One question- any feedback on how to feed the cardboard into a J tube? It is easiest to just drop a flat strip in, but I've found when mixing with other sticks/cordwood that these flat pieces usually get hung up above the burn area.
Sometimes, I would shred a fresh cardboard box as I would start the fire. I would use a box cutter to get it into strips contrary to the corrugation. Then i can rip it by hand to make sure it fits well into the j-tube.
Sometimes, the boots will take some boxes and cut them up into squares that will fit easily into the j-tube. That's great stuff.
I do think that getting the heat for the day from just cardboard is a bother. It burns hotter, but you gotta keep feeding it. And then it sorta plugs up with a sort of cinder/ash that isn't as hot. Better to throw some wood in there with it.
I think that this experiment has shown a lot of things:
- you can heat your home all winter with cardboard, paper garbage and woody garbage
- the crates with garbage wood is a really great system
I suspect that if I have all the cordwood i want, plus all the cardboard i want, plus all the crates of garbagy wood ... I would probably end up burning a pretty even mix of all three. Start with cardboard to get it really hot and then toss in some cordwood sticks. Then when the cordwood sticks are about half gone - it would be challenging to put in more cordwood sticks, so add garbagy wood.
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