Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
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We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
No blower until the stove is warmed up. The blower is used to steal heat from the stove and send it around the house. Until there is enough heat for the fire to burn cleanly, you don't want to be stealing heat from the fire.
Everything is going great! Just been de-nailing the pallets so we can cut them into manageable pieces; they're burning like a charm. It's a lot of work, but we don't really have a choice and it's somewhat therapeutic to chop and saw the wood.
We also found a place to consistently find good pallets, which was half the battle.
Don't forget to sit in front of it with a beer now and then. Between school and working to stay warm and working to pay the bills, you gotta remember to unwind occasionally.
Everything is going great! Just been de-nailing the pallets so we can cut them into manageable pieces; they're burning like a charm. It's a lot of work, but we don't really have a choice and it's somewhat therapeutic to chop and saw the wood.
We also found a place to consistently find good pallets, which was half the battle.
You learned something through this that I hope you don't forget: hard work is therapeutic and satisfying. I am a mechanical engineer with a mostly desk job and I work with my hands over weekends to keep my sanity. Nothing helps the work week melt away like cutting and splitting firewood. Stacking on the other hand is no fun but that's a subject for another post. Stacking is still better than sitting at my desk.
I am fortunate to have a job with a 4x10 schedule so I can play weekend lumberjack three days a week. I wind up in water cooler discussions about the past weekend's activities and my coworkers think I'm crazy. They don't get it.
There is nothing like standing back after a day of hard work to see what you accomplished. Every piece of wood I put in my stove was cut with one of the chainsaws I bought dead and rebuilt, put on the beat and neglected truck I resurrected, split by hand with my maul or through the splitter I was asked to haul to the dump for a friend. I brought it home and rebuilt it. I have a lot of satisfaction in using firewood and free heat besides.
Don't forget the feeling of heating your home by your own means. When you get out of school and have a little more disposable cash get a decent truck, saw and splitter and save the money you would have spent on natural gas for more important things like diesel for the truck, gas and bar and chain oil for the saws and more logging equipment. IMHO it is much more satisfying than using the furnace.
Just think about how lucky you are to live in Seattle this weekend. Another challenge with wood burning is this odd government agency that decides to ban burning on occasion. Right now I am not allowed to burn my modern stoves and I live just south of you in Pierce county. So even if you're cold, you risk a 1000$ fine for burning those pallets during these occasional and usually unjustified county wide bans.
Oh and once you graduate from PBR and rainier, at least do yourself a favor and fill growlers at georgetown brewery. Manny's, Lucille, etc. Much cheaper to drink at home.
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