Is anyone here using thier wood stove yet?!

[buc]

Yep, yesterday it was 65 and sunny, today 55 and mostly cloudy, with a stiff north wind and falling temps. The cows are staying close to the hay feeder (not a good sign).

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Hey 3peeps, I feel the same way you do about wanting to burn efficiently.

We bought a certified woodstove when we realized we preferred wood burning heat to forced air heat. We fell in love with our woodstove, as silly as it sounds, so when we moved this year we insisted on taking it with us. It's a good thing we did, because the woodstove that came with our new place (that we were told was certified) was in fact a dragon of a stove.

Our woodstove is also very cute -- glass front with mission-style details, and a lovely soft grey color, which is technically called some shade or other of brown, but it looks silvery grey to me.

I used to start fires with newspaper, but realized that burning newspaper was polluting, so now I start my fires using the "tinder box" method and . . . hee hee hee . . . now I have more fun starting fires!

 

[BamaChicken]

We have built a fire one time. It warmed up and so we haven't needed it. I find my sinuses do better with heat from a wood fire. doesn't seem to dry out as much. we may get to build another this week. We heat our whole house with it.

 

[chicknmania]

We have a soapstone wood stove also, in our basement. And a regular fireplace upstairs. A few years ago we had a severe ice storm here over the Christmas holidays. It started Dec 22. We (along with most of the rest of the State) were without electricity for five days, and for the first two days there was no going anywhere on the roads. We lived in the basement during that five days. I remember having Christmas eve dinner around the stove,we cooked on it for a lot of meals, and we all slept down there,too. Our house is fairly large, about 4000 square feet, but that stove kept the basement at a minimum of 60, and even the upstairs stayed at about 35- 40 as long as we kept the stove cranked up. In the mornings a lot of people in our town would congregate at the two carryouts that had generators, so we could get some coffee, and compare notes about our wood burning stoves. No doubt those stoves made things a whole lot more comfortable for all of us and our animals, too We had a generator in a shed outside which would've given us some power...except the shed was totally encased in ice...we couldn't get in to start the generator! It was a Christmas to remember, for sure.

 

[valmom]

Yep, we've started burning up last year's wood (so we have more room to stack this year's wood near the basement door). We have a 30 year old Vermont Castings stove in the main part of the house that heats absolutely everything (except the basement). It gets so warm with it cranking out the heat that it is almost a relief to go outside with the dogs, or to the barn.

 

[rufus]

We are still running the air conditioner. Some winters we never put the heat on.

Rufus

 

[TransplantedTexan]

Quote:
I guess it's a safe bet you don't live in Wisconsin.


We are having our chimeny swept this Sat., while I am deer hunting. Yippee I don't have to do it.
I'm getting some wood delivered by my buddy as well. Hopefully after I come home Sat. from the big hunt I can sit by it and warm up.

 

[ozark hen]

rufus, do you live near the equator?

We turn the a/c on only when we have to during the hottest part of the summer. Where we live there is a breeze most of the time during the warm months. I hate having our house shut up.

 

[ratlummountain]

Quote:
we have the same exact stove! it's a beautiful dark green enamel with the moose and pine tree's.
beautiful stove, we love it!

we've had ours going solid for about 2-3 weeks now. i've gotten really good at controlling the temp output on warmer days so we don't have to let it go out. it will probably keep going nonstop until sometime in march or april.
the cat lives underneath it all winter and the dog parks her butt right next to it also. i have to fight for space next to it to warm my toes.
it heats the whole house pretty well. the oil furnace rarely ever kicks on, if ever. we burn about 5-7 cords a year. all the wood is free to us. we have permission from neighboring landowners (with no houses on the land, just woods) to take away any and all down tree's.

my work shop is in our basement and it gets mighty chilly down there, so last winter we got a pellet stove down there and i'm in love. we burned about 3 tons last year and i've kicked it on a number times already this year.

 

[1acrefarm]

No woodburning for me tonight my house is 76 degrees using no heat.