Wood Heat
Wood heat is great if firewood is close by, ideally
on your land. With the ever rising cost of gas and diesel, going
further than 4 miles to get wood seems cost inefficient. One would
be better served to spend the money instead towards home energy
efficiency. See Home Insulation.
A cord is a unit of measurement for firewood that
is 128 cubic feet by volume or a stack 4'x4'x8'. Roughly we use
between 4 and 5 cords a year to heat a 2400 sq ' home with a medium
sized wood stove. We also use electric oil filled radiator type
heaters you can get at Home Depot or Walmart for under $40 in
all the bedrooms and bathrooms for supplementary heating when
needed. The oil in the radiator retains heat making these thermostat
controlled heaters efficient.
When the home is well insulated, any type of wood,
as long as it is dry, will be fine for firewood. It does not have
to be premium wood with the highest Btu ratings. That makes firewood
easier and cheaper to get.
My belief is if the wood is not on your land, it
would be better to have a log truck load delivered instead of
going out to get some and save the time, wear and tare on your
equipment and yourself. Getting fire wood is a lot of hard work.
A log truck load is usually about 12 cords and the cost is typically
$1000 to $2000+ depending on the tree species, availability and
the distance of haul. 12 cords should last 2 to 4 years depending
on how well insulated a house is. Birch, Larch and Douglas Fir
are the premium fire wood in our neck of the woods. The logs need
to be cut to length, split and stacked out of the weather.
Make sure a log truck can easily get in and out
of the place where you want the logs unloaded. The truck will
have a self loader behind the cab, a hydraulically operated boom
with a grapple to pick the logs off the trailer. 12 cords will
take up a significant amount of room, the logs will weigh over
30,000 lbs and some will be over 30' in length. It's a nice comforting
sight to see though, offering the promise of warmth for a few
winters. An old saying goes "If you're cold, go chop some
wood. It'll warm you up now and later."
Firewood for sale usually advertise a cord of wood
split and delivered for $150 to $200+. If a cord of wood is being
delivered in a pickup truck, you're getting "burned"
because it is impossible to safely haul a stack of wood 4'x4x'8',
especially at highway speeds. A cord of dry firewood would weigh
between 2000 to 3000 lbs depending on the type and density of
the wood. Premium firewood implies dense and heavy wood and would
have to be delivered on a trailer or at least a 1 ton flatbed.
A pick up truck can be modified to carry the weight but the bed
simply does not have the volume capacity needed for 128 cu'. The
stack would be at least 4' high making the load dangerously top
heavy with loss of safe steering due to weight imbalance.
Firewood Ratings an Info.
About 10 to 20 acres of trees, depending on age,
density and type, should suffice for modest harvesting of 3 to
5 cords of wood a year indefinitely. Harvesting is culling dead
trees, downed trees or diseased trees, not healthy live ones.
There should be trees at all growing stages from mature seed trees
to seedlings and everything in between.
Climate plays a major role in the growth rate of
trees and generally wetter the climate faster the trees grow.
Here in our particular area of north Eastern Washington State,
in Pend Oreille County, trees thrive due to the yearly precipitation
rate over 30". There are 9 types of evergreen trees, including
Western Larch which sheds its needles in late fall, plus deciduous
trees. 10 to 20 acres of pines in a dry climate will not suffice
as a continuous source of firewood due to slow recovery and growth
rate.
If there are adequate ground water and precipitation
birch can be grown for firewood. It grows fast, pretty to look
at as trees or firewood and best of all burns very hot. Birch
is the preferred premium firewood around here for its aesthetics
and Btu.
Growing white birch is on my list of future projects
with the eventual goal of about a 5 acre stand. Birch unlike evergreens
decay very quickly after death and need to be harvested green.
If cut to length, split and stacked out of the weather in early
spring, it should be ready to burn by winter.
Birch is very hardy and easy to transplant. I have
gone into the woods and dug up saplings up to 2' tall to plant
for landscaping with good results. Pruning and removal of leaves
is a must to help the tree recover and to re-establish. When birch
is cut down, it regenerates by growing new shoots from the stump
area and becoming a clump and by thinning these shoots the clump
can turn into 3 to 5 vigorous trees. I have not tried yet but
propagation by cuttings should be possible.
Paper birch bark closeup. |
Birch clump from a stump. |
Birch stand. |
"He plants trees to benefit another generation." Caecilius
Statius (220 BC - 168 BC)
"He that plants trees loves others besides himself."
English Proverb
| Information on paper
birch from the North Carolina State University Horticultural
Science.
Detailed information on paper birch (Betula Papyrifera)
from USDA
Forest Service, also called white birch, canoe birch
or silver birch. |
Nice
Jotul fireplace insert to significantly increase burning and
heating efficiency.
