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Heating With Wood
By Craig Daniels
Heating With Wood - Vintage-Style Energy Old Is New Again The newer things become, they more they return to the past. This is true of heating with wood. From the dawn of time, heating with wood was a natural emanation of the need to stay warm in cold temperatures as well as a means with which to cook. The return to heating with wood is no surprise. Until the early 1900's most homes were heated with wood stoves and wood-burning fireplaces. Most meals were cooked on wood stoves. Where Did All That Wood Come From? With careful conservation methods, wood used for heating and cooking was never in short supply. It was grown in heavily wooded areas or on designated tree farms. Care was taken to insure wood stoves were properly venting fly ash so that fires were rare. Chimneys and flues received regular meticulous cleaning by expert chimney sweeps. In big cities, fireplaces and large open hearths provided enough heat from wood even in three-story Victorian homes. Wood for these homes and businesses was brought in from lumber yards. The lumbering process was so exacting that there was little in the way of waste. Twigs, branches and short sawings were used as fat wood to help a wood fire start. Sawdust was used in any number of ways: to patch holes in wood as well as to line walkways and chicken coops. Whatever remained was returned to the earth as mulch. Wood was carefully selected for heating purposes. Vintage-Style Energy Though heating with wood may be a vintage-style energy source, it is effective as a means of energy. It does require knowledge of the types of wood that can be safely and cleanly burned. Hardwoods like oak, maple, beech and sycamore as well as fruit-woods like apple, crab apple and cherry are some of the types of woods that make clean burning fuel for heating with wood. Among others, nut-woods like walnut, pecan, chestnut and almond also give off a lovely fragrance while burning. Choose hardwoods, fruit-woods or nut-woods that are aged. One tip is to look for orchards that are in the process of removing dead woods. In most cases, the wood will be sold for firewood. Unaged, green woods retain sap and therefore need to be dried before they can be used for heating with wood. Sappy woods create dangerous sparks and as a result burn faster. Wood Stoves Today Today's wood stoves make heating with wood more efficient than those of the past. Venting systems for these wood stoves has been greatly upgraded to produce thorough efficient heating with wood. Aged woods for wood stoves are sold in large lumber and hardware stores as well as by individual sellers of wood. In most cases, these woods are already split and bundled. Wood is sold in stacks and cords for heating with woods in wood stoves. Cords of wood need to be shielded from too much dampness or dry rot will occur fairly quickly. Be sure to stack your wood so that it is protected from ground moisture. Also, it's a good idea to use a moisture-proof tarp to cover your wood pile or, use log holders and hoops. |
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Very nicely done. Craig. There is nothing like the sound and smell of wood burning. For many years we burned wood for cooking and I really do believe that food tasted better when cooked in a wood stove. If I had my druthers, I'd druther burn wood rather than natural gas. Another thing that can be done with sawdust is burn it. When I was still living at home we moved to a house where we burned sawdust. It was a dusty business though and, I would never want that again.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
I've seen sawdust burned to make electricity but never knew people used it in their homes. Another great use for sawdust was in ice houses, they would cover giant blocks of ice in sawdust to keep them from melting.
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This intel was contributed by webnh
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May, 2012
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