Wood Stove?

[Katy]

Another thing to keep in mind is your home owner's insurance. Make sure you install the stove exactly according to the specs or your insurance can either cancel your policy, or refuse to pay in case of a fire. Our insurance company still comes out every couple of years to certify the installed measurements of our stove. You'd think after all these years (same insurance for all those years) they'd realize it's going to stay in the same spot!!

 

[redoak]

You'd think after all these years (same insurance for all those years) they'd realize it's going to stay in the same spot!!

My father-in-law took apart and cleaned his woodstove pipes last fall. He put them together wrong so the stove is too close to the doorway molding. After one fire in the woodstove the paint on the molding started to bubble. So he put up some tin foil on the doorway molding so it won't catch fire, instead of reinstalling the pipe the correct way.

So your stove can move

 

[DrakeMaiden]

If you install it yourself, make sure you know the codes. Our first woodstove was installed by the owner and not up to code, so it actually was a fire-hazard in more than one way. One we knew about, the other we found out when we smelled a little smoke upstairs one night.

I really like having a woodstove, but then I think building fires is kinda fun most of the time. There are a lot of people that will let you take their downed tree wood for free . . . at least right now and where we live.

We minimize spider problems by moving the wood from the main pile to our deck before we use it inside. In the process, the wood gets tossed around and the spiders magically disappear.

 

[Wildsky]

Hmmm I think wood is the way to go for us, I'm sure we could find lots around here for pretty cheap - the guy down the road has three huge piles of wood on the edge of his property - he had to get it somewhere!

Now just to convince the hubby - he said NEXT YEAR. I guess we need to go through another winter paying a fortune for electricity, and risking freezing if power goes out.

We have an old furnace in the basement, wood burning, not connected - previous resident (hubby's grandfather) apparently had it put in, then disconnected it as the floors around the pipes started to get really hot. Who knows how old the stupid thing is.

Our house also has a lovely brick chimney - but when the house was built they didn't "line" it or something, so it can't be used and was covered on the inside, so you can't see it - just the pretty chimney from the outside (why do people do stupid things like that?)

 

[Marlinchaser]

There are no pellet stoves that burn wood and pellets, however quite a few now burn wood or Corn,

Very few pellet stove continue to run after the power goes out, if they do they are top of the line models, and come with a backup battery, and that usually is only enough power to let it go through you cooldown cycle, so that all the unburned pellets get a proper burn, then the stove goes out.


If the chimney you had can be relined, they put in a flexible liner, and a filler around the outside of that pipe as an insullator. check with your fire codes, most require a minimum clearance or thimble anytime a pipe passes through a wall/floor. They make a 2100 stanless triple wall pipe that should meet or exceed any fire codes, but it isnt cheap. Check with a local chimney sweep, they can evaluate your old chimney, who knows there may be nothing wrong with it.

Wood is the way to go if you want something that continues after the power goes out.

Pellet stoves are better in cases where want heat, but dont want to have the hassle of flue pipes. They only require 36 inches extended away from your house, where most flue pipes are required to extend a certain height above house/ or above the nearest flamable section of the house, the chimney sweep should have a formula of how high it must extend.

 

[Marlinchaser]

Quote:
Check your local paper, they should sell it by the cord, or pickup load.
edited to add another thought.
Another factor is the amount of dust/ash that is produced, with wood you should clean ashes daily, and you will get a lot, where with pellet stove most of the pellet is burned, and after about a week of burning you will have to empty the chamber, and you should get about 2 cups of ash.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Check your local paper, they should sell it by the cord, or pickup load.
edited to add another thought.
Another factor is the amount of dust/ash that is produced, with wood you should clean ashes daily, and you will get a lot, where with pellet stove most of the pellet is burned, and after about a week of burning you will have to empty the chamber, and you should get about 2 cups of ash.

The amount of ashes produced also depends on the type of wood you're burning. Certain types of trees make much better burning than others and don't leave nearly as much ash behind. They also can vary with the amount of heat they put out.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

We have a high efficiency model that "burns" the smoke in a catalytic converter type thingee before letting it go out the pipe, so we don't use a whole lot of wood and don't need to clean the pipe that often. I would recommend one, if you can afford it. They will save money in the long run and don't make so much smoke outside.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

When we lived in Colorado in the 90s our log cabin was heated with a wood stove in the main room. My then-teenaged son got carried away with loading up the firebox one night and got the fire so hot that we had to open all the doors and windows even though it was -20 outside!

Whenever we had the stove going, I used it to cook our meals too.

It sat on fire bricks in the corner of the room with a pipe up through the roof. We did have a spark suppressor on the top. We cleaned the pipe out every couple of months to keep the creosote from building up and I used stove black on the stove itself, but other than shoveling out ashes every day, it was simple to maintain.

 

[SterlingAcres]

I love our woodstove. I have a small one, but it heats our 700 sq ft house rather well.
As far as wood goes, we wander out on nice days and cut down the dead standing timber. I've been burning cherry the past few weeks

We cut and split as much as we need for a few weeks at a time and pile it onto our porch. Then bring it in as we need it. So far, no problems. Once we're really into deep weather, I'm sure we'll stock pile more, but for now we're okay.
We lost power with the last storm we had. It was out for over 10 hours. There was nothing to do inside but clean and it was a blizzard outside, but at least we were warm! Plus I cooked breakfast and lunch on it too. Eggs, bacon and toast all around!

Good luck with whatever you decide.