Someone Ruined a House

not only are those wood boilers a lot of work, if they are anywhere near your house, all your clothing and inside your house will smell like burned wood, and you risk having a house fire. we have friends who lost a house to one. burned to the ground, complete loss. wood is a very high maintenance, high labor heating method. it makes no economic sense now as wood costs more than coal since last year. cutting it yourself you will never get any rest. add up the wear/tear on your truck, chain saw and splitter maintenance, gas/oil, and it's costing way more than heating with coal, easily double. add in your time, it's costing triple or more. the creosote and chimney fire risk alone makes wood heating a loser today. unless maybe one has an unlimited supply of cut split firewood delivered outside their door for free, and all you had to do was feed the fire. even then you have to shut it down once a month to clean the flue or risk a fire. a guy I know who heated with wood for 20 years, had 6 chimney fires. the last one was so bad he switched to a coal boiler.

Okay, Thanks for sharing that with us.

SS, Dummy up and do not try to enlighten any realtors. They don't need it and they don't want your input. They are seldom interested in more than selling "it" to you and the commission that follows. The secret coal burners handbook and code will come to you after you have successfully denied any knowledge of shiny black earthen product for a full 6 months. The goal is to keep all of those big black piles for ourselves!! As they drilled into us in boot camp " Loose Lips Sink Ships". Good Luck on your house hunt. Mike

Pete Kiniceck is THE local firewood jockey and a good personal friend. He is a completely MAD Pollack and hence is the only normal person around here to talk to. I know him well as he supplies our hay and he is only person that I allow to hunt on our land. He has grown from a 400 cord a year business as a sideline to this year over 2000 cords. Due to endless restrictions on firewood supply he is now out of product. Yes, in August he was out of product. He still has a gigantic pile of wood in his field but it is ALL sold. He is even eyeing the deadfall at the back of the farm. Thank God, I need someone to clear that c rap up.

So this mornings question is what does a frozen liberal burn?

Coal burners, but never coal itself. So let them all freeze, I don't lecture any more. these days I worry more about them waking up and stealing my coal.

This time of year I see the wood burners frantically getting their winter supplies ready.. Their yards are turned into a huge processing station.. logs in a pile over there, wood splitter in the front yard, heaping wood pile on the other side of the house, then rows of it stacked somewhere else and the OWB outback waiting.. Tree bark all over the yard, muddy paths to and fro everywhere from thousands of trips back and forth lugging wood..

I almost feel bad chuckling as I drive by...

I am setting up the bleechers for fellow coalies. We can watch my wood burning neighbor who burns his wet deadfall the chimney smoke plume is impressive. I post will pics again this year it's always good for a giggle. What you say, go over and warn him about chimney fires .. hhhhaaa, he will not listen. He is thinking of moving South.

Even if wood is not the main heat source, it's rare to find a house around here without a fireplace, or stove, as at least a back up heat source.

With oil and pro-pain costs so high, coal stoves are slowly catching on. But, being as there is so much wooded land around here, wood is still by far the number one choice.

There are many guys near here making extra money cutting firewood. Many look at it as a good way to pick up extra cash and stay in shape at the same time.

You can buy a cord of dried, split hardwood for $60-80 less than a ton of coal, add on the delivery fee that some dealers now charge and it's an even bigger savings. And, asking around you can get some bargains on wood. We buy a face cord every couple of years for camping fire pits. I've been getting half cord length face cords for $40- $45. The $45.00 one even helped deliver most of it with his pickup truck.

And this being one of the poorer counties in NYS, only adds to the demand for heating with wood.

Paul

I burn wood as I have access to about an unlimited supply of wood, right next door to me. I have five trees to remove this winter if the weather cooperates with us. I have about two years worth of firewood stack as logs from a pasture clearing project a few years back these need hauled to the house and cut up.
When I go to coal, I will still have a woodstove as back up heat if the power goes out.
SS in a general statement said wood costs more than coal does, if you include wear and tear, fuel to run the equipment and chainsaws. The last two years my fuel and repair bills to haul the firewood home, cut and split was right around $150 a year to heat my house all winter. That amount of money replaced the cost of about 550 gallons of oil and 2 cord of wood.
Now if you have to go 20 miles to get wood, fuel cost do add up, but most of thew people I know who burn wood have woodlots on their property.
So general statements can be misleading.
If I ready to go with my plans I would be burning coal this winter but I am not ready as of yet.
Dan

Don't forget to add in the "Opportunity Cost" of cutting, splitting, stacking etc to any wood vs coal calculation. I'd much rather be spending time with my family, or working side jobs to earn more money.

I paid for my 4 pallets of coal this year ($1447) with just a few side jobs. Now I sit back and look at those 240 bags and laugh at my neighbor who heats with wood!

I'm sure some people have it better than others when it comes to wood.. Got your own land with yer own wood? Then yeah maybe it's economically smart to use it.. Are ya buying logs for your OWB? Then personally, I'd be looking for something different lol...

Don't forget the money that wood burners save on gym memberships.

I was 175# of blue twisted steel back in the day when I was using a maul & wedges to hand split our winters supply. Now......more like 165# of moldable plumbers putty.... I had a job I hated back then for a few of those years and it also allowed me to take out my frustration.

titleist1 wrote:Don't forget the money that wood burners save on gym memberships.

And thus the hidden cost of cutting, splitting and stacking your own firewood. The toll it takes on your body. I still say I wish I would have known about coal 20 years sooner......

My wife is convinced that if we ever decide to sell our house (and we are considering it since we no longer need such a large house now that the kids are adults) we will need to jettison the coal boiler and coal bin first. We are likely the only home in our entire county heating via a coal boiler, and perhaps even the only one heating via coal by any means, be they stove, boiler, stoker, hand fired, or whatever.

No problem Larry! Just sell it to another coalie. I'm pretty sure with all the tech data you have accumulated on you're setup, someone will be happy to buy it. I know if I was looking to move, I'd consider it a plus. You maybe surprised!

Damn Simon, you got a personal friend??? I'm aghast

coalnewbie wrote:Pete Kiniceck is THE local firewood jockey and a good personal friend. He is a completely MAD Pollack and hence is the only normal person around here to talk to. I know him well as he supplies our hay and he is only person that I allow to hunt on our land. He has grown from a 400 cord a year business as a sideline to this year over 2000 cords. Due to endless restrictions on firewood supply he is now out of product. Yes, in August he was out of product. He still has a gigantic pile of wood in his field but it is ALL sold. He is even eyeing the deadfall at the back of the farm. Thank God, I need someone to clear that c rap up.

So this mornings question is what does a frozen liberal burn?

Coal burners, but never coal itself. So let them all freeze, I don't lecture any more. these days I worry more about them waking up and stealing my coal.