Preparing for Winter and Colder Weather

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Ozarks hillbilly said:
So happy we got the two wood inserts for the fireplaces (both upstairs and downstairs). We run the upstairs pretty much non-stop and the basement one on a few evenings when it gets cold enough. Our furnace died in October, but the house hasn't gotten lower than 65. Even during the -20+, we were able to keep the house in the mid to upper 60s. Bonus, the wife wanted (and received) a battery powered chainsaw. We can get about twice the wood in the same amount of time and have a weekend chore we do together.
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I have always wanted to get an insert for my fireplace. I have no idea about how to go about it. Do I get someone to do measurements and fabricate one for me?
 
Weedygarden said:
I have always wanted to get an insert for my fireplace. I have no idea about how to go about it. Do I get someone to do measurements and fabricate one for me?
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We have standard sized fireplaces, but I took measurements and took it to the wood stove store. They were running a special for install, for an extra $100, they installed both units with steel stove piping going up the chimney. Most inserts will fit most fireplaces
 
Ozarks hillbilly said:
We have standard sized fireplaces, but I took measurements and took it to the wood stove store. They were running a special for install, for an extra $100, they installed both units with steel stove piping going up the chimney. Most inserts will fit most fireplaces
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Thank you. I am going to take measurements and see what it will cost.

Edit: My fireplace is narrow, originally built to burn coal. I did have my chimney repaired and worked on for burning wood more than a decade ago. Burning wood in a fireplace is not the most productive way to heat up a home. I do have a cap on my chimney top that I can open when I want to have a fire.
 
Weedygarden said:
Thank you. I am going to take measurements and see what it will cost.

Edit: My fireplace is narrow, originally built to burn coal. I did have my chimney repaired and worked on for burning wood more than a decade ago. Burning wood in a fireplace is not the most productive way to heat up a home. I do have a cap on my chimney top that I can open when I want to have a fire.
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They are far more efficient at heating the room than just burning wood in an open fireplace, you won't be sorry.
I built a prototype insert with 16 sqft of heat exchanger in 12" height and 2 squirrel cage blowers. It worked fantastic!
Running, you could have a roaring fire going in the firebox and still hold your hand in the exhaust stream coming out of the top.
 
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Supervisor42 said:
They are far more efficient at heating the room than just burning wood in an open fireplace, you won't be sorry.
I built a prototype insert with 16 sqft of heat exchanger in 12" height and 2 squirrel cage blowers. It worked fantastic!
Running, you could have a roaring fire going in the firebox and still hold your hand in the exhaust stream coming out of the top.
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I realize that a fireplace is really inefficient. That is one reason I had the cap installed, to prevent heat from escaping anytime I am not burning a fire. I would like to have fires, especially if it were to be my only source of heat.

I purchased a Buddy Heater to heat with propane and recently a heater that heats or cooks with butane. I'm just trying to improve my odds for heating my home.
 
Weedygarden said:
I realize that a fireplace is really inefficient. That is one reason I had the cap installed, to prevent heat from escaping anytime I am not burning a fire. I would like to have fires, especially if it were to be my only source of heat.

I purchased a Buddy Heater to heat with propane and recently a heater that heats or cooks with butane. I'm just trying to improve my odds for heating my home.
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Biggest thing I’d add is to make sure you get an insert with a blower.
 
These people were on a country show I watch- Chimney Draught Excluders - Chimney Sheep

When my husband and I dated, the houses were single-glazed, and had no radiators -we used to wake up with ice on the inside of the window, and in our first house the bed cover would be damp when we woke in the winter. Electric blankets were expensive to run and really dangerous. If my eldest wasn't at home I say the heating would be on half the time it is- her room is at the end of the house, in the oldest part. really hard to keep warm, and it's been reinsulated and the ceiling dropped. My back boiler doesn't seem to reach far enough, so I have to put oil on the reach the bedrooms down there when it's bitter out.
 
Weedygarden said:
I have used electric blankets off and on for many years. I have never had a problem with them.
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I used one each winter for decades. We had a programmable thermostat that setback the house temp during the night and would bring it back up before we arose.
The e-blanket had 2 controls and DW would put her side on "rare" and I would set mine on "well-done".
Harmony:D.
It worked great and saved us buckets of money.:thumbs:
 
With next week's cold wet weather approaching, I'll cover some firewood to keep it dry and fill my three wood bags that come in the house! I have two canvas bags that hold about 80 lbs of wood and one leather bag that holds about the same. They are easy for lugging wood into the house and keep the mess at a minimum! The cats like to "hunt" in them, so if there is any mess it's from them!! So I'll have plenty of dry wood to fetch from what gets covered! Plenty to start the cold wet days ahead!
 
Pearl said:
With next week's cold wet weather approaching, I'll cover some firewood to keep it dry and fill my three wood bags that come in the house! I have two canvas bags that hold about 80 lbs of wood and one leather bag that holds about the same. They are easy for lugging wood into the house and keep the mess at a minimum! The cats like to "hunt" in them, so if there is any mess it's from them!! So I'll have plenty of dry wood to fetch from what gets covered! Plenty to start the cold wet days ahead!
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We stack our wood on the porch and under the deck for the basement. The only part of wood heating that my wife complains about is the mess and having to make two trips (it’s only about 20 feet each way) outside to get more wood. Might have to look into these woods bags
 
Ozarks hillbilly said:
We stack our wood on the porch and under the deck for the basement. The only part of wood heating that my wife complains about is the mess and having to make two trips (it’s only about 20 feet each way) outside to get more wood. Might have to look into these woods bags
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I have had these for many many years!! I am going to lookin Amazon today to see what they have, wouldn't mind a couple more since we only heat with wood.
 
When we had our little cabin in the woods we would burn a wheelbarrow full of wood each day. I would park the wheelbarrow just outside the door that was next to the stove so it was a quick throw to stack the wood inside.
As i have probably mentioned our current house has wood pass thrus built in with a door on the outside and a door on the inside right next to the stove and fireplace. Very handy and gets away from the mess of carrying wood thru the room.
At my last town job we had a woodstove in the shop and since it was smooth surfaces we would load up a sturdy cardboard box on the hand truck and wheel it in next to the stove.
I have a new woodstove sitting by the front door all wrapped up and just need to get it up some stairs to be using it. Fortunately we have cheap electricity for now for heat.
 
Yes, I am posting on this thread even though it may be 110° today. But, Hubby and I are eyeing up firewood, what we will cut and split first. Also making my winter project list. Major cleaning of the big storage shed, my truck (it is cleaning supply central), and doing some decluttering in the house. Checked out the Climate Prediction Center, looks like a wetter winter, no artic ice storms! So I will have to cover more firewood. So just starting to get things lined out for winter. The days are getting shorter, ☹️!
 
I have been looking at making sure we have fuel for the cast iron stove and making sure we have sufficient battery backups in case we have a snow event linked with regional power outages. I have also been gathering my old Coleman stoves to have them at the ready. I keep having this feeling that this may one of those 1 in a hundred years type of years....
 
We spend pretty much the whole summer getting ready for winter. We have a couple cords already cut and ready for splitting. Need another 6 cords to make it through the winter. We have a few dead Doug fir trees on our place to cut, the rest we'll get off the forest service around our property.
Need to get our hay in and stock up on chicken and horse feed. Next month I'll order 500 gallons of off-road winter mix diesel, top off our 2- 500 gallon propane tanks and order 300 gallons of non ethanol premium gasoline. We normally get our first snow in September, which doesn't last, and usually it's here to stay by the end of October. I need to order my trapping supplies soon too. We usually have snow on the ground here from October until the first week of May, with our last snow fall in June. We normally turn the cattle out on May 1st.
 
I took the snow plow to the Anchorage airport to ship to Ketchikan. The clerk asked me how fast (how much I was willing to pay). I said, "It's a snow plow. It's August." He smiled and gave me the slow rate, it still got here in two days.
 
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ordered anotyher 5 cords, getting deivered the end of this week. firewood is my only heat and i go thru 5 cords easy. this will give me 3 winters worth. im aiming for 5yrs.. to have on hand. its only going to get more expensive .
i usually have to have my first fire end of sept-early oct so im getting things ready--covering the windows, cleaning out the woodstve and chimney, bringing wood in.
yup. that time of year.
 
I have been rolling big 2-3 foot diameter blocks into the splitter all day. These are the big ones I uncovered during last winter while fetching blocks for the out door boiler.I figure three days to get them all split and stacked. Some ejit cut a few of them too long, but I managed to get them split sideways enough to finish with the axe and maul.

Next, I will start hauling blocks of wood from the farthest pile and stack them close to the wood shed. Should have that done by the end of September with all the other projects that need doing.

Hubby is building insulated inserts for the big school windows and I am also digging a short trench from the tanks to the school to finally hook up my propane stove.
 
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Pearl said:
We keep at least 6 cords split and stacked over the summer. We burn 2 cords on average each winter. We will cut and split and stack 4-6 this fall and winter!
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I can't believe y'all are cranking this thread up already!gaah
I'm already starting feel cold even though the temps haven't been below 100 for weeks🥶.
I hate,hate,hate being cold!😵‍💫
On topic: I have been harvesting dividends from stocks for months and piling them up next to my checking account.:thumbs:
Years back, I had a programmable thermostat that would dial the house temp back 5° after we went to bed, and crank it back up before we got up.
No more.:mad:
Nowadays, I tell the Mrs to dial the thermostat wherever she wants because I have all the 'firewood' we can burn:D
63331-rayof.gif
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Not much prep for me. I have a Winter grab bag that I keep in the car. It has extra hats, gloves, scarves. It goes in in the Winter, and comes out in the Spring. Everything else we need is already accessible in the house.
 
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