BTUs: Propane fireplace or free standing wood stove?

Hi folks,
I have what I’d hope to be a pretty easy question. The people I’m working for have access to three fireplaces on the first floor of a big country manor, and they want to know whether a propane fireplace insert or free standing propane mock wood stove can produce as many BTUs as two or three good wood stoves run through the same fireplaces. We’re planning either Woodstock Progress or Ideal Steel stoves and have direct access to 180 acres of standing timber (some hardwood, some poplar, hemlock etc) that can be harvested for firewood.

Of course I’m pushing hard for the Woodstock stoves, but I need some kind of tangible numbers to give the bean counters. (This is a good solid Christian non profit group, and this building was donated to them to use as a retreat center for their ministry.)

Any thoughts?

Also they have a cube of CSS ash that’s a year old and stored in their barn that measures 7’x12’x14’ packed/stacked solid. Any idea how many cord that is?

Thanks,
Brian

 

If my calculator was given the correct equation, just a hair over 9 full cord.
A place that big will require a lot of effort to keep up with 3 stoves.
What's the latest on that place?

 

We’re hard at work with renovations. I’m currently rebuilding the firebox and restoring the original antique coal fired kitchen cook stove so we can burn firewood instead.

I had given them a rough estimate of 8-10 cord so I’m glad I wasn’t too far off.

 

Found an unexpected treasure in the barnyard yesterday.

I went to a couple local metal fabricators and talked to a metal salvage yard yesterday, looking for steel heavy enough to rebuild the firebox for the kitchen cook stove, without success.

So I asked one of the religious brothers here if there were any old metal scraps in the barnyard at their farm, and he said to go kick around the weeds. I stumbled on this section of old rusted heavy steel beam yesterday, and spent most of today cutting and grinding it to fit in as a wood grate in the bottom of that stove.

It’s mostly 1/4” thick, but it’s 3/4” thick at the angle. Heavy piece of metal!

 

Quite the place there.


Of course the cynic in me figures someone got a whale of a tax write-off for that donation.


Does look like a peaceful place for a retreat.

 

Don't forget about the cord calculator here on fhc...best one I've used anywhere! Firewood & Cord Calcuations
As for the gas vs wood question, I guess I'm not following exactly...do they have free gas or something?

 

Yeah, I don’t think the bean counters have thought this one through. They see the costs of propane fireplace inserts and compare them to the costs of the wood stoves and flue liners and have a hard time grasping that with the propane furnace running, it’s not going to make any difference whether there are propane fireplace inserts. They’ll be burning propane either way.

Personally I encouraged them to look into a wood gun gasifier furnace, but it was too labor intensive.

 

Big wood fireplace for ambiance and gas for heat. This isn’t a home and without a dedicated operator for a wood heater it would be difficult to imagine success heating it that way.

 

Kinda answers your question doesn't it?

If it needs heat all the time then yes you can't run it all on wood. However ... Why not plumb in some sort of boiler and radiator heat or under the flooring heat ?

Then stuff epa certified inserts into those fireplaces. You could keep the ambience, and crank out plenty of heat on demand, where it's needed.

 

They’re planning three separate propane furnaces (thus three zones) with new tow kick heaters (to replace the old vacuum steam radiator system) throughout the manor.

They want these wood stoves for supplemental heat and to cut propane costs - but only if they’ll get a return on their investment by reducing propane costs by installing the wood stoves.

Someone will be living at the property year round. (I had originally planned to be living there already but for a variety of reasons I’m living closer to their headquarters in town, at least till spring.)

 

So, 3 new furnace systems, plus 3 new stove setups. What's the "break-even" on that? I imagine it'll take at least a couple minutes or so.
Is nat. gas unavailable?

 

Is this "someone".....you?

 

This is a calculator that helps eval raw cost of fuels. It can be very helpful.
Compare Fuel Costs

 

Larry, that's a good one. As soon as new numbers are added, it updates. Very nice. According to the numbers I put in, nat. gas is less expensive for me than firewood.
I'll know better once we've been running the furnace more this winter.
Bookmarked.

 

IF I pay for the firewood. Just dawned on me that I've only "paid" for about 1/2 of what I have.

 

that is why it works. you put in your own factors. it does the math. most folks here pay for their wood with sweat equity

 

Yep.

 

Next spring, yes, but I’ll have lots of young adults available to help with the heavy work whenever I ask. Given my health history, they treat me very kindly.

 

If you are paying top dollar for wood, well probably. There's a fracking lot of gas thanks to Uh, fracking.

Now, if you're on a web site devoted to hoarding firewood, you are probably a Cheap Sob like the rest of us and not paying for wood.