Any of yall got one? I sure am enjoying mine. Will warm ya to the bone for sure. My heat pump has not run since the first of November. Am I saving money? Yeah, but I worked like a dog splitting wood. Like the "Ant and the Grasshopper" story.
I wish we had one here. Yes splitting wood is a workout, but at least you feel like you have accomplished something after all of that splitting. We have gas logs, so our furnace never runs either, but you are saving a lot more money than we are. I would love to have one of those outdoor furnaces that heats water to heat the house.
I've got one at the cabin. Nothing like coming in from a cold day on the river or just assin off around the mountain and cracking the dampers open to let the fire get to rolling. I'll put a pot of beans or a roast on mine on really cold days. I like to get me a good drink of single barrel JD and set in the rocking chair by the stove and watch it snow. I've got 2 sets of gas logs here at home. A whole lot cleaner, but not nearly as nice.
We heated with wood for 15 years. I loved it. There's absolutely nothing like turning your back to a hot stove to warm you up! Back then, we kept the temperature in the house at 85 all winter. Nice and toasty warm. With gas or electric heat, 85 would be too warm, but wood is a nice dry radiant heat that just feels good.
As for splitting wood, I never minded the work too much. I did it the hard way. We had a wood lot, so I went out and felled the trees, cut them up and hauled the wood home in my pickup. I actually preferred splitting the wood out in the woods, but if I had to hurry, for some reason, I'd haul home the rounds and split them later.
The only problem was that we occasionally got several bad weekends in a row, when I couldn't go get wood. I tried to keep a good cord split and stacked, but sometimes it would get pretty low before I could get back out. Green oak burns OK once the stove gets hot, but you gotta get it hot somehow.... Aah, the memories. ::) (I was 20 years younger back then too.) ;D
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wood heats you twice. this was the first time ...now is the second. there was about 10 cords in this load.
no
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-13-woodburning-pollution_x.htm (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-11-13-woodburning-pollution_x.htm)
I am a few years older then then most of you and we still heat a most of our house with a fireplace insert which is essentially a wood stove shoved into the place where the fireplace used to be.
I cut most of my wood up at my VA cabin and bring it back to NC a 1/3 of a pickup load at a time (Yes I know all that weight is killing my gas mileage). I stack it and let it dry, then split it with a monster maul. Then it goes in a little shed at the corner of my lot until brought forward for burning.
Yep, lots of work and it heats me twice -(I look at it as good exercise) It is like a garden, you grow it because you like to do it, not because you save money. However, with fuel prices the way they are, I may be saving money. Another plus is if the power goes out and our furnace does not work, I can still heat the place.
Yeah "trouts" I know it pollutes - screw the environmentalists! When they get off the backs of the energy industry so we can come up with a comprehensive energy policy I will retire my wood stove.
I not only use mine to heat the house, I also use it to dry my clothes on a rack in front of the stove thus saving more electricity.
If I used the heat pump that I have does that not use more electricity?? My utility company burns coal. Perhaps I should use coal instead and save the evironment just like my utility co. does. I dunno.
Everyone who heats thier house has to emit some type of residue. I simply choose wood.
Note to Al: Split the wood in the winter for next winter, Not nearly as hot. ;D Thats what I will be doing in the next few weeks.
Quote from: cmiller51h on January 08, 2009, 22:52:12 PM
I've got one at the cabin. Nothing like coming in from a cold day on the river or just assin off around the mountain and cracking the dampers open to let the fire get to rolling. I'll put a pot of beans or a roast on mine on really cold days. I like to get me a good drink of single barrel JD and set in the rocking chair by the stove and watch it snow. I've got 2 sets of gas logs here at home. A whole lot cleaner, but not nearly as nice.
Damn Miller,
Reading that made me want to go out and buy a wood stove...and a cabin...and a rocking chair...and some single
barrel JD malt scotch. 0--0
Nothin like it. As matter of fact, I think I'm gunna head up there this weekend
Thusday night 5 degrees. Take some wood with ya Chuck.
I got plenty of good oak up there! 5 degrees, I cant wait! 0--0
I burn the hell out of wood myself. Serves two purposes. It heats my house and most importantly it keeps my wife and dogs warm and happy. I have an insert like Al. My question is how often do you guys clean or get somebody to clean the chimney? I know you should get them cleaned every season, but is that necessary? I am scared to death of a chimney fire.
Quote from: Red-Ass on January 13, 2009, 08:04:01 AM
My question is how often do you guys clean or get somebody to clean the chimney? I know you should get them cleaned every season, but is that necessary? I am scared to death of a chimney fire.
I clean mine once a year. The chimney itself does not collect much soot but if your insert is connected to the chimney with one of those narrow flexible pipes (I think they call it a "positive air tight flange) it will collect a lot of soot.
I do it myself. Start by cleaning the insert itself in good shape. Mine has a window which gets a good cleaning. It also has a couple baffles that get removeed while I vacum the ashes that have collected behind them. With the pipes you start by pulling the insert away from fireplace, disconnect the insert from flange and then bang the hell out of the flange and let the soot fall back on to what used to be the fireplace floor. I also have a flexible rod which I run up into the flange and wobble around to break stuff loose. A shop vacuum sucks everything up. Before I hook things back up I go up on roof and run a chimney brush down the tile/brick chimney and some more soot (but very little) falls down to the fireplace floor. Vacum up all loose soot. Hook things back up. Slide insert back in place and you're ready for next year.
Whole operation takes about 2 hours if you're slow like me.
I had it done professionally one time. I watched them and now just do what they did. Save myself the price of an entry level fly rod each year ;D
As a fireman we go to countless houses every fall for chimneys on fire, the soot will build up on the lining and get thick, when it does it becomes flammable and will burn and its hard to put out. we have to use the fire hose flowing water down the chimney to put them out, a lot of water damage, Its a good idead to clean your chimney.
My luck. Coldest days of the winter and my fan quit working on the woodstove insert about an hour ago. I do have a new one cus the old one was cuttin up some but now the stove is too hot to move.
Yeah, I cleaned mine every year. It's not the soot, but the dried creosote buildup that is flammable. When I had the wood stove, I did it myself every fall before firing it up the first time. Like Al said, it's not hard, just get something to brush/scrape off the inside of the pipe. The biggest collection of residue will be the first 3 or 4 feet, down low, where the hot gasses first begin to cool off.
In my present house, I have a Heatalator (I hate it!) insert, and a 2-story chimney. I don't do heights very well, so I've been paying to have it swept out, but we don't use it very much. It heats the room it's in OK, but that's also the room with the thermostat, so the rest of the house gets cold. It's not really air tight, so it doesn't hold it's fire very well, and goes through a lot of wood in a hurry. In a power outage, though, it beats being cold.
If your Tstat is that close, then turn your fan setting to "on" instead of "auto" and the fan on the whole house system will circulate the air (heat) and help circulate it while you are using the stove.