hmmm...I see I see. I always forget how spendy heating homes back east can be, espeically in the northern areas.
Yeah it is a bitch. I run wood with kerosene backup. Because wood is free (for me) and you don't need to pay for delivery or rely on a supply line. The kerosene is really awesome as I can burn about one gallon a day to keep our house at 48 degrees with the heater I have and it is 3.09 a gallon at the moment.
There's a LOT of folks up in the PNW that use wood, also. Obviously in the big places like Portland and Seattle they're using electric cause hyrdo, but leave the metro area, and it's all wood fired. I'm not a huge fan of straight wood, personally, cause of the work, clean up, and lack of BTU compared to other heating methods, but it's plentiful and cheap
Wood around here is the bang for the buck BTU, but we have Beech, Rock Maple, Silver/Yellow Birch. The PNW is mostly softwood and that is where the BTU reduction comes from. I have got my stove in my shop up to 970 degrees F before Just with three pieces of wood, granted they are cut @ 30 inch length and it was two pieces of Maple on the bottom supporting a 16 inch diameter of rock Maple heartwood core on top. Also there is the factor of the NE is cold as fuck whereas the PNW isn't so there is humidity you have to burn off before the heating happens. When you have humidity in the air wood stoves will actually make the space cool off due to evaporative cooling before they heat but when it is 0 degrees out it is instant warmth. Fuel oil or gas is a better heat for warmer areas as it burns cooler and will heat the air up before it runs into the cooling effect so you don't really feel it.
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