Question:

I like the smell, but in my neighborhood, it is called air pollution. — Rick

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I guess I’m one of those 1%. All good points but there’s just something special about heating with wood!! IMHO no other heat source comes close to it’s unique qualities. We only do it on the weekends when we’re home for a long stretch and it sure beats hearing a heat pump "grind away" nonstop. Ash’s need to be cleaned out a couple times per season and two trips to the barn to get wood is enough for a full day’s burn.  The chimney get’s cleaned annually. Pellet stoves are OK but they’re just not the same as wood fires. P.S. Stoves don’t smell inside but when you go outside they produce a wonderful aroma depending on the type of wood you burn!! due to this years outrageous gas bills, i’d like to seek an alternate heat source for the future that will lower my gas bill. does anyone know any particulars about woodstoves? the chimney wouldn’t be accessible because of its location in my kitchen. can a woodstove be vented through a wall? any information would be appreciated. About 25 years ago about a million people rushed out and bought wood stoves to save on their heating bills.  I would guess that maybe 1% of those are still in operation — a smaller figure than the number of homes that suffered fire or smoke damage due to the stoves. Where will you get the wood?  Where will you store it?  Are you prepared to deal with hauling wood in every few hours all winter.  Are you prepared to haul the ashes out daily?  What will you do with the ashes — many haulers won’t take them?  Are you sure you want your home smelling like the inside of a fireplace?

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I guess I’m one of those 1%. All good points but there’s just something special about heating with wood!! IMHO no other heat source comes close to it’s unique qualities. We only do it on the weekends when we’re home for a long stretch and it sure beats hearing a heat pump "grind away" nonstop. Ash’s need to be cleaned out a couple times per season and two trips to the barn to get wood is enough for a full day’s burn.  The chimney get’s cleaned annually. Pellet stoves are OK but they’re just not the same as wood fires. P.S. Stoves don’t smell inside but when you go outside they produce a wonderful aroma depending on the type of wood you burn!! – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – due to this years outrageous gas bills, i’d like to seek an alternate heat source for the future that will lower my gas bill. does anyone know any particulars about woodstoves? the chimney wouldn’t be accessible because of its location in my kitchen. can a woodstove be vented through a wall? any information would be appreciated. About 25 years ago about a million people rushed out and bought wood stoves to save on their heating bills.  I would guess that maybe 1% of those are still in operation — a smaller figure than the number of homes that suffered fire or smoke damage due to the stoves. Where will you get the wood?  Where will you store it?  Are you prepared to deal with hauling wood in every few hours all winter.  Are you prepared to haul the ashes out daily?  What will you do with the ashes — many haulers won’t take them?  Are you sure you want your home smelling like the inside of a fireplace?

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Along with all the other posts I would consider a pellet pellet availability in your area It eliminates some of the negative attributes of a pure woodstove, although like all energy sources they don’t give the pellets away, but it’s a lot cheaper than running gas at least at this time for us. Jeff – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – due to this years outrageous gas bills, i’d like to seek an alternate heat source for the future that will lower my gas bill. does anyone know any particulars about woodstoves? the chimney wouldn’t be accessible because of its location in my kitchen. can a woodstove be vented through a wall? any information would be appreciated.

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    We heat our split level (4 levels) bungalow using a catalitic equipped convection wood stove from late November to early March, using 6 cords of wood, …non-stop burn. I also have an oil furnace …just in case. There is no smell of smoke and a 4 liter ashtray located under the firebox allows the removal of ashes.     The routine is always the same: 1. Flash fire (5 pieces of wood the size of your wrist loosely crossed) at 06:00 when I get up. By the 07:00 the flue pipe thermometre indicates 400 F., and the catalic burner thermometre indicates 1800 F. = the stove is "HOT". 2. Add 3 to 4 large logs, …as much as the firebox can handle. The air register should be fully opened. 15 min. later, the bright flames should be surronding the logs, you can then close the air entry to the minimal setting …where you can see the ‘blue-purple flame’ dancing at the roof of the firebox. The wood will gradually turn to coals (pure carbon) by 12:00 * Repeat step 1 and 2 at 15:00 and 22:00 …you have then covered your daily 24 hours heating process. * You have not polluted your neighborhood with smoke. * You have an even continuous "bone warming heat"… at 1/2 the price of oil. * It is a healthy exercise to chop & carry wood around … (once a week) PS.  Don’t start a fire when your outside chimney is cold… test it before with by watching the your lighter flame at the mouth of the chimney …you will probably see a down draft which will cause the smoke to blow back in your house… wait for a sunny day and an ‘up draft’. (or warm up your chimney with a welding torch…if you are in a hurry) – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – due to this years outrageous gas bills, i’d like to seek an alternate heat source for the future that will lower my gas bill. does anyone know any particulars about woodstoves? the chimney wouldn’t be accessible because of its location in my kitchen. can a woodstove be vented through a wall? any information would be appreciated.

Response:

Couldn’t agree more. I heated my home for 7 years with a woodstove. Starting in 1991, I did it because I enjoyed it, was good exercise, and was much cheaper than oil (if you buy grapple loads). Now it’s purely a hobby. Unless your time is worth very little, the cost-effectiveness of heating with wood isn’t there. Here’s my experience, in my last house: — would use about 5 cords per year for a well-insulated 2200 ft^2 house — bought wood by the grapple load; uncut, unsplit. buying it cut and split will remove basically     eliminate any savings (1 cord wood is equal to about 275 gallons of oil, in terms of btu’s) If    you live way out in the country, you might be able to get cut/split at a reasonable price. — Set up a method to avoid going outside during the week; kept 1/4 cord in a tractor cart in an      attached garage. — Stove needed to be fed 3 times a day; Once in the morning, once after getting home from work,     and once prior to bed. In very cold weather, it would consume significantly more. — Stove only needed ashes removed once a week — A grapple load was $75. Renting a log splitter was $50/day. A good chain saw is $500. — You can split (with a gas-powered splitter) 4 cords/day by yourself. Cutting the logs is time consuming. — I tended to keep the house much warmer than with oil; the wood is almost ‘free’ — A decent wood stove (high efficiency, catalytic converter, looks nice, large) will run $2000+ — I bought the tools and cleaned my own chimney. Otherwise it’s $75/year. — Heat distribution: I had an open-concept house, so it was easier. If you use a dual-fuel furnace     that also helps. Otherwise, plan on registers and forced air returns to distribute the heat.     Fans are noisy. Enjoyed doing it. But for the fun only. One comment: if you house smells like the inside of a fireplace; you have a problem. When running, a well designed and ducted system should have no odor of a fire, especially with airtight stoves. People visiting would not know a wood stove was operating in the house until they saw it.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – due to this years outrageous gas bills, i’d like to seek an alternate heat source for the future that will lower my gas bill. does anyone know any particulars about woodstoves? the chimney wouldn’t be accessible because of its location in my kitchen. can a woodstove be vented through a wall? any information would be appreciated. About 25 years ago about a million people rushed out and bought wood stoves to save on their heating bills.  I would guess that maybe 1% of those are still in operation — a smaller figure than the number of homes that suffered fire or smoke damage due to the stoves. Where will you get the wood?  Where will you store it?  Are you prepared to deal with hauling wood in every few hours all winter.  Are you prepared to haul the ashes out daily?  What will you do with the ashes — many haulers won’t take them?  Are you sure you want your home smelling like the inside of a fireplace?

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due to this years outrageous gas bills, i’d like to seek an alternate heat source for the future that will lower my gas bill. does anyone know any particulars about woodstoves? the chimney wouldn’t be accessible because of its location in my kitchen. can a woodstove be vented through a wall? any information would be appreciated.

Response:

due to this years outrageous gas bills, i’d like to seek an alternate heat source for the future that will lower my gas bill. does anyone know any particulars about woodstoves? the chimney wouldn’t be accessible because of its location in my kitchen. can a woodstove be vented through a wall? any information would be appreciated.

About 25 years ago about a million people rushed out and bought wood stoves to save on their heating bills.  I would guess that maybe 1% of those are still in operation — a smaller figure than the number of homes that suffered fire or smoke damage due to the stoves. Where will you get the wood?  Where will you store it?  Are you prepared to deal with hauling wood in every few hours all winter.  Are you prepared to haul the ashes out daily?  What will you do with the ashes — many haulers won’t take them?  Are you sure you want your home smelling like the inside of a fireplace?

Response:

I have heated with wood since 1970, and I would not habve it any other way. I have ample property to obtain the wood, means and equipment to cut and split it, and storage space for it. Ashes are collected in a central point and then scattered over the fields and added to the garden etc…if you get a good top quality stove the burn time is you properly handle the fire in the stove, and feeding of it, your house should not have any more of an odor than what could be expected by using a fireplace, in use. In the south and many parts of the country its no big deal, and any "aroma" of burning wood is welcome. A little aroma is more than worth it than paying the electric or gas heating, but I pay for it with cooling here. My average power bill is 30 to 40 dollars in the winter……my neighbors electric bill is over 250.00 a month (total electric new house) and my brothers gas bill is close to 200 a month as well.     Just what are you going to have to pay for wood if you have to buy it. I have seen it going for as little as 40.00 a full cord to well over 125 for a full cord, and have heard some places are even higher. To answer your question weather a chimney can be run through a wall, yes, it can provided the proper materials are used. But you still have to run a verticle length to get proper draft, and to meet codes that may be in force in your area. With all the newer insulated chimney pipes today its not a very expensive deal to properly run a chimney the right way. But as Dan pointed out, there is more to a woodstove than merely throwing in wood and kicking back…….not anywhere as easy or convienient as turning up the thermometer…….but I enjoy it. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – x<- x<- due to this years outrageous gas bills, i’d like to seek an alternate x<- heat source for the future that will lower my gas bill. does anyone x<- know any particulars about woodstoves? the chimney wouldn’t be x<- accessible because of its location in my kitchen. can a woodstove be x<- vented through a wall? any information would be appreciated. x<- x<-About 25 years ago about a million people rushed out and bought wood x<-stoves to save on their heating bills.  I would guess that maybe 1% of x<-those are still in operation — a smaller figure than the number of x<-homes that suffered fire or smoke damage due to the stoves. x<- x<-Where will you get the wood?  Where will you store it?  Are you prepared x<-to deal with hauling wood in every few hours all winter.  Are you x<-prepared to haul the ashes out daily?  What will you do with the ashes x<— many haulers won’t take them?  Are you sure you want your home x<-smelling like the inside of a fireplace?

Opinions are strictly those of my wife….I have had no input whatsoever. Remove capital A from chipmkr for correct email address Regards Foxeye

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