Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

Unless you've modified your truck there's no way you're getting 1/2 cord in the bed. With the Tacomas you're probably looking at closer to 1/3 of a cord. Less, if you've got a shortbed double cab. If he's charging the same price for a truckload as for a 1/2 cord, I'd say go someplace else.

 

According to the chart they give, a long bed "mini truck" tightly stacked to the bed rails is 40% of a cord.

 

Each half cord was two trips last year. We tossed it in, no fancy stacking, and the truck was not maxed. I just didn't want any of it flying off during the drive. The guy is a square dealer so I'm not too worried.

Wow, that is a lot more than the 25% (half of a half cord) I was hauling.

 

They're probably just going based on volume, though. Not weight. There's no way you could get 40% of a cord into these trucks without their being overloaded. If you stacked it carefully you could make it fit, but the truck wouldn't be able to handle the weight.
I can get 1/2 a cord into my Dodge without touching the bumpstops (it's close, though), but it was built back when trucks were made for work and not for commuting. My Tacoma's resting pretty solidly on the bump stops around 1/3 of a cord of green mixed hardwood.

 

Got a late start on the day, and had to leave early, but still managed to put on about 1/4 cord. That last log damn near killed me carrying it down the hill on my shoulder.

 

It's definitely volume. We can only harvest "dead and down" wood, so no green logs adding extra weight.

 

I have put a half cord in my truck....I was way overloaded...but on my own property also...I ended up stacking it up to the top of my racks on my truck. Each row I put in my wood room is a cord..was really dissapointed when I only got half a row

 

I split, they stack. Gotta teach them young.

 

What species of wood is that ? Kinda looks like Madrone / Arbutus

 

Scrub oak. It's my primary burn and is easy to find (I have them growing in my yard, but not that big).

 

ah cool

 

I asked a bit about this last year, but with the wood burning season coming I want to revisit the issue.

I installed a small wood stove in my uninsulated basement last year. It didn't do much to heat anything so I bought a bigger stove. It will heat the basement much more than the last one did, and it almost warms parts of the floor above it, but not much.

What can I do to make wood burning more efficient to heat my home?

Last year a few people mentioned a hood system to direct warm air into my forced hot air duct work.

Not looking to finish the basement so insulation is kind of out, other than making sure it's sealed well.

Thought about adding some floor grates above the stove to allow the heat to rise into the house, but that's against fire code.

I imagine if I put the wood stove in the living room it would make a huge difference in heating the house. But would prefer to leave it where it is and not have to make major modifications to the living room.

Any thoughts?

 

Use the furnace venting to circulate the warm air from the basement throughout the house

 

...

You poked holes in my best suggestions for making wood burning more efficient for your house, lol.

Insulating the cellar would make a huge difference, since it would trap the heat much better and allow it to spread to the rest of the house.
Moving the woodstove upstairs would make a huge difference as well, since you'd be heating your living space directly rather than heating the floor a little, kind of, and having to spread the heat to the upstairs.

I know that the Oz will likely smite me dead for saying it, but it sounds like you need a pellet stove, honestly. You can install them without major modifications to the living space since they can vent directly through pretty much any exterior wall, and that would let you install it in the main living area, which would make it much more efficient. Then you can still have the woodstove in the cellar for if you're working down there, and you can have a warmer upstairs without having to rip up and rebuild your house.
$.02

 

So after being Sir Scrounge-a-lot I managed to fill my woodshed with enough wood for this season but I used up every twig I had lying around , chainsaw split my pile of unsplitables and have a 1/2 cord of lumber scrap but we should stay warm

Now I have to get started on next year's supply

 

Are you guys still under that saw restriction in the woods, or have you finally gotten some rain?

 

We've had some rain in the last few weeks , enough to drop the Forest Fire danger level from extreme to moderate , which means you can run a saw in the toolies but not anywhere near what we need to deal with the drought conditions we've been in asfar as water restrictions are concerned

 

Well that saves you from resorting to one of these, at least.

 

I used an electric chainsaw for some of it lol

 

We've begun hauling and stacking wood for winter as well. Last year really wiped us out. We have some to split that we got from neighbors but mostly we're getting it by the truckload from a local guy who runs a splitter for exercise. About 1/4 cord per load in the Taco, thrown in loose.