Fall 2012's first fire
I'm officially a heating
wimp this year. I like to play fire chicken, seeing how long in
the fall I can go without any source of heat. The idea is that my
body acclimates to the cold, so if I can bear with chilly weather in
October, the same temperatures will feel warm in January.
But a cold, rainy day that
never broke 50 broke me. Monday was a very unusual day since we
had to wake up in the dark, pounding rain to get to the big city for
our dental checkups at 9 am. (No cavities for either of
us!) Honestly, I think I needed the mental boost of the fire even
more than the warmth when we straggled home that afternoon.
I did get the fire
started with a couple of pieces of boxelder and half of a walnut round,
but then I just burned scrap lumber. Do you burn odds and ends of
two by fours that are too small to use otherwise even though they're
pine?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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MamaHomesteader --- That sounds like a definite maybe.
Deb --- Do you have trouble with creosote buildup in your chimney? That's supposed to be the danger with pine (with the resulting danger of chimney fires due to the buildup).
Pine is all that's available here- and is what everyone burns....and here, pine is free in the forest if you want to go get it. (well, a $20 permit for "dead and down" wood from the forest service is required). We spend late summer weekends going out and gathering, and now we are cutting, splitting, and stacking. We do not have a furnace of any kind, only the woodstove, so that 23 degree night is a good motivator to get busy! We re a bit behind schedule this year...:-0 As long as we clean the chimney each season, there is no problem. We do keep a chimney fire " putter-outer" next to the stove, though. some kind of chemical log that snuffs out the fire.
We burn a lot of scrap lumber and softwoods. As long as you clean the chimney, there should be no problem. The type of chimney and the type of fire you build is also a factor- A single walled sheet metal chimney will build up creosote much faster than an insulated double wall, and a slow choked fire will build more creosote than a hot quick fire. And wow, pine puts out a lot of heat fast.
Lots of people wax lyrical about burning perfectly dried oak, but really, wood is wood. The only difference is the density. Two cedar splits have about the same BTU value as one oak split. It is just that the oak will burn longer since it is so dense.
Deb --- It's hard to turn down free!
Tisha --- We got one of those kits and have swept once a year in the spring when we finish burning. (I've read that leaving creosote in the pipes during humid summers causes them to degrade faster.) There never seems to be much buildup so far, but then, we haven't been burning pine.
Eric --- I know you're serious about your wood, so I'm glad you chimed in! I've been trying to burn the scrap lumber fast for that very reason --- I figure there's no reason to risk anything.
I second what Eric said. As long as you clean once a year or if you burn a bit check on the build up. If you fully season pine then you don't have to much to worry about. The creosote only builds up with moist from the wood. An uninsulated flue can have moisture which adds to it.
Started our first burn of the year last monday.
Marco --- We have uninsulated pipe inside the house and insulated pipe through the ceiling and outside. Hopefully the moderate warmth inside is enough to make the uninsulated section not too bad.
Since writing this post, I've discovered that the chunks of storebought lumber are great for getting fires started. I suspect I may save them for that....