Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

Been cutting wood for 40+years been there done that like I said I would still be out there splitting wood! White oak ain't all that straight.

 

If it fits in the door it gets burned!

 

We did a swine a sheep barn at a local hs. They had 500gal elec boilers and some radiant panels on roof that would circulate thru. It wasn't engineered right. Pipes were below concrete not in it so a lot of tax dollars went to waste. That kind of heating isn't common down here. Should have gotten an engineer from up north.

 

Same. Or if there's a lot of it I'll occasionally cheat and load it into the truck for a trip to my parent's (where I can split it with hydraulic muscles instead of my own)

Maybe those two things are related...

Seriously, though, I use an old Snow & Nealley splitting maul that makes for pretty easy splitting unless a piece is extremely twisty or full of knots. I think it's an 8lb or a 10lb head? It'll blow apart anything with a remotely straight grain, and anything that's stubborn enough to resist a line of hits across the face of the log gets the Wedge & Sledge treatment.
The firewood that I get is usually a mix of Red Oak, White Oak, and Maple with the occasional Locust, Beech, or Birch mixed in. So most of it's pretty straight-grained, but some of the white oak takes a couple of smacks before it gives up. One of the advantages of heating with a big-ass stove is that I can leave splits plus-sized if I don't want to mess with them.

But, I've only been splitting wood for +/- 20 years, so I've still got my stubborn streak intact. Plus I don't own a hydraulic splitter, and I don't like driving the hour one way to my parent's house just to split wood, so I'll usually tackle a stubborn log by hand.

Lol. We have the opposite problem up here; Schools get federal funding if they build to a certain plan, and as a result they've all got flat roofs. Which leak after a few years, because they can't support the weight of the snow we get up here, so you've got to get up and shovel them off, which damages the roof.
One of the local districts shunned the federal funding and built their elementary school on local funding with a pitched roof, and they've had no issues with leaks over the course of roughly 20 years (so far).

 

"Seriously, though, I use an old Snow & Nealley splitting maul that makes for pretty easy splitting unless a piece is extremely twisty or full of knots. I think it's an 8lb or a 10lb head? It'll blow apart anything with a remotely straight grain, and anything that's stubborn enough to resist a line of hits across the face of the log gets the Wedge & Sledge treatment.
The firewood that I get is usually a mix of Red Oak, White Oak, and Maple with the occasional Locust, Beech, or Birch mixed in. So most of it's pretty straight-grained, but some of the white oak takes a couple of smacks before it gives up. One of the advantages of heating with a big-ass stove is that I can leave splits plus-sized if I don't want to mess with them."
I agree with a maul a some thing with a straight grain. I can beat a hyd. splitter often with a good ax but there is still a piece or two of the white oak up here your welcome to try, I did, made some marks in it then it went under the splitter.

 

Sounds like a long way to drive for some self-punishment to split somebody else's wood!
Pass...
I'll just take your word for it that they're made of petrified wood.

 

So as was suggested in here, I've been burning with the damper just open a hair. Instead of damper all the way open like I had been.

Now I'm wondering about cutting a hole in the floor above the wood stove and installing a heat register or a grate so the heat can rise into the living room. I know this is supposed to be against fire code, but my wood stove doesn't heat my house at all the way it is now. The wood stove is in the basement and it will get comfortable down there, but I attached a thermometer to the floor joists near where I would cut and got a high temp of 82 today after burning for a few hours. House thermostat was set at 65 and it came on every half hour/hour.

anyone have any thoughts on that?

 

Ours is also in the basement, and we utilize the central ac vent system. We ran a new section from just above the wood stove over and connected it. It has a shut off for that section for the summer when ac is running. It also has a bathroom fan connected to it to draw the warm air in. It heats the whole house this way, and was cheap and easy to install.

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That's basically what I suggested in the beginning

 

BIL did something similar. Intake is in the basement above a fireplace, then lateral about 6' to a existing register. It works off natural convection, no fan needed.
On a side note I have a guy coming by today to clear some of my down wood for his woodburner

 

I know it is illegal in many states may even be national fire code and there is supposed to be metal around the opening in the floor however it is your house. I have no idea how an insurance company would deal with that if there ever was a fire. Most commercial buildings have smoke detectors inside of the air handlers that shut the blowers down so it does not draw the fire all around the building also.

 

Do you have forced hot air too or just ac in those vents?

I thought about doing something similar because my duct work is pretty close to the wood stove, but I was wondering what would happen when the furnace runs. I think if I built kind of a hood to capture the heat and direct it to the duct work, then run the fan in the furnace to circulate it if necessary. But when the furnace kicks on and the wood stove isn't burning, wouldn't it be dumping hot air into the basement? I feel like I need some sort of a shut off for the hood so when I'm not burning would I can close it off.

And you never elaborated on it when I asked

IIRC you said to run the furnace fan. without a way for the heat from the wood stove to get into the duct work it doesn't circulate any heat.

Thought about that too. rather than just cutting in a floor vent, connect it to a duct over the wood stove.

yea I'm not real sure what to do about it. I don't want to cut a hole and ruin the hard wood floor to do something illegal that may or may not be worth it.

I know its pretty common for older houses to have heat registers in the floor above wood stoves.

 

You need to duct into the return. Then you can run the ac/furnace blower to supply the warmed air throughout the house. When the furnace kicks on it will only pull basement air. No hot furnace air will be dumped into the basement if you tap into the return.

 

Nice. good idea. thanks

 

That's what I said like a year ago

 

It was a month ago but, yes, you did. I only expanded on your spectacular suggestion.

 

Go team

 

Thanks oz

 

Well,the woodburner is fired up, has excellent draw. Now I will see in the spring if the vermiculite I put between the flue and the chimney block relly helps with creosote.