Fire fuel for heating - what do you use?

[frustratedearthmother]

It's a good feeling to know you've got it coming...and if you get more for free - BONUS!

 

[Joel_BC]

Interesting thread, sumi.

Most of the terrain around here—up from the river, lake and creeks—is covered with conifers: cedar, hemlock, larch, and various types of fir, pine, and spruce. Around the water we have poplar-family trees, birch, some cedar, and here and there aspen, alder, or yew.

We use cedar for kindling and the preferred firewood is birch (hottest fire), larch, and Douglas fir. Our house is about 960 sq ft in the basement and first (main) floor, and 600 sq ft on the second floor. We mostly don't heat the basement in winter, though it gets some benefit from the fact that we deliberately heat the main floor.

We have an efficient woodburning furnace (with a plenum/ducting system) in our basement. But we have a far more efficient woodburning insert in the old brick fireplace on the main floor, which is what we usually rely on. We only use the furnace if we get a real cold snap and need the forced air from the ducting to warm the house's furthest corners.

 

[Beekissed]

Still getting firewood here, which is pretty late for us. Another three loads of oak and probably 6-8 more loads to go on that. Splitter lost a part and we had to get creative with zip ties and 550 cord to get through the splitting session but I have replacement parts for that particular problem, so we'll be back on top tomorrow when we go again.

I'm just glad that the weather is still pretty mild for this time of year, so it's allowing us to play catch up on our wood getting.

 

[Hinotori]

Other than a mild bit of cold and snow about a week ago, it's been mild here. No heat needed to keep the house comfortable.

Bathroom has a space heater, but that is because I like it warm in there. It's always the warmest place in the house. Driest too unless we just showered.

 

[Denim Deb]

Last time we ordered wood, we got cheated as well. It was supposed to be 2 cords of oak. It was only about a cord, and was very little oak. And what we did have didn't seem to heat the house that well. I couldn't even tell for sure what it was-which is rare. I seriously wonder if it might have been willow.

Main trees we burn are oaks, cherry, and maple. At times, we might get some walnut, hickory, dogwood or sassafras and very rarely birch. While there are other types of trees in the area, you don't normally see them as firewood, especially the pine. Almost no one burns any type of conifer inside.

 

[Beekissed]

We burn dry pine and love it! Makes for a hot and quick fire when one needs it. We mix it in with the oak so we get the best of both woods.

 

[Denim Deb]

I would burn pine if it wasn't for my hubby. He's sure that doing so is going to mess up the chimney, so I don't-except for starting a fire. But, there is so much pine in the woods next to us that it would be easy get.

 

[treerooted]

Nothing special in my house. Just wood.

We have our own forest so we harvest ourselves and rent a log splitter. Wood we use is mostly red maple. Sometimes elm or oak and could be a few other hardwoods as well. We've only been here a year, so we've only gone through this process once. We didn't haul enough trees out last winter so we'll probably have to buy a cord or two again this year. But we'll get better and more efficient as the years go by.

Unfortunately, the location of the wood stove is such that the upstairs doesn't really get heated. So in our bedrooms we have space heaters for nighttime. We also have propane, but it also doesn't heat the house efficiently .

 

[Hinotori]

We use cedar and douglas fir. It's the wood available here. Burns just fine and we haven't had any real buildup. The chimney sweep has asked if we even burn very much each year.

 

[Britesea]

Juniper and pine here; you're not likely to find anything else