😅I have had a Central Boiler unit for 10 years. I start it up on November 1st and continue burning wood until the central air is needed. I go thru approximately 5-6 full cords of wood in a winter. Usually takes me about 4 days to cut, split and fill the wood shed. I'm 71 years young and have burned wood most of my adult life. Burning wood keeps me in great physical shape and helps keep me sane in an insane world. I also raise beef cattle and do the field work on my farm. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Heated with wood for about 25 years. But after about the age of 82, I just can't do it all anymore. You do need to plan an exit strategy for all the wood cutting and handling. Back onto the propane again!
Jack is a great guy and I have an outdoor burner on my list for this coming year. We burn indoor now but an outdoor unit would save a lot of mess and provide more even heat than just the wood stove. Good video
I am 51 and going on season 12 with my Shelter Outdoor Forced Air Furnace here in South Eastern Illinois. Granted, it is not a boiler like mentioned here but it takes about the same amount of work and expenditures to keep it and the other equipment running to support it. My wife had concerns at first but likes it now, although it does have to be closer to the house than the traditional boiler units. It is also smaller than other boiler units so it gets more attention around the clock, but as I have learned to season my wood better, store it better and able to transport it better, so it does get a little easier over time. I was the last one of (4) in my group of family / friends to start burning wood (grew up burning wood with my dad in '70s and '80s) and now, 12 years later, I am the only one left. The cost of replacing the wood burners, kids in more school activities or moving out of the house, and getting older now have pushed most of my group away from burning wood. I want to say that I want to keep going as long as I can, getting to use chainsaws, log splitters, using my trusty Kubota B2620 and all the trailers connected to it. It reminds me of the joy I had when working on the family farm all those years ago and just being outside.
I've burnt wood for space heating most of my 73 years. My first and current Central boiler was brought into the fold in 2004. Then came the wood sheds and now I am pretty much setup. Aging will play an important in my ability to keep up with the demands of harvesting the logs and processing but its a lifestyle that I love and you do great favours to the bush by maintaining it. Watching the trees grow healthy over the years is most rewarding while removing those that are damaged or diseased or crowding. It is a wonderful life!
That sounds familiar. I started burning wood after the Emerald Ash Borer came through. I asked the neighbor if I could cut a few trails through his woods for the deer. He was happy to let me do it. After 9 years of cleaning and natural recovery, it's no a beautiful woods. So there's much more to it than just firewood. Thanks for pointing that out!
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 Ah yes the pesky ash borer! Those guys stopped by two years ago and are determined to stick around. Talk about trying to keep up with the damage they do......Luckily most of my ash trees are growing in old fields so I decided to reclaim the fields back to their former glory.
I’ve had a Central Boiler CL6048 for 18 years now. I heat the house and my hot water with it. We can crank the heat up to 75 in the house and take long, hot showers all winter long. I’ve never had to turn down my thermostat to save money. Cutting and splitting firewood isn’t for everyone, especially those folks that go to the gym for exercise 😂
Nothing is free in this life. My father told me that long ago. Wood, propane, electricity, heating oil, waste oil, solar, all cost money. We got our gasification boiler from our neighbor who didn't want to be filling a boiler once or twice a day as he had no time for that. On top of that the owner before him had bought the boiler and never used it, so we got a basically new boiler for a huge discount. In 2018 a wildfire had gone through our area and burned out about 28,000 hectares and left a ton of trees killed by the wildfire and left standing. We have been using those dead trees since then with permit of course to feed the boiler. Its all about what you want to do. You can pay someone else for the continued heating of your possessions such as electricity or propane or heating oil or work a little and use wood. Our boiler is paid for and we only have to get a few truckloads of wood with our pickup trucks to cover the winter. Maybe one day, I wont be able to access wood or get too old but for now that is what works.
Woods a byproduct for me doing saw work in the shop, I don’t have a boiler system, Im a fitter welder by trade and I have a lot of hydronic experience and I couldn’t currently afford the hydronic retrofit to the house or shop but I’ve had massive luck with a DX wood furnace in the shop, I do appreciate the remote boiler principle to keep the wood mess remote
While everyone here that has commented has their own opinion, and their opinions are not wrong,especially to them, what I think is missing is the satisfaction of heating with wood and just enjoying doing something that makes one feel more independent. When one feels more independent, you can not put a price on that, no matter what it is.
I ran my Central Boiler for 13 years. I bought the corn option and used it for 3 years, I finally gave up on the corn burning and switched to wood since the corn system only worked "kinda". I had to buy the wood and when the price of it got so high I could heat with propane for the same money I quit using the boiler. I went thru 3 pumps and 2 temp controllers in 13 years. I finally bought a good water pump and it was running fine when I stopped using the boiler. It had been running for 7 years. I only ran the boiler during the heating season. I live in southern Michigan. Hope this helps.
At the end of the day, it's really no different than just working a side gig, and paying for fuel. However, it's a different kind of side gig that doesn't have strict hours, nonsensical policies, or a BS hr department. And none of the savings are taxed. A good side gig, in my opinion.
That tax perspective is something I never thought of and not sure why. It is very true. It is not free but the little bit of money I have to spend on gas for saws and truck, diesel for tractor, bar and chain oil, and wear an tear on all the equipment is far less than paying a fuel company every year. It also provides great exercise and actually helps me to relieve stress most of the time anyway. Another poisitve is if you cut enough firewood to save enough on whatever you would use for heat to buy a $800 chainsaw you at least have a chainsaw that has some value to it. If you give it to an oil company you have nothing to show for it. Of course I can say this because I have access to all the firewood I need and then some. If you had to buy it I am not sure if an outdoor boiler would be worth it. I know some people do.
Access to wood is the main thing. If i had to buy fuel, it probably wouldn't be firewood. One way or another you need fuel and there's a lot of btus in firewood. Bottom line is that you need to enjoy it and be healthy enough. It's honest and rewarding. Thanks for the nice comments and for watching.
Hello Thumb Country Stuff: It won't be so free in a couple more years after that unit starts leaking & you have to replace it. Also, because of their design, those outdoor wood fired boilers are the most inefficient form of heating with burning wood.
Try educating yourself before replying. I am working on 18 years with an outdoor wood boiler with no leaks. As far as being inefficient I spend far less time doing firewood because of the larger sizes you can use and also save time because I do not have to bring it inside. The lack of efficiency is also nothing compared to having the mess and fire danger far from your house. Not to mention a lot of the wood I am able to burn would be burned up in bon fires or left to rot.
🤔 How much insulation do you have. I hear with passive homes, with 2' thick insulated walls, slab and roof, you can heat a house with a hairdryer. I over insulated my 🏠 and also put insulation board on both sides of the framing to insulate the framing. I plan on building a rocket stove mass heater where my basement steps are, but right now, my gas furnace turns on once every 8 hours because the temperature drops 1 degrees. 😊
I would love that much insulation. My house is over 100 years old. There was no insulation at all when I bought it. I insulated the attic the 2nd year and other walls with spray foam during remodeling projects. We are about 50% insulated.
It was 12 degrees last night but no wind, so it was pleasant. However, when it is windy, it's easy to tell what direction it's from. Thanks for watching!
I'm in the same boat. I could be watching TV or having fun with the chainsaw and the wood splitter. I lose weight. Make myself healthier and it's good for me. Investing in yourself at the same time as saving money.
Some state building codes don't allow you to have a wood stove as your primary heat source. I can always turn the heat on even though I heat with wood.
Let's face it, today's government is a total turd and there is always some underground motive to minimize individualism and independence from the system.
It would have been nice to know how many cords of wood you use a year, and what it would cost to buy that wood local to your area. It would be nice to keep the sawdust and ashes out of the house, but I reckon I'll stay with my woodstove. Do you have a generator to keep the unit running if the power goes out?
I have always burned around 15 cords per year. I've seen ash wood selling for $60/ face cord cut and split. Yes, i do have a generator. I enjoy burning wood. I suppose I will continue doing it as long as I can. Thanks for your interest and for watching.
Wood fired outdoor boilers are not for everyone. They’re time consuming sometimes, they do require labor when it comes to stockpiling wood, and there is normal maintenance in “not so good weather” sometimes. I’ve had one for about 14 years and there’s no doubt it’s work. But for the $4k I’d be paying a year for natural gas, it’s well worth it to me. That’s because of the position I’m in right now. The position I’m in is that I have easy access to wood, I’m physically able to do it right now, and I’m not wanting to pay that kind of gas bill right now. I’ll probably change my mind when my body hurts too much later down the road.
Yep. I'm burning indoors with a large woodstove, about 4/5 cords a year off my own property and occasionally a neighbor when a tree falls. I DO have a propane forced air furnace that runs on 'shoulder season' and use maybe 100 gallons a year, plus for backup when we are away for a day or two. I'll likely go full propane at some point in next 20 years just due to getting older (60 now) but I enjoy being outside and working currently. I purchased the stove used for 200 bucks 25 years ago, replaced the fire brick two or three times and clean the flue and pipe twice a season, replacing pipe every third year. I used 800 gallons of propane the first winter here, so 700 gallons at propane pricing x 25 years 'saved'.
Bought a central boiler for barn/ house and never installed, looked around and said what i’am I thinking at 58 do I really want to process 10 cords a year? Sold it unused bought a coal cook stove and had 23 ton of hard coal ($10,000) delivered from Pennsylvania. Three five gallon buckets brought in twice a week. Supplies all my heat with at least one window open most of the winter. Going into third year and figure I have seven more years of coal. So ten years at $1,000 a year, best decision I ever made. Coal is amazing stove just idle’s away chimney temperature is 100 and zero creosote.
How much space does that 23 ton of coal take up. I assume it was delivered by triaxle? assume it needs covered storage. how far from pa are you? Is the stove inside your house? Is the coal dust a big problem.
@ delivery comes by semi-dump full load only, anthracite coal (hard coal) is not dusty, covering is preferred but not required (mainly to keep snow off for easy access), any good stove with rotating shaker grates will do as coal burns from bottom up and needs air from underneath.
We've considered purchasing a Central Boiler a time or two, but despite asking several owners of them, none can tell us how many cords they use a year. They all cut their own wood and don't keep track it seems. But it's an important factor in order to compare to propane and if you had to buy all your wood. BTW we heat 3,000 sq ft here and our propane cost for our hot water boiler system is over $6,000 per year in NW Indiana.
I live in far, northern Wisconsin. I burn 4-5 cords of very low quality wood per season. 1100 sq ft not so efficient log cabin and basement. My wood comes from my land and is primarily storm damaged, Aspen, pine, a few snapped off Maple. Along with 3" and smaller upper limbs from other trees I cut. I sell hardwood, firewood so I have lots of upper limbs along with some knots that are cut out of oak and sugar maple. We get many days in the teens and a good number of nights down to -20°. If I leave home for more than 2 nights I fill the boiler with hardwood. It will last a little over 3 days. With the poor quality wood, it lasts about a day and a half sometimes 2. I hope this helps
I use about 15 full cords in a season. I would guess my house and shop total is about 4000 square feet. I have about 300 feet of line buried and I'm sure I lose some there.
@ST-xx9rt I have a central boiler classic edge 750. I have no complaints at all. I have no doubt that it will last for at least the remainder of the 25 year warranty.
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 I have a 14 yo.Central boiler, CL6068. It's sized for running "two units" I used to heat my log cabin and a 16x80 trailer house. Now it's just the cabin and periodic heating of an 80 yo. Uninsulated garage where I work on my crap. I made a modine style heater out of, two pick up radiators, and a box fan. Works surprisingly well, although I need to turn it on the night before if I'm going to be in there for a whole day. I have mine set to heat the water to 150°. The cabin has radiant heat in the floor with tempering valves so I found no need to run the boiler, Any hotter. That may save me a fair amount of wood. I think it's a wonderful unit and being that I burn wood that I normally would leave in the woods to rot, All it costs is the electricity to run the pumps and enough chainsaw gas to chunk up the trees. And my time. Keeps me out of the tavern so it's good thing
Ive been heating my house with a boiler for ten years. Wish i would have bought one sooner. House is consistently 75 degrees. If i heated with propane, my costs would be 600$ a month just for the propane. Keep up the good work. Catch ya later.
It's all how you look at it working through your own situations.I have 4 different wood stoves on my property and heat 3 of my buildings with wood only. I finally decided to find a boiler because I'd rather only feed one firebox at one location plus I get the benefit of hot water from it. The way I look at it, I'm probably going to burn the same ammount of wood in this boiler as I do 3 wood stoves, if it's a tad more it will be worth it beings I can burn larger stuff that I don't need to be so seasoned. Any way you slice it, outdoor wood boilers, all the pex and stuff that goes with it to make it all work it crazy exspensive.
It would be hard to keep track of 3 stoves. The firestar control makes it nice. I can check it from anywhere. There's a little loss in the ground when it gets really cold out. But all things considered, outdoor boiler is the way to go. Thanks for watching!
My father in law just turned 90. He farmed until last year. He had to split bags of corn into 3 pails to fill the planter. So don't give up on the pellets!
I hope that before you went ahead and installed an outdoor wood eating monster you made sure that that old farmhouse was well insulated with updated windows and doors. This is the first place to spend your money. I have heated with wood for 40 years but I use a modern efficient stove. Efficiency is the name of the game. Modern propane combination boilers are among the most efficient heating devices available. Outdoor boilers are definitely a safe way to burn wood and without the mess in the home but I believe there are more efficient ways to heat your home.
I insulated what I could over the years. I grew up with a indoor wood stove. I'm happy to burn extra wood and keep the bugs, mess and smoke away from the house. Thanks for watching.
Everyone figures out what works for them but for me I focused on heat retention and energy loss. When you retain the heat, saving money will follow. Depending on conditions I heat a 4000 sqft home with 4 to 6 cords a year (in Vermont). There's a better ROI investing in proper insulation, building sealing and efficient windows than changing heat sources. If you dont stop the heat from escaping it doesnt matter what you heat with... I enjoyed the video but my folks burn 12 cords in a 1300 sqft home. I cant understand what people like about these boilers. From my observation they are the most inefficient ways to heat a house. They save $1000 a year but require 8 weekend of labor to maintain. The money they save isnt worth the time they cost.
I agree with everything you said. My old house didn't have any insulation in it when I bought it. Through the years we've done some remodeling and insulate when we do. We have 1 more wall to do. Thinking of doing something from the outside. Thanks for watching!
There is a lot of ways to look at it. I burn wood and I buy from local people and cut and spilt own my own has well. Buying gas from some big gas company is not helping your community. That is what is wrong with our economy now. Everyone orders products online and has choked out the little man. I think being self sufficient pays off in the long haul.
It's a total pain heating with wood. You can't leave your home for vacation in the winter. It's extremely dangerous cutting wood. Break a bone or have a saw get you, the one hospital bill in money could heat your home for 10 years. The units are very expensive and WILL leak. You need a lot of infrastructure to do the process. You need chainsaws, wood splitters, sharpeners, chains, preferably a tractor to move wood, truck to haul the wood if you don't have what you need out your back door. They will break down when it is cold out. You constantly smell like wood smoke. It smokes the yard up, your neighbors will hate you if you have some within a 1/4 mile. Free is the most asinine thing to say when talking about heating with a wood boiler. NOTHING about it is free. Now there are benefits, if your handy with electrical, mechanical and welding, you can keep your boiler going without paying for repairs. You will be warm because you can. You will go to other people's homes and be cold because you will keep your house at 73 or higher while they are sitting at 67 trying to save the gas. If you enjoy getting outdoors and doing hard manual labor, you will enjoy a wood boiler. If you enjoy sharpening chains and cutting and splitting wood and ALOT of it, you will enjoy a wood boiler. They do give you longer load times than an indoor stove, and the mess stays outside. If your handy and stay safe, a wood boiler will be right up your alley. It will take many years to get your investment back. Take the 20k initial cost an invest in the market and take the 2k interest and buy gas. The other benefit is you will be cutting wood so much you won't have time to be shopping and spending money in town. Cheers!
If you worked for the propane supplier, you could get an employee discount. I’d rather use propane. From what I’ve seen concerning wood boilers, I’ll stick to LPG. Nothing is “free”. Sore joints, bad back, fumigating the neighborhood with low lying smoke isn’t something to look forward to. I have numerous customers that supplement their wood heat with LPG. It does give them something productive to do and brag about. This year I have two new widows on my route. They converted to 100% LPG. They are so happy that they don’t have to deal with wood anymore. I will say though that splitting wood with an axe will provide someone with a honest workout!
@bestfriendhank1424 I've been thinking about your comments. I run my leg furnace until it stays cold in the fall . I like to make sure that it would run if I needed it. So far, when I fire up the boiler, the gas part doesn't run until the next fall. As far as your widow customers, I'm sure my wife would agree with them.
@ Happy New Year! We are heating with oil using 2 Toyo 15,000 BTU heaters. We use about 600 gallons a winter.I also burn a little over a cord of wood in a Vermont Castings Aspen. I am putting a gas hydronic system in as gas was run down our road last year. I fire the wood stove up when it gets around zero. It is -10 now and last winter we saw some mornings with it -45. It is a duplex that we live in one half and I’m just finishing the drywall in the other half. It’s an out of pocket thing. Both halves have basements with south facing entrances. The foundation has 4” of blue board to the footings. We live in gravel that can be sold so we have great drainage, a glacier moraine. The walls are double stud with R-40 closed cell foam and the ceiling is R-59 with R-38 batts over R-21 batts of fiber glass. We are in a small south facing hill with the horizon to the east 15-20 miles away and to the west 35-100 miles away. We have close to 200 square feet of glass on the south wall. We also over look a wetlands the locals call “moose alley “. I just saw two in it before I sat down with my coffee.
I own two properties in northern Michigan. One just converted to natural gas the other has propane. I very interested to see how get out of the repressive propane industry will be. Got a $90. charge for each property for not using enough!!🤬 I thought these democrats wanted us to use less energy?!?! Now I get charged for it!!! The second property I cannot get natural gas “yet” and we have stepped up our wood burning game considerably this year! The second I can get rid of propane I will without hesitation!! The people who say in the comments that propane is affordable I question where they live and if they are getting kickbacks for spreading false information! PROPANE IS BY FAR THE MOST EXPENSIVE WAY TO HEAT!!! I have had natural gas my first 51 years of life and the biggest shock of moving north was the outrageous propane bills and terrible service!!!
@ my primary property is solar and rain catch for water! This past summer we installed EG4 hybrid mini split! Love the mini and are in process of upgrading solar to make mini more relevant!
I still fill my large tank every summer when prices are down. I usually get it for $1.30-$1.50 a gallon. Some years even cheaper. I use it to heat my large garage which has a propane forced hot air furnace. It is cheap heat for me. I heat my house with a wood stove and have back up oil furnace and a heat pump so we have it covered every which way.
Unless you have access to free wood, you'll spend a fortune buying it. Plus, it's hard work and time-consuming cutting, splitting, and stacking wood. You would have to value your time at zero to make it make sense.
I have a little over 3 acres, 90% dense forest. PLUS my neighbor owns 7 acres next to me completely wooded that he is perfectly happy with me removing dead/downed trees off of to keep it looking better. I have purchased 3 cords of wood in 25 years, only because I broke a wrist/arm and could not cut/split/stack that year. I ENJOY getting outside, doing a little work and making the area look better, all the while burning 4/5 cords of wood a year and enjoying that constant warm heat.
Yeah, I think the Western world has lost touch with what the word “free” really means. Everything comes at the expense of something else. Many of us have chosen to make investments of money and time to reduce our Heating expense. That doesn’t make it free. It comes down to how each individual values time, money, and activities. I love using my wood working equipment, saving cost on heating and the work related to wood gathering and have been saving thousands a year for 15 years in heating costs. I think a day will come when I’ll value other things more and spend my time and resources differently.
We have friends and relatives with wood furnaces. No one can show me how they save money mathematically. We use propane and elec, pre-buy our propane every year. We’re on the companies “keep full list”. We have never run out of gas. We do use some electric heat but our elec coop has reasonable rates. I don’t need to cut stack or buy wood. We set our thermostat and walk away. Invest in new windows and insulation. Much better investment.
Correct. But the way I look at too is…I’m not relying on the oil/gas man, gas main or power lines (genny backup of course) and what comes with those three options is price fluctuations or service interruptions. Remember propane 4-5 years ago?!!. Look what happened to Europe after puttie blew up his pipeline (🤦♂️😆) electricity is more stable but when the EVs get mass adoption the price will reflect. My wood fuel is on my property just waiting to be harvested. My prop taxes are the same whether I’m burning wood or not.
How do you know it was Putin who blew his own pipeline? Most likely it was the US Your President told the News channels that Nordstream 2 will never go in operation. And if it was not the US it surely was supported by the US.
Canada is being ruined by crazy stupid liberals in the big cities. You guys have to get Trudeau out of there. Huge abundance of natural resources in Canada and the greenies don’t want to use it.
4k a year translates to 350ish a month. That is not really too bad and living in town the water and natural gas runs me 150 a month. Electric I suppose is a push.
If I had natural gas, I suppose I wouldn't rely so much on wood. I think geothermal is a good form of electric heat. That's also a large initial investment. I guess what I hate most about heating costs is that it's gone forever.
@thumbcountrystuff4215 Wood helps you get your exercise as well..just don't hurt yourself. My wife grew up burning in a stove that sits in the living room. Bedrooms were cold but that's what night clothes, socks,and blankets are for.
The word "free" is an interesting one, isn't it? On one hand, it can mean getting something for no work and no money. From that perspective, very few things worth having in life are truly free. They all require some sort of investment. On the other hand, if you talk about BEING "free", meaning you are not beholden to anyone and can do what you want to do in life...well, you can't put a price on how valuable that is. Heating your house with wood is never free, because there is always an expense of both money and time, but once you have the equipment and a full wood shed, you are "free" from worrying about how you'll keep your house warm. For my money, I'd never buy a wood boiler. They're just WAY too inefficient. I spent more money and had a masonry heater installed in my home. It's tied into the hot air return on my propane furnace/HVAC system. When I heat with wood, it uses a fraction of the wood a boiler does and it's much more efficient at actually keeping my house warm. When I don't feel like heating with wood, the heat pump and propane furnace gets the job done very nicely.
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 - A masonry heater uses somewhere between 1/2 to 1/10th of the wood a convention wood stove or boiler uses. You typically only fire it once a day when it's cold, and twice a day when it's really cold. You get a nice, even heat, and there are basically no moving parts, so nothing to fail. They are very heavy and take up valuable floor space in your home, especially if you put them right in the middle, where they should be. Ask anyone who has one and they'll tell you it was worth every penny and every square foot they take up.
I'd like to know if anyone has tried generating electricity with a small steam engine utilizing one of these boilers. There has to be some wasted heat that could be used.
@@Beechnut985 OK. That answers a lot. I always thought they were miniature versions of what they used to use in the big old buildings, and they called them boilers. So I just assumed.
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In colonial times they would burn 12-14 cords a year.... Now a lot of these modern folks burn 12-14 cords a year plus the fuel for cooking....not much progress or forward think....
Wood is almost never free. You are always burning the value of the wood. Even if someone gave it to you. Its always worth money because you could sell it. Put it this way would you consider burning your cash on hand in your boiler free heat. Wood is cash in hand that your burning and that must always be considered.
Exactly, you could sell all that firewood and buy propane and go fishing all winter haha. I burn about 12 face cord a year plus probably 5 in the maple syrup evaporator. I do it because it's slow on the farm in the winter and I need to clear pastures.
That's true that's why I hand split and sell 20 face cord a year. We have natural gas and newer house here in Ontario so it's not worth burning myself. Everyone's situation is unique to each their own as well. But I find too often people fool themselves into thinking the wood they harvest is free fuel.
I do. When there was a lot of dead ash trees laying around it was easy. Now it's getting harder to find dead or diseased trees. But that's half the fun!
What are you doing with all that time? If it something productive then great but if not I will cut firewood. I have heard plenty of people tell me they don't have time to cut firewood and then tell me how much time they play video games or watch TV.
"Give me convenience or give me death" is not a mindset that's going to allow you the freedom to live the way you choose. If you want to work and pay instead of working to save then you'll always be beholden to the almighty dollar. I'm 62 and haven't needed to work for a little over nine years now, I've never been paid more than $15 an hour my entire life. Nuff said!
😅I have had a Central Boiler unit for 10 years. I start it up on November 1st and continue burning wood until the central air is needed. I go thru approximately 5-6 full cords of wood in a winter. Usually takes me about 4 days to cut, split and fill the wood shed. I'm 71 years young and have burned wood most of my adult life. Burning wood keeps me in great physical shape and helps keep me sane in an insane world. I also raise beef cattle and do the field work on my farm. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Thanks for the nice comments and thanks for watching.
Heated with wood for about 25 years. But after about the age of 82, I just can't do it all anymore. You do need to plan an exit strategy for all the wood cutting and handling. Back onto the propane again!
Propane is plan B. I use my propane furnace in the fall until it stays cold. This keeps it fresh and ready in case I need it. Thanks for watching
Jack is a great guy and I have an outdoor burner on my list for this coming year. We burn indoor now but an outdoor unit would save a lot of mess and provide more even heat than just the wood stove. Good video
Lots of advantages and convenience with a boiler. You won't regret it.
Thanks for watching!
I am 51 and going on season 12 with my Shelter Outdoor Forced Air Furnace here in South Eastern Illinois. Granted, it is not a boiler like mentioned here but it takes about the same amount of work and expenditures to keep it and the other equipment running to support it. My wife had concerns at first but likes it now, although it does have to be closer to the house than the traditional boiler units. It is also smaller than other boiler units so it gets more attention around the clock, but as I have learned to season my wood better, store it better and able to transport it better, so it does get a little easier over time.
I was the last one of (4) in my group of family / friends to start burning wood (grew up burning wood with my dad in '70s and '80s) and now, 12 years later, I am the only one left. The cost of replacing the wood burners, kids in more school activities or moving out of the house, and getting older now have pushed most of my group away from burning wood.
I want to say that I want to keep going as long as I can, getting to use chainsaws, log splitters, using my trusty Kubota B2620 and all the trailers connected to it. It reminds me of the joy I had when working on the family farm all those years ago and just being outside.
I enjoy the work, and I think it keeps me young in body and spirit. When you're in the woods(or farming) it cleanses the soul.
I've burnt wood for space heating most of my 73 years. My first and current Central boiler was brought into the fold in 2004. Then came the wood sheds and now I am pretty much setup. Aging will play an important in my ability to keep up with the demands of harvesting the logs and processing but its a lifestyle that I love and you do great favours to the bush by maintaining it. Watching the trees grow healthy over the years is most rewarding while removing those that are damaged or diseased or crowding. It is a wonderful life!
That sounds familiar. I started burning wood after the Emerald Ash Borer came through. I asked the neighbor if I could cut a few trails through his woods for the deer. He was happy to let me do it. After 9 years of cleaning and natural recovery, it's no a beautiful woods. So there's much more to it than just firewood. Thanks for pointing that out!
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 Ah yes the pesky ash borer! Those guys stopped by two years ago and are determined to stick around. Talk about trying to keep up with the damage they do......Luckily most of my ash trees are growing in old fields so I decided to reclaim the fields back to their former glory.
I’ve had a Central Boiler CL6048 for 18 years now. I heat the house and my hot water with it. We can crank the heat up to 75 in the house and take long, hot showers all winter long. I’ve never had to turn down my thermostat to save money. Cutting and splitting firewood isn’t for everyone, especially those folks that go to the gym for exercise 😂
I've thought about that idea of charging people to come to my farm to split and pile firewood.
Thanks for the video ! First time watching your channel, good information on wood boiler! I have a wood stove, enjoy the wood heat ! 😊
Thanks for watching and the nice comments!
Nothing is free in this life. My father told me that long ago. Wood, propane, electricity, heating oil, waste oil, solar, all cost money. We got our gasification boiler from our neighbor who didn't want to be filling a boiler once or twice a day as he had no time for that. On top of that the owner before him had bought the boiler and never used it, so we got a basically new boiler for a huge discount. In 2018 a wildfire had gone through our area and burned out about 28,000 hectares and left a ton of trees killed by the wildfire and left standing. We have been using those dead trees since then with permit of course to feed the boiler.
Its all about what you want to do. You can pay someone else for the continued heating of your possessions such as electricity or propane or heating oil or work a little and use wood. Our boiler is paid for and we only have to get a few truckloads of wood with our pickup trucks to cover the winter. Maybe one day, I wont be able to access wood or get too old but for now that is what works.
I like the way you think. Thanks for watching.
Woods a byproduct for me doing saw work in the shop, I don’t have a boiler system, Im a fitter welder by trade and I have a lot of hydronic experience and I couldn’t currently afford the hydronic retrofit to the house or shop but I’ve had massive luck with a DX wood furnace in the shop, I do appreciate the remote boiler principle to keep the wood mess remote
The mess and bugs are the biggest reasons for me. Thanks for watching!
While everyone here that has commented has their own opinion, and their opinions are not wrong,especially to them, what I think is missing is the satisfaction of heating with wood and just enjoying doing something that makes one feel more independent. When one feels more independent, you can not put a price on that, no matter what it is.
That's huge. Thanks!
I ran my Central Boiler for 13 years. I bought the corn option and used it for 3 years, I finally gave up on the corn burning and switched to wood since the corn system only worked "kinda". I had to buy the wood and when the price of it got so high I could heat with propane for the same money I quit using the boiler. I went thru 3 pumps and 2 temp controllers in 13 years. I finally bought a good water pump and it was running fine when I stopped using the boiler. It had been running for 7 years. I only ran the boiler during the heating season. I live in southern Michigan. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the nice comments and for watching!
At the end of the day, it's really no different than just working a side gig, and paying for fuel.
However, it's a different kind of side gig that doesn't have strict hours, nonsensical policies, or a BS hr department. And none of the savings are taxed.
A good side gig, in my opinion.
And it's a break from the normal grind. Thanks!
I made the decision to go with a geothermal heat pump about 15 years ago. Glad I did!!
My parents have that. They like to as well.
That tax perspective is something I never thought of and not sure why. It is very true. It is not free but the little bit of money I have to spend on gas for saws and truck, diesel for tractor, bar and chain oil, and wear an tear on all the equipment is far less than paying a fuel company every year. It also provides great exercise and actually helps me to relieve stress most of the time anyway. Another poisitve is if you cut enough firewood to save enough on whatever you would use for heat to buy a $800 chainsaw you at least have a chainsaw that has some value to it. If you give it to an oil company you have nothing to show for it. Of course I can say this because I have access to all the firewood I need and then some. If you had to buy it I am not sure if an outdoor boiler would be worth it. I know some people do.
Access to wood is the main thing. If i had to buy fuel, it probably wouldn't be firewood. One way or another you need fuel and there's a lot of btus in firewood. Bottom line is that you need to enjoy it and be healthy enough. It's honest and rewarding. Thanks for the nice comments and for watching.
Hello Thumb Country Stuff:
It won't be so free in a couple more years after that unit starts leaking & you have to replace it.
Also, because of their design, those outdoor wood fired boilers are the most inefficient form of heating with burning wood.
Thanks for watching
Try educating yourself before replying. I am working on 18 years with an outdoor wood boiler with no leaks. As far as being inefficient I spend far less time doing firewood because of the larger sizes you can use and also save time because I do not have to bring it inside. The lack of efficiency is also nothing compared to having the mess and fire danger far from your house. Not to mention a lot of the wood I am able to burn would be burned up in bon fires or left to rot.
🤔 How much insulation do you have. I hear with passive homes, with 2' thick insulated walls, slab and roof, you can heat a house with a hairdryer. I over insulated my 🏠 and also put insulation board on both sides of the framing to insulate the framing. I plan on building a rocket stove mass heater where my basement steps are, but right now, my gas furnace turns on once every 8 hours because the temperature drops 1 degrees. 😊
I would love that much insulation. My house is over 100 years old. There was no insulation at all when I bought it. I insulated the attic the 2nd year and other walls with spray foam during remodeling projects. We are about 50% insulated.
It was 12 degrees last night but no wind, so it was pleasant. However, when it is windy, it's easy to tell what direction it's from. Thanks for watching!
I'm in the same boat. I could be watching TV or having fun with the chainsaw and the wood splitter. I lose weight. Make myself healthier and it's good for me. Investing in yourself at the same time as saving money.
Truly a win-win!
Some state building codes don't allow you to have a wood stove as your primary heat source. I can always turn the heat on even though I heat with wood.
Leave it to government thinking...
That is when you either move or vote out the silliness.
Let's face it, today's government is a total turd and there is always some underground motive to minimize individualism and independence from the system.
It would have been nice to know how many cords of wood you use a year, and what it would cost to buy that wood local to your area. It would be nice to keep the sawdust and ashes out of the house, but I reckon I'll stay with my woodstove. Do you have a generator to keep the unit running if the power goes out?
I have always burned around 15 cords per year. I've seen ash wood selling for $60/ face cord cut and split. Yes, i do have a generator. I enjoy burning wood. I suppose I will continue doing it as long as I can. Thanks for your interest and for watching.
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 Thanks for taking the time to reply!
Wood fired outdoor boilers are not for everyone. They’re time consuming sometimes, they do require labor when it comes to stockpiling wood, and there is normal maintenance in “not so good weather” sometimes. I’ve had one for about 14 years and there’s no doubt it’s work. But for the $4k I’d be paying a year for natural gas, it’s well worth it to me. That’s because of the position I’m in right now. The position I’m in is that I have easy access to wood, I’m physically able to do it right now, and I’m not wanting to pay that kind of gas bill right now. I’ll probably change my mind when my body hurts too much later down the road.
Keeps you young!?
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 😂not sure about that
Yep. I'm burning indoors with a large woodstove, about 4/5 cords a year off my own property and occasionally a neighbor when a tree falls. I DO have a propane forced air furnace that runs on 'shoulder season' and use maybe 100 gallons a year, plus for backup when we are away for a day or two. I'll likely go full propane at some point in next 20 years just due to getting older (60 now) but I enjoy being outside and working currently. I purchased the stove used for 200 bucks 25 years ago, replaced the fire brick two or three times and clean the flue and pipe twice a season, replacing pipe every third year. I used 800 gallons of propane the first winter here, so 700 gallons at propane pricing x 25 years 'saved'.
There is nothing free in this world, maybe less expensive but not free.
Getting tough to even stretch a dollar. Thanks for watching!
Bought a central boiler for barn/ house and never installed, looked around and said what i’am I thinking at 58 do I really want to process 10 cords a year? Sold it unused bought a coal cook stove and had 23 ton of hard coal ($10,000) delivered from Pennsylvania. Three five gallon buckets brought in twice a week. Supplies all my heat with at least one window open most of the winter. Going into third year and figure I have seven more years of coal. So ten years at $1,000 a year, best decision I ever made. Coal is amazing stove just idle’s away chimney temperature is 100 and zero creosote.
That is efficient!
How much space does that 23 ton of coal take up. I assume it was delivered by triaxle? assume it needs covered storage. how far from pa are you? Is the stove inside your house? Is the coal dust a big problem.
@ delivery comes by semi-dump full load only, anthracite coal (hard coal) is not dusty, covering is preferred but not required (mainly to keep snow off for easy access), any good stove with rotating shaker grates will do as coal burns from bottom up and needs air from underneath.
@ Also I live in Michigan
We've considered purchasing a Central Boiler a time or two, but despite asking several owners of them, none can tell us how many cords they use a year. They all cut their own wood and don't keep track it seems. But it's an important factor in order to compare to propane and if you had to buy all your wood. BTW we heat 3,000 sq ft here and our propane cost for our hot water boiler system is over $6,000 per year in NW Indiana.
I live in far, northern Wisconsin. I burn 4-5 cords of very low quality wood per season. 1100 sq ft not so efficient log cabin and basement. My wood comes from my land and is primarily storm damaged, Aspen, pine, a few snapped off Maple. Along with 3" and smaller upper limbs from other trees I cut. I sell hardwood, firewood so I have lots of upper limbs along with some knots that are cut out of oak and sugar maple. We get many days in the teens and a good number of nights down to -20°. If I leave home for more than 2 nights I fill the boiler with hardwood. It will last a little over 3 days. With the poor quality wood, it lasts about a day and a half sometimes 2. I hope this helps
I use about 15 full cords in a season. I would guess my house and shop total is about 4000 square feet. I have about 300 feet of line buried and I'm sure I lose some there.
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 what brand boiler do you have?
@ST-xx9rt I have a central boiler classic edge 750. I have no complaints at all. I have no doubt that it will last for at least the remainder of the 25 year warranty.
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 I have a 14 yo.Central boiler, CL6068. It's sized for running "two units" I used to heat my log cabin and a 16x80 trailer house. Now it's just the cabin and periodic heating of an 80 yo. Uninsulated garage where I work on my crap. I made a modine style heater out of, two pick up radiators, and a box fan. Works surprisingly well, although I need to turn it on the night before if I'm going to be in there for a whole day. I have mine set to heat the water to 150°. The cabin has radiant heat in the floor with tempering valves so I found no need to run the boiler, Any hotter. That may save me a fair amount of wood.
I think it's a wonderful unit and being that I burn wood that I normally would leave in the woods to rot, All it costs is the electricity to run the pumps and enough chainsaw gas to chunk up the trees. And my time. Keeps me out of the tavern so it's good thing
Ive been heating my house with a boiler for ten years. Wish i would have bought one sooner. House is consistently 75 degrees. If i heated with propane, my costs would be 600$ a month just for the propane. Keep up the good work. Catch ya later.
Thank you!
It's all how you look at it working through your own situations.I have 4 different wood stoves on my property and heat 3 of my buildings with wood only. I finally decided to find a boiler because I'd rather only feed one firebox at one location plus I get the benefit of hot water from it. The way I look at it, I'm probably going to burn the same ammount of wood in this boiler as I do 3 wood stoves, if it's a tad more it will be worth it beings I can burn larger stuff that I don't need to be so seasoned. Any way you slice it, outdoor wood boilers, all the pex and stuff that goes with it to make it all work it crazy exspensive.
It would be hard to keep track of 3 stoves. The firestar control makes it nice. I can check it from anywhere. There's a little loss in the ground when it gets really cold out. But all things considered, outdoor boiler is the way to go. Thanks for watching!
I have a wood pellet stove and loved it UNTIL this year. I turned 73, and dammit I can't lift those 40 lb bags anymore.
My father in law just turned 90. He farmed until last year. He had to split bags of corn into 3 pails to fill the planter. So don't give up on the pellets!
I hope that before you went ahead and installed an outdoor wood eating monster you made sure that that old farmhouse was well insulated with updated windows and doors. This is the first place to spend your money. I have heated with wood for 40 years but I use a modern efficient stove. Efficiency is the name of the game.
Modern propane combination boilers are among the most efficient heating devices available. Outdoor boilers are definitely a safe way to burn wood and without the mess in the home but I believe there are more efficient ways to heat your home.
I insulated what I could over the years. I grew up with a indoor wood stove. I'm happy to burn extra wood and keep the bugs, mess and smoke away from the house. Thanks for watching.
Everyone figures out what works for them but for me I focused on heat retention and energy loss. When you retain the heat, saving money will follow.
Depending on conditions I heat a 4000 sqft home with 4 to 6 cords a year (in Vermont). There's a better ROI investing in proper insulation, building sealing and efficient windows than changing heat sources.
If you dont stop the heat from escaping it doesnt matter what you heat with...
I enjoyed the video but my folks burn 12 cords in a 1300 sqft home. I cant understand what people like about these boilers. From my observation they are the most inefficient ways to heat a house. They save $1000 a year but require 8 weekend of labor to maintain. The money they save isnt worth the time they cost.
I agree with everything you said. My old house didn't have any insulation in it when I bought it. Through the years we've done some remodeling and insulate when we do. We have 1 more wall to do. Thinking of doing something from the outside. Thanks for watching!
There is a lot of ways to look at it. I burn wood and I buy from local people and cut and spilt own my own has well. Buying gas from some big gas company is not helping your community. That is what is wrong with our economy now. Everyone orders products online and has choked out the little man. I think being self sufficient pays off in the long haul.
Agree! We need to keep it local. Thanks for watching!
What is your time worth, how many hours do you spend cutting wood? You do have to figure your time and effort into the cost as well
I spend about 100 hours a year filling the woodshed. I do it in unproductive time. The time I use would be wasted watching TV (or UA-cam)
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 - bingo
Do you have a loader tractor for sale? A dairy farm near Brown City is in need for one.
I do not.
It's a total pain heating with wood. You can't leave your home for vacation in the winter. It's extremely dangerous cutting wood. Break a bone or have a saw get you, the one hospital bill in money could heat your home for 10 years. The units are very expensive and WILL leak. You need a lot of infrastructure to do the process. You need chainsaws, wood splitters, sharpeners, chains, preferably a tractor to move wood, truck to haul the wood if you don't have what you need out your back door. They will break down when it is cold out. You constantly smell like wood smoke. It smokes the yard up, your neighbors will hate you if you have some within a 1/4 mile. Free is the most asinine thing to say when talking about heating with a wood boiler. NOTHING about it is free. Now there are benefits, if your handy with electrical, mechanical and welding, you can keep your boiler going without paying for repairs. You will be warm because you can. You will go to other people's homes and be cold because you will keep your house at 73 or higher while they are sitting at 67 trying to save the gas. If you enjoy getting outdoors and doing hard manual labor, you will enjoy a wood boiler. If you enjoy sharpening chains and cutting and splitting wood and ALOT of it, you will enjoy a wood boiler. They do give you longer load times than an indoor stove, and the mess stays outside. If your handy and stay safe, a wood boiler will be right up your alley. It will take many years to get your investment back. Take the 20k initial cost an invest in the market and take the 2k interest and buy gas. The other benefit is you will be cutting wood so much you won't have time to be shopping and spending money in town. Cheers!
Very well put,however to each his own.
I use the wood that warms me twice!
Thanks for the comments and for watching!
Spoken like a true city person. Go somewhere else. This info isn’t for you. Vacation……..? 😂
Wondering how you would have survived say, 125 - 150 years ago, before oil and coal heating.
@@tucsonjack3991Measuring historic survival abilities? Hope your not using chainsaws or wood splitters 😂
Nice dry heat but wouldn’t want to rely on wood. Not young anymore
It's a way of life...
Amen
Never free
Thanks for watching
If you worked for the propane supplier, you could get an employee discount. I’d rather use propane. From what I’ve seen concerning wood boilers, I’ll stick to LPG. Nothing is “free”. Sore joints, bad back, fumigating the neighborhood with low lying smoke isn’t something to look forward to.
I have numerous customers that supplement their wood heat with LPG. It does give them something productive to do and brag about.
This year I have two new widows on my route. They converted to 100% LPG. They are so happy that they don’t have to deal with wood anymore.
I will say though that splitting wood with an axe will provide someone with a honest workout!
Definitely good, honest work. Good thoughts. Thank you
@bestfriendhank1424 I've been thinking about your comments. I run my leg furnace until it stays cold in the fall . I like to make sure that it would run if I needed it. So far, when I fire up the boiler, the gas part doesn't run until the next fall.
As far as your widow customers, I'm sure my wife would agree with them.
@ burning wood must be no different then wanting to go out and shoot a “big buck”. Must be just a guy thing. 🤣
I heat 3,400 square feet with about 100 million BTU a winter. Something that big would be impractical for heating our home here in Alaska.
Curious- how are you heating now?
@ Happy New Year! We are heating with oil using 2 Toyo 15,000 BTU heaters. We use about 600 gallons a winter.I also burn a little over a cord of wood in a Vermont Castings Aspen. I am putting a gas hydronic system in as gas was run down our road last year. I fire the wood stove up when it gets around zero. It is -10 now and last winter we saw some mornings with it -45. It is a duplex that we live in one half and I’m just finishing the drywall in the other half. It’s an out of pocket thing. Both halves have basements with south facing entrances. The foundation has 4” of blue board to the footings. We live in gravel that can be sold so we have great drainage, a glacier moraine. The walls are double stud with R-40 closed cell foam and the ceiling is R-59 with R-38 batts over R-21 batts of fiber glass. We are in a small south facing hill with the horizon to the east 15-20 miles away and to the west 35-100 miles away. We have close to 200 square feet of glass on the south wall. We also over look a wetlands the locals call “moose alley “. I just saw two in it before I sat down with my coffee.
I own two properties in northern Michigan. One just converted to natural gas the other has propane. I very interested to see how get out of the repressive propane industry will be. Got a $90. charge for each property for not using enough!!🤬
I thought these democrats wanted us to use less energy?!?! Now I get charged for it!!! The second property I cannot get natural gas “yet” and we have stepped up our wood burning game considerably this year! The second I can get rid of propane I will without hesitation!!
The people who say in the comments that propane is affordable I question where they live and if they are getting kickbacks for spreading false information! PROPANE IS BY FAR THE MOST EXPENSIVE WAY TO HEAT!!! I have had natural gas my first 51 years of life and the biggest shock of moving north was the outrageous propane bills and terrible service!!!
Best to try to be self-reliant
@ my primary property is solar and rain catch for water! This past summer we installed EG4 hybrid mini split! Love the mini and are in process of upgrading solar to make mini more relevant!
@luvmysuperduty
Very interesting!
@ live off grid and it’s awesome!!
Wow! a Democrat propane company? You'd think they give you a break
I paid $1.99 a gallon for propane twenty years ago , I just paid $2.20 so the price has gone down considering inflation😊
Sort of like farming only the opposite. Price for selling grain hasn't changed much but the dollar that you get for it doesn't go as far.
I still fill my large tank every summer when prices are down. I usually get it for $1.30-$1.50 a gallon. Some years even cheaper. I use it to heat my large garage which has a propane forced hot air furnace. It is cheap heat for me. I heat my house with a wood stove and have back up oil furnace and a heat pump so we have it covered every which way.
I love firewood but with a wood stove. Not boilers. Back up propane....
We're on the same mindset! Thanks for watching!
Unless you have access to free wood, you'll spend a fortune buying it. Plus, it's hard work and time-consuming cutting, splitting, and stacking wood. You would have to value your time at zero to make it make sense.
Have you ever cut, split or stacked wood?
@thumbcountrystuff4215 Yes, I have, all through my teens. I sold wood to help my family out.
@joseywales8546
I did growing up too. I hated it .it was the only heat that we had. Now that it's an option I find it to be relaxing.
Lol I was the youngest of 5 . When I moved out, my dad put in a propane furnace. I don't think he's touched a piece of firewood since...
I have a little over 3 acres, 90% dense forest. PLUS my neighbor owns 7 acres next to me completely wooded that he is perfectly happy with me removing dead/downed trees off of to keep it looking better. I have purchased 3 cords of wood in 25 years, only because I broke a wrist/arm and could not cut/split/stack that year. I ENJOY getting outside, doing a little work and making the area look better, all the while burning 4/5 cords of wood a year and enjoying that constant warm heat.
Most insurance companies won’t insure you now if have a wood stove.I say screw them and take my chances
Suprising but mine was fine with it. But it's 200 feet from the house and 100ft from the barn.
I think it’s about lifestyle… If sitting on the couch is more your style, heating with wood is probably not for you.😅
I agree. You really have to enjoy it.
@ for some, firewood is a lot of work and for others it’s just a Tuesday.
@foty3rothers859 I like that. "Just a Tuesday "
Battery storage only if you’re off the grid otherwise it more than pays for itself, mine has.
Off grid sounds good.
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 Off grid if you're lucky!
Yeah, I think the Western world has lost touch with what the word “free” really means. Everything comes at the expense of something else. Many of us have chosen to make investments of money and time to reduce our Heating expense. That doesn’t make it free. It comes down to how each individual values time, money, and activities. I love using my wood working equipment, saving cost on heating and the work related to wood gathering and have been saving thousands a year for 15 years in heating costs. I think a day will come when I’ll value other things more and spend my time and resources differently.
Bought a wood heater installed it in my heat bill went down about half
Good investment!
How much was the heater?
@36handy honestly, I can't remember. $12k sticks in my head. I installed it myself...
I will look it up for a future video.
Congrats on having a video pop on UA-cam. Hope it helps build your channel, subscribe folks.
Me too! Thank you!
We have friends and relatives with wood furnaces. No one can show me how they save money mathematically. We use propane and elec, pre-buy our propane every year. We’re on the companies “keep full list”. We have never run out of gas. We do use some electric heat but our elec coop has reasonable rates. I don’t need to cut stack or buy wood. We set our thermostat and walk away. Invest in new windows and insulation. Much better investment.
Thanks for watching
Correct. But the way I look at too is…I’m not relying on the oil/gas man, gas main or power lines (genny backup of course) and what comes with those three options is price fluctuations or service interruptions. Remember propane 4-5 years ago?!!. Look what happened to Europe after puttie blew up his pipeline (🤦♂️😆) electricity is more stable but when the EVs get mass adoption the price will reflect. My wood fuel is on my property just waiting to be harvested. My prop taxes are the same whether I’m burning wood or not.
There is satisfaction in self-reliance. It's becoming necessary.
How do you know it was Putin who blew his own pipeline? Most likely it was the US Your President told the News channels that Nordstream 2 will never go in operation. And if it was not the US it surely was supported by the US.
Some places like Quebec are banning wood, oil and gas burning heating systems including fireplaces.
That's nuts!
They are banning eating meat too. Breathing will be next....
Canada is being ruined by crazy stupid liberals in the big cities. You guys have to get Trudeau out of there. Huge abundance of natural resources in Canada and the greenies don’t want to use it.
4k a year translates to 350ish a month. That is not really too bad and living in town the water and natural gas runs me 150 a month. Electric I suppose is a push.
If I had natural gas, I suppose I wouldn't rely so much on wood. I think geothermal is a good form of electric heat. That's also a large initial investment. I guess what I hate most about heating costs is that it's gone forever.
@thumbcountrystuff4215 Wood helps you get your exercise as well..just don't hurt yourself. My wife grew up burning in a stove that sits in the living room. Bedrooms were cold but that's what night clothes, socks,and blankets are for.
@nilsalmgren4492 Good snuggling temperature.
The word "free" is an interesting one, isn't it? On one hand, it can mean getting something for no work and no money. From that perspective, very few things worth having in life are truly free. They all require some sort of investment. On the other hand, if you talk about BEING "free", meaning you are not beholden to anyone and can do what you want to do in life...well, you can't put a price on how valuable that is. Heating your house with wood is never free, because there is always an expense of both money and time, but once you have the equipment and a full wood shed, you are "free" from worrying about how you'll keep your house warm.
For my money, I'd never buy a wood boiler. They're just WAY too inefficient. I spent more money and had a masonry heater installed in my home. It's tied into the hot air return on my propane furnace/HVAC system. When I heat with wood, it uses a fraction of the wood a boiler does and it's much more efficient at actually keeping my house warm. When I don't feel like heating with wood, the heat pump and propane furnace gets the job done very nicely.
That sounds like a good option. Thanks for watching.
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 - A masonry heater uses somewhere between 1/2 to 1/10th of the wood a convention wood stove or boiler uses. You typically only fire it once a day when it's cold, and twice a day when it's really cold. You get a nice, even heat, and there are basically no moving parts, so nothing to fail. They are very heavy and take up valuable floor space in your home, especially if you put them right in the middle, where they should be. Ask anyone who has one and they'll tell you it was worth every penny and every square foot they take up.
Nice!
Nice in lots of ways! Thanks!
Free ish?
Exactly,!
Yep, ish. There is a 'price' for anything, either money or time/self-labor.
I'd like to know if anyone has tried generating electricity with a small steam engine utilizing one of these boilers. There has to be some wasted heat that could be used.
Sounds interesting
The water is 180 degrees and not boiling, these units are not high-pressure steam that could run a steam engine.
@@Beechnut985 OK. That answers a lot. I always thought they were miniature versions of what they used to use in the big old buildings, and they called them boilers. So I just assumed.
In colonial times they would burn 12-14 cords a year.... Now a lot of these modern folks burn 12-14 cords a year plus the fuel for cooking....not much progress or forward think....
But they did it to survive. We do it for entertainment. Thanks for watching
Just get solar, you can't charge your cell phone or run your refrigerator or watch UA-cam videos by burning wood.
Or run your generator with wood gasification.
@thumbcountrystuff4215 Why?
Then, heat would be a by-product.
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 Do what you want but I heat my house in the Montana mountains with solar and watch UA-cam videos!
@@captainamerica3493 OK, thanks for watching Thumb Country Stuff!
Wood is almost never free. You are always burning the value of the wood. Even if someone gave it to you. Its always worth money because you could sell it. Put it this way would you consider burning your cash on hand in your boiler free heat. Wood is cash in hand that your burning and that must always be considered.
Well said. Thanks!
Exactly, you could sell all that firewood and buy propane and go fishing all winter haha. I burn about 12 face cord a year plus probably 5 in the maple syrup evaporator. I do it because it's slow on the farm in the winter and I need to clear pastures.
It is fun and rewarding to some. I am one of those who think so also.
That's true that's why I hand split and sell 20 face cord a year. We have natural gas and newer house here in Ontario so it's not worth burning myself. Everyone's situation is unique to each their own as well. But I find too often people fool themselves into thinking the wood they harvest is free fuel.
Bet you go thru alot of trees a year.
I do. When there was a lot of dead ash trees laying around it was easy. Now it's getting harder to find dead or diseased trees. But that's half the fun!
Great not supporting fossil fuel
True green energy.
@@thumbcountrystuff4215 - ya no. Trucking, steel making, chainsaws. alternative energy.
Drill baby drill. Dig baby dig!
@36handy OK, renewable. I like your idea too though.
All comes down to how valuable your time is. Get a propane tank.
I have more time than $. Thanks for watching!
What are you doing with all that time? If it something productive then great but if not I will cut firewood. I have heard plenty of people tell me they don't have time to cut firewood and then tell me how much time they play video games or watch TV.
"Give me convenience or give me death" is not a mindset that's going to allow you the freedom to live the way you choose. If you want to work and pay instead of working to save then you'll always be beholden to the almighty dollar. I'm 62 and haven't needed to work for a little over nine years now, I've never been paid more than $15 an hour my entire life. Nuff said!