[Greenbuilding] Wood by the pound.

JOHN SALMEN terrain at shaw.ca
Tue Dec 28 11:14:11 CST 2010


It is the kind of adaptive comfort that you have to physically move towards
or away from to achieve the comfort you want. My children would wake up and
park their bums within inches of the woodstove while coming to consciousness
and then slowly moved on. It was a nice ritual to watch and says a lot about
the importance and placement of a radiant heat source. Simple woodstoves I
have found hard to control - especially the common sheet metal variety that
tend to distort and take in more air. Ours would often tend to quickly
overheat the living area in an evening (coupled with cooking and physical
activities). Effective way of shutting peoples brains down and driving them
to the cooler corners. Typically people contol burning by 'size' of the
split or round as well as air - but that amounts to controlling by moisture
content (smaller split pieces generally being dryer; the yule log.)

 

As for wood. We recently had to take down a 150ft balsam and I had fun
introducing my son to the complete processing of a tree and the amount of
work and debris involved. As he was trying to split 24" knotty rounds I made
a joke about whether he thought the wood was worth the effort as a way of
storing heat versus solar water heating. It was considered here that if you
had about 5 acres of wooded lot you could 'sustainably' harvest for heating
a home (3-4 cords). In early years I would harvest windfall and occasionally
a tree but I have come to believe that material is best left on the ground -
as part of what is needed to maintain habitat and soil. 

 

JOHN SALMEN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

4465 UPHILL RD,. DUNCAN, B.C.  CANADA, V9L 6M7

PH 250 748 7672 FAX 250 748 7612 CELL 250 246 8541

terrain at shaw.ca

 

  _____  

From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of John
Straube
Sent: December 27, 2010 9:40 AM
To: Environmentally-preferable design, construction, building elements
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Wood by the pound.

 

In the four family homes with wood stoves/fireplaces that I am closely
familiar with, the temperature is always much higher when wood is being
burned.  Not sure why this is the case but I am guessing that it is because
the output of a wood appliance is harder to modulate over a wide range. The
low cost of wood is also likely a factor.  Many people like the warm
temperatures to dry out wet boots, wet mits, and wet wood.  Whatever the
reason I associate wood heat with much warmer temperatures in my part of
Ontario.

That said, wood heated houses tend to have quite cold "edges", ie, the
upstairs corner room could be 50F while the kitchen is at 78F.  

This wide variation in temperature is an issue for many people and seems to
be one factor that limits the wide spread adoption of this heating.

In my own very well insulated and airtight home, the 600 sf space with the
fireplace often is 75 to 78F and the coldest corner of the house (basement,
far corner) can be 10 F cooler.  In my parents very leaky and poorly
insulated 100 yr old home, the temperature is often 80F in the kitchen and
40F in the upstairs far corner room during a 10F night.

 

John

 

On 2010-12-27, at 11:45 AM, Reuben Deumling wrote:





 

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 5:15 AM, Corwyn <corwyn at midcoast.com> wrote:

 That is, wood heats the same way that oil, or gas heats, so calculating
heat loss is sufficient without adding the complication of worrying about
fuel type.


That I wonder about. My guess would be that wood used to stoke a wood stove
(rather than say an automated pellet or chip burner which are more common in
Europe at the household scale) would be different in terms of the terminal
temperature portion of this calculation. The fact that we are the regulator
rather than a thermostat, not to mention that most of us who heat with wood
are involved in a large number of stages in the preparation of the fuel, I
could imagine that we might husband the wood/choose a different or more
variable terminal temperature/etc. than if we were heating with a liquid
fuel. But this is mostly just speculation. 
The physics, which I think is what you were driving at, Corwyn, is probably
as you say. My interest was in the social--if that is the right term--end of
the wood heat circumstances.

Reuben Deumling

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Dr John Straube, P.Eng.

Associate Professor

University of Waterloo

Dept of Civil Eng. & School of Architecture

www.buildingscience.com

 

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