Comments on: Eliminating heating bills and cutting down on heating costs

By: Aep has prayer warriors! I’m not using my heat « endurance4life

Aep has prayer warriors! I’m not using my heat « endurance4life — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:02:06 +0000

[...] this year Ash and I, have decides to live frugally, after getting advice from ERE, and info from other [...]

By: uribg

uribg — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:21:00 +0000

Woodstove + small house + good insulation and windows = 75 F indoors all winter and still economical,even buying firewood.The teenagers stack it, and even the ten-year-old can split wood with a wedge…

Enjoying the blog. Common sense and frugality are rare enough!

By: HSpencer

HSpencer — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 16:50:14 +0000

Thanks to the big ice storm of January, 2009, I got about 3 years worth of firewood. This was neither economical or wanted. On my property the ice storm ruined about 12 large trees. (Lesson) don’t plant trees close to your house.
At my age, the clean up of the damaged trees was way beyond what I could have or wanted to do myself. I hired a tree guy to come in and clean up and take out some of the trees, and cut the wood up into stove size. The branches were shredded into a mountain of mulch which we have nearly used up so far. The cost of all this was $1500.00. That is expensive firewood and mulch. However, my property, like my neighbors, looked like a war zone, so I was happy to get this done in two days, instead of the 6 months it would have taken me doing it manually. I was extremely fortunate not to have damage to my home and buildings. Again, do not plant trees close enough to your house to risk damages from them.

By: et

et — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 16:40:33 +0000

Hand sawing wood very quickly gets old if you live anywhere where you need firewood for more than a month. We do all our cooking and supplement heating with wood from October thru April – takes a lot of wood.

By: retirebyforty

retirebyforty — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 15:16:07 +0000

My wife would kill me if the thermostat is set at 55 degree.

By: retirebyforty

retirebyforty — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 15:15:16 +0000

When I was in highschool, my dad would always stop to grab free fire wood whenever he saw them. It was a lot of work splitting those rounds.
Now we live in a condo and our heating cost is pretty low. We have a Kotatsu table and this helps tremendously. It is very comfortable and we keep the heater thermostat at 65 degree. Our building is concrete and it retain the heat very well and the heater don’t switch on unless it was really cold for weeks on end. You can make your own Kotatsu table for about $150 with an IKEA coffee table, heating element from EBAY, and a king blanket. I’m sure ERE peeps can cut this cost down quite a bit though.

By: Week in Review: Thanksgiving Edition

Week in Review: Thanksgiving Edition — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 14:49:00 +0000

[...] Eliminating Heating Bills and Cutting Down on Heating Costs. It’s that time of year when heaters around the country are being switched on. Read Jacob’s article for alternative ideas on heating your home. (Early Retirement Extreme) [...]

By: MoneyChangesThings

MoneyChangesThings — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:42:07 +0000

We’re not doing the Little House on the Prairie thing like you guys, but hats off to you.
We do manage to be reasonably comfortable keeping the house at 62 degrees and using room heaters.
Here’s my post with some of the equipment that makes us more comfortalbe – silk long johns, a heated mattress pad…. Indispensible!
http://moneychangesthings.blogspot.com/2007/12/with-thermostat-set-to-63-these-are-few.html

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:51:45 +0000

My parents have been doing that for years. They use an electric chainsaw to cut them up. I’m not sure we could fit more than a couple of them into our car though, but for those with larger cars or trucks, it is a great idea.

By: Pip

Pip — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:42:44 +0000

Have you tried asking about old wooden pallets at big stores? (home improvement type stores, farm supplies etc)a lot of pallets are made out of untreated timber and most places will be happy to give them to you. Not sure which stores you could go to, I’m in New Zealand and I go to mitre10 mega and farmlands. A crowbar/big hammer/back of an axe makes short work of them.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:05:01 +0000

I’m not sure. I imagine selling it locally would avoid the shipping costs which would be substantial thus allowing you to charge a bit more. OTOH there won’t be any bidding from victorious shoppers. Maybe you can re-gift it?

By: Brooke (Dollar Frugal)

Brooke (Dollar Frugal) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:42:05 +0000

That is awesome…unfortunately, our fireplace is gas. We still keep the furnace set at 61 and DH has to wear layers. He HATES it, but he’ll get over it. I can’t stand seeing him and DS wearing shorts in January. It drives me up the wall.

My dad bought us a chainsaw at Lowe’s…any ideas how to get rid of it (i.e. the best way to make money on it)? Craigslist or eBay? We’ve had it for a year and never used it.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:27:47 +0000

Thanks for the information. When we go and pick up free wood, we tend to stay clear of the difficult pieces. In many cases I would like to get a splitting maul, but the amount of wood I need to split is fairly small (a couple of pieces a day), so I don’t want to spend the money or space to get one.

By: Philip Brewer

Philip Brewer — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:40:34 +0000

A splitting wedge and a sledgehammer do the trick just fine, if you’ve got nice, straight-grained pieces of wood. But if you ever start trying to use (for example) a whole tree that has come down in a storm, you’ll find yourself dealing parts of the tree that branch and twist. For that you’ll want not only a splitting maul but probably a couple more wedges as well.

Fortunately, wedges will last roughly forever–my dad has some that belonged to his grandfather, I think–so they’re a worthy investment. A maul can last a generation or more as well, although you’ll probably have to replace the handle from time to time.