Heating with Wood
Dan Johnson uses wood as the main source of heat.
~story and photos by Bob Gustin
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here’s something comforting about a nice blaze in a fireplace or wood stove on a cold winter’s day. There’s an aesthetic value, to be sure, and a mood-setter. But heating with wood is a renewable source of energy, and an economical one as well. Dan Johnson, a Van Buren Township resident who owns a construction company, uses wood as the main source of heat in his home and shop. He has an electric furnace, which is used only if he is away from home for extended periods during winter months.
16 Our Brown County • Jan./Feb. 2020
Instead, he burns 15 to 20 ricks of hardwood, mainly white oak, each year. “When that furnace comes on, I picture money going out the chimney,” he said. For Johnson, the best part of heating with wood is “being part of a community,” a sharing of his time, effort, and wood with others. He moved to Brown County from Indianapolis in 1994, and right away, Bob Melton and Jim Ogle “Brown Countied me,” he said. “They taught me the Brown County way.” The Brown County wood heating community works like this: If a tree goes down on the property
