Heating with a Wood Stove or pellet????????????????

[tobin123]

SO we have been heating with our woodstove for nearly 9 years now.It is hard for us to come across wood but we manage.NOw,I have a propblem with the dust from when we clean out the stove.It is awful,I seem to find a black film on the windows and dust everywhere.
How do you manage to deal with these issues???I know that it is nicer than paying for propane.The stove that we have doesn't have a ash tray so we have to shovel it out.We will be looking into a newer stove with an ash tray.

Do you think it's worth having a wood stove over paying for propane OR do any of you all have pellets stoves???????

 

[Arcnadius]

You're just now having a dust problem, or you've had the problem the whole time you've had the wood stove? We use a large old kettle, like a canner with no lid, that has low sides to haul out our ash. We shovel out the ash with those little shovels you get with a fireplace tool set and CAREFULLY lower it into the kettle and let the ash slide off the shovel - no pouring or dumping! This seems to work well for us. I wonder if you could use a shop vac to clean out the stove...

I'm curious what others will have to say.

 

[sgtmom52]

We have had Vermont Castings "Defiant" wood stove for almost 8 years. I like it but would make several changes if I had to get a new one. I would probably get a soapstone wood stove instead as they radiate heat for much longer. I would not get an enameled one again as the enamel tends to chip and looks bad. I does have an ash tray, but still needs some ash shoveled out. I don't know if they make a woodstove that doesn't create dirt & dust.

I have no experience with pellet stoves. We have over 6 acres of mature woods that supplies us with all the wood we need for now ~ just in trees that are already dead / down. I think if I would have to purchase all my wood I may consider a pellet stove instead.

If you really don't like the dust/dirt that an inside stove creates you could also consider installing an outside wood furnace and keeping it all outside.

 

[Katy]

We've been heating with our wood stove for almost 35 years. We have lots of access to wood from our farm and pasture ground. We have to shovel the ashes out too and there's just no way I know of to get around the dust that comes with it. Dusting and cleaning regularly is the only solution I've found. I wouldn't ever go back to heating with a furnace.....I love the wood stove heat.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
x2

 

[Amyable]

We are going to install a wood stove this summer, and kiss the propane company goodbye (well, except for what the gas stove and water heater use, but that will be minimal.) I know it's gonna be a little messier, but we hate being at the mercy of propane and being forced to pay whatever they wish to charge. The price always goes up in the winter when we need it most.

The deciding factor was when the power went out last month. No heat. We had to drive treacherous roads in frigid weather to a neighbor's house to stay warm. Had we a wood stove, we'd have been in the dark, but toasty. Pellet stoves require electricity, so we said no to that. I grew up with wood stove heat, and miss it. My folks recently put in an outdoor wood boiler and LOVE it.

 

[joedie]

We heat with wood also but it's an outdoor woodburner. We do have to shovel it but not inside the house. I don't have near the dust either of the inside burners but they do have their drawbacks, like having to go outside when it's freezing out and dark to load it up!.

 

[dacjohns]

A big thing to consider:

A pellet requires electricity. What are you going to do when the power goes out, especially for an extended period of time?

There are lots of ways to get wood. Check out local parks and forests, watch for people trimming their trees, construction where trees have been removed, old pallets, etc.

 

[Deanner03]

We have a pellet stove. Ours can run on a battery if the power goes out (though we do have a generator). The deciding factor for US was the fact that we both work full time and have long commutes. If we relied on a traditional wood stove, it would be LONG dead by the time either of us arrives home. And...it'd be cold. For us it was better to run the risk of OCCASIONALLY having cold (until we got the battery or generator up) than EVERY DAY.

 

[averytds]

We have and use both. We've used a wood furnace, the big red US Stoves one for 11 yrs. It pipes into your duct work. It's dusty, but in both our previous residence and our current, we put it somewhere it didn't really matter. Furnace room, basement.

I had an accident last winter and couldn't tend it, so we added a pellet stove. I do like the convenience of it, less work and the less mess. We had to do it fast last year and unfortunately all we could buy locally is too small of a unit for our entire house. When I've got the money I'm going to get an add on pellet furnace that pipes into the duct work like our wood furnace.

The wood furnace isn't going anywhere though.