[from occupied ga]

Burn wood - the ultimate renewable resource.

A rather misleading oversimplification. Ask how much wood do you have to burn to keep a house warm in a VT winter. Answer average of 4.8 - 5.4 cords per winter. And this is hardwood not pine. Next question is how many trees does it take to provide that much wood? A cord is 128 cu ft so you need 614 - 691 cu ft of wood per winter. How many acres and how much time does it take to produce this abount of wood? Answer varies depending on where you are, but I found that for Nebraska an acre produces 22 - 24 cu ft a wood a year max. So you need at least between 25 and 31 acres of forested woodlot to heat one house with wood.

BUT this isn't the end of it; trees don't fell themselves and cut themselves into convenient lengths and then transport themselves to your stove. You need fuel and equipment (you aren't going to haul 5 cords of wood in your little VW bug - think big pickup at $35,000 - $50,000) to harvest the timber and a fair amount of time to manage and harvest the timber for fuel as well, so heating with wood is a complicated expensive and resource intensive process not "mmm"

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[Psalm 73]

"A rather misleading oversimplification."

Nothing is as easy as it sounds.
I do burn oil, and supplement with wood - average 2.5 cords per winter.
One cord I buy split and delivered (supporting small businesses), and 1.5 I do myself (saves on health club/gym fees).

[Dandy]

I burn 3 cords of wood per year. I have 100 acres of forest where I get my wood. There are enough downed by storms etc. trees for me each year. I probably get it all from about 5 acres. It takes me a week of work. It is so worth it.

[Hieronymus]

I’d think that you’d want to use figures for Vermont tree growth for Vermont. I bet trees grow a great deal better there than in Nebraska. The rule of thumb I recall being taught on the Oregon Coast was a 10 acre wood lot. Where I am in Ontario, I expect that it is between 10 and 20 acres per home. We heat with wood, but buy it—as you point out the time involved is considerable.

[Mr. Lucky]

I think you’ll find that, in the real world, cordwood is the by-product of timberstand improvement, ditch maintenance, fence cleaning, and the like.
Is it more correct to girdle a cull tree and let it stand than to fell it and split it for firewood?

[chimera]

Its probably the lowest energy density fuel in large-scale use right now. It averages about 16 MJ/kg. For comparison, coal is about 30 MJ/kg, gasoline about 47 MG/kg. Of course, these are all dwarfed by the elephant in the living room that nobody wants to acknowledge, much less talk about: uranium, with around 80,000,000 MJ/kg.

And for those who wring their hands about de-carbonization, firewood of various types spews out between 115 to 125 kg CO2 per MMBTU. This changes if you go to wood pellets with less than 10% moisture content, but the EROI for wood pellets is different. I know many here don't care about that kind thing, but for those who do, its worth a look.

[abclily]

Also chain saws and maintenance of same.

[PA Engineer]

I agree with most of your post. For some however wood is the answer.

The amount of land needed to heat in the Appalachians is different than Nebraska. In Western PA, I spend more time cleaning blowdown and disease than dropping healthy trees.

Heating Degree Days (HDD) also have to be taken into consideration. We are approaching 6000 now. Different regional loads for different heating requirements. One of the oversights of people heating with wood is insulation. I learned a long time ago to up ours during renovations and additions. We now range (including greenhouse direct gain) 350btus per degree (no wind) up to 400 (wind). This is a large home (well above average) for those with wood heat. Further, stove efficiency plays a big role in consumption. As we added stoves (4), we spent the extra money on the highest efficiency units. Finally, all the wood I collect is seasoned for two years before burn. The wood is red oak, white oak, and hickory. There is a sprinkling of other hardwoods.

I have been doing this for twenty-four years. It is not for the feint of heart. Every tool, method, drying house has taken years to develop. I do this on six wooded acres with an annual requirement of 2.5 to 2.75 cords. This year may push 3.25. It has been that "extreme." I don't need a pickup truck and have brought the wood down on hand carts. Twelve trips per full cord. The only change I may make is because of age and becoming mindful of injury. A Polaris will be added in the near future.

We do have gas heat. We have plenty of natural gas and capacity. It is just nice to know we can live off of our own wood production. Heating with wood takes a lot of planning. It is not for everyone.

[MileHi]

Plus, it’s tough to heat evenly with just one stove/firelace. Especially a two story structure.

[Rebelbase]

Those must be scrawny trees in Nebraska. We heated for a year and a half of of one 100 year old storm damaged red oak.