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.
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)
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.
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.