Heat and Light Group notes

Heat Fireplace- wood burning stove, use the top to cook and boil water- Anytime you have a piece of equipment that has more than one use it’s a plus.

Here in Colorado we have mostly Ponderosa pine and Aspen. Different types of wood burn different. For the most part the harder the wood is the hotter and longer it will burn.

Below is a list of woods and there characteristics for burning.

Characteristics of Different Types of Wood Firewood from different species or types of trees varies widely in heat content, burning characteristics, and overall quality.

Weight (lbs./Cord)

Species

Heat per Cord % of Green Dry (Million Green Ease of BTUs) Ash Splitting Smoke

Sparks

Coals

Overall Fragrance Quality

Apple

4850 3888

27.0

135

Medium

Low

Few

Good

Excellent

Excellent

Ash, Green

4184 2880

20.0

100

Easy

Low

Few

Good

Slight

Excellent

2540

17.5

Easy

Low

Moderate

Good

Slight

Good

3952 3472

24.2

Medium

Low

Few

Good

Slight

Excellent

2160

18.2

Easy

Medium

Few

Good

Slight

Good

4404 1984

13.8

Easy

Medium

Few

Poor

Good

Fair

3760

27.5

Difficult Medium

Few

Excellent

Good

Fair

Birch

4312 2992

20.8

104

Medium Medium

Few

Good

Slight

Fair

Boxelder

3589 2632

18.3

92

Difficult Medium

Few

Poor

Slight

Fair

Buckeye, 4210 1984 Horsechestnut

13.8

69

Medium

Few

Poor

Slight

Fair

Catalpa

4560 2360

16.4

82

Difficult Medium

Few

Good

Bad

Fair

2060

13.0

Poor

slight

Fair

3696 2928

20.4

Alder Ash, White Aspen, Quaking Basswood (Linden) Beech

Cedar, Red Cherry Chestnut

121

69

102

18.0

Low

Easy

Low

Many

Easy

Low

Few

Medium

Low

Few

Good

Good

Good

Excellent Excellent

Good

Coffeetree, Kentucky

3872 3112

21.6

108

Medium

Low

Few

Good

Good

Good

Cottonwood

4640 2272

15.8

79

Easy

Medium

Few

Good

Slight

Fair

4230

High

Difficult Medium

Few

Fair

Slight

Good

3319 2970

20.7

103

Few

Fair

Slight

Good

Elm, American 4456 2872

20.0

100

Difficult Medium

Few

Excellent

Good

Fair

Elm, Siberian

20.9

105

Difficult Medium

Few

Good

Fair

Fair

Dogwood Douglas-fir

3800 3020

Easy

High

Fir, White

3585 2104

14.6

73

Easy

Medium

Few

Poor

Slight

Fair

Hackberry

3984 3048

21.2

106

Easy

Low

Few

Good

Slight

Good

2700

19.3

Easy

Medium

Many

Poor

Good

Good

Sparks

Coals

Few

Excellent

Slight

Excellent

Many

Poor

Excellent

Fair

Hemlock

Weight (lbs./Cord)

Heat per Cord % of Green Dry (Million Green Ease of BTUs) Ash Splitting Smoke

Species Honeylocust

4640 3832

26.7

133

Juniper, Rocky Mountain

3535 3150

21.8

109

3330

21.8

Locust, Black

4616 4016

27.9

Maple, Other

4685 3680

Maple, Silver

Larch (Tamarack)

Easy

Low

Medium Medium

Overall Fragrance Quality

Easymed

Low

Many

fair

Slight

Fair

140

Difficult

Low

Few

Excellent

Slight

Excellent

25.5

128

Easy

Low

Few

Excellent

Good

Excellent

3904 2752

19.0

95

Medium

Low

Few

Excellent

Good

Fair

Mulberry

4712 3712

25.8

129

Easy

Medium

Many

Excellent

Good

Excellent

Oak, Bur

4960 3768

26.2

131

Easy

Low

Few

Excellent

Good

Excellent

Medium

Low

Few

Excellent

Good

Excellent

Oak, Gamble

30.7

Oak, Red

4888 3528

24.6

123

Medium

Low

Few

Excellent

Good

Excellent

Oak, White

5573 4200

29.1

146

Medium

Low

Few

Excellent

Good

Excellent

Osage-orange 5120 4728

32.9

165

Easy

Low

Many

Excellent Excellent Excellent

Pine, Ponderosa

3600 2336

16.2

81

Easy

Medium

Many

Fair

Good

Fair

Pine, Lodgepole

2610

21.1

Easy

Medium

Many

Fair

Good

Fair

Pine, White

2250

15.9

Easy

Medium Moderate

Poor

Good

Fair

Pinon

3000

27.1

Easy

Medium

Many

Fair

Slight

Fair

Poplar

2080

Low

Easy

Medium

Many

Fair

Bitter

Fair

Redcedar, Eastern

2950 2632

18.2

91

Medium Medium

Many

Poor

Excellent

Fair

Spruce

2800 2240

15.5

78

Easy

Many

Poor

Slight

Fair

Spruce, Engleman

2070

15.0

78

Easy

Few

Poor

Slight

Fair

Sycamore

5096 2808

19.5

98

Few

Good

Slight

Good

Walnut, Black

4584 3192

22.2

111

Easy

Low

Few

Good

Good

Excellent

Willow

4320 2540

17.6

88

Easy

Low

Few

Poor

Slight

Poor

Medium

Difficult Medium

Wood Facts • • •

Green weight is the weight of a cord of freshly cut wood before drying.

Dry weight is the weight of a cord after air drying.

Green firewood may contain 50% or more water by weight.

• • • •

Green wood produces less heat because heat must be used to boil off water before combustion can occur.

Green wood also produces more smoke and creosote (material that deposits on inside walls of chimneys and may cause chimney fires) than dry wood.

Firewood should therefore always be purchased dry or allowed to dry before burning.

Dry wood may cost more than green wood because it produces more heat and is easier to handle.

Buying Firewood The easiest way is just to buy it from a dealer, or a local farm which advertises it for sale. Check the phone book, yellow pages and classifieds. Species, volume, dryness, and need for splitting should be considered when buying firewood. The information here and in other publications should give you the basic information you will need to be an informed buyer. However, knowing your dealer is the best way to ensure that you are getting what you are paying for.

In general it is best to buy dense woods such as oak, hickory, hard maple, or ash. Hardwoods, or woods from broadleaved trees, tend to be denser than softwoods or woods from conifers.

Standard Cord of Wood •

A standard cord of wood is 128 cubic feet - measured as a stack of wood 4 feet tall, 8 feet long and 4 feet wide.

Face Cord of Wood •

A face cord is a stack of wood 4 feet high, 8 feet long, and as deep as the pieces are long. Pieces are commonly 12 to 18 inches long, so a face cord typically contains 32 to 48 cubic feet of wood.

Pickup Load of Wood • •

This is a very imprecise but common measure. A full-size pickup with a standard bed can hold about 1/2 of a full cord or 64 cubic feet when loaded even with the top of the bed.

Small pickups hold much less. Random loading will decrease this amount further.

A randomly-piled stack or pickup load of wood will contain more air and less wood than one neatly stacked. Crooked, small diameter, and knotty or branchy pieces also reduce the amount of wood in a pile.

Propane stoves - cost 1lb-$4.00 20lb-26.00 stores forever Big Buddy-$130.00

Heating Application

Portable, Outdoor

BTU Output

18,000

Vent-Free

Yes

Heating Capability (sq. ft.)

400

Blower Included

Yes

Blower Power Supply (Volts, Amps)

110

Heat Settings

3

Fuel Type

Propane

Fuel Consumption (gal./hr.)

3-12 hrs on two 1 lb tanks, 50-220 hrs on two 20 lb tanks

Igniter

Matchless push-button starter

Thermostat Included

No

Remote Included

No

Oxygen Depletion Sensor

Yes

Dimensions L x W x H (in.)

17 x 10 x 17 1/2

• • • • • •

4000, 9000 and 18,000 BTU settings Up to 108 hours of use Tip-over cutoff switch CSA certified Uses two 1-lb. or one 20-lb. propane tank (propane not included) with optional hose connections (Items 173645, 173646) Blower fan uses A/C adapter (Item# 172641, sold separately) or 4 D-cell batteries (not included)

Little Buddy- $55.00

Heating Capability (sq. ft.)

100

Fuel Type

1 lb disposable propane cylinder

Igniter

Yes

Oxygen Depletion Sensor

Yes

• • • • • • • • • • •

Heats up to 100 sq. ft. for up to 5 1/2 hours 45° heating angle directs radiant heat where it's most needed Pushbutton piezo start ignition Heavy-duty wire guard for safety Accidental tip-over switch Low oxygen safety shutoff Pushbutton off switch Single control gas valve Easy-grip handle Sturdy 8in. dia. compact stand minimizes footprint Uses 1-lb. disposable propane cylinder (not included)

Kerosene

$100.00 each Kerosene cost - $2.89/gallon

Having worked as a refinery chemist one of the things we tested regularly was kerosene. To answer your question; it will last almost forever depending upon what kind of container you store it in. Where I worked it was a single cut product, in other words it came off a distillation tower on one tray and was never mixed with anything else. It is a pure product that if stored in tin or steel will last almost forever. Plastics can absorb light & change with time so if I was storing it I would keep it in 1 gallon tin cans. The distillation tower makes the following products from heaviest to the lightest; coming off the bottom was Kerosene, next up was JP4(jet fuel), followed by B Naptha or what is more commonly called white gas or camp stove fuel. These are all strait run products that usually do not have anything added except JP4 which they add a conductivity agent which reduces the ability for it to static spark.

Any of these products above can have a very long life shelf life if stored properly unlike gasoline which can have up to 8 different components mixed together.

Radiant

Convection

•

BTU Output

10,600

Heating Capability (sq. ft.)

400

Volts

N/A

Amps

N/A

Full Load Run Time (Hours)

12

Fuel Capacity (gal.)

1

Fuel Type

Kerosene

Warms about 1000 sq. ft.

Product Description

our heater dynaglow

$65.00

Product Description Multi-room, omni-directional kerosene heater features an anti-contact heat safety guard, manual shutoff switch, easy-to-change wick and fuel gauge. Double-walled 1.9 gallon fuel tank provides approximately 12 hours of heating. Includes batteries for ignition. UL listed. Measures 19in. x 20in. x 27in. Check local codes and ordinances for approved installation and usage.

Remember that the capillary action of wicks is virtually destroyed by water...cotton in particular will absorb water, then the lighter kerosene is denied a capillary "path" to the top of the wick. Performance (clean, odor free heat output) is seriously degraded by even a little water in the kerosene. To circumvent that problem with cotton wicks, add a half eyedropper full of 91% to 95% alcohol to the tank of fuel before the wick is "burned dry." The alcohol will absorb the water and burn it off with the kerosene. The alcohol burns at a higher temperature than kerosene, so red dye kerosene will burn cleaner with alcohol or "Wick Cleaner." If a fiberglass wick is saturated with water, it is best to remove the wick and wash it with alcohol (and air dry) before reinstallation in the appliance. The same alcohol trick can be used to clean the wick if the wick becomes saturated with diesel or oil by mistake [No guarantees, though. The wick may well have to be replaced.]. If you are using red dye kerosene, using an eyedropper of alcohol every tank full will keep the wick from needing to be burned dry as often. Pure alcohol is not that hard to find...it's in almost every hardware store, sold as Shellac Thinner. It's wood alcohol, so don't let anyone drink it or they will go blind!

If you find yourself with only cloudy kerosene and no alternative fuel available, the kerosene can be slowly filtered through a chamois cloth in a large funnel.

Wring out the chamois and repeat until the fuel is clear. Or if you're high tech, funnels which filter out water are readily available.

Due to the high degree of combustion efficiency with kerosene heaters, it is not necessary to add any scents to the kerosene -- why add an aroma when none is present? (That does not hold true for kerosene lamps, as they do not have a combustor unit and thus are relatively inefficient.)

"Burning dry" circular kerosene heater wicks is important to their efficiency. If the wick does not raise and lower smoothly, it is time to burn it dry. It is best to visually examine the wick after every use: if you see tar balls on top of the wick, siphon the fuel out of the tank and burn the wick dry. If the tar on the wick becomes too thick, the wick can tear when retracted to turn off the stove, and the wick must be replaced. To avoid this problem, take the stove outside and blow out the flame. AFTER the stove has cooled down, gently crush the top of the wick with smooth faced paddle bladed pliers. My favorite pliers for this use is the Ace Hardware "Flat Nose Pliers" #ACE2004216. The wick should then retract.

Empty the fuel tank, raise the wick and burn the wick "dry" to burn off the tar deposits - outside under cover, as this process will produce some odor.

How often to "burn dry" a wick? There are a lot of factors involved here. A new or nearly new wick burning "water clear" 1-K kerosene should use at least 30 gallons of fuel before needing to be "burned dry." When using red dye kerosene some lots will not need to have the wick burned dry for up to 15 gallons of kerosene consumed, while other batches of red dye kerosene are bad enough to require burning the wick dry every 5 to 10 gallons of kerosene. The red dye can cover up a lot of sins.

When should a kerosene heater wick be replaced? After the wick is burned dry, examine the top of the wick.

• •

If it is thin and ragged, it's time for a replacement.

If the wick appears to be fine, but then burns with a ragged-edged flame or the flame does not reach up to curl around the top plate on the catalytic converter by at least 1/2 inch, it's replacement time.

•

If the heater is hard to start even after dry burning the wick, feel the side of the top edge of the wick you can reach: If the wick is hard instead of supple, then tar formation inside the wick means it's time to replace the wick.

•

If the wick has water contamination to the extent that the flame is the right height for awhile, then burns irregularly and of uneven height, it's time to replace the wick. Note, however, that this condition can be caused by poor quality kerosene, so check that by using new, clear kerosene.

•

If you absolutely depend upon your kerosene heater to heat your home, your heater needs regular maintenance - and that includes wick replacement every year. People who heat with wood have their chimney

cleaned, those who heat with a furnace replace the filters when needed, and kerosene heaters need wick replacement to function at full efficiency.

Light Lightsticks- These are round tubes 6” long that you break and shake to produce light, not real bright but good enough to see what you are doing at close distances. They last about 12 hours Candles- This is avvery effective, inexpensive way to produce light. Adrawback to this is the greater possibility of catching your house on fire. You will need-Strike anywhere matches, lighter- Get good bic lighters not the cheap ones Flashlight- Get the kind that have the LED bulbs, they last longer and don’t use as much juice from your batteries. You should also have a few of the wind up type of flashlights that need no batteries.

Info on Batteries: On a related note, battery price and availability can be an issue worthy of consideration, depending upon your use and where you reside or plan to travel. Conventional alkaline AAA-, AA-, C-, and D-cell batteries are easy to find almost anywhere and are inexpensive. An unusual size, such as an AAAA-cell alkaline battery or 3.6 volt AA-cell size lithium battery can be very hard to find and expensive to boot, often over $10 each.

In the middle range are coin and button cell lithium batteries, often used in watches, hearing aids and similar devices, that are fairly widely available, even in non-specialty stores, and the cost, while not cheap, is not outrageous.

Lithium batteries generally offer more power for a comparable package size. This may be greater voltage or longer life or a combination. Lithium batteries also have a much longer shelf life than alkaline batteries, up to 10 years with 90% to 95% capacity, or better, retained. A conservative storage life for undated lithium batteries would be 6 years.

Expect only 4 to 5 years from alkaline batteries with a conservative storage life for undated batteries of 2 to 3 years. Lithium batteries also deliver far better cold weather performance. An added benefit is that they are much lighter than alkalines by over one third for a comparable size. For example, an AA-cell lithium weighs in at 14.5g vs. 23g for an AA-cell alkaline.

Oil or kerosene lanterns

I found that a half gallon of standard lamp oil lasted about 150 hours, conservatively (my actual burn time was 154.5 hours). When I measured the wick, only ¼" (6 mm) had been burned.

Extrapolating these numbers, then, a jug of lamp oil should last 30 days if you keep the wick trimmed and burn it for 5 hours a day (I figured from 1800 - 2300 would be a reasonable length of time to use a lamp in a no-power situation).

One wick has about 5" of usable material if the reservoir is kept full of oil. The other 3" are fed through the burner. So one wick should last through about 20 jugs of lamp oil…a 3-pack would last through about 60!

Propane lanterns- 7 hour burn time on high 14 hours on low. These are the lanterns you use when you go camping. Very bright and cost effective. *Carbon monoxide- Whenever you use any heat or light sourse that burns oxygen you need to be aware of Corbon Monoxide poisoning. Make sure you have a fresh source of oxygen, such as cracking open a window or opening a door. Abattery powered Carbon Monoxide detector would not be a bad idea.

In the event of an emergency the likelihood that you will be able to sit it out in your house the whole time is very unlikely. Everyone in the family should have some good Warm clothes- socks, long johns, coats, hats, gloves, waterproof and insulated boots, gators etc.. When purchasing clothes, never purchase cotton. Cotton takes forever to dry out and loses all of its insulating quality when it gets wet.

Sleeping bags, Blankets.