Wood Stove Home Heat thread

[SkiCop]

My granddad always said that Ashley wood heaters were the best out there. I can remember his house being heated by one exclusively.

[eldereldo]

I installed ta RSF Opal in our house when we did our addition.

We used the central heating option which has a forced air fan and ties it into your duct work. So I can heat my whole house, basement and other rooms as well. It has an automatic damper and thermostatic control to control the burn rate and can put out a massive amount of heat. It will not burn all night on the crappy wood we can get out here (poplar and fir), but it is easy to light and heats up quickly. And it is not my only source of heat so it isn't that important if it goes out. I also have a backup generator installed which supplies power automatically in case of power failures, so the fireplace fans will still work. The whole system wasn't cheap, but I more than doubled the size of my house and my heating bill actually went down.

[FrankZappa]

Scored a pretty decent used Lopi last night for $250.
Wood pile is almost at point of hudge at a cost of $30 plus a couple gallons of gas. Might be enough for a couple years.
Have hookup for getting pipe at cost.
Have a neighbor that'll lend me a splitter if I can do a little work on it.
Thinking of installing a secondary fan into the existing central forced air system to circulate the heat throughout the house (the intakes are ceiling high in the livingroom).
I think I can put this whole thing together for about 1-2 months worth of propane cost and some good old sweat equity (which I need prior to ski season anyway).




Oh, and.........a BIG FUCK YOU!!! to the gas company.

[LT]

OLD thread bump.

We're having this debate right now; wood vs. pellet. I'm leaning towards wood thinking one of these: http://www.regency-fire.com/Products...ves/F1100.aspx

Only real reason we're thinking maybe pellet is because a pellet would take up less space and that we don't have a ton of storage space for wood pile. That being said I think we can live with those issues in that we are leary of possible issues with pellet stove reliability.

[lynchdogger]

Vermont Casting built in 1977 bought three winters ago that was kept in immaculate condition bought for same original price of $500 (bought from original owner with original receipt) = warm and toasty! Live in small house and stove heats entire house with windows open and oil burner silent = money in the bank. Best purchase on craigslist to date! Grew up with wood heat and love it! Now if I could only get the wife and daughters to help bring in wood . . . doubtful!

[XXX-er]

everyone around here gets their wood by the truck load which is 17 cords for a logging truck full dumped on yer land ,around 1000$ but you save that in fuel ,wear & tear on your pickup

the good thing about pellet is no need for a saw ,you probably want to get them delivered by the pallet but you could bring some home in any small car if you did it often

the bad thing is they need electricity to work & you gotta pay for them

[back bowl]

An important difference between pellet and wood is the type of heat. Pellet stoves use a heat exchanger and a fan, so the heat is about 90% convective (hot air like a furnace). Woodstoves rely on radiation (like an old cast iron radiator) for about 85% of their output. If you want something that just cranks out reasonably affordable heat with little fuss, a pellet stove is fine. If you want something that you will want to stand around and that puts out very comfortable heat, go with a woodstove...

[lynchdogger]

An important difference between pellet and wood is the type of heat. Pellet stoves use a heat exchanger and a fan, so the heat is about 90% convective (hot air like a furnace). Woodstoves rely on radiation (like an old cast iron radiator) for about 85% of their output. If you want something that just cranks out reasonably affordable heat with little fuss, a pellet stove is fine. If you want something that you will want to stand around and that puts out very comfortable heat, go with a woodstove...

You may be correct in the way the two heats work but I disagree about the need to stand around a wood stove! Have you ever used a good wood stove? You certainly don't need to stand around it.
In fact, we often have to crack the windows and at times, open them wide because of the heat our stove puts out. No exaggeration, our house easily can get up to 75-80 degrees if the fire is cranking! I run around in shorts and t-shirts all winter.
We put a steamer filled with water on top of the stove so the air is less dry. We use a ceiling fan to circulate the heat.
We get the wood for free (minus my effort to cut, split and stack) and in fact, often I'm charging to remove wood from client's houses if they don't want it - I'm in the tree & landscape biz!
We have heat even if we lose power! In the last four years we have saved thousands! It is work though and don't doubt that but keeps ya fit!

[back bowl]

Yeah- I didn't mean to imply that you needed to stand around the woodstove to stay warm, but that you would want to stand around the woodstove because the heat is radiant rather than convective. I was just trying to provide an explanation of why one might prefer a radiant source over a convective source for the sake of comfort.

A little more technically (but not much)- A radiant heat source is heating the objects (masses) around it while a convective source is heating the air and blasting that heat at you... You like to stand around a radiant heat source because it heats you directly but the air around you, though it's warmer because there is a convective effect from any heat source, is cooler than you are- the stove's heating you without heating the air. When you're in a room with a pellet stove, it's blasting out 100 degree air which is warming you from the outside in....

I probably don't understand it well enough to really explain, not being a physics major or anything, but you can get the effect if you go to a campfire in the winter. You can get real hot standing in front of the fire even if the air between you and the fire is cooler than you are. And when someone steps between you and the fire you immediatly get cold because radiative heat only travels in a straight line, and they're blocking your source of heat... So a woodstove will feel more like a campfire, a pellet stove will feel more like a hot air vent...

[old goat]

The point being it takes a lot more energy to heat the air in a house plus everything in the house than it does to heat the solid objects (including people) only. We have an Aurora cast iron freestanding wood stove, about 20 years old--no problems with it except not the easiest stove to light at 6000 feet. (Can't leave it on all day when it's sunny--big south facing windows and the house gets too hot with no heat on.) The house is a lot more comfortable at 60 degrees with the stove going than it is with the forced air furnace going at 65 degrees. The dogs and the kids never got burned--neither did the rabbit unfortunately.

[LT]

Yeah about 90% sure were going with wood; less expense up front, reliable as hell, and wood can be had cheap(with labor).

[XXX-er]

we got a HE furnace as backup heat and its all about keeping the gas from cycling off

fire in the morning and a fire at night makes the gas bills way less other wise the furnace will keep cycling just to keep the place above freezing if no one is there and run up a huge gas bill

we got pellet too

[splat]

I was just offered an old pot belly, I forget the brand (4-1/2 feet high, no mica windows like the really old ones) in excellent shape for a couple hundred bucks. I'm currently evaluating my options for installing it, especially after last winter's heating bills. I'm up against some air quality regs, though...

[Game Over]

. I'm up against some air quality regs, though...

just dont ask and do it yourself

[back bowl]

I was just offered an old pot belly, I forget the brand (4-1/2 feet high, no mica windows like the really old ones) in excellent shape for a couple hundred bucks. I'm currently evaluating my options for installing it, especially after last winter's heating bills. I'm up against some air quality regs, though...

I don't know shit about air quality regs, but you might like a more modern stove better. I run an old stove for totally sentimental reasons (it's the stove I grew up with at my parents' house), but they are a PITA compared to the newer ones... Harder to clean, messier, never airtight no matter how often you tear them down and rebuild them, not nearly as efficient... If I wasn't so attached to my old stove, I'd get a hearthstone or something with secondary combustion... You can find pretty nice new woodstoves on craigslist for not much more than a couple hund. Also, if you call your local realtors and tell them you are looking for a woodstove, people often buy a house with a woodstove but don't want the stove and a realtor can hook you up with a good (sometimes free) deal on a nice stove...

[splat]

I bet you're right with that coal assessment, Zappa. Oooh, the neighborhood would go nuts if they saw black coal smoke pouring out the chimney. But I can back I can bank a fire for 12 hours with birch, pinion or madrone and hardly make any smoke. But a little coal sure does go a long ways.

[XXX-er]

around here they have a burn smart program at a community level ,an old stove buy back program ,they will invite people to come and attend the free seminars with industry pros ,tell you how to get the right wood ,clean the stove ...all aspects of proper stove usage and they have 2 stoves outside mounted on a trailer in the P-lot to show the difference new technology makes

They cranked up to full burn where they will be burning clean as possible ,the catalytic stove stove is burning clean and the pipe has no smoke coming out while the old stove is belching smoke ...uou are breathing that all that shit

[mishka_4]

I bet you're right with that coal assessment, Zappa. Oooh, the neighborhood would go nuts if they saw black coal smoke pouring out the chimney. But I can back I can bank a fire for 12 hours with birch, pinion or madrone and hardly make any smoke. But a little coal sure does go a long ways.

FYI with coal NO ANY SMOKE or smell inside or outside of the house and it cheaper compered to wood

[Diamond Joe]

Found this thread looking for info on wood stoves, we're thinking of installing one in the house we just bought... lots of useful info on here.. but

Can we continue with people's recommendations for specific stoves? and pics?


I'm looking for a wood stove to heat about 1800 sq feet.. my 'rents have a http://www.quadrafire.com/Products/3...ood-Stove.aspx, which heats their 2nd home and also (i think) qualifies for the tax rebate.. but im hearing a lot of love for Vermont Castings and Jotul here..

Also, any input on buying *new/efficient stove + tax credit* vs buying *used used-to-be good stoves + large discount*??

[nickites]

I have a Quadra-Fire 2000 that I got used. It would be the equivalent of the 2100, compared to the new models, no step-top, no fire lighting mode. It's probably a little undersized for my house (1500 sqft), so it never goes out. I have to clean the chimney more often because the smoke and gases are cooler than my last stove (a glorified burn barrel called a Fire-View) and create a lot more creosote buildup. But I used at least 1 cord less firewood than my old stove.
They seem to be well made, easy to operate, and pretty efficient. Holds enough coals to stoke right up in the morning with just a little kindling and a little huffing and puffing (take one of your old broken ski poles and remove the grip, smash the end almost flat and you have a supreme fire stoking tool- use it to blow on the coals and relight your fire without getting burned or dusted with ash).

[toast2266]

Found this thread looking for info on wood stoves, we're thinking of installing one in the house we just bought... lots of useful info on here.. but

Can we continue with people's recommendations for specific stoves? and pics?


I'm looking for a wood stove to heat about 1800 sq feet.. my 'rents have a http://www.quadrafire.com/Products/3...ood-Stove.aspx, which heats their 2nd home and also (i think) qualifies for the tax rebate.. but im hearing a lot of love for Vermont Castings and Jotul here..

Also, any input on buying *new/efficient stove + tax credit* vs buying *used used-to-be good stoves + large discount*??

I'm in the same boat so I'd like to hear people's takes on this as well.

I'd also like to hear opinions on steel vs. cast iron vs. soap stone from people who have used more than one (I've only ever had steel). I get the basic differences between them, but I don't have a good concept of how that plays out in real life.

Also, FWIW, I currently have a small vermont castings dutchwest stove that fucking sucks and is getting replaced. I think most of the problems with it are due to size, but it won't take normal size firewood (I have to cut everything really small), it takes constant maintenance to keep it running, and its a huge pain in the ass to get started.

[XXX-er]

we got a medium dutchwest and it burns like a champ ,easiet stove I have ever had to light or use

I wonder what your stove pipe is like, mine is in the middle of the house ,out the peak of the roof and 3 ft higher foir a very long straight correctly sized pipe ...excellent draw

I got a buddy with the samll one and it doesnt burn that well but them he had a funky short pipe a couple of 90degree bends in it which I think was the probelm

[toast2266]

we got a medium dutchwest and it burns like a champ ,easiet stove I have ever had to light or use

I wonder what your stove pipe is like, mine is in the middle of the house ,out the peak of the roof and 3 ft higher foir a very long straight correctly sized pipe ...excellent draw

I got a buddy with the samll one and it doesnt burn that well but them he had a funky short pipe a couple of 90degree bends in it which I think was the probelm

Mines a straight 6" pipe, probably about 15 ft indoors and 3ft outdoors, and has been recently checked so I know its not all clogged up.

I think its mostly just that the stove is really small. I'm also wondering if something is messed up with the catalytic converter so its not circulating right, but I don't really know what to look for as far as problems.

[concretejungle]

We've got a Pacific Energy insert with a blower. The blower will turn itself off and then back on again later which I assume is the fan overheating. We've had it for about 5 years and it's never happened before this winter.

From what I've shopped for I can only replace the whole fan/blower. Any ideas of what to check and what to replace. I believe it's the series A at the top of this page.

http://www.pacificenergy.net/manual_archive.php

Thanks.

[concretejungle]

Jeebus that's a lot of steps. I'll make sure I have enough beer and weed for the task. Or just suck it up until the summer and deal with it then.

Thanks FZ.