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Comment by nateburke | Hacker News Reader

Wood is technically "renewable", correct, as it is non-fossil?

Are there ballpark numbers available for forested acreage per thousand square feet of home living in, say, Maine, in order for the heating needs to be completely satisfied by the land on an ongoing basis?

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My brother in law put in a wood burner in Minnesota. He just volunteers to process downed trees on private property within 50 miles. He also cuts down trees basically for free, and takes any municipality-cleared trees from, say, highways. The city just knows to drop them off, but that's a small town thing.

I think he stocks 15 chord for winter, and usually cuts about 40 chord in a few days with a mechanical splitter. He's got several years worth of timber and logs drying on his property. So the hard part is building the timber supply, letting it dry. I think it's fairly easy with the right equipment to build your fuel supply from that.

You don't get too much colder than MN, so I'd see what kind of land it would take to harvest 30-ish chord per year if you wanted to grow yourself.

I'm in New Hampshire. I get about half my heat from wood. I use two cords per year.

That's certainly less. I bet Op could get away with 4 to 6 then. Subject in my post has a large 5br old farmhouse style place, also heats house, water and garage off same unit.

One of the richer men around here a century ago had a mountainside castle. He burned a hundred cords a year. He has a single employee who cut, hauled, split, and fed all of that. In the summer me also mowed the lawns.

And his central heating system was considered to be state of the art.

Insulation, not so much.

The old rule of thumb is a cord of wood can be harvested per acre per year.

You can either spot clear cut or selectively thin to get that cord.

I can’t answer your question, but I’m assuming Maine, with its big forestry sector, produces a lot of relatively inexpensive wood pellets which are made from mill byproducts.

It’s renewable but does not burn cleanly (pollutants).

Sure, but so do natural forest fires. Aren't trees growing and burning down a natural full cycle with zero overall greenhouse emissions impact?

“ When wood is burned, the combustion reaction produces heat and emissions in the form of water, organic vapors, gases, and particulates. The emissions of most concern are carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur oxides (SOx), and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Other regulated elements and compounds, such as mercury and hydrochloric acid are measurable in the emissions but at levels much below accepted maximums. The composition and quantity of the emissions is dependent on the combustion temperature. Higher temperatures encourage complete combustion and result in cleaner emissions (up to 1300 celsius). At lower temperatures the emissions can also include volatile organic compounds, relatively high levels of CO (a product of incomplete combustion), and more particulate concerns. The NOx (if kept below 1300 celsius) and SOx emissions from burning wood are much lower than those of the fossil fuels coal and petroleum products, and comparable to those of natural gas. Particulate levels in wood emissions are similar to those from burning coal and petroleum and substantially higher than the levels in the emissions from natural gas. Particulate emissions can be controlled to acceptable levels with smoke stack equipment such as scrubbers, bag filters, and electrostatic precipitators. This equipment is however only cost effective on large commercial-sized combustion systems. Particulate emissions from smaller equipment, especially residential-sized units can be a concern. More and more communities and air control districts are placing restrictions on respirable-sized particles (PM2.5 or particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns). Uncontrolled emissions from wood combustion are high in PM2.5. The CO2 in wood combustion emissions is considered “carbon-neutral” because the amount of CO2 emitted during combustion is basically equivalent to the amount of CO2 trees need to grow the same quantity of wood. Hence the combustion of wood does not contribute to the net increase in atmospheric levels of CO2 (a greenhouse gas) as does the combustion of fossil fuels.”

https://wood-energy.extension.org/what-are-the-air-emissions...

Contemporary stoves are pretty clean.

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