Quote:
I sure wish I had a woodstove. I have two useless fireplaces, a large two-sided-see-through downstairs and one upstairs. We have never built a fire in the one upstairs and haven't built a fire in the one downstairs for more than 25 years. We were losing more heat up the chimney than the fireplace was putting out. We have a LOT of firewood though, just nothing to burn it in. I need to look more into getting a woodstove for emergencies; what if I couldn't buy gas for the generator.
TSC has some really good prices on them.
Get an insert for that fireplace downstairs. One thing to consider is if it's in the middle of the house at least the thermal mass of the masonry is inside, that helps to spread the heat, too. I've got a similar issue, I've got a lovely fireplace in my kitchen, but when we burn in it (and we do burn, we love to have the fire going) I hang up a blanket in the kitchen doorway to block the airflow from the rest of the house, and just crack open a window to let fresh air come in, helps to cut down on the heat going up the chimney. The kitchen is an addition, so the heat from that fireplace can't easily circulate to the rest of the house, but it can surely suck the heated air right out of the rest of the house if we don't take precautions!
We're planning on getting an insert for the fireplace if and when we can scratch up the money. With a blower unit we should be able to blow the heat out into the main portion of the house. We have a blower on the woodstove up in Maine, and it is amazing how much heat is circulated around - from the cellar! Once we get that warm down there the upstairs woodstove can easily heat the rest of the house. We have lots of wood, buy it tree length up in Maine and bring down what we want to the house down here.
We do have a generator up there, but haven't used it yet. For whatever reason we rarely lose power here, I think it's because we're on a main supply line and it gets fixed first, if it goes at all, before they can do anything further down line.
Quote:
You have to keep it constantly rotated, in other words, if you're storing in 5 gallon containers, use one and replace it, then use the next one, etc. Be careful, of course I know you know this, but if 'they' find out you're storing that kind of quantity I'm sure they'll charge you with some violation.
