Four tonnes of firewood arrived on Friday afternoon. It took my family of four a little over five hours to carry it to the storage shed. I had a reference because my autism demanded stimulation.

Firewood is stacked neatly in a shed, framed by metal supports and a corrugated roof, surrounded by various stumps, buckets, and barrels.

The shed has about 3.5 x 6 x 1.5 metres of usable volume. That amount of firewood lasts us the entire heating season with a bit left over.

(edit: replaced photo with a smaller one)

Photo 1: a large pile of firewood on a grassy area with a half-loaded handcart next to it. Photo 2: firewood stacked inside a shed.
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[–] 3 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

What do you burn it in?

I've been looking into a dual fuel GPCS boiler. It would be expensive but it would pay for itself over about 7 years (our winters go down to -30⁰C) compared to natural gas or electric baseboard heaters.

I'd like to run it on wood and coal if possible, since I can get washed and oiled coal for around $50/ton at the mine, around roughly $2/GJ or so.

Natural gas is around $1.6/GJ but we get raked over the coals on distribution charges and admin fees. The real cost is $12-15/GJ once all costs are rolled in. Power is about the same. Coal is literally ⅕ the cost if you also include time and expense of me picking a truck load up at the mine.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 months ago*

    I have no idea what the proper English terminology is. It's a natural draft furnace that is plumbed into the heating system. It's a purely utilitarian gray box that is twice as tall as it is wide. Ashpan and air inlet at the bottom, solid fuel goes in the middle on a grate, heat exchanger pipes and chimney connector at the top. It's probably been here since before the fall of the Soviet Union.

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