Fireplace Ashes?

Hi there!

Well, due to the fact that my husband and I can't afford to have our central air going this winter (last winter bills went up to $800 or so a month for us to keep our 2-bedroom home at about 60 degrees!), we're trying to heat our home with the fireplace this winter.

So far, so good. (We got a bonus as well. Dead tree on our property fell down about a month ago. Took a chainsaw to it - free firewood!).

However, just wondering what we should be doing with the ashes in the fireplace. We've been cleaning them out and just tossing them, but I seem to recall that ashes can be used in gardening or something? Can we put ashes in a composter? (We've got two that the previous owners left.) Can we be putting the ashes on the lawn?

Just curious, and any suggestions would be great.

Thank you very mulch.

If I remember right, they will tend to make your soil more basic, like lime, so you might want to pH test your soil before you plant.

Wood Ashes from a wood burning stove or fireplace can be added to the compost pile. Ashes are alkaline, so add no more than 2 gallon-sized buckets-full to a pile with 3'x3'x3' dimensions. They are especially high in potassium. Don't use coal ashes, as they usually contain large amounts of sulfur and iron that can injure your plants. Used charcoal briquettes don't decay much at all, so it's best not to use them.

everything you need to know about compsting here - http://www.compostguide.com/

Not very long, but will tell you all you need to know.


http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/frederick/2004/ashes.htm

my great-grandmother made soap from homemade lye and leftover fat from cooking (rendered for purity)

the ashes were put in a big barrel and water was poured in.. I'm not sure what the next step is

:P

(I had ashes on the lawn, on the kitchen table, on the bathroom floor, on my bed... EVERYWHERE this fall. :P )

Yes, we did.
Fires got pretty darn close - we had our car packed and everything!

can bank your fire when you go to bed, benefit from the heat during the night, and start up a new fire easily in the morning.

(pine, etc)...

...chimney fires are not fun...

I appreciate the help!

That's why the heating our house thing is going so well, I think! :)

heat for my folks' trilevel tract home in Colorado Springs. The fan was the secret.

I don't know where you live, or what kind of heating you have, but I have a hard time believing your heating costs were $800 a month just to heat a 2-bedroom house to 60 degrees. Did you have your windows open?

Seriously, with proper insulation and storm windows, there is no way your bill should be $800 a month. Not even half that really. I would think you have a defect in your heating system, or some major gaps in your windows and/or ceiling that is letting all the heat out. I would recommend you have your home inspected by a heating expert to see what's going on.

Good luck!

And we're all electric.
We did replace a lot of our windows over the spring and summer, so we're hoping that helps as well...

700-800 gallons of propane in a cold winter

we did two things

got insulated drapes and got 5 E-heaters

the eheaters are all we need as long as the temps are above freezing, when it snows the heater kicks on but not often. It costs me about $40 a month to run the 5 heaters 24/7

last winter we used less than 200 gallons and I expect it to be less this year now that ALL the drapes are insulated

I got my drapes on ebay, but they are cheap to make too

here's a link for the heaters

http://www.eheat.com/?gclid=CISz6P7HgJACFVB1OAodbly3ug

Recipe here:

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/foxfire5.html

:evilgrin:

that is about a year old otherwise it pollutes the air more than necessary--i also read about using fireplace ash for a ice/snow skid preventer instead of melt or thaw crystals--but what a mess! and i see you live in l.a. so it probably wouldn't be practical for you to put it on the ice

Not if you do it right:
http://www.thechimneysweep.ca/6seasoningwood.html