At this moment I am freezing in Texas

birdy said:
52! I would be freezing. 🥶 I am cold at 65.
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right now it's 53 deg f in my house.. it's cold... but my hands are not frozen, so that makes the difference. I have 2 layers on below.. and 3 layers on top... . I'd love to have my heating on as always have in the past , but I can't , so I do what I have to do to keep as warm as I can..
 
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Not accusing anyone of being Scrooge like because exorbitant fuel prices are no joke. This bit of Dickens just seemed appropriate to this thread.

 

PeppermintPatty said:
You have your house temperature at 52 degrees?Thats cold. Brrrrr. I love the wood stove on. It definitely takes the chill out of the air. Our house temperature is at 65 at all times. We cut all our own wood, dry it and store it ; ready for burning and go through 4 chords yearly.
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For those who don't know...A cord of wood is a pile that is eight feet long, four feet deep and four feet high. Usually stove wood is cut and split to about 12 to 14 inches long, to fit into a wood burning stove door. Some people now have "wood pellet stoves " that burn compressed scrap wood that has been formed into small chunks by machines in a factory. This is a good way to recycle otherwise useless wood by products. JimB
 
jimintoronto said:
For those who don't know...A cord of wood is a pile that is eight feet long, four feet deep and four feet high. Usually stove wood is cut and split
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In other words, a cord is 128 cubic feet of stacked wood. When we stack ours, I measure its dimensions & do the math.

We assembled our pile in the woodshed last summer. My wife had an intuition (or a fear?) about the upcoming winter of 2023/24, and insisted on 4.5 cords rather than the usual 4. Given how much we've used by now, it was probably a good idea. And if we have any left over by time the season warms up outdoors, that will contribute to next year's wood pile.
 
JBR said:
In other words, a cord is 128 cubic feet of stacked wood. When we stack ours, I measure its dimensions & do the math.

We assembled our pile in the woodshed last summer. My wife had an intuition (or a fear?) about the upcoming winter of 2023/24, and insisted on 4.5 cords rather than the usual 4. Given how much we've used by now, it was probably a good idea. And if we have any left over by time the season warms up outdoors, that will contribute to next year's wood pile.
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You are correct. I was talking for those folks who don't have a wood stove, or live in a southern climate area where they don't burn wood for heat. When you stack your firewood, do you place it with the bark up side, or what ? JimB.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
You have your house temperature at 52 degrees?Thats cold. Brrrrr. I love the wood stove on. It definitely takes the chill out of the air. Our house temperature is at 65 at all times. We cut all our own wood, dry it and store it ; ready for burning and go through 4 chords yearly.
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That's the coldest that I've seen it be in the mornings but it's usually a little bit warmer. 😊

birdy said:
52! I would be freezing. 🥶 I am cold at 65.
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Yesterday afternoon got up to a nice warm 65 in the house, and this morning was a balmy 58. 😎
 
jimintoronto said:
You are correct. I was talking for those folks who don't have a wood stove, or live in a southern climate area where they don't burn wood for heat. When you stack your firewood, do you place it with the bark up side, or what ? JimB.
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When you stack wood it’s bark up. That way any moisture can’t collect in the U shape of the wood. In other words, it dries much better bark side up. We have 25 acres to cut from and are usually a year ahead to ensure proper seasoning of the wood.
 
jimintoronto said:
You are correct. I was talking for those folks who don't have a wood stove, or live in a southern climate area where they don't burn wood for heat. When you stack your firewood, do you place it with the bark up side, or what ? JimB.
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I used to stack mine however it fit and wouldn't fall over. I would then cover it with plastic or a tarp leaving the sides open for air flow. Dried just fine.
 
jimintoronto said:
You are correct. I was talking for those folks who don't have a wood stove, or live in a southern climate area where they don't burn wood for heat. When you stack your firewood, do you place it with the bark up side, or what ? JimB.
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Our wood is Douglas fir, larch, and grand fir mainly, with a bit of paper birch. Standing-dead trees are what we prefer, with the softwoods. But not for the birch, which can stand yet have turned punky. This year I had some hazelnut from a tree on our place that had died, very dense wood.

We have a farmer friend who has semi-automated log cutting/splitting machinery. He gets seasoned logs that are too irregular to be good saw logs for lumber, and we purchase some split wood to make up any shortfall we have in a year.

We stack the birch & hazelnut (our hardwoods) separately... as rounds, except for the large diameter pieces that I split. The birch (cut to 16") is given enough spacing when stacked to dry well. The other species, cut to length & split) are first jumble-piled (loosely with air flow), out where high summer heat can get to them. Then we stack those in the shed, placed in the pile so as to minimize spaces between split pieces. That allows for measurement in cords.
 
JBR said:
Our wood is Douglas fir, larch, and grand fir mainly, with a bit of paper birch. Standing-dead trees are what we prefer, with the softwoods. But not for the birch, which can stand yet have turned punky. This year I had some hazelnut from a tree on our place that had died, very dense wood.

We have a farmer friend who has semi-automated log cutting/splitting machinery. He gets seasoned logs that are too irregular to be good saw logs for lumber, and we purchase some split wood to make up any shortfall we have in a year.

We stack the birch & hazelnut (our hardwoods) separately... as rounds, except for the large diameter pieces that I split. The birch (cut to 16") is given enough spacing when stacked to dry well. The other species, cut to length & split) are first jumble-piled (loosely with air flow), out where high summer heat can get to them. Then we stack those in the shed, placed in the pile so as to minimize spaces between split pieces. That allows for measurement in cords.
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Before we moved here, we used to purchase full seasoned logs ( tree size ) and cut as well as split them before stacking in our woodshed.

Now we cut our own trees and leave some standing for the next years cutting. We separate our soft woods from hardwoods also and usually mix the wood while burning. The softwood burns faster but the hardwood helps slow it down some.

We have a mixture of softwoods and hardwoods. We don’t cut any maples down though. Most of our hardwood is birch and poplar which is medium hardwood. We have some ash and some oak so it’s a nice mixture. I really like our woodstove.
It’s bigger than our last one and burns wood more efficiently
 
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Quackers said:
Yes stretch5881 we do.... ;)

These sites explain it all for anyone interested:
Winter Fuel Payment
Cost-of-living payments: What are they, who gets them and are they fair?


Help with your energy bills
Reduce your bills - schemes and grants
Grants and benefits to help you pay your energy bills
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except that £900 which is spread out in 3 payments.. won't cover the cost of the heating and electricity, further to that the £900 is just for those on benefits.. anyone not on benefits get a one off payment of £300 ...
 
..and the ofgem offer of a payment if we get 7 days in a row of under 10 degrees or similar is a joke.. because we hardly ever get a week in a row of seriously low temps, and the tiny payment or reduction in the bill would make little or no difference..
 
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I would get a wall radiant heater or a Ceramic one for one room. At least get the chill off. 65 Degrees F. is ok with a light jacket.
We do 70 at night and 73 during the day. Lots of light are shut down / led. We have those high costs also. 2/3 of the power is
Solar furnished but still we have got the night. I'm sorta proud to have chosen to join the Solar group, feel good to contribute
to green but it also doubled the Electric Bill. With the Generation also rising at rates it has been a clown laugh of what it is.
 
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My rooms are in an add-on suite. It does not have central heat. I rely on drift and a space heater. I could move to another room but I like my space. I rarely use the fireplace but it would come in handy in an emergency. It is 26 degrees out at present and will go down to 14 tonight. That is very cold for Atlanta.
 
hollydolly said:
How rude >:mad:...complaining about not having heating... why should I ?
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Perhaps you should learn to economise, as other people do. Cold weather happens in the autumn and winter months. ;)

You've a penchant for bragging about what you've bought - 'expensive', 'not cheap, 'high end', 'exclusive' are words you often use. You say you treat yourself regularly to which you've added words along the line of 'you can afford to do so, so why not'.

If you economised, you wouldn't have a problem paying for heating. Your preference is geared towards materialism rather than being sensible and prioritising the necessaries. :)
 
Quackers said:
Perhaps you should learn to economise, as other people do. Cold weather happens in the autumn and winter months. ;)

You've a penchant for bragging about what you've bought - 'expensive', 'not cheap, 'high end', 'exclusive' are words you often use. You say you treat yourself regularly to which you've added words along the line of 'you can afford to do so, so why not'.

If you economised, you wouldn't have a problem paying for heating. Your preference is geared towards materialism rather than being sensible and prioritising the necessaries. :)
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not that it's any of your business but when I talk about high end , and exclusive that's generally things I already own. If I buy a pair of boots that cost £100 how does that compare with a £300 utility bill every single month. ? bragging..?...I see, so it's just me that ''brags '' about what I've bought..on the ''what have you bought recently'' . thread.. I see....

....huge amounts I write about.. flash cars.. expensive jewellery... oh wait.. not, the case .. and you're wrong once again ! what a surprise !

You have absolutely no idea where my priorities lie..none.. so do yourself a favour..and me, and mind your own business. if you don't like what I say put me on ignore.. and lets hope karma doesn't visit you, and you find yourself in the same position..
 

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