Question for Tennessee folk

[Ray Z]

We've been here almost 4 years now. Came from Ohio where it gets a lot colder than it does here. Have almost got the first floor done. Wife bought a wood stove just for giggles for the living room. There is a chimney just outside there and a flue leading into the living room. I was thinking about maybe putting a pellet stove there and piping it out the chimney just in case. Now, with all that said, do you think it's cheaper heat than a heat pump?

[gregintenn]

Pellet stove? Rabbit pellets?

 

Git you a chainsaw an cut your own firewood! :)

 

Seriously, if you don't have a place, and the want to to cut your own firewood, you'll likely be cheaper to use the heat pump. It's also a lot cleaner, safer, and handier than stove heat.

 

Not a bad idea to have one for backup, or for the occasional fire just for the heck of it.

Edited October 1, 2013 by gregintenn

[TerryW]

I used to install pellet stoves in middle Tn, Al and Kn.  If you want to talk more about it PM me.

They aren't inexpensive to run.  $5 for a 40lb bag that won't last long if you are trying to heat your house.  If you are heating just a room, 40lb will last a while.

Wood burning stove is much cheaper and you don't need electricity to run it.  JMHO..

[peejman]

Electricity is pretty cheap here. Supplement with a wood burning stove and you'll be in the sweet spot.

[Sam1]

Pellet stove, not cheaper in any way!

 

We put one in for my Grandma because she could no longer move the wood around and it ended up costing us a fortune. She used up about 2 pallets of pellets per year and had a fairly small house, can't remember what they cost, but am thinking it was about $200/pallet in the summer, and $250/pallet in the winter.  On top of that, she still had a $100/ electric bill for running heaters in the back of the house.

 

Wood would be best if you don't mind the work, but if you want no extra work, why not throw in a propane fireplace?  We have one in this new house and the small thing heats up about 2000 sq/ft.  We ran it more than the central air March and April and only used up 30 pounds or gallons, whatever they measure it in.  Ended up only costing about $75 for that to get topped off last month.

[RED333]

If you are buying anything to burn you will be better just use electric heat.

I heat my house with wood, but I have a steady supply for a tree man, and I can cut

down trees if I need to.

[bersaguy]

We've been here almost 4 years now. Came from Ohio where it gets a lot colder than it does here. Have almost got the first floor done. Wife bought a wood stove just for giggles for the living room. There is a chimney just outside there and a flue leading into the living room. I was thinking about maybe putting a pellet stove there and piping it out the chimney just in case. Now, with all that said, do you think it's cheaper heat than a heat pump?

I may want to get this clear before I mention to much but if your talking about an old chimney that has stood for a lot of years you may want to have the flue in the chimney checked before you put a fire in it. We did something similar back in 1967 when we moved down from Chicago and put 2 wood stoves in because we had two old chimney's, one on each end of the old house and damn near burn the house down because the old flues caught on fire in the chimney's.....

[Luke E.]

 We went all last winter without turning on the propane central heat and air unit.. We have a large wood stove in the living room and with a small fan behind it we stayed hot most of the time. I would get it pretty hot just before bed and throw a large hackberry log on as I shut everything down for the night then stick a large green-ish Oak log on before I left for work. The only time it got cold in the house is if one of us didn't come straight home after work but that wasn't often. It is a lot of work so if you don't enjoy tending to it, don't plan on it for your main heat source. When our A/C unit went out this summer I switched to a heat pump so we will likely lean on it a little more this winter. 

 Nothing beats backing up to a wood stove when your cold to the bone IMO

[vontar]

I have been heating my home for the past 8 years or so with wood.  Even on the coldest nights I have no trouble keeping the house warm.

 

i

[frankmako]

wood stove is the better way to go.  they are not much work.  wood is easy to get.  you want season wood to burn.  i like my wood two years old to burn.  fresh cut wood does not give the same heat as season wood. 

[vontar]

wood stove is the better way to go.  they are not much work.  wood is easy to get.  you want season wood to burn.  i like my wood two years old to burn.  fresh cut wood does not give the same heat as season wood. 

I normally have a mix of 1 and 2 year old wood on hand.  I find 2 year old burns up a little to fast, but gives really quick heat.  1 year last longer but with a little less heat.

 

This thread reminds me, I need about another small load to be really ready.

Edited October 2, 2013 by vontar

[Luke E.]

I normally have a mix of 1 and 2 year old wood on hand.  I find 2 year old burns up a little to fast, but gives really quick heat.  1 year last longer but with a little less heat.

 

This thread reminds me, I need about another small load to be really ready.

 

^this^ I even go one step further and split up my round wood and split wood as well as splitting them up lightly seasoned and well seasoned... I'm a bit of an over achiever with it but each type of wood has it's place and when done right you end up with very even heat.

[jughead]

question about wood. why do people who cut wood not want standing dead hard wood? not talking about rotten wood. i have tried to give away oak and hickory that has died and still standing and no one wants it. talking about trees on the side of a nice gravel road. i wind up pushing them to the side of the road and let them rot.

[enfield]

For one thing, dropping dead trees is a little more complicated than dropping live ones, but only if you care where it falls.

 

I can't give away wood here unless I cut it to length and haul it to the road.  Lazy trumps cold and poor.

[tennessee01tacoma]

Dried dead wood is much harder to split also, unless you have a hydraulic splitter then who cares.

[Ray Z]

Wow! this has been interesting. 100% against pellets and 100% for wood. Thanks guys. Bonnie gets to keep her look at only stove and I get to save about a grand. Humm I may get a new toy out of the deal.

[McGarrett]

+1 for wood heat. I have a fireplace in the living room and a small buck wood stove off to the side the kitchen. I enjoy working with the fires and in the winter mainly use the wood stove but I will have a fire in the fireplace when we are all home hanging out in the living room. The buck stove can really kick out the heat with a small amount of wood.

 

I have plenty of trees on my property and there seems to always be one falling during a storm so I have no shortage of available wood. I have a hydraulic log splitter, good chainsaw, cart to pull behind the mower, and a pickup so I am able to handle the wood ok. Working with the wood is good exercise and I enjoy getting outdoors.

 

Warms you 4 times; when you cut it, split it, stack it, and finally when you burn it.

Edited October 2, 2013 by McGarrett

[gregintenn]

question about wood. why do people who cut wood not want standing dead hard wood? not talking about rotten wood. i have tried to give away oak and hickory that has died and still standing and no one wants it. talking about trees on the side of a nice gravel road. i wind up pushing them to the side of the road and let them rot.

I have not tried it myself, but I have been told that a tree killed by lightening just will not burn. I have no explanation for that if it is true.

[monkeylizard]

I'v heard that too, but always thought it was referring to the charred wood in the tree from the lightning and not the uncharred wood that the lightning never affected.

[Guest Phantom6]

I've burned wood from a tree struck and killed by lightning and it seemed to burn just fine.

[Sam1]

trees struck by lightning will burn just as good as anything else.  not sure where that one comes from

[Luke E.]

question about wood. why do people who cut wood not want standing dead hard wood? not talking about rotten wood. i have tried to give away oak and hickory that has died and still standing and no one wants it. talking about trees on the side of a nice gravel road. i wind up pushing them to the side of the road and let them rot.

Two reasons, enfield hit on one. Falling a dead tree is quite dangerous, while working underneath it you could cause a portion of the top to come down on you
Second, something caused that still standing tree to die, most likely an insect of some type. Termites are one thing that can be in them because they cannot like but a few brief seconds out in the open air. They live in the ground so the dead tree offers them wood without having to build tubes like they would in order to infest a home. Not all standing dead trees will have them obviously but I've never been around a dead tree that wasn't full of the little roaches and no one wants to drag those in the house if they can help it.

[Luke E.]

I'v heard that too, but always thought it was referring to the charred wood in the tree from the lightning and not the uncharred wood that the lightning never affected.

It will burn just fine, my great grandfather to me when I was young that it was I believe Navajo legend. Something about it being bad luck or the gods didn't approve or something like that. In reality so struck trees light easier than store bought starter logs and burn super hot. Only place I've ever seen it is in Florida but it happens if lightening hits or a storm blows it over at certain time of the year when the sap is running. My family has always called it "lightered wood" and it can lay out in the woods for good and not rot because it gets sort of petrified. I always have a few big knots of it around the house to split of as fire starter but NEVER put it near you regular wood where someone might mistakenly throw it in the stove as it puts out a horrible amount of smoke if burned in quantity and burns way to hot.. Ask me how I know that! A friend threw wood in my stove for me and a few minutes later the stove was glowing red up above the fire brick!

[tennessee01tacoma]

I've burned wood from a tree struck and killed by lightning and it seemed to burn just fine.

X2

It's also already very dry its really amazing, well to me atleast.

[Dennis1209]

Wow! this has been interesting. 100% against pellets and 100% for wood. Thanks guys. Bonnie gets to keep her look at only stove and I get to save about a grand. Humm I may get a new toy out of the deal.

 

I'm a little late to the party but, raise that to 101% for wood because of the preceding reasons. With a source of wood and a little labor you have free heat and not depend on a delivery of pellets. Nothing is better than warming up your little hinny next to the stove in the dead of winter and knowing all it cost you was a little labor. An occasional log of hickory makes everything smell wonderful too!  

 

The ashes get spread into the garden and life is wonderful even waking up with a woody and stoke the stove :up:  GO WOOD!