Three Letters Re: Heating With Wood

James Wesley,
That was a good informative article by SGT B., however there was one glaring omission in the safety section : “Which brings me to the always wear appropriate safety gear rule. Always do. Period. Long sleeves and pants, boots, gloves, helmet with a face-guard or safety glasses, hearing protection.”

He didn’t mention Kevlar chainsaw safety chaps, which jam a chain in milliseconds are now considered required for wood cutting, one moment of inattentiveness and your thigh, shin, etc, can be hamburger. The least expensive, yet best ones out there are from Labonville.

Remember chainsaws don’t just cut flesh , they tear it! There is a youTube video available for those who want to watch that shows that, thankfully demonstrated with butchered meat, not people. Sincerely, – Wayne B.

Sir,
I’d like to add to Sgt B.’s information. After doing all that he discusses for 40+ years, I would add the following: I put wood in my basement where I have a woodstove. The critters did emerge as he mentioned. I used Zodiac Advanced Insect Spray and that wiped them all out very quickly. A cat takes care of four legged types. I put wood in the basement for when I’m too lazy, tired, or the the weather is just plain nasty. Otherwise, I haul it in as necessary leaving the inside wood for those times mentioned.

Woodstoves: you really don’t need to spend a fortune to get some decent heat. My basement is all masonry. The block and concrete soak up lots of the heat (versus a finished basement). Still, my inexpensive little woodstove gets that basement to 70 degrees. I got one from Northern Tool & equip. Sure, a much more expensive all cast iron or fancy one would get the basement and wood floors above a lot warmer but this stove only set me back a few hundred and arrived at my doorstep via freight. Do your homework if you are new to woodstoves. Buying used is okay if you can verify that it’s safe. Check for any cracks and if the gaskets / rope are ok. One method of verifying if the gaskets are ok is to place a dollar bill one the backside of the door, close the door, see if the dollar slips out when you pull it. Gaskets kits are cheap and easy to replace. My brother bought a used/antique potbelly type and it has been in use for years.

Traditional fireplace / fireplace insert: The one I just pulled out was very attractive but they sure waste a lot of heat. I finally purchased a top dollar insert as a replacement last year for the ground floor of the house and it paid off immediately in terms of having to bring in wood, using up your wood pile(s), & time/labor. This replacement once hot, remains so all night. I was a great investment.

Log splitters: I’m on my second one. The first was a 20 ton and it was a workaholic. I sold it in one day. It was about 12 yrs old and still good to go. In 12 years I did replace the engine once and the detent valve. My new 37-ton spilts everything I feed it. You may have a hard time finding something it can’t split. I had to use my front end loader to push the heaviest of oak under it and the splitter had no problem. This was another Northern Tool and Equipment purchase.

Chainsaws: Useful but dangerous. Be careful. Read the safety instructions if you are new to these items. If you are going to have something go wrong, it’ll happen so fast that you won’t be able to stop whatever mistake you made. I have two – a 15 year old lightweight 14″ Poulan that still gets the little stuff done and a 20″ Husqvarna that can handle just about anything. The best accessory item when working with a chain saws is a wedge (plastic, not the steel wedges used with manual splitting…) to prevent pinching of your blade/bar. I recommend using high test gas as 2-cycle engines prefer it for long term engine performance. I also purchased an electric chain saw sharpener which has paid for itself several times over. I can do it manually in the field also and you should be equipped for that anyway. Extra chains make life easy. If the saw is going to sit 11 months of the year, you’ll have starting problems. [Use gas stabilizer and] start your 2-cycle engines monthly, warm them up and they’ll be kind to you when you need it.

All things wood heating: I enjoy the outdoor time doing all this. It’s both exercise and refreshing cold weather outdoor time. Note: it does require time and labor but the payoff is worth it. I cut my oil heat consumption back to one-third of the previous year’s averages. Now I can spend more money on more wood cutting stuff. – Flhspete

 

James,
That was a good article on finding wood, but I would like to see you make a special invitation to a chimney expert or someone else with similar expertise to write an article on wood stove safety. That is something that is often overlooked, or just not understood, often with disastrous consequences.

My wife and I started our “back to the land” voyage back in the 70’s with a small homestead in the Ozarks and for the next 10 years we heated only with wood. During that time we saw our neighbors down the road lose an infant daughter to smoke inhalation during a bad fire and our best friends came home on Christmas eve to find nothing left but the foundation, their house had burnt to the ground. Both were caused by skimping on chimney installations. Anyone who has lived in the boonies probably has similar stories to tell. It’s okay to scrimp and save on a lot of things, chimneys [with regular chimney cleaning] are not one of them. You have a wild beast under partial control inside your home, one tiny mistake and it can escape and destroy your home and kill you. I don’t mean to unduly scare people but I would like to see people have the appropriate amount of respect for the hazards they’re taking on. Everything has to be done right up front and maintained properly to keep you safe.

BTW, the biggest drawback to wood heat is just the fact that in the winter you can never be away from home for more than 16 hours or so or the house will freeze up. No weekend trips and if the rig breaks down it adds another level of urgency to getting home. If possible, it’s great to have a small emergency propane heater you can set to 45 degrees and run off a 100 pound tank so that if the temperature drops too low it will kick on and keep the house from freezing, it makes a huge improvement in giving you some freedom in the winter. – Bill S. in Oregon