Most amazing data on wood burning, not steam

Christian Egli

Well, I think it is interesting at the very least.

We have a wood burning stove at work which is used to dispose of all the wood crating materials which over the whole year tend to take up space. Clearing up is definitely more fun when you can play with the stove.

While clearing up papers, I found a record of what was burnt along with calculations about heat values and various comparative costs.

For the day of January 31 2001, which happens to be the birthday of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, someone here thought it festive to record the operation of the stove and so we see that the stove was loaded 16 times. It was a royal occasion. It shows the time and the load of wood in pounds.

115 lb of wood were burnt. 4 lbs of ashes were left. The stove was rated (this, I think was the goal) at 25.5 kW averaged out for the day. The inside of the stove is about the size of two 5 gallon pails one on top of the other and lined with fire brick. (Records for other days show computed ratings fluctuating between 70000 and 90000 BTU/h input)

Comparative fuel costs show what it would have cost to purchase the same heat for the day: wood by the chord $3.45; natural gas $5.87; fuel oil $5.18; Kentucky coal, delivered, $4.37; electric power (from the friendly electric utility) $52.90.

That was in 2001, since then, I think natural gas cost has doubled, fuel cost has not quite doubled, wood has not changed, neither has electric rate. We still pay about 20 cents a kWh for commercial service. Residential rates here are 9.5 cents a kWh.

By the way, phone rates are twice as expensive for businesses than they are for homes. In spite of businesses using more and qualifying for what I think should be bulk rates... but I don't have teenage children either... They say to just pass on the cost to the customer.

I thought I would pass on this data and I hope you'll find it interesting. Anytime you need more useless information, please just ask, I think there is some more.

I also found a nice looking log that was all scribbled on. All the vital statistics to show the weight, the species and the dollar value of that precious log. A definite keeper. It surprised me how worthless things seem; but are they really?

hr

Interesting data

got a picture of the stove? They say 12 lbs of hard wood = about a therm (100,000 btu) of energy. So you burned @9.5 therm that day. How does that match the load of the shop?

Sounds like you are burning scrap wood. Wood prices here, for cord wood, have gone from $80.00 up to $130.00 in the last couple years! Seems to float real close to the LP prices 1000 gallon of LP= about 5 pickup loads of wood, or about 11,000 lbs.!

hot rod

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Christian Egli

Can't wait for the cold weather?!?

Got a picture for your enjoyment! It does not look like much though.

The space the stove is in is 8000 ft2 by 16 ft high. It was meant to be heated by 9 hot air units of 75000, 60000 net BTU/h. The hot air units provide about 5 BTU/h per cubic foot, which, roughly speaking, is adequate here.

But as you know, the comfort provided by the blowing air is terrible. In fact, it was impossibly expensive to heat for comfort. So, we've added 9 radiant units of 60000 BTU/h. Now we only heat for comfort. After the change, the gas company promptly came to check the meter, they were suspicious.

So you see, the wood stove is a little undersized. It seems we run it about 20 days a year. But, it certainly lives up to the romantic idea of heat, the thing feels nice, much nicer than the ceramic gas burners. It's about as nice as a steam radiator. But that's a matter of love.

If we were rebuilding, I would want radiant floor heat for the simpler operation and maintenance. I know today no one looks further than the roof top units but they are inaccessible, and servicing them in the winter is dangerous and damaging to the roof. Are there a lot of commercial and industrial floor heat applications where you are? Over here, none. Does the RPA push this?

We burn mostly oak, cottonwood, pine and ailanthus. I'm looking at a table that lists the heat content: oak, birch, beech at 7000 BTU/lb; maple, pine at 7200; aspen at 8500; larch at 9600. Relates to your figure I think.

I have seen an ad this summer for wood by the cord priced at $110 delivered and dumped. Unless you have scrap wood you would have to pay to get rid of, heating by wood is not economical.

LPG costs me 2.40 $/Gal for the forklifts. We're soon at the point where we'll have to push them rather than refuel them.

Nice of you to ask.