# Wood vs kerosene



## BillS (May 30, 2011)

What do think about each for disaster preparation?

I plan on getting some kerosene heaters and a lot of kerosene in the fall. I've thought of stocking up on wood. I just don't like advertising the fact that I have heat. I'm not thrilled with the idea of using kerosene heaters but I could leave the flue open from the fire place to let in fresh air. From what I've read, kerosene heaters use about a gallon per day. If you have a few hundred gallons stored away that should be enough for a year.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Paid 350 bucks for kerosene heater about 15 years ago.no way to get rid of all the smell and fumes.Closed off fireplace but we live in Florida so not as cold.

Realized why people did'nt live long years ago,breathing all that smoke and fumes.:dunno:

Outside would be a good idea for either,imo.3 walls ,roof and a flute.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Me and hubby had a hot discussion about the fire place last year.A woodburning stove with a good ventilation system would be better way but still have to air out now and then.

I tried to order some coal but they don't sell it here anymore.We do have hard winters every 10 or 15 years we have ice storms even.But that seems to be changing this past couple decades.


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

I dont know about Kero, if I lived somewhere I could get wood I would go with the wood stove for sure. Wood stoves are definitely better than fireplaces. If you use either (stove or kero)you will want to seal off the fireplace or all your heat is going to go right out your chimney!


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

Kero also leaves a black residue all over everything when used for an extended period of time.
7 years ago, our old oil furnace died near the end of Feb. We decided to get a couple kero heaters to get us through till warmer weather (mid-late April). We would fill them up before bed, about a gallon, and they would be close to empty in the morning. That gallon a day figure seems a little light. To heat the whole house(1600sf) we went through 3-4 gallon a day.

For an emergency, they work great but I wouldn't want to use them again for an extended period of time.


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## Frugal_Farmers (Dec 13, 2010)

We heated our entire house SOLEY with our woodburning stove last winter. Never turned the central heat on at all.

I keep a two-year supply of firewood harvested from our property. Right now there is an abundance of firewood in the area from recent tornadoes. 

You can even check the FREE section on craigslist for firewood. Most of the timeall you have to do is cut it and haul it.


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## IrritatedWithUS (Jan 9, 2011)

can anyone find information on a wood stove/fireplace that was supposedly the "cleanest burning machine on the planet"? I saw it in a TV show and then I saw the commercials for about a year. Now I can't find anything about it and I forgot the company name. 
This fireplace supposedly uses half the wood to burn and it "burns the wood twice" so that 95% of the stuff released into the air is vapor and not smoke. I think I saw it on HGTV.


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## nj_m715 (Oct 31, 2008)

There's a few companies making them. I have a tarm. 
wood gasifier - Google Search


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## Sourdough (May 22, 2010)

Here in "Paradise" we use wood stoves and/or "Toyo-stoves". I just bought a Laser 30 for the small cabin.........Burns diesel fuel.........http://toyostove.com/


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## ToGoKit (Jul 3, 2011)

*We heat only with wood*

Here we only heat with wood. We have one wood Stove in the house a Blaze King, Which does a excellent job of heating the whole house. We also have two stoves in each of our shops here. We use 6 cords a wood each year. If you look around you should find several manufacturs of wood stoves. I would not use a fireplace unless it had a really good heat exchange system installed in the fireplace. Not even sure they sell those anymore. You can also run flex copper pipe in a coil fashion on the heating surface to a metal container to heat water. The heat will cause the water to cycle through the pipe and back into the metal container.

The kero method is dirty and not a good breathing enviorment to be in without good ventalation long term for sure.

I stay with a double burn stove and enjoy the heat of wood, there is not much if anything that beats the warmth of a fire.

Keep in mind wood heats you several times. Once when you go cut down the tree and stack it in the truck and once when you unload the truck and another time when you stack it in the wood shed. Then again when you carry it into the house. Then when it burns. Keeps you healthy in many ways Hi Hi


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

wood is the way to go, even using those small tanks of propane and a small stove is better than kero, plus a gas lamp run from the propane.. Kero is the last thing to use, Kero leaves a greasy film over everything, especially your lungs, beside that kero is over 4-5 dollars a gal here in mid winter


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## worldengineer (Sep 20, 2010)

Kerosene is wonderful for heating but no way would I bring it indoors. We use it to heat the shop and garage and it does a good job, just not something I want to breathe in all night long. Plus it costs money and eventually you run out.

Propane would be a much better source to heat with. Extremely clean, odor less when burned, and stores for a long time and no one would find it strange to heat with it. Like any non renewable fuel it will cost money and runs out.

Wood is the best choice if you can get it. If your a country person then no one finds its strange to have 2 or 3 years worth under shed. Where their are trees then fire can be made. Although it doesn't burn very clean in comparison to other sources, it can be had for free either by helping someone remove a tree, or if you own land you can get it. Keep it old school (axe, splitting maul, hammer and wedges, saws) it will only cost as much a some time sharpening and physical labor.

Choose wood if its feasible, propane if your a city dweller, and kerosene for small supplemental heating.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*I'd rather burn wood and have people know than to burn kerosene*

I think that kerosene has never appealed to me. My father lost his childhood home due to a kerosene fire. I don't really know any more details than that, but that is enough for me to say no thanks to kerosene heat. I do not like the smell of kerosene. The smell of burning wood is very pleasant to me. Day in and day out, I think that would be important.

I wonder if the idea of burning wood might seem like more work also. I have never heated any home with wood. It has just not been too viable. The home I bought had a wood burning stove installed in the front room with the exhaust going up the chimney of the fireplace. With the tiled base it was sitting on, it took up more than a fourth of my small 12 x 14 front room. The original fireplace mantle had been removed and no longer existed in the house. The result was so ugly. I was fortunate to have someone who was living in a home that was being torn down have a mantle that fit my fireplace. I have since had the chimney repaired and the fireplace rebuilt for burning wood. The result of trying to burn wood is always a smoky house. So I keep the flu closed at all times to conserve energy, but this is not a good situation for burning wood for warmth. That heavy, heavy, wood burning stove sits on the deck under a roof that is protecting it. In an emergency, I could bring it back in and re-install it in the front room.

Before Y2K, I drove by a home that had their back yard fence completely lined with fire wood stacked to the top of the fence. I thought that if you have one of those privacy fences, stacking the wood along the fence was a great way to store it and maybe add some fortification. I have heard not to stack wood too close to a house due to the varmints that might live in or under the wood.

When I bought my HUD home many moons ago, there were lots of trees I call weed trees that had volunteered to live there during the 10 or so years that no human was living there--elms and alyanthus. I had more than 20 good sized trees growing along the foundation, knocking the fence over in several places, and just running amuck. I took out many of the smaller ones myself, but the trees that were taller than the neighbors 3 story home and a few other similar sized trees I had taken out. Since I don't have that big of a lot, I then followed up with removing the stumps, some hired out, some myself. Lots of work, I'll tell you. With elm, if you don't go deep in getting out roots, it won't quit. I dug many holes deeper than my waist. The long and short of it, I stacked the wood along one section of my fence in an area I can't see well, so I thought it might add a little more protection. It has been there so long, it is well seasoned, somewhat hidden by a pine tree and almost unseen now. I understand that alyanthus burns hot and is not the best firewood. That might be true, but it would be better than no wood, wouldn't it?


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