Quote:
Originally Posted by Rollo MB
Well I've burned wood or coal as the predominant heat source for a 2500 sqf full Cape for about 20 of the past 23 years, in the course doing that you tend to elevate fire tending to a minor art form.
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We burned coal for a time when I was a pre-teen; old enough to be fire tender. When we moved here to the farm in '74 our only heat source was one of the old "octapus" furnaces that was used primarily for burning wood although we bought a few tons of coal now and then. Hard to justify laying out cash for heat when we have 50 +/- acres of woodlot, mostly hardwood.
Switched to oil boilers when we sold the dairy cows in '88 and I was out earning a paycheck. We had a major ice storm in '98 (went for 6 weeks without power) that wreaked havoc in the woodlot. I bought a small woodstove for the kitchen primarily to burn deadfalls. It had been ten years since I had cut any wood and it reminded me that I thoroughly enjoy the entire wood fuel process.
Five years ago I build a masonry mechanical room/woodshed separate from the house, with a tunnel access from the basement with two fire-rated doors between the house and any combustion appliances. This eliminates the fear of fire in the house and, best of all, the noise of the boilers in the basement. The woodshed will store ten cord (cutting much more than that becomes too much like work) and the mechanical room contains the oil boilers as well as a state-of-the-art wood gasification boiler, piped and controlled (primary/secondary) for seamless operation. If the wood fire dies down on a sub-zero night, in the "shoulder seasons", or if we are away, the oil takes over.
With the current price of fossil fuel this turned out to be one of the best investments I ever made. We have only used a bit over 100 gallons of #2 fuel this heating season to heat just over 3,500 sq ft of living space.
Jim