EnviBlock, Envi-8, BioBrick, and GeoBrick are all compressed wood products to burn in your fireplace or stove.
The claim is that One pallet of BioBricks® delivers the same heat as a full cord of wood. The can be bought in Brunswick, Maine at Maine Biomass. I don’t dare assume anything but the price listed on the website is $305.00 for a pallet. 50 (38) pound bags.
It is claimed that this is equal to a cord of seasoned hardwood. I think most of us know that a common problem with hardwood is that the measure can vary substantially with different suppliers. The BioBricks do eliminate this particular problem.
It also takes the bulk of the work out of running a wood stove as there is no cutting trees, splitting, stacking several times and then finally getting it into the stove. BioBricks are claimed to have a 12 hour burn time which is another wonderful advantage. It makes it only slightly less convenient than pellets. I guess the wood pellet stoves are filled once per day. I don’t have one, so I won’t speak definitively about them. I do know that I don’t hear any complaints about pellet stoves. When I say complaints, I only mean that I haven’t heard anyone say they wish they hadn’t gotten one. I do know a good airtight stove with BioBricks seems to be quite efficient and pricing of pellets and BioBricks appears to be approximately the same.
I do know that cord wood can be wet, green, and have other attributes that make it burn poorly.
The BioBricks would be dry, at least when delivered, and should perform the same with each load you put in your stove.
Red Oak weighs approximately 44 lbs. per cubic foot, times 128 cubic feet in a cord is 5632 pounds per cord. Amazingly enough maple weighs the same. The figure I used came off a website with a chart, claiming this to be the weight of (dry) wood. Naturally green/wet wood weighs considerably more.
A cord of seasoned hardwood costs about $225 in this area, or I have seen it for this price. A pallet of hardwood costs $305 and weighs 1900 pounds. This is the way the BioBricks are packaged.
The fireplace insert I have states that it has up to an 8 hour burn time. BioBrick states that a fully loaded stove will burn up to 12 hours.
As I stated above, the water content can vary greatly with regular cord wood. The BioBricks should be consistently the same on water content. Therefore, the problem I have is, how can 1900 pounds of wood produce the same amount of heat as 5632 pounds of wood?
The first thing I note is that the BioBricks pack tightly. I don’t care how well cord wood is cut and stacked, it contains large air pocket that you wouldn’t have with BioBricks. The water content of cord wood will have a dramatic affect on the heat content because the evaporation of water takes heat and the moisture must be pushed out of the wood, before it turns to a gas and is burned.
If cord wood was sold by weight, not volume, then I probably wouldn’t believe a pallet of BioBricks would have the same heat value as a cord of wood. With the air pockets, moisture, and the fact that you could get some of the less dense but still hard woods the BioBricks just might equal a cord of regular hard wood.
I presently have a hard time believing a pallet of BioBricks will equal a good cord of wood. I do know that wood will shrink in volume from cutting and stacking. I believe 20% is the estimate in going from tree length to cut and split but I found that this 20% seems more accurate for 4′ lengths after processing to 16″ stove length pieces.
Even 80% of a cord after processing will weigh over 4000 pounds. I would have to try some BioBricks to compare. BioBricks in half the mass of cord wood is claimed to have the same btu content. I might go along with a slightly different ratio but I have a hard time believing a ton of compressed wood is equal to two tons of properly seasoned hardwood.
The claim for less ash only means that less wood is burned. I assume this has to mean that the moisture content of the cord wood, reduces the efficiency by 50%. This seems high to me.
Can anyone tell me their actual experiences heating a season or two with dry hardwood compared to a season burning BioBricks? I know weather and the amount of cold has an affect, but I think I need to know what people are actually spending for BioBricks compared to good seasoned hard wood before taking the plunge.
At $305 for a pallet that equals a cord of wood, I think I am as well off heating with oil.
I don’t know how much moisture it would take to ruin BioBricks or decrease their efficiency, but any loss at all would make them even more expensive.
At this time the only real savings I can see is in labor. Even the BioBrick seem to cost as much as heating with oil. I want to help the environment as much as anyone else, but not if it is going to cost me 30% more and much more in time and labor.
There is far too much technology available to convince me that someone can’t find something that might help the working people with their pocketbooks.
I say again, I wish to hear from anyone that has experience with the BioBricks. From what I read, pellets will cost about the same, so how much is saved by burning pellets? Pellet stoves do need electricity to get heat so BioBricks would be better in a free standing stove than a pellet stove, if the wood stove is efficient if electricity is lost.
Another thing I found interesting is that a cord of wood has about 90% of the btu’s that are in a ton of coal. This means that BioBricks need to be very close in heat value as Coal per pound.
I really don’t know the hard facts so I am just going by what I consider would be common sense in that a 2+ tons of wood will contain a few more btu’s than a ton of compressed wood. I have basically no faith in advertising. There was a time when there had to be, or always was a certain amount of truth in advertising. Now days, I am not so sure when I see some of the ads on TV, Radio, and in the newspapers.
Tags: BioBrick, Envi-8, EnviBlock, Geo Brick, Red Oak, seasoned hardwood
After doing some research, I found some people claim about $5.00 per day to heat with BioBricks. Saving is labor is a no-brainer. I wasn’t able to find where someone actually burned BioBricks for a season or two and compared well seasoned cord wood concerning cost.
Ecologically friendly is a strong point. I still feel that it might be as inexpensive to heat with oil as it is BioBricks.
Last year, with very little wood left and the price of cord wood at almost 300 cord, I decided to try some bricks. For no particular reason other thn perhaps price, I went with envie bricks. I have burned cord wood for 17 years and usually need 3-4 cord to get through a season. Assuming that a ton “might” be equal to a cord, I bought two ton at 300 each. Before winter was over I needed to get another ton (that I got at slightly better price)and even stopped and got a couple doz loose packs. This in addition to the 1/4 to 1/2 of cord wood I had, it turned into the most expensive heating season in 17 years. I think if I had put a new door seal on that year I would have had a bit slower burn. And, it should also be noted that if you load a few bricks and it gets going too much, its hard to tone it down so, they burn fast. but even under the best conditions I think I would have burned $750+ worth. They may be “green”, they may be convenient but they don’t keep you any warmer and they don’t save you any money.
Thanks for justifying what I thought. Nice for convenience and cleanliness, not much for saving money.
to: R. Lary – if you go through 3-4 cord (cost $900-1200) and you went through 3 tons Biobrick plus a bit ($900 + plus), I would say it cost you about the same.
As far as oil goes: I went through 800 gallons per year (averaged over 7 years – at current price $2280/yr at 2.60/gal). I now go through 3 cord (at about $800 – $250/cord + delivery) and 200 gallons oil ($520) for a total of about $1320 (a savings of about $900/year). When oil heat $4/gallon in 2008, forget about it! Huge savings!
My stove is in my first floor. Works great, keeps the 2000 ft2 home reasonably warm. I was looking at wood bricks because wood is dirty – and my wife has been bitching.
Seasoned wood contains about 25% moisture unless you store it indoors. Your ton of wood is about 1500 lb wood and 500 lb water. That 500 lb. water is about 600,000 BTU is direct evaporation. That costs about 150 lbs of dry wood to drive off the water. Plus the bark doesn’t burn well. Net, the ton of cordwood is about 1200 lbs equivalent ‘dry wood’. Not that much from pressed wood brick.
I expect net brick costs to be about 25% higher than cord wood costs. We’ll see over time. I can purchase liberty brick (mixed wood brick) at 249/ton, Envi Block at $260/ton. I’ll try both (2 pallet minimum order…).
Thanks a lot for letting me and others know this. I can’t get quite enough heat from the fireplace insert to heat my home because it is older and built with the 2″ x 4″ so there is less insulation and even though it is small, it does take quite a bit to heat.
Oil runs much like yours figuring somewhere around 700 gallons. My fear is that in my situation, I might still use some oil along with the cordwood or bricks.
You probably will use some oil, especially on cold nights when the fire goes out (that’s what happens with us – the heat kicks on in the AM). Which is fine if you don’t like waking up to a cold house.
We installed the stove in Dec 2006. The stove paid so itself in 2 years (that $4/gallon oil, remember?). But heating with wood is a lot of work (stack wood, split wood, haul wood, load stove, haul ash, etc.) It’s a form of sweat equity. Some one has to be around to tend the fire (or savings don’t materialize).
The stove saved our rear ends after the 2008 ice storm (out of power for 6 days and only 1 day was over freezing). Between my wife, eldest daughter and me, the stove was cranking 24/7. The house never got below 65° (warmer than we keep it normally…). It’s very nice to have a secondary heating system.
Wood heat is a much more intimate form of heat. It’s cozy.
FYI: For direct energy comparison, see the National Forest Service Fuel Calculator: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/docum.....ulator.pdf
We get most of our savings because of stove placement (upstairs where we heat) compared to furnace placement (basement). A lot of our oil heats our basement (no net benefit – the basement stays at 45-50° during the winter).
I got a pallet of bio bricks a week ago…I’ll never go back to cord wood!