn't seen it before.
And thanks for bumping this thread. I hadn't seen it before.
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
Nice set up...
Kudos on the self install...
Kudos on the self install...
