What about closing off the second floor and only using the first floor. We don't use our 2nd floor. Just the 2 of us. I close off the upstairs.
I agree completely, however we only use the fireplace a little bit and keep it closed off most of the time, instead using the wood stove and boilers.
There are four of us and one of my son's uses the upstairs. It's something to consider, though. This old house needs a lot of TLC.
Insulation? I'm guessing there is none. Holding the heat in is most important. Sealing any and all air infiltration is second. Your house is just like a flue. Heat goes out the top, cold air fills in the bottom. Seal up doors and windows you don't use, attic spaces, basement windows and doors, coal cellar, any cracks in the foundation, rim joists, insulate the band boards. I think I would start with a couple cases of spray foam in cans And a lot of caulking.
Welcome aboard jeffery7 . Actually, 3.5 hours from 2 of those is the same or better than what I get out of 2 splits of firewood in my stove. Sealing and insulating would go a long way toward alleviating your high wood/log use. That's a huge house too, so that obviously has a lot to do with it.
Thanks guys for the recommendations. I am thinking you are all correct and that it must be that I am just losing too much heat. I am considering one of those infrared cameras to hunt down the worst leaks and plug them fast.
Welcome to the forum Jeffery7. First of all, that is a beautiful home! No doubt though the other fellows are right in that it is in dire need of some insulation. Good that you are not using the fireplace too. They are okay when it is just "cool" but not so good for heating the home; just for looking at. On the wood stove, if you don't damp it down? Of course the stoves should be dampened down, otherwise they will be very similar to the fireplace in that most of the heat goes right up the chimney. If you get some dry firewood (which can be a problem finding), then you would certainly see the difference. It also makes a difference what type of stove you have. For example, our last stove was an Ashley and we burned from 6 to 7 1/2 cord per year and still could not stay very warm in January and February. Then we bought the Fireview and now burn half the amount of wood and keep our home around 80 degrees all winter long! We also cut, split and stack our wood for 3 years before burning it. That makes a tremendous difference. On the IR cameras or IR guns, they can be a real eye opener! Worth the dollars to see where the heat is going. They are also nice to see what the stoves are doing; that is, how much heat they are producing and which areas of the stove are hotter than others. My advice is to first insulate and get some wood. The getting of wood can be a problem but if you buy now for next year you will help yourself greatly. If you are able to cut, split and stack your own, then that is a plus but you are talking about a lot of wood! Good luck.
Jeffery7, Welcome to the forum. I would also add to what has been said by others, that if your local power company offers an energy audit, usually for free or a very nominal cost. Most of the time you will get IR photos as part of the audit with the added benefit of if there are special funds available or tax credits to do certain things and the audit is the verification for the IRS. That it was needed and then completed. My mantra is, "insulate tight, ventilate right and burn dry wood." And finally, in making a home energy efficient there is no, "smoking gun". There are a little firecrackers that need to be dealt with. Not one thing is going to make a 50% reduction in your energy cost. Good Luck and keep asking questions, someone on this site has the answer.
Just doing our first burn in a two-story home of 1980's vintage ... two logs on a couple of sticks of pine kindling and minimal remaining embers from an earlier wood fire. Easy, quick fire-up and excellent heat ... much hotter than past experience with wood in this stove. Three hours later ... approximately 1/3 of logs remaining and lots of heat. Perhaps 10 percent of logs remaining and large active ember bed putting out plenty of heat at four hours. Gonna wait 'til hour five to add another log. Seasoned hardwood around here ... Coos Bay, Oregon ... is $225 to $250 per cord and historically 5+ cords per winter (according to previous owners) in this house ($1250+ per season) which makes the Energy Logs at $350 per pallet for 2.5 pallets ($825 per season) an economical alternate fuel source ... besides being eco-friendly. And then there's the storage factor: five cords of wood (all at one time to get a price break) to find the space and stack outside as opposed to three pallets (purchased one at a time for convenience) inside in a closet ... big difference. Oh, then there's the fact that I can haul the Energy Logs half-pallet at a time in the Senna as I pass by the Grange. Gonna stick with the Energy Logs for a bit ... probably the season ... and see how things go.
I've never burned them without mixing in wood, I have about 30 right now I've been mixing in 2-3 a day but may try the logs by themselves to see how long of a burn I get. I know when I mix them in with cord wood they last almost 24 hours before they're reduced to small chunks.
Well, the first burn was a tremendous success: The first two logs burned for five and a half hours at which point there was still enough in the way of embers and a couple of wafers to ignite another log which after three hours is still burning and only three-quarters burnt and which should last another hour at which point I will put in the fourth log which then should burn for another four hours and get us through the night. Heat output has been enough to nicely warm this house from 50-degrees up to 70-degrees and held it there with an outside temperature of 40-degrees or so. Initially bought only a couple of two-packs to see if it was worth it to go on with it ... and it certainly is. I am going back to the Grange to arrange for another two-and-a-half pallets which should get us through the Winter 'til the end of April nicely for a cost of ... $800 ... as opposed to the $1250 for hardwood.
Sorry ... the cost numbers in that first post were not correct, as it turns out. A call to the Grange got me a price of $320 per pallet and $160 per half pallet thus the final estimate for the Winter of only $800 ...
If a cord of hardwood is 22,000,000BTU (or more ) and a pallet of NIELs is 16,320,000 BTU (68,000 x 240 ) I think I'd find space to store hardwood. Crazy East Coast math: 5 cords of hardwood at 22,000,000BTU each is 110,000,000 BTU $250 x 5 = $1,250.00 6.74 pallets of NIELs at 16,320,000BTU each is 110,000,000BTU 6.74 x $320 = $2,156.80 maybe I need to finish my coffee and get started plowing and shoveling snow
Well here we are again ... That fourth log I put on at 11-o'clock last night burned for 6 hours, believe it or not. When I checked at 5-o'clock this morning there was still a nice bed of embers and about half a wafer still glowing red hot ... and the house was at 66-degrees. As an experiment, a bit of paper and some kindling under a plain ol' wood log has lasted for only four hours and I need to stoke some more. Didn't calculate the btu factor, but this totally makes sense to me to stick with the Energy Logs. And then there's the Eco factor ... So at a $1.33 per log and five per day ... well, I figger that's no more than the cost of latte and a muffin ...
Not for $350 I wouldn't -- but my economy may be quite different than yours. I can get a pallet for $270. Their website claims they can be equivalent to 1.5-2 cords of wood. Depending on what time of season you buy and the type of wood you get -- that can be a decent deal or a great deal. The good news is they are clean, all natural, leave very little ash, and are indeed hot. They are hotter than the Bear Mountain Bricks I have and pound per pound they give off about 400 more BTUs. I like the way natural wood burns but I plan on buying a new pallet of these when my Bear Bricks are done and I can use them in combo with some wood. Plus, and let's face it, working with these logs is a lot easier than having to purchase cord wood and stack it. More messy, more insects, you may or may not need to season it, and it takes up about twice the space to store it -- not to mention poorer emissions. My flue seems to prefer cleaner emissions -- shocker. Still natural wood burns so nicely (I love the liveliness of it and the snap, crackle pop), I don't know if I can ever give it up. But I see North Idaho logs playing a part in my burn strategy in the upcoming year.
