We've Got Fire Wood!
We are living more sustainably than ever before, thanks to the natural bounty of Vermont
During the bitter cold of a colder-than-usual (and snowier-than-usual) winter, wood has been our primary heat source… and we are LOVING it!
So… the weather forecast here in Vermont is looking like we are seeing the first hints of Spring coming, with temperatures getting to around 40 degrees! We’ve come through a particularly bitter winter, according to most of the locals in Vermont. And, yes, it has been very cold, with lows in the -10 range periodically (not a problem for seasoned Minnesota transplants).
As we’ve been settling in to our new home, heating with wood was one of the decisions we made to help us live more sustainably and we were really nervous about how it would be during winter.
We have a Jøtul F 500 V3 Oslo that we were told would heat our entire house. Including the basement, that we use for yoga, sauna and storage, we are heating almost 2,600 square feet. We had a healthy dose of skepticism when the wood stove sales rep assured us that a single stove would comfortably heat our house, much more economically than fossil fuel based options such as propane or heating oil. But, it does, and then some.
So far, we have used only about 1.5 cords of wood through winter, and have another cord of wood in the basement to help us get through the rest of winter. This is particularly remarkable, because we like to keep our home pretty warm. Most days, the temperature in our house has stayed a very comfortable 75 degrees F. The best part is that, because the wood stove is in the basement and it sits on a concrete floor, it heats the concrete of the foundation to a very nice temperature. It also heats the floor of the living space above it, making it feel like we have radiant heat flooring. It also makes a very cozy space for sitting in the basement that we were not expecting to be using as living space.
The burning of wood has helped us dramatically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. And, we are making plans to harvest all of the large trees that we taken down when our home site was cleared. There is enough wood piled up outside to heat our home for years to come.
This year, we needed to purchase cured fire wood, because the wood on our land hasn’t yet been processed into fire wood yet. Even still, the cost of heating with wood was minimal compared to other alternatives.
When we talk to people about using fire wood one of the most common questions people have is about the carbon dioxide emissions from wood. We will do a more detailed blog post about that later. But, the short version is this: Not all CO2 is the same. The Earth has a natural CO2 cycle that can easily sustain the burning of wood. Sustainably burning wood does not contribute to climate change, therefore. It is the burning of fossil fuels that is causing our climate crisis.
The Jøtul also has a secondary combustion chamber that burns off most of the smoke and other particulates, making it burn very efficiently. We extract more heat from every log and do not release much smoke into the atmosphere.
We have found nothing about the wood heat to be a negative. It is all good. While we were nervous about making the switch, we could not be happier with the result. Wood has proven to be economical, very comfortable and sustainable and it adds a wonderful aesthetic to our new house. The only minor issues we have had have been sourcing the wood. That was made more challenging because we had no way of knowing how much we would use through the winter and we have yet to set up an outdoor storage space for very large quantities of wood.
Now that we’ve been through the coldest part of our first winter, we have a lot more understanding about what we need and we have a lovely outdoor space that will accommodate several cords of wood. We’ll get that set up this summer. We expect future winters to be even more economical and efficient.
Anyone planning changes to their lifestyles to become more independent and sustainable should highly consider wood as a primary heat source. You will be glad you did. We sure are!