5 ms·

Yep. Unless you've got running water or a high cliffside for wind, the best off-the-grid heat source for cold climates is an acre of woods and an axe. Insulati

Yep. Unless you've got running water or a high cliffside for wind, the best off-the-grid heat source for cold climates is an acre of woods and an axe. Insulation, too. A lot of sheds and cabins (and single-family homes) could do with more. Saves on cooling bills in the summer, too.

Symmetry 5y ago
An acre of trees should be enough to give you an average of 4 kW of thermal power year round, way more than you probably need. Though at 1 W/m^2 how much industry an area of trees could support was the binding constraint on industry for a lot of recorded history. Especially there was always pressure to turn forests into farmland.
- i_am_proteus 5y ago
  Could get by on much less than an acre if it were managed, but better to have more land and be able to keep it as unmanaged forest. That'll also produce fresh game and give some buffer on the lumber supply for lean years. How much rain falls is strictly out of my hands.
bregma 5y ago
I live on 25 ha of forest, have an axe and saw, and heat with wood. Let me tell you: you want to use the saw for everything but splitting. Axes are fine for burly cavemen. Anyway, in a cold climates like mine an acre would not be enough to keep you warm because trees grow slow when it's winter six months out of twelve. It takes a lot of wood to keep you warm, and one tree gives surprisingly little wood. After a handful of years you'll have clearcut your measly acre and still have another couple of decades to go before it becomes harvestable again. I'd say you want at least 10 acres if you manage it well and the soil and drainage are at least half decent.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  By the time you get to 100 acres you can basically heat your house with the stuff that blows over in storms and the remainder can yield a nice cash crop every couple of years, giving space for the other trees to grow. Personally I'd prefer a chainsaw for anything but the most incidental cutting, and a hydraulic woodsplitter (rented) to get the job of preparing firewood for a while year done in a short time.
- dudeofea 5y ago
  You could try coppiced trees: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/09/how-to-make-biomass-energy-sustainable-again.html https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/09/how-to-make-biomass-... They grow faster since they already have a root structure, the size is consistent and the wood is generally straigter (the japanese have a similar technique for extremely straight cedar logs)

Symmetry 5y ago

An acre of trees should be enough to give you an average of 4 kW of thermal power year round, way more than you probably need. Though at 1 W/m^2 how much industry an area of trees could support was the binding constraint on industry for a lot of recorded history. Especially there was always pressure to turn forests into farmland.

i_am_proteus 5y ago
Could get by on much less than an acre if it were managed, but better to have more land and be able to keep it as unmanaged forest. That'll also produce fresh game and give some buffer on the lumber supply for lean years. How much rain falls is strictly out of my hands.

bregma 5y ago

I live on 25 ha of forest, have an axe and saw, and heat with wood. Let me tell you: you want to use the saw for everything but splitting. Axes are fine for burly cavemen. Anyway, in a cold climates like mine an acre would not be enough to keep you warm because trees grow slow when it's winter six months out of twelve. It takes a lot of wood to keep you warm, and one tree gives surprisingly little wood. After a handful of years you'll have clearcut your measly acre and still have another couple of decades to go before it becomes harvestable again. I'd say you want at least 10 acres if you manage it well and the soil and drainage are at least half decent.

jacquesm 5y ago
By the time you get to 100 acres you can basically heat your house with the stuff that blows over in storms and the remainder can yield a nice cash crop every couple of years, giving space for the other trees to grow. Personally I'd prefer a chainsaw for anything but the most incidental cutting, and a hydraulic woodsplitter (rented) to get the job of preparing firewood for a while year done in a short time.
dudeofea 5y ago
You could try coppiced trees: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/09/how-to-make-biomass-energy-sustainable-again.html https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/09/how-to-make-biomass-... They grow faster since they already have a root structure, the size is consistent and the wood is generally straigter (the japanese have a similar technique for extremely straight cedar logs)