- Dec 21, 2009
- 448
- 15
- 121
When we moved into this house in 1998, it was 1100 sq. ft. and came with a large woodstove in the small family room. It was a beast, and boy did it pump out the BTUs! Too good in fact, it regularly drove us out of the living space because it got too hot and put out too much heat. In addition, the house always stank of woodsmoke during the winter. We used it some, but it was almost impossible to watch TV with a fire in the stove...it was just too hot.
We did a major remodel in 2000, and added about 900 square feet to he house, including a large family room added to the back of the house where we relocated the stove to, and turned the former family room into a large dining room. I disassembled the old chimney, re-used the ceiling box and replaced all of the old chimney pipe, and built a corner hearth in the new family room with stove ventilation through the floor (the old stove required it). The stove was no easier to control, but now we at least had a space large enough that it did not overheat as often, although it still stank of smoke, and the chimney needed cleaning monthly. Now it was possible to just turn the A/C system fan on and in a rudimentary way, move the heat from the stove around the whole house. It didn't work well, but it did work, and our electric bill dropped impressively.
In 2003 we were finally able to arrange the replacement of our old forced air system and antique heat pump. It was over 35 years old at that point, and was way undersized for the house now that we had added space. When we built the additions, we added flexible ducting to the existing ducts under the house, but it was temporary at best and never did work well.
So, I proceeded to cut the flooring out of the closet in the Master bedroom, and make a large opening into the crawlspace where there was no plumbing on the far end of the house. Since we added on to the master bedroom too, including a door, we cleared things out of the way, and tarped everything off with plastic. I then hired my two teenage nephews, and they went under the house and removed all of the old flex ducting, all of the old and damaged R-19 insulation, and what was left of the old plastic vapor barrier. I had a forty yard dumpster delivered and we filled that thing with debris.
I then had a local insulating company come in, lay a new vapor barrier, and install new R-31 insulation under the entire floor of the house, which matched what had been installed under the additions. These guys even double-insulated all of the pipes. They already had foam sleeves, but they wrapped and tied the pipes with fiberglass batts as well. The did an outstanding job on the installation and there is just no way we could have done as good of a job as the two insulators did, and once that was done, the crawlspace was ready for the AC guys.
The Heat and AC company we selected (after getting numerous bids) installed a 2 Zone air handling system that included installation of a 16" return line in the new family room where the stove is. The front of the house is Zone 1 and the back of the house is Zone 2. If I turn the heat pump off at the breaker, then call for heat in Zone 2 (the back of the house) the system's fan comes on and takes suction from Zone 1 and moves that warm air to the back of the house. It works very well. In addition, the fan in the new system uses a variable current 24V DC motor which takes a fraction of the power to move air than the old fan motor that was straight 120VAC.
The 24 Volt DC aspect of that fan motor means it is open for alternate power sources in a down grid, but that is for a different thread...
Back to the stove...
In the Fall of 2008, it was apparent that the old stove was on it's last legs. The locking mechanism for the door was worn and the company who built it was long gone. I was looking for quotes to have a new handle made and it was very quickly obvious that would be an expensive proposition, IF we could find someone willing to take on the job.
At the same time, the Southwest Washington Clean Air Agency announced a woodstove replacement program for this area. They are a State agency, and they went around to stove manufacturers, dealers, distributors and installers in the State, as well as using a grant from EPA, and gathered enough seed money to issue $1500 coupons for efficient and EPA certified wood stoves. The coupons were issued and were good for 90 days. You had that much time to use it or it expired, and you went to the back of the line if you wanted a new coupon. When we signed up for the program in November 2008 they told us it would be a few months, and that all of the coupons had been issued.
In late January '09, we got our coupon, and since I had used that time to do my homework, I already ad a stove and an installation contractor picked out. The stove was made here in Washington too.
It ended up costing a total of $3000 to get the stove installed, and we were on the hook for half. We had saved most of the cash while waiting for the coupon, and with a little planning we were able to get the new stove installed, and pay for it completely out of pocket with no finance charges whatsoever.
EPA says that a wood stove can emit no more than 4 grams of particulate matter per hour. This stove emits less than 1 gram per hour.
The old stove was probably 20% efficient, if that, meaning that most of the heat and much of the usable fuel went right up the chimney. The constant presence of creosote was proof as was the constant smoke.
The new stove is 78% efficient. Once it is up to temperature, it simply does not smoke. All we see coming out of the chimney now are heat waves, not smoke. I still check my chimney regularly, but it has not required cleaning since I cleaned it last fall before heating season began. There just is no creosote accumulating now, none.
The biggest tell is in the amount of firewood we are using. Wood consumption is a fraction of what it used to be. The old stove saved us on heating, but the new stove and efficient air handling system to distribute the heat saves us even more. I bought 2 cords of clean, split and seasoned cordwood last fall for about $360 delivered, and I will have wood left over when heating season ends. It would cost me at least that much in one month if I tried to keep the house as warm as we like it with just the heat pump.
So as of now we have had the new stove for a year and I have an entire heating season under my belt with it and I could not be happier. It's simple to get this stove burning, and even if it burns down overnight it still stays warm until morning. It always has some leftover charcoal, and when I sweep out the ashes, it is easy to rekindle that charcoal and get it fired up again on cold mornings. It takes about 15 minutes to get it hot, and once it is hot, it burns all of the smoke and other combustion products in the stove. All of the combustion air that enters it is superheated by way of the stove's design, and that causes everything to burn almost completely. The inefficiency in this stove comes from the brief time it takes to heat fresh fuel. When I toss in a fresh split it smokes for less than five minutes (you are permitted 10 minutes per hour per EPA cert...) before it is hot enough to combust.
Between the new stove, proper insulation and an efficient air handling system, we have cut our heating bill dramatically, even though the house is bigger than it used to be. We are independent of the power grid for heat, and the stove keeps the house at a constant 70 degrees in the back and 73 degrees in the front, regardless of the temperature outside. Back in December when it got down into single digits here, the heatpump was useless and the only heat available was from the emergency heat strips in the furnace. That's the most expensive heat to use, and the stove made sure we never had to go there during our last cold spell.
I would also note that unlike a pellet stove, a wood stove does not need any electricity to operate. Our old stove had a fan on it which was noisy, but helped circulate air and cool the stove. The new stove has a fan available as an add-on, but it works so well as it is we opted not to include the fan. We just don't need it, and that helped reduce the electric bill too.
We're proud of how this worked out all the way around, and we even get an energy tax credit on our 2009 1040 that will reduce our out of pocket expenses for this even further. This program was an excellent deal for everyone all the way around. The money was pooled from a number of resources and all of it got plowed right back into our local economy. Similar programs are out there in other states, and by replacing your old smokey woodstove with a modern efficient model, you really do help clean up your local air quality, especially during the winter when you get an air inversion and stagnation. That's what causes burn bans during the winter and those are difficult for everyone.
I realize times are tough, but life goes on and many homeowners consider how to go about large improvements like this. As you can see, we did some long-term planning to be able to do this, and it was not hard, not overly painful financially, and rewarding in that we paid no interest to get that stove bought and installed. Patience and good planning will pay off for you in the long run every time.
Cheers!
We did a major remodel in 2000, and added about 900 square feet to he house, including a large family room added to the back of the house where we relocated the stove to, and turned the former family room into a large dining room. I disassembled the old chimney, re-used the ceiling box and replaced all of the old chimney pipe, and built a corner hearth in the new family room with stove ventilation through the floor (the old stove required it). The stove was no easier to control, but now we at least had a space large enough that it did not overheat as often, although it still stank of smoke, and the chimney needed cleaning monthly. Now it was possible to just turn the A/C system fan on and in a rudimentary way, move the heat from the stove around the whole house. It didn't work well, but it did work, and our electric bill dropped impressively.
In 2003 we were finally able to arrange the replacement of our old forced air system and antique heat pump. It was over 35 years old at that point, and was way undersized for the house now that we had added space. When we built the additions, we added flexible ducting to the existing ducts under the house, but it was temporary at best and never did work well.
So, I proceeded to cut the flooring out of the closet in the Master bedroom, and make a large opening into the crawlspace where there was no plumbing on the far end of the house. Since we added on to the master bedroom too, including a door, we cleared things out of the way, and tarped everything off with plastic. I then hired my two teenage nephews, and they went under the house and removed all of the old flex ducting, all of the old and damaged R-19 insulation, and what was left of the old plastic vapor barrier. I had a forty yard dumpster delivered and we filled that thing with debris.
I then had a local insulating company come in, lay a new vapor barrier, and install new R-31 insulation under the entire floor of the house, which matched what had been installed under the additions. These guys even double-insulated all of the pipes. They already had foam sleeves, but they wrapped and tied the pipes with fiberglass batts as well. The did an outstanding job on the installation and there is just no way we could have done as good of a job as the two insulators did, and once that was done, the crawlspace was ready for the AC guys.
The Heat and AC company we selected (after getting numerous bids) installed a 2 Zone air handling system that included installation of a 16" return line in the new family room where the stove is. The front of the house is Zone 1 and the back of the house is Zone 2. If I turn the heat pump off at the breaker, then call for heat in Zone 2 (the back of the house) the system's fan comes on and takes suction from Zone 1 and moves that warm air to the back of the house. It works very well. In addition, the fan in the new system uses a variable current 24V DC motor which takes a fraction of the power to move air than the old fan motor that was straight 120VAC.
The 24 Volt DC aspect of that fan motor means it is open for alternate power sources in a down grid, but that is for a different thread...
Back to the stove...
In the Fall of 2008, it was apparent that the old stove was on it's last legs. The locking mechanism for the door was worn and the company who built it was long gone. I was looking for quotes to have a new handle made and it was very quickly obvious that would be an expensive proposition, IF we could find someone willing to take on the job.
At the same time, the Southwest Washington Clean Air Agency announced a woodstove replacement program for this area. They are a State agency, and they went around to stove manufacturers, dealers, distributors and installers in the State, as well as using a grant from EPA, and gathered enough seed money to issue $1500 coupons for efficient and EPA certified wood stoves. The coupons were issued and were good for 90 days. You had that much time to use it or it expired, and you went to the back of the line if you wanted a new coupon. When we signed up for the program in November 2008 they told us it would be a few months, and that all of the coupons had been issued.
In late January '09, we got our coupon, and since I had used that time to do my homework, I already ad a stove and an installation contractor picked out. The stove was made here in Washington too.
It ended up costing a total of $3000 to get the stove installed, and we were on the hook for half. We had saved most of the cash while waiting for the coupon, and with a little planning we were able to get the new stove installed, and pay for it completely out of pocket with no finance charges whatsoever.
EPA says that a wood stove can emit no more than 4 grams of particulate matter per hour. This stove emits less than 1 gram per hour.
The old stove was probably 20% efficient, if that, meaning that most of the heat and much of the usable fuel went right up the chimney. The constant presence of creosote was proof as was the constant smoke.
The new stove is 78% efficient. Once it is up to temperature, it simply does not smoke. All we see coming out of the chimney now are heat waves, not smoke. I still check my chimney regularly, but it has not required cleaning since I cleaned it last fall before heating season began. There just is no creosote accumulating now, none.
The biggest tell is in the amount of firewood we are using. Wood consumption is a fraction of what it used to be. The old stove saved us on heating, but the new stove and efficient air handling system to distribute the heat saves us even more. I bought 2 cords of clean, split and seasoned cordwood last fall for about $360 delivered, and I will have wood left over when heating season ends. It would cost me at least that much in one month if I tried to keep the house as warm as we like it with just the heat pump.
So as of now we have had the new stove for a year and I have an entire heating season under my belt with it and I could not be happier. It's simple to get this stove burning, and even if it burns down overnight it still stays warm until morning. It always has some leftover charcoal, and when I sweep out the ashes, it is easy to rekindle that charcoal and get it fired up again on cold mornings. It takes about 15 minutes to get it hot, and once it is hot, it burns all of the smoke and other combustion products in the stove. All of the combustion air that enters it is superheated by way of the stove's design, and that causes everything to burn almost completely. The inefficiency in this stove comes from the brief time it takes to heat fresh fuel. When I toss in a fresh split it smokes for less than five minutes (you are permitted 10 minutes per hour per EPA cert...) before it is hot enough to combust.
Between the new stove, proper insulation and an efficient air handling system, we have cut our heating bill dramatically, even though the house is bigger than it used to be. We are independent of the power grid for heat, and the stove keeps the house at a constant 70 degrees in the back and 73 degrees in the front, regardless of the temperature outside. Back in December when it got down into single digits here, the heatpump was useless and the only heat available was from the emergency heat strips in the furnace. That's the most expensive heat to use, and the stove made sure we never had to go there during our last cold spell.
I would also note that unlike a pellet stove, a wood stove does not need any electricity to operate. Our old stove had a fan on it which was noisy, but helped circulate air and cool the stove. The new stove has a fan available as an add-on, but it works so well as it is we opted not to include the fan. We just don't need it, and that helped reduce the electric bill too.
We're proud of how this worked out all the way around, and we even get an energy tax credit on our 2009 1040 that will reduce our out of pocket expenses for this even further. This program was an excellent deal for everyone all the way around. The money was pooled from a number of resources and all of it got plowed right back into our local economy. Similar programs are out there in other states, and by replacing your old smokey woodstove with a modern efficient model, you really do help clean up your local air quality, especially during the winter when you get an air inversion and stagnation. That's what causes burn bans during the winter and those are difficult for everyone.
I realize times are tough, but life goes on and many homeowners consider how to go about large improvements like this. As you can see, we did some long-term planning to be able to do this, and it was not hard, not overly painful financially, and rewarding in that we paid no interest to get that stove bought and installed. Patience and good planning will pay off for you in the long run every time.
Cheers!
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