Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 23, 2010 at 8:02am

Much as I enjoy my small woodstove (with a single cookplate) - and do sometimes (today) use it incidentally to cook a meal - electricity usually wins out. (No gas available; furnace is oil). Way back when, my grandparents had the standard parlor and kitchen stoves, but in cool/cold weather they mostly burned coal rather than wood. Even then, convenience mattered.

Permalink Reply by William Ladd on October 24, 2010 at 1:33am

I would still be cutting my firewood today Ann but my bones tell me, "Bill, your too old anymore to cut firewood!"

Every since I was a little kid I loved hiking thru wooded areas. At first it was just in the hedgerows between neighboring farms. After we moved back to my Dad's birth place here in Westfield I had hundreds of acres to wander around in. Usually I was alone or had my dog with me. I never felt afraid even if I was only about 10 or so years old. My wood cutting started when I was about 15. We had a two man crosscut saw to take the trees down. Then we used a buzz saw to cut smaller trees into stove wood or in the case of bigger logs we'd use wedges and a sledge hammer.

Those days are gone now but I still like roaming thru the woods on my son's four wheeler.

Bill L.
aka bummy

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 24, 2010 at 4:44am

Oh,oh! How old is too old to do your own wood? (grin). Actually, I'd think that - assuming one has a tap-in to a NG distribution line - the cost of heating with ng here would be competitive with buying stove-ready wood, hiring someone to clean the chimney every year, etc. Yes/no?

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on October 24, 2010 at 5:33am

I've often wondered about the comparative costs of gas vs wood. I buy my wood cut and split, and a winter's worth (6 full cords) cost $900 this year (price is up a bit since last year). It cost WAY more than that to run my main gas furnace, but the thing is 50-60 years old and very inefficient (I don't use it anymore). Plus the furnace uses hot water radiators and the heat isn't as nice as radiant heat from an actual fire. The room gas heaters cost very little to run and are very efficient...the kids run theirs all day and I barely notice it in the gas bill. I will probably burn less wood with 2 gas heaters going, so it's really hard to compare.

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 24, 2010 at 7:22am

$900 is not bad at all. It would be expected to go up some, as the price of gas/diesel used to process it goes up.

Permalink Reply by William Ladd on October 28, 2010 at 5:36am

Ann and Lynn, have you tried the amish sawmills around troupsburg. There are several mills that have slabwood for sale. If you have a truck and are able bodied, you can load it yourself and save quite a lot of dollar bills. The slabs are already cut to about 18 inches I believe. No splitting or cutting to length required. Some places might even give the slabwood to you if they have too much to store.

I had some brought to me free of charge. It was all hardwood. Previous years I cut all of my own firewood. And I would cut it today if my bones would allow it. Working in the woods was always a great pleasure for me. There are lots of treetops in my woods just waiting for a chainsaw and tractor to go to work on them.

Bill L.
aka bummy

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 28, 2010 at 10:36am

Bill, I don't use anything approaching the amount of wood Lynn does. The stove is supplemental heat, for comfort, power outages, etc. And , between the stove and added insulation, I did use 200+ fewer gallons of fuel oil last year..

It was the first full winter for the wood stove and it did surpise me how fast it gobbled up the wood. But, there is no shortage of wood here. So far, DIY is working. In fact, the splitting part is downright therapeutic.

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on October 24, 2010 at 2:51am

I use a lot of natural gas. I have a gas cookstove, water heater, and drier. I heat with wood, but I'm adding those vent-free gas fireplaces to the remote parts of the house that don't get enough heat from the woodstove (my teenagers have their computers in the room furthest from the woodstove and complained constantly about the cold until I installed a gas fireplace in there). I'm adding another one in the kitchen this year...the kitchen is an addition to the house; it sticks out, far from the wood stove, and is pretty cold sometimes.

I LOVE those gas fireplaces. They are real flame, and are as warm and attractive as a wood fire, but are "instant on/instant off" (my house is drafty enough that I don't worry that they aren't vented). They also work when the power is out, and are much cheaper to run than electric heaters. But my 'comfy reading chair' is still right in front of the wood stove.

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 24, 2010 at 3:35am

NG is my preference for furnace and cookstove, but the gas line stops about a mile short and they wanted outrageous money to extend it. In my previous house, we did have a gas cookstove but when we were in the market of a new furnace, it was during a gas shortage and the gas distribution company wasn't taking new heating customers.

BTW, you do have CO detectors in rooms with ventfree gas heaters?

Permalink Reply by William Ladd on October 24, 2010 at 4:39am

I still have a gas fired hot water heater and a gas heating stove. At times the lines to water heater would freeze up. The gas heating stove is maybe twenty years old or maybe even older. It was used to more or less keep the temp constant as we were caring for three elderly folks at the time. We had a wood burning furnace in the cellar but the dust and smoke was a problem when adding wood. Then we bought an outside furnace. We added a water heating attachment and used a storage tank until I discovered the tank was not necessary. The water heats as fast as we can draw it. The furnace heats a radiator device that is installed inside the hot air ducts. We use a timer device instead of a thermostat to control the heat. I did not have enough money for a thermostat system at the time we bought the ourdoor furnace. I'd like to install radiators along the walls, but I am too old to do this kind of work anymore. Five years makes a big difference when it comes to doing this kind of stuff.

I never hired anyone to do anything like this anyway. Always did it myself.

Smoke detectors???? I bought one years ago.

Just for fun I placed it where smoke from the furnace down cellar collected. It finally went off when the smoke was so thick I could not see that detector. But the dang thing would sure blast out when the toaster toasted the bread a little too dark.

Bill L.
aka Bummy

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on October 24, 2010 at 5:16am

A CO (carbon monoxide) detector is a different deal than a smoke detector. They detect when there is a hazardous level of CO in exaust gas from a relatively clean burning (little/no visible smoke or odor) appliance.

When smoke detectors first came out, my ex and I bought one for us and several for relatives. Two of them (not ours) did the job and alerted the occupants to fires small enough to be put out.

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on October 24, 2010 at 5:18am

I have a CO detector, but it's not in the same room with the gas heater. Both the gas heaters have low oxygen sensors and shut off if it drops below a safe level. Not a problem in this old house...no matter how much I caulk and weatherstrip and insulate, there's still a stiff breeze blowing through.

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