Thoughts on wood burning stoves?

[rickm]

Hard wood burns hotter and longer but leaves alot of ash and soft burns quick and very little ash so you have to choose whether you have the time to babysit it or go off and leave it for awhile.

 

[John6185]

If you are fairly young and healthy you will have no problem cutting and bringing in wood but as you "mature" it wont' be as much fun. We have a lot of wood in Okla so there won't be much of a bill to pay. Me? I'd get one with a catayltic (sp) within, it puts out a lot more heat.

 

[Raido Free America]

With modern, well insulated homes, and super efficient heating systems of today, I seriously doubt a wood stove, actually save any money, especially if you have to buy the wood. What they do very well is lift your spirits on a cold, dreary day, and to me that is priceless!

 

[tynyphil]

I would lean towards the Lopi when we built our home in 1983 we chose to put in a Vermont Casting stove. It easily heats the entire house since it sits only 6’ from the central air return. When properly stoked it runs 500-600 degrees. So yep you don’t want to touch it. It s a short rememberable lesson if you do. When we had toddlers we built a small temp fence around it.

I am fortunate that I live on a wooded lot. I have never bought a stick of wood in 40 years. Ice storms and time provide all the wood I need. The wood actually warms you 3 X.....once with you cut it, then when you split and stack it, and finally when you burn it.

 

[Osage1978]

Raised my kids with a wood stove. Here's my thoughts.

Wood heats you when you cut it, when you split it, when you stack it & when you burn it.

 

[Raido Free America]

I would lean towards the Lopi when we built our home in 1983 we chose to put in a Vermont Casting stove. It easily heats the entire house since it sits only 6’ from the central air return. When properly stoked it runs 500-600 degrees. So yep you don’t want to touch it. It s a short rememberable lesson if you do. When we had toddlers we built a small temp fence around it.

I am fortunate that I live on a wooded lot. I have never bought a stick of wood in 40 years. Ice storms and time provide all the wood I need. The wood actually warms you 3 X.....once with you cut it, then when you split and stack it, and finally when you burn it.

Henry Ford is credited with saying that, but I serously doubt he cut his own fire wood, after he got wealthy!

 

[Rod Snell]

I have an older LOPI Freedom (high efficiency) fireplace insert as my backup heating for a 50-yr old 2000 sq ft all-electric house. The glass insert door provides cherry light and the stove heats the whole house better than the electric. Be sure and turn off ALL exhaust fans before opening the door!
I like wood stoves and the even heat, but moving the wood in and ashes out is part of it, which can be an issue with some people.

 

[lpcullen]

I plumbed an old Ashley into the masonry chimney of my fireplace using single walled pipe. Heats my 1900 sf all electric house like a champ. I bought a rick of firewood in 1999 when I bought the place but haven't since.

 

[jackinok09]

Been more than a few years ago, and I honestly haven't kept up with prices per btu but some years ago I did a study on the cost of heating for a solar heater we were installing. At that time to be perfectly honest the costs were almost identical between all the heating mediums (per btu) including wood if you were buying fuel. Solar did save money and the really primative units we had would blow like 50 degrees on the coldest sunny days making backup of course necessary. The problem at that time with wood was as some have said here was the need for external fans etc to move heat would lessen the savings. The be honest unless you build your home from the start with an open type floor plan with rooms opening directly off a main or central heated area you'll need to move heat. Remember those old farmhouses you used to see where all the bedrooms faced the living room? Just something to think of. Now as I've said that was some time ago, and the efficiencies have gone up substantially. But really if your planning to use a wood heater for both heating and cooking year round you may want to consider two separate systems. Nearly all the really old homes and farms built years ago had a separate cook house to keep heat down in summer. Look around at all the old places maintained for viewing these days and you'll find either a separate cooking area or two areas to move outside the house in summer. Now all that rambling aside my concern would be more for the growing laws against burning fuels of this type in future. Just this week the fools passed legislation against even filling ditches on your own place, so you know it's only a matter of time before your woke neighbors smell smoke and scream your polluting the entire world.lol

 

[cowadle]

Been more than a few years ago, and I honestly haven't kept up with prices per btu but some years ago I did a study on the cost of heating for a solar heater we were installing. At that time to be perfectly honest the costs were almost identical between all the heating mediums (per btu) including wood if you were buying fuel. Solar did save money and the really primative units we had would blow like 50 degrees on the coldest sunny days making backup of course necessary. The problem at that time with wood was as some have said here was the need for external fans etc to move heat would lessen the savings. The be honest unless you build your home from the start with an open type floor plan with rooms opening directly off a main or central heated area you'll need to move heat. Remember those old farmhouses you used to see where all the bedrooms faced the living room? Just something to think of. Now as I've said that was some time ago, and the efficiencies have gone up substantially. But really if your planning to use a wood heater for both heating and cooking year round you may want to consider two separate systems. Nearly all the really old homes and farms built years ago had a separate cook house to keep heat down in summer. Look around at all the old places maintained for viewing these days and you'll find either a separate cooking area or two areas to move outside the house in summer. Now all that rambling aside my concern would be more for the growing laws against burning fuels of this type in future. Just this week the fools passed legislation against even filling ditches on your own place, so you know it's only a matter of time before your woke neighbors smell smoke and scream your polluting the entire world.lol

WOTUS is back. i don't know but i'll bet the fine is over 30,000.00 per day? do you know?