In calculating how much money we have spent on wood so far since we installed our Sedore in January we have spent about $400 for 3 months. Extrapolating back we figure we could have heated our house for the whole winter for $800. Now this also figures in some wood that we scrounged, but did not have to cut. In the last several months I have become a wood scrounge looking for available fire wood where ever I might be.
For this savings is huge, because up until this time we heated with oil and at $3.59/galloon there is no way we could have made even two months at $800. So for us we are easily going to recoup the cost of our stove within a year.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Day Trip and its results
Today, we took a family trip to Middle Creek Wildlife Management ARea. It is a migration spot for snow geese and tundra swans. It was a marvelous experience to see them flock in the area and float and meander on the fields. So I loaded my home Sedore figruing a 6-8 hour burn would be no problem as I have figured out the stove. Wrong!!!
I put in 1 10 inch dry hardwood girth log. A wet chuck to condition at the top on several split pieces of oak and we left. We came back about 4PM to a cold stove and 50 degrees in our house.
One of the split oak pieces fell diagonal and due to the extreme heat of the red hot coals I couldn't reach my hands down and pick it up. I loaded my other solid fuel described above on top of it figuring it would burn through soon. To get the 6-8 hour burn time I closed the air intake to a pinky finger width and drove down the road.
But my air intake should have been a thumbs width wide and it would have left me with decent heat, ie bed of coals to come home to.
When I got home I cracked the lid and left it open and in ten minutes the very dry wood ignited to an intense blaze without having to relight the fire. The little bit of char at the bottom was all the Sedore needed and we were back in business.
PS: End of the season sale on pellets should catch the eye of those of us who choose fuel based on cost.
PSS: Rest on this:
Before I go to bed tonight I will drop a 12 inch diamter chuck of aged oak 20 inches long into the top of the burn chamber. It will be frozen with a high moisture content b/c its never been covered. Unless otherwise, with either one late night or early AM, I expect it to be burning and producing a back burn heat of about 200 degrees F into 7AM.
I put in 1 10 inch dry hardwood girth log. A wet chuck to condition at the top on several split pieces of oak and we left. We came back about 4PM to a cold stove and 50 degrees in our house.
One of the split oak pieces fell diagonal and due to the extreme heat of the red hot coals I couldn't reach my hands down and pick it up. I loaded my other solid fuel described above on top of it figuring it would burn through soon. To get the 6-8 hour burn time I closed the air intake to a pinky finger width and drove down the road.
But my air intake should have been a thumbs width wide and it would have left me with decent heat, ie bed of coals to come home to.
When I got home I cracked the lid and left it open and in ten minutes the very dry wood ignited to an intense blaze without having to relight the fire. The little bit of char at the bottom was all the Sedore needed and we were back in business.
PS: End of the season sale on pellets should catch the eye of those of us who choose fuel based on cost.
PSS: Rest on this:
Before I go to bed tonight I will drop a 12 inch diamter chuck of aged oak 20 inches long into the top of the burn chamber. It will be frozen with a high moisture content b/c its never been covered. Unless otherwise, with either one late night or early AM, I expect it to be burning and producing a back burn heat of about 200 degrees F into 7AM.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Flapjacks, the Bobtop, and maple syrup
Well, yesterday morning was a first for us. We cooked homemade whole wheat blueberry pancakes on top of our Sedore stove. We have a custom made top on our Sedore that we call the Bobtop. It is a stainless steel top over the whole length of the stove. Today was the first that we really used it to make the pancakes. We had the stovetop up to about 350 F and those cakes cooked in good time; we were able to cook about 6-8 at a time on the top of the stove too.
Last week we did some old time maple sugaring. Some good friends of ours tapped about 8 maple trees on their property. We were involved to help tap the trees and went out to help boil down some sap as well. They went to Florida for 6 days and asked if we would like to tend the sap. So we did and one day we hit it good. We got 7-8 gallons of sap which boiled down to 1 quart of maple syrup. Yesterday we enjoyed that on our flapjacks. And it was good!!!
The stove is doing the job.
Now, two weeks later (one day short) we are finding that the stove is doing the job. It is heating our entire house and doing it consistently. It is a bit cold around the edges when it gets down to 10 Degrees F at night, but if we are more diligent with dry seasoned wood then it can keep us comfortable. In the meantime oil around here is up to $3.29/gallon, not a price we are willing to pay since we have a choice.
We did get and hook up an electric hot water heater for our water needs, as we are not equipped currently to heat the hot water with the stove. Perhaps at some point we will be. But we will also need something for the summer, as we don't intend to run the stove all year round. We will probably stop burning our stove sometime in April.
We did get and hook up an electric hot water heater for our water needs, as we are not equipped currently to heat the hot water with the stove. Perhaps at some point we will be. But we will also need something for the summer, as we don't intend to run the stove all year round. We will probably stop burning our stove sometime in April.
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