Sometimes, all you need is a warm place.
Cold wave: It’s going to get cold next week.
How cold?
In Vienna, VA, the National Weather Service is predicting a nighttime low of 4F, a week from now.
That’s rare but not totally unexpected.
As of 1990, Vienna was at the edge of USDA plant hardiness Zone 6B, and could expected to see (and did see) occasional wintertime lows down to minus 5F
Three decades later, and we’re ten degrees warmer. (In terms of our expected extreme low winter temperature). As of the most recent USDA Hardiness Zone map, Vienna has moved into Zone 7B, with an expected extreme low of 5F.
That trend came through clearly in my analysis of annual low temperatures at nearby Dulles Airport.
So, it’s going to be cold, but it’s in line with expectations.
Heat Pump: Cold weather remains the soft underbelly of air source heat pumps.
I fully grasp the irony of heating my house with an electrical appliance that, by design, quits working when it gets really cold outside.
Near as I can tell, all air source heat pumps all do this. It’s just a question of how low can they go. What I think of a “standard” home unit, as I recall, shuts down around freezing (32F). Conversely, the “high heat” versions of heat pump I got will go down to -17F or some such. This — super cold weather — is where ground-source heat pumps shine, as the ground loop temperature may be quite cold by that time, but nowhere near as cold as it is outside in a cold snap. So the ground source is starting from much “warmer” material to extract its heat from. Which, as you might well imagine, is an enviable position for a heat pump to be in.
But.
But 1, I didn’t think I’d hit that lower temperature limit the first winter I owned the thing. The lower limit for mine is, in fact, 5F. So, I will be looking at some (brief?) period when this new air-source mini-split may not run. Not because it’s broken. Just because it’s cold outside.
But 2, now I have to suss out the secondary heat. Every heat pump system has secondary heat, I think. (Or maybe it’s “should have”). That’s what you use when the heat pump isn’t enough. (Or to speed up the heating of rooms, when the heat pump alone would raise temperatures too slowly.)
Secondary heat for this mini-split is strictly DIY. That’s by design. It doesn’t come with — nor is is capable of activating — secondary heat of any sort, as far as I can tell.
So, just burn some natural gas …
Secondary heat isn’t really a problem, because I can burn natural gas for heat.
But.
But 1, I can only do that — use the baseboard heating in that part of my house — by jury-rigging what’s left of my (still kind-of functioning) baseboard hot water heating.
But 2: My fancy gas water-heater/furnace objects to serving as mere house heater. (Another long story.) It’ll work, but it’s bad for the device (as in, this is what burnt out the internal pump motor the first time.)
So I’m going with something simpler.
Buying a small quantify of firewood in the dead of winter.
I am now that guy. That guy who is … per the title.
I wanted more than a shrink-wrapped bundle. But far less than a cord. Where can I buy that, around here? Preferably to pick up.
The right place for that turned out to be the Reston Farm Garden Market. Where I paid $85 for an eight-of-a-cord, kiln-dried, stacked (by them) into the back of my hatchback Bolt.
So, $680 a cord, for kiln-dried hardwood, bought in small (one-eighth-cord) quantity. I thought that was OK, in an area where a cord of kiln-dried hardwood, delivered, from my nearest source, would run $550 plus delivery fee.
Kiln dried or merely seasoned? We go for kiln-dried now. It guarantees that it’s good firewood, but it’s a little too good. For sure, it burns more readily. There are no bad logs. But it burn faster and hotter than it ought, which means messing with the draft and relying on the air-tightness of the stove door gasket. (FWIW, I’m convinced that the hotter burn nearly makes up for the fossil fuels used to dry the wood. So the kiln drying step is not quite as much of an energy loser as it might seem at first. And with all the pests harbored by firewood, it has to be kiln-dried to be moved more than a county or two away, anyway.)
FYI, the various shrink-wrapped or netted bundles of firewood for sale at local retail stores seem to work out to around $1600 a cord.
Apparently, this little out-of-the-way farm store moves tractor-trailer-loads of firewood, per year, through their yard.
That said, local air pollution aside, firewood is an expensive way to heat my house, given prices in my area.
As I recall, this is about what I found the last time I figured it. Recognizing that for me, electricity is cheaper than natural gas, this means that firewood is my most expensive fuel option.
Short of this:
With the understanding that I’ve already shown that electricity remains my least expensive fuel, almost regardless of the outside temperature.*
* As long as the heat pumps will run.
Conclusion
My wife and I agree that there is just something comforting about having a full rack of dry firewood.
It’s not rational, practical, economical, or conducive to the public health.
But it is comforting.
And firewood is going to provide our secondary heat through this cold snap. For the occasional night or two when we hit the extreme winter lows for this climate zone, it seems like the easiest solution.
