this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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[–] kurikai@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago (21 children)

Fires are horrible. Very difficult to controll the heat output, they also are very costly to run, require a lot of maintenance, and require a lot of space to store the wood.

[–] Tau@aussie.zone 12 points 6 days ago (19 children)

Fires are horrible.

They're about the best feeling source of heat around, so not horrible.

Very difficult to controll the heat output

It's not particularly difficult to control the heat output, it's just a matter of how you load it and how much air you let in. They don't do well for extremely low heat output, but at that sort of cold just put on a jumper instead.

they also are very costly to run

Used to cost about $20 a tonne for wood a few years back when I was in a place with a fire, plus maybe another $50 per tonne in fuel for the ute and saws to gather it (so ~$70 a tonne total). Was a hell of a lot cheaper than gas and a lot cheaper than electricity.

require a lot of maintenance

It's just popping up onto the roof once a year and taking ash out every week or so, I never found it a big deal.

require a lot of space to store the wood

This I'll grant you, given how tiny modern yards are. You need a square metre or two for the wood and another couple for room to split it - not much in a traditional suburban backyard but it's noticeable in newer blocks where you have bugger all room around the house.

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

another couple for room to split it

You split your own wood? I'm in the USA so maybe it's different here, but when I lived in a house with a wood stove, I bought my wood pre-split from a guy who presumably did it with a machine.

[–] Tau@aussie.zone 3 points 6 days ago

Always did through my childhood and continued on that way, would do so again if I had a place with a fire. We'd saw into rounds when collecting and load them up then split and stack at home.

Plenty of people do buy pre split wood here though, I'd expect it's the source for the majority. Not everyone has the ability, inclination, or the equipment to go out and get firewood and it gets hard to find sources to collect wood in the bigger cities.

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