We might want a wood stove. Do we actually?

TimfromMA said:

Pellets give you that too. I've spent many nights with only light was the glow of the stove.

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X 2 - and a glass of wine . . . . .

F4jock said:

But what you are not addressing is what happens when they run out of free wood.

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Wood can be had for free along side the road, or when a friend/neighbor has a tree fall down. There is almost always options to acquire free wood with a little work. I've yet to stumble upon a free bag of pellets...

I have a wood burning friend up in NH who is considering a switch to pellets since a new rule was put in place that greatly limits the ability transport of firewood in an attempt to stop the spread of invasive insects.

TimfromMA said:

Pellets give you that too. I've spent many nights with only light was the glow of the stove.

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Well we can certainly agree on that. Since I switched from a wood furnace in the basement to some glass door wood stoves upstairs I never turn the tv on anymore.
This year I'm running an older Fireview 201. Last year I had an old Coalbrookdale Severn. There is definitely a difference in heating between the two similar sized stoves. The stone heats gently everything in the area. As I read someone else opine somewhere. " close your eyes and you'll be hard pressed to figure out where the stove is".
The old cast iron was more of a cooked face, frozen back scenario.

Both stoves are a little too small for my needs which might add to that situation.

claydogg84 said:

Wood can be had for free along side the road, or when a friend/neighbor has a tree fall down. There is almost always options to acquire free wood with a little work. I've yet to stumble upon a free bag of pellets...

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If you feel it's worth cruising the roads looking for downed trees so you can get free wood that's a lifestyle choice only you can make.

I've got a handful of trees in my yard that I want removed. If you can come cut them down without damaging property, you can have them.

TimfromMA said:

I've got a handful of trees in my yard that I want removed. If you can come cut them down without damaging property, you can have them.

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Don't forget the stumps. . . . .

williaty said:

1) Most important: Wife must feel warm when sitting near or in the same room as the wood stove.
3) If we have a wood stove anyway, it needs to function as emergency heating when the power is out.
4) While we’re totally ok doing regularly scheduled maintenance, neither of us tolerate having to fuss with things all the time.

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Wife will love the feel, above and beyond what I could describe. Best feel: soapstone.

For power outages, choose free-standing over insert or pellet.

Less fussing with longer burns = big firebox catalytic.

Good options: Woodstock Fireview, Ideal Steel or Progress Hybrid?

(Most important thing: get your wood stacks started now, because you want wood cut/split/stacked a full year before use, for best results, regardless of which EPA stove you end up with.)

Wife will love either one.

Pellet stove needs a genny during a power outage.

Pellet stove beats wood hands down for work and maintenance. Notice what Branchburner said about getting started NOW. . .

As for longer, more consistent burns with less attention, again pellets have the edge.

F4jock said:

Don't forget the stumps. . . . .

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I'll even negotiate that point. Just get them down low enough so I can run over them with the lawnmower.

I love my woodstove and wood heat but it's not for everyone. Everyone likes the idea of sitting next to a warm woodstove and it's great if the power goes out but most people find that they don't like stacking and carrying wood and cleaning up in general. Woodstoves are the dirtiest source of heat you can have in a house. No matter how hard you try there's always dirt and bark pieces falling off and making a mess. I sweep around my stove almost every day. Lots of people don't want to bother with that.

Random thoughts . . . and getting this thread back on topic for the original poster since this has almost jumped the tracks to a pellet stove vs. woodstove debate.

Tightening up the home and adding insulation whenever and wherever possible will yield a lot of good results no matter what you heat with -- whether it be wood, pellets, geothermal, etc.

Any woodstove should keep you and your wife comfortably warm . . . providing the wood is seasoned and you're running the stove correctly.

You would be happy with a temp at 50 degrees . . . egads . . . I keep my thermostats at 60 degrees and even then it seems quite cool to me. Then again I am normally padding around the house in a T-shirt and boxer shorts (unless we have company in which case I may be in shorts.) The room with my woodstove normally runs around the mid-70s and adjoining rooms are in the low 70s to high 60s.

Not sure where you figure that most folks heating their entire homes with wood heat are running convection woodstoves. There are a fair number of us running radiant woodstoves and heating our homes just fine. I would guess either type would work. Truthfully, I didn't really consider one type better than the other when I was looking for a stove . . . I was more concerned about the size of the stove and whether it would meet my heating needs.

There is some babysitting of the stove . . . but typically only for the first half hour to hour when you start a fire . . . and maybe 20-40 minutes on a reload to adjust the air control if needed. If you really want a "set it and forget it" type of alternative heat I would look at pellet stoves . . . although as you can read above there are pros- and cons- with heating with pellets just as there are pros- and cons- heating with wood. As for the rest of the burn cycle with a woodstove . . . once the stove is at cruising speed with the air control adjusted you pretty much just leave it be until it's time to reload -- which may be as short as 3 hours or as long as 12 hours depending on the firebox size and type of stove (cat vs. secondary burner.)

Many folks -- myself included -- bought a woodstove thinking we would only use it occasionally to help supplement the regular heating unit in the home. Some folks get a woodstove and do just that . . . many more of us end up using the woodstove a lot more than we ever thought we would . . .

Two acres of woods is a start . . . and you can certainly pull some wood off your lot . . . but unless you plan to clear cut the lot you will most likely need to buy some wood or scrounge some wood if you want to use the woodstove for anything more than an ambiance fire or for use only in emergencies or when it is wicked cold. Keep in mind that processing your own wood will require a saw, ax or maul and time . . . you cannot cut down a tree, split it up and burn it the next day . . . in most cases.

F4jock said:

Wife will love either one.

Pellet stove needs a genny during a power outage.

Pellet stove beats wood hands down for work and maintenance. Notice what Branchburner said about getting started NOW. . .

As for longer, more consistent burns with less attention, again pellets have the edge.

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Many more mechanical/electrical things that can fail on pellet stoves. I see quite a few problem threads about pellet stoves on here. Also, you're forced to listen to the blower on a pellet stove - not the case with a radient wood burner. Maybe one day, when I can no longer handle the wood, I would consider a switch.

Chimney Smoke said:

I love my woodstove and wood heat but it's not for everyone. Everyone likes the idea of sitting next to a warm woodstove and it's great if the power goes out but most people find that they don't like stacking and carrying wood and cleaning up in general. Woodstoves are the dirtiest source of heat you can have in a house. No matter how hard you try there's always dirt and bark pieces falling off and making a mess. I sweep around my stove almost every day. Lots of people don't want to bother with that.

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Agreed . . . cleaning my chimney for me can be a pretty dirty job.

And for my wife the one thing she most hates about burning wood is the amount of dust, bark, etc. that seems to come with burning wood . . . even though I try to be diligent about dust control and sweeping up around the hearth.

claydogg84 said:

Many more mechanical/electrical things that can fail on pellet stoves. I see quite a few problem threads about pellet stoves on here. Also, you're forced to listen to the blower on a pellet stove - not the case with a radient wood burner. Maybe one day, when I can no longer handle the wood, I would consider a switch.

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And work and draft and cat and smoke and creosote problems with wood stoves. There just ain't no free lunch. Also free-standing pellet is very flexible as far as temp control and in Stove Temp Mode totally radiant; no blower.

My house sounds similar, maybe not quite so leaky. I've got just under 300 sq ft of glass, no skylights, 16.5' cathedral ceiling with an open plan that's about 1,200' plus add 4 bedrooms that are not part of open plan. I have 11 acres but I started with only 1 acre that was treed. I b ought wood for a few years, then became self sustaining. Now I have enough standing dead and deadfall that I will never cut another live tree. There is always plenty of wood free that is nearby if I needed it.

I just switched from a 2.4 cu ft. stove that was OK but just kept us barely warm with backup heat when it's frigid outside to a 4 cu ft soapstone that has now become our main source of heat.

Rule # 1 - always go bigger than you or your dealer think. You can always use smaller loads when you don't need the full capacity.

IMHO, pellet vs. wood = buying vs. free You hate being controlled by kerosene dealers, you'll have some of the same issues with pellets. Pellets are far less work and if cutting wood, splitting, stacking, drying seem too much for you, go with pellets. Wood is a lifestyle. It is a joy if you love it, drudgery if you don't. If you have to buy chainsaws, build sheds, etc, that adds to the cost but they are long term investments.

Cat vs non-cat. If you are burning dry wood >20% moisture, then cat is great. If some of your wood might be a bit less seasoned, spunky, etc., you are better without a cat. To me, a free standing stove is tremendously superior to an insert unless you don't have the room for it.

Soapstone. I now own a soapstone and the heat is wonderful. We burn 24/7 all season and save about $2K per year.

Before I bought my soapstone, I visited nearly a dozen dealers and called 5 manufacturers plus spent countless hours on this forum. The worst part is filtering out the BS and personal bias that is part of any major purchase. People are strong believers in what they own. Do your research, then come back with more questions.

Second time I've seen this word "spunky" . . . do you mean "punky"? . . . Perhaps the auto correct feature strikes again?

Spunky = courageous and determined (i.e. He was a spunky guy when he went up to that biker gang and told them that he wanted to take one of their bikes out for a spin around the block.)

Punky = resembling punk in being soft and rotted (i.e. This wood is questionable as to how it will burn . . . it looks a bit punky.)

Of course there is also Punky Brewster . . . but that's a whole other thing.

firefighterjake said:

Second time I've seen this word "spunky" . . . do you mean "punky"?

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I've been wondering the exact same thing.

I can maintain the temperature in my house to within 2 degrees and go a month without having to touch the stove except to load it with pellets twice per day. If my stove is off, I can light it with the push of a button.

I think that if you have the room and a way to get a preferably interior vent pipe out through the roof, you should go for a free-standing wood stove, with a window, of course. I'm totally unclear about radiant vs. convection free-standing wood stoves, but you should get one that doesn't require a fan, but maybe has the ability to add one. The fans are noisy and don't work in a power outage. You can find places that sell firewood, and maybe even process your own log loads that are delivered to your place, like I do.

I heat for pleasure and comfort, not to try to replace all my heating needs with wood. With the stove running my furnace does not come on and the house is much warmer than I would keep it with oil alone. I see a reduction in the amount of oil used and a great deal of savings compared to if I was to try to keep the house as warm as I do with the wood stove running.

I think you have to decide to some degree what you're looking to achieve. Full time or part time stove user? I chose to go wood stove. I have a wooded acre and between my property and scrounging I have all the wood I need. If I have to start buying I will. If I wanted to heat full time I would add another stove of some type in the other fireplace. In that case a pellet stove might be on the table. Wife more likely to be able to keep that running but it's not like they don't have maintenance and other issues.

OK, OK - so it's punky! It's my Cdn accent and I am a bit spunky.

williaty said:

However, my wife definitely prefers radiant heat to convection heating. Do most of the wood stoves labeled as convection throw enough radiant heat out the big pane of glass on their front to keep my wife happy?

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Yes, convection wood stoves are also radiant heaters., serving equally well in making wives happier. Having a wood stove of either type is like having a mini version of indoor sunshine, in terms of radiant heat.

Since we switched from 100% forced hot air (hot faces and freezing toes) to 100% toasty cast iron, the number of colds in the household has gone down dramatically, too. I don't think that is a coincidence.

The level of dust and dirt (from indoor wood stacks) has increased somewhat... but it was pretty damn high to start with around here, anyway.

As others have said, all depends on your view of the cutting, splitting, hauling, stacking, re-hauling, re-stacking, stove-tending, chimney-cleaning and ash-dumping process... those chores can give you the feeling of getting old and tired, or of keeping you young and purposeful. My dad, rest his soul, felt pretty young when still doing it at 82.

TimfromMA said:

I've got a handful of trees in my yard that I want removed. If you can come cut them down without damaging property, you can have them.

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Ahh.... Another Craigslist Funny.

williaty said:

Last year, we bought our first house and it’s turned out to have some problems. It’s heated by a ground-referenced heat pump (aka American geothermal) which returns air just a degree warmer than the intake air. While, over time, it will raise the ambient temperature up to where you want it, it never feels warm and frankly feels downright cold while the furnace is running. Add to this the fact the first owner/builder didn’t seal any of the sheathing so we leak like a sieve, have 2 skylights, and have 300sqf of single-pane glass on the end of the house, and the result is a house that’s pretty uncomfortable in the winter.

Thanks!

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Have you had a technician trouble shoot your furnace? 1 degree different is completely not normal at all. I would address the furnace and then have a blower door test done on your home to address the envelope first.