My dad and a neighbor used mainly wood to heat their homes. The neighbor had the best system, a woodstove in his basement, allowed the heat to come up into the main floor thru vents.

Dad had a woodstove in the living room that would kick you out of the house if you fed it too much.

The wood mainly came from local construction sites - free for the hauling off; golf courses that were expanding - not only free, because they all knew Dad, most would deliver; and friends who would donate downed trees.

The two of them rigged a high speed wood splitter -"the other one took too long", they had 2 bucks for cutting wood to length and about 3 chain saws, all of indeterminate age/origin. I don't remember a time when there wasn't at least 10 cords of wood out back, cut and ready, and probably 4 or 5 more drying.

Kept them busy and out of trouble.