Free standing wood burning stoves

[tls_ranch]

We just got our new woodstove signed off by the permit department and now my DH is working to finish it off. He did all the work including framing, pipe and the install. Now he's just getting started on the stone work. We had $400-$600 EACH MONTH for propane gas bills last winter just to keep our house at 68

We picked a insert type of stove so it wouldn't take up livingroom space. It's has a secondary burning system that heats VERY well and uses very little wood. When the stone work is sealed it will match the colors in the granite hearth just perfect.

 

[Livinzoo]

My parents have a $850 stove from lowes. They bought a Lopi, but it was to small for their square footage. We just put money down on a Lopi insert for our house. It does the secondary burn. Waiting for it to be delivered. I will be so relieved to have a insert. It will heat and it sticks out enough so that if the electricity goes out we could still cook on it.

 

[domino7]

It's the only heat source we have. It is a lot of hard work, but it's hard to beat free heat. It's been an unusually cold winter so far, so we've been going through the wood. My wife likes it because she can be as warm as she wants to be without me complaining about the fuel oil bill lol.

 

[English Chick]

We bought a multifuel burner (stove) a few weeks ago...... hoping to have had it installed before the bad weather hit..(((sigh)))) but a lot more work ahead before it goes in... we have to open up the old fireplace (electric fire in there at the moment and the flue is blocked off)... we have the scaffolding on the outside of the house up to the old chimney, this has to be removed four courses and rebuilt, then the chimney has to have a flue liner put in.... the actual fireplace we are opening up into an "inglenook" type, not looking forward to the mess but so looking forward to more heat... even though we heat this old monster house (over 100 years old) with oil central heating, it takes a long time for "her" to really warm up... will take pics (one day) when the stove goes in....

 

[new&learning]

mississippifarmboy....the picture of the wood stove with wood on the walls... did you not have to put stove boards on the wall....we are going to install one and have walls like yours....did you just increase your clearance?

 

[new&learning]

you might want to check craigs list. check chimney cleaning businesses and installers. they might have used ones for sale. my brother owns one of those and gets free ones (for hall off) alllll the time. he gave us a lopi last year and we are hopeing to get in this week. also ask your insurance people of the difference in cost. they is a BIG difference here if you have a wood stove. also some insurance places here wont even insure you if you have one. good luck

edited cause i cant spell a lick...LOL

 

[curliet]

We built a 24' X 36' pole barn in northern MI in order to have a place to store our pop-up camper, yard tools, hunting gear, small aluminum fishing boat, etc. during the times we weren't using them. We had been carting things back and forth with us everytime we wanted to camp on the wooded 10 acre property. The first Nov after getting the place built, we had some bad weather for deer season, and were camping in the pop-up. We moved the camper into the barn and got out of the wind and snow, but it was still really cold. We decided to put a wood stove in there. We do have a never ending supply of hardwood, with some pine for kindling.

Of course, it was a metal building with a concrete floor, so the wood stove was absolutely useless. The next spring we (meaning, my hubby) insulated the building, and added a ceiling. So much better. Then he put panelling, and a sheet of leftover red steel from the barn to the wall behind the stove. And added some fans. Then we moved the camper back outside and started bringing in some furniture and other stuff, lots of it.

Anyway, the stove is a small Vogelzang box stove, and we can keep it about 68 degrees in there when it's 20 degrees outside. We are comfy at that temp, and have realized that when we are at home with our gas furnace at 72 degrees we feel colder. I think that I'd rather be there during cold weather than at home, except for the snow.

One thing to keep in mind is that as we get older, the cutting, splitting, stacking and stoking gets a bit harder every year. Plan for the eventuallity that you may have to ask for help with those chores.

Edited to add something for new&learning
Our insulation is mostly foam (we got it really cheap so put a double layer behind our paneling) and we were concerned about the heat from the stove. We have 4 ft of clearance, and on the wall we put a sheet of leftover steel with an air space of about 2" and in front of that a metal shelving unit with all my cast iron cookware. All that extra stuff absorbs and stores a lot of the heat, the wall never seems to get hot no matter how much wood we cram in the stove. But the metal and cast iron help to return the heat back into the room.

 

[teach1rusl]

Ours is a dutchwest stove. We have one in the basement and one on the main floor, although we haven't used the one in the basement this year yet. This is a small model and keeps things toasty - too toasty in the loft (we have to crack a window up there sometimes). We use propane as our primary heat source, but if we keep a fire going, our furnace rarely kicks on. It sure saves money if you have a free wood source - not sure of the cost difference if you had to pay for wood.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

new&learning :

mississippifarmboy....the picture of the wood stove with wood on the walls... did you not have to put stove boards on the wall....we are going to install one and have walls like yours....did you just increase your clearance?

With almost any other kind of heater you would need a fire barrier behind it I think. Our heater is very heavy double walled steel and even with a super hot test fire we built after it was first installed the wall barely even gets warm. It has 24" of clearance on the sides. You can hold your hand to the heater on the sides even when there is a hot fire going in it, it's that cool. I'm not sure who made this one as it doesn't have any name on it or tags on it (We bought it slightly used at an estate auction) but it is built with about a four inch gap between the firebox and the outer "Shell" all the way around and on top and bottom. We had planned on putting fireboard and brick up about four feet behind it, but due to the temp of the sides, just didn't need it.
The down side to ours is you can only cook at a simmer on the top of it, so can't fry an egg if the power goes out, but can still cook beans! My wife keeps water heating on it all the time. It helps add moisture into the air that the wood heat removes.
The only thing I hate about wood heat is that it's dusty. Of course our's is made to where you can open both doors wide and it has a screen that mounts on the front so that it looks like a fireplace, so that makes it more dusty than if the main doors were shut. If I don't dust around it every day or so it gets to looking like I haven't dusted in a month. My wife is in poor health though and is very cold natured, so she loves how warm & toasty the wood heat keeps the house.​