As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
All is not free when it comes to alternative heating, but the cost effectiveness is rising in burning wood, as these staged shortages of heating oil, natural gas, propane and electricity are forcing an enslavement on humanity.
For those who are my children, they have been through this evolution and learning experience of wood burning. I want to thank again Richard and Stephanie for their input, gifts and just understanding how a fireplace eats wood like a crack whore and yet as Stephanie noted too, how the blue flames leap when the fire is burning perfectly.
I never did a real close tally on what this set up cost us, as this was huge in we had to build everything, dig a tunnel by hand and they do not give away materials. JYG was a Godsend in the costs would have been a thousand dollars more if we did not have access to his recycled materials. I think it cost us about 1200 bucks, all labor was ours, but that was concrete, blocks, metal chimney, stove kit and whatever in metal steps, building doors etc...
We are still adding to the processing in a Farmall H for a buzz saw, the buzz saw, belt pulley drive, belt, chainsaws (Thank you to Richard and Stephanie for not being like most people.) and getting a covered trailer for the wood to keep it dry.
There is work involved in this in cutting, stacking and splitting. For me I do not have a nice 3000 dollar woodstove, which I do not know if it would work even, as our barrel stove is in the cellar and I need some high BTU's to get things warm in the rock holding the heat when it is 20 below.
I still would like to get a metal tube (copper) framework in scrap to fit over the barrel stove to help retain heat like an Eden Pure electric heater.
The purpose of this post is not costs. It is in savings. The winter of 2021 ; 2022 was wicked. We had high windstorms. 20 below zero cold, snow, and a shitty pattern of two days of wind getting us cold to like 10 below, then 2 days of 20 below, then a day of 15 degrees as it "warmed" up. I was burning 5 days a week which eats a great deal of wood, 24 hours a day. The wind would suck all of the heat out of the house, an it was a Goddamn HAARP east wind in most cases which made it worse as that hits the house which is more exposed from that wind, and it wore my ass out. I was taking naps from about 10 pm to 1 pm, just to be up a few hours to tend the stove, the reason being that by keeping the house warm, Richard and Stephanie's furnace then is not cycling on and on and on burning propane.
Last year we got a check back in pre pay for about 160 dollars. This year it was like 330 bucks. So we saved close to 500 dollars in heating costs from using wood as auxiliary heat, to keep the house warm and to save the furnace from cycling. That is about 2/5ths of our heating costs. I thank God that we finally saw what this system would do and knowing what heating costs are going to be in these shortages, this is going to be wonderful as they might just short people on heating supply too to make them bend the knee.
For my sake of not being fatigued, if I had the several thousand dollars for a corn burner, and was growing my own corn, I think I would put a corn burner in this cellar as that would be a 2 day feeding and it would be a constant radiant warmth. I get so tired after 5 days of this cold hell, that I simply stop burning when it "warms" up to 20 degrees. With this old farmhouse, if it gets to 30 the furnace cycles not that often. If no wind and the sun is shining, then it rarely runs.
I was pleased at 20 below and even at night, that the furnace was running like when it was 50 degrees when I was burning wood. Otherwise it would cycle about for 45 minutes, be off maybe a half hour and cycle again. In years ago when it got really cold, the furnace and blower never turned off. I never want to get into that situation again.
God is the one Who gave me this idea of our system. Took sometime an the mother had to go tits up, but 2 years ago we worked very hard and difficult for months getting this system working, and I had no idea if it would work at all. Thankfully it did work.
Wood though still smokes, there are backdrafts, but I use a propane weedburner to get the chimney warmed for draft, and will burn some torches to just super heat the pipes and get the flow going so I do not have smoke in the house to deal with as that defeats the purpose.
We will be laying in a bigger supply of wood as a pile of wood looks small when it is being eaten in February and quite large when it is sitting there not being burned in May. This barrel stove is quirky, but with what I have set up, with fire brick, after about 24 hours burning it really gets up to heat and runs very efficiently. It is all experience and I have written of that before in the archives. This was about notable savings.
Maybe a new scientific wood stove would work. I would love to have high heat, efficiency and not have to tend this stove every 60 to 90 minutes for best results. I have no idea what I could save. I do know the most affordable version we could put together was this, and it has made the difference in what I wanted in, the house is comfortable as I hate being cold and we are saving money, and will save a great deal more money as prices are not going down as the 1% are going to break this system for their control.
Most people give up on wood as it is work, and most people are not going to work. I do not mind splitting wood and now that the rewards part of this are appearing, it makes me more pleased to put in the effort which is necessary for this type of heating. It certainly is comforting to have a cellar stove when the lights go off in the cold, knowing that if necessary you can go light things up and not sit around in the wet and cold being miserable like Niggers in the African Bush.
If I had to buy this, this is not cost effective in the short term. If I had to figure in my labor, then that is not cost effective, but not having this furnace running and wearing out, is very pleasing to me and figuring out by God's Grace how to make this system work, when everyone on Youtube puts up videos to scam you for money, but never follow through as they never use barrel stoves as the stove is smarter than they are, has taken a few years to get to this point of a working knowledge.
As the Lame Cherry has been preaching from growing potatoes to woodstoves, you do this when the other systems are there yet to rely on, not when you have nothing else by starving and darkness because you fucked up.
Yes you sat on your asses for two years and now you are going to get bit in the ass, as you watched me work and you lived in luxury. That was your choice and you will pay for it, just like you chose not to donate to God's workings here as you talked yourself into spending money on selfish you, instead of helping others.
Yes a hot July day so why think about wood. Think about wood while it is hot as your cold is coming
Nuff Said
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