The Most Efficient Way To Heat With Firewood.

We've been heating with wood for 50 years, and I think I've worked out the best system for me to heat my house with the least amount of work possible. It's still a lot of work, of course...

Previous videos relating to my wood boiler:

Note: My house was built in 1850 which makes for a very inefficient building to heat. We blew insulation into the walls and insulated the crawl space and attic as well . We installed storm windows on the 38! old hand made windows which helped a lot, but even so, the windows are still far less efficient than a modern double pane window. I even caulked many of the siding boards to cut down on air infiltration when I painted it. Even with all that work, the house will never be anywhere near as efficient as a modern building, and that's why I go through so much wood to heat it every year.

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#firewood #logsplitter #woodboiler #farmlife #farmcraft101 #farming #farmer

[FarmCraft]

I love my firewood system. Trust me, I've thought a lot about ways to make the actual loading easier, but building anything mechanical do it automatically would be very complicated, failure prone, expensive, and time consuming. The best I can come up with is a rolling cart at waist level that would allow me to move all the logs from the shed to the boiler at one time without all the walking back and forth. I may try that at some point, but it doesn't really seem like it would help all that much. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome as always! Have a great weekend everybody!

[VegasEdo]

The gasifier, aka secondary air combustion, is a game changer in wood stoves and boilers. People always think the quality of wood is key and they don't realize that wood does not ignite, it evaporates and the gasses ignite. If the rising heat carries away the unburnt gasses into the air, they lose that fuel source. Burning the smoke completely and using every bit of that fuel is many times more efficient than the non-gasifier or non-secondary systems.

[allen]

Hi John, The magnetic lifter can be very dangerous and the warnings and instructions must be followed to prevent an accident. I investigated an incident in Darwin Australia involving one of these devices when a crew was moving quarter inch sheet metal to position it on a floor. They were tilting one end up so that the sheet could be laid against two other sheets to get a good fit. They had been using the lifter this way for a couple of days when all at once it let go and the high end struck one of the men on his shins (he was positioning the sheet) and scraped them to the bone. Needless to say, it was a terrible accident. The reason the magnet released was that the angle became too steep. The instructions on the device listed the maximum angle and evidently during the placement of this one sheet it was exceeded. Something to be very aware of. This type of device can be quick and easy to use but like most tools has to be used correctly.

[swalsugmass]

John you and Cutting Edge videos on a Friday sets up my weekend perfectly. You have become one of my top ten channels.

[maynardcarmer]

I grew up on a two-by-twice dairy farm, in a house innocent of insulation. We heated and cooked on a cast iron cookstove, using wood we cut from our wood lot. And yes, we piled on the blankets in the winter to keep from freezing. Oh, and there was no running water, either- we hauled it in from the well. There was running water in the cow barn, though. This was back in the 50s.

[chrisfairbrother]

I had a 13kw wood burning fire/boiler for 35 years. I moved the wood 4 times. The woodburner was overkill for the size of house; but I only had to cut the logs to 22” long to fit in the fire. I agree with all your comments 100%. My Dad used to say “you get two lots of heat from wood. Once when you cut and split it, and again when you burn it”. Keep up the interesting videos 👍👍

[RCrockford]

Even having seen the making video, I'm blown away by how good that log splitter is from such humble beginnings.

[ProtonOne]

We switched to chipped wood with an automated furnace that grabs the chips from the storage pile more than 20 years ago. Very nice when you can just load up entire massive trees into the big wood chipper with the crane, drive the chips home with the tipper trailer and basically never lift/move anything with your body. We replaced the old furnace for a more modern and efficient one recently. Would never go back to another wood heating system tho.

[nickcody]

Great video. While a downer of a contingency, the only thing I would suggest is the wood storage should be large enough for a small emergency load of smaller cut firewood. That way if you do something like hurt yourself or get sick or are out of town, it can be loaded by your wife/daughters. Your labor is the only weak link in the process and should be planned for. Enough to hold over until you can arrange to get someone else to help.

[paulhammond]

Hard to believe it's been close to 6 years since your woodshed fire video... Time flies when you watch great content :)

[localcrew]

I heated my modest home for ab12 years with a small indoor wood stove. Very dirty and a pain to carry the wood inside. But nothing beats that radiant heat. Now my homeboy Larry has an older wood boiler I would like to buy. We now have a nice hybrid gas/heat pump setup that is sweet but I still want wood heat for unlimited warmth. I have access to as much wood as I want and chainsaws and loaders, etc. I like chainsaws.

[davidbondy]

john building that splitter was one of the best things you could have done, you are a lot more efficient then you were and saving wear and tear on your body. we are not youngins any more .

[benbarnett]

Hi John, I’m somewhat of a YouTube junkie and your Chanel is in my top three or four (CEE, Sampson Boat and Marty T). Love your varying content from fixing machinery to general farm work. Your content is one that I always watch from start to finish without fast forwarding. Love the fact that you don’t edit out your mistakes. Would love to see a video on how you manage and handle your cattle. Keep the content coming. Cheers

[KerboOnYT]

We had wood heat when I was growing up and my mom still uses it today. My main chore once I was about 12 was splitting wood with a 13lb monster maul to keep the family warm and almost 40 years later I still have the shoulders to prove it :) There's nothing like wood heat but it can be a lot of work. Your setup is very nice! Cheers from Missouri

[grantsmith]

The appreciation of using home grown wood and feeling good about your natural heating method struck a cord with me. Call it the pride of self sufficiency. Thanks Dr G

[billzech]

John …..you are a certified genius with that logic splitter you made ….. excellent job!

[DanP]

Dear John
In my opinion, your way of heating is very efficient and one of the best because you use renewable energy.
In my old home country of Switzerland, fully automatic wood-burning stoves have been in operation for many years for industrial buildings, schools, etc., but also for private homes. Their wood is produced by a special machine by chopping different types of wood directly in the forest. A silo truck transports the wood to a storage room, from where the stove is automatically supplied. Perhaps one day, when you are much older(!), you will also convert to a wood chip stove.
I've been living in South East Asia for more than 10 years now and I'm glad that I no longer have to heat here.
Nevertheless, I am always fascinated to watch your videos. Thank you very much for your efforts. Stay healthy!

[ricksanchez]

The more I see you use that old mahindra the more I'm impressed. Our '20 NH workmaster 65 wouldnt handle that! On another note, it is a good idea to have some wood put up sized for your wife or kids in case you get hurt or can't load just a thought. Take care buddy.

[wpattison]

"I'm going to do something stupid." We're kindred spirits... and why I watch! 🤣

[markbrown]

We live on 60 wooded acres in northern Idaho. We also have a wood fired boiler and sawmill. I love that the boiler can be used to "clean up" all the off cuts from making lumber. It's definitely smaller wood than I'd prefer this way but it's great that I can use the boiler to get heat out of sawmill scraps that I'd otherwise be trying to find a way to dispose of. Today it's -4F outside and 74F inside. Another plus, we both like it warmer and don't have to make the decision of a much higher heating bill to be comfortable. I also really like that the boiler can be used to burn wood that would be junk wood for a fireplace, bugs and rot as you mentioned. You can also burn wood that you wouldn't burn in the house due to the smell.
Our area lost power last winter for over 30 hours. I just hooked up the solar trailers (batteries/inverter) to the boiler and had plenty of energy to keep it running. We were perfectly comfortable while everyone else is fretting about freezing pipes.
I love this system but will definitely have a "low tech" backup solution (regular wood stove) in the house we're building. A downside to these is if something goes wrong they stop working whereas a wood stove doesn't break. You light a fire and a wood stove just does it's thing. Right now it's very cold out and our control board went out (company is sending another) so it won't open the damper. I'm having to monitor the system (through an app which is handy) then go out and prop the damper open when it goes into demand. Then I have to take the prop out when it's done or it will get too hot. Having to do this about 4 times a day until the replacement part gets here. They are awesome but that awesome comes with some complexity.