What is life like with a modern wood burner?

gyrfalcon said:

I have the choice of two locally-- a big lumbering operation that makes gourmet-quality kiln-dried firewood in mostly gigantic "splits" that they sell for a small fortune, and a small outfit a few towns over from me that gets stuff dried to 20 to 22 moisture content on splits only up to about 4 or 5 inches, but costs about half of what the guys at the lumber mill charge. It's not very much more per cord than what green wood goes for hereabouts, so I go with them.

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Is this the place in Pittsfield, 'falcon? I drive through there sometimes and have wondered about the cost and area they service. They're too far from me, but I'd recommend them to other folks I know who live closer, if they deliver there.

valuman said:

Is this the place in Pittsfield, 'falcon? I drive through there sometimes and have wondered about the cost and area they service. They're too far from me, but I'd recommend them to other folks I know who live closer, if they deliver there.

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No, my place is in Brandon. Didn't even know about the one in Pittsfield! See? They're springing up all over the place.

Give the Pittsfield folks a call and I'm sure they'll be happy to tell you what their deal is. (Johnson up in Bristol is the outfit that does the expensive "gourmet" stuff I mentioned.)

Biggest problem with the small outfits, btw, is that they can't keep this up in cold weather because they can't get their kilns hot enough. Johnson doesn't have that problem.

valuman said:

Is this the place in Pittsfield, 'falcon? I drive through there sometimes and have wondered about the cost and area they service. They're too far from me, but I'd recommend them to other folks I know who live closer, if they deliver there.

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Here's the outfit http://www.coltonenterprises.com/

You have to call for prices, but they have a pretty big delivery area. Unfortunately, though, they only dry to about 25 percent.

The demand around here is still for stuff to burn in old model stoves and fireplaces for ambiance. There still aren't enough people with EPA stoves yet to really push the market.

Andy S. said:

For me, there is no odor issue at all. The cleaning concern is a legitimate one, IMO. I got around that by making sure I keep everything (relatively) neat. The biggest source of mess is the staging of wood on the hearth for me. The splits will leave dirt behind. I have a stone hearth with a rough finish and it doesn't lend itself to easy clean-up. A lesser (but real) cleaning issue is the dust from ash when you clean out the stove. When I shovel out ash there is almost always very small coals still left. No matter how careful I am with the shovel I create dust. You can actually see the dust rising out of the ash bucket along with the heat of the fine coals. That dust travels.

At the end of the day I enjoy the processing part of wood burning and definitely enjoy the free heat. Those things make the added cleaning tolerable.

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I know exactly how you feel. Buy a small shop vac and keep it by the hearth, then clean up every time you need too.
Just another little tip I picked up from our friends here.

BoB

I have the Super27 little brother of the PE Summit, and we love it for all the reasons listed above.
I scoop out ~4 l of fine, heavy mineral ash every 1-4 weeks (depending upon burning rate and wood quality).
We do not have an ashdump, nor a grate.
But pre-conceived perceptions can become a reality if your wife goes into it looking for reasons for it to fail.
My wife was delighted and relieved to get rid of a smelly oil tank, and very happy to pay our fuel money (~$600/y) to friendly Hughie the farmer rather than some ghastly oil conglomerate.
The kids learn that heat = work, and there is no magic energy fairy.

As mentioned . . . a properly drafting woodstove should result in little to no smoke in the living space. Folks that reek of wood smoke are doing it wrong . . . or have the woodstove installed incorrectly.

Cleaning . . . I think this concern is a little more valid. There is a bit of mess involved with burning wood as wood chips, debris, etc. will accumulate around the hearth (I try to be diligent about keeping this area clean). My wife also feels as though the woodstove makes things a bit dustier even though I am pretty careful with the ashes. The trade off for her however is nice, warm and cheap heat no matter whether we have power or not.

I have been heating with wood for about 10 years. My house is over 100 years old around 1885 farm house. The rooms are set up in a circle so the heat flows nicely between the rooms must have been built that way for heating back then.. The hearth still has the old swing out cast iron hook that one would hang a pot on over the fire to cook attached to the left side of the hearth. I cant stand paying the propane company to come out with their truck to fill me up. Like you I have a modern propane furnace 98 % with the steam and vent tubes out the side wall of the house. I usually get about a $600 propane fill up every other year or so. The wood burner is a huge savings. My house is usually about 75 deg when Im home and the stove is being tended to. I get wood for just about free from the Amish in bundles of slab wood for $12 a bundle. thats the key is finding wood for free for almost free. I burnt 14 bundles last year. Thats about $170 in heat plus the gas to pick it up. maybe $200 a year. Thats the good part. The bad is its a lot of work, I do it alone hope you have some help, but its well worth it its a big commitment to heat this way compared turning the thermostat up. There is some mess and a bit of smoke usually on start up but its very minimal once you get the hang of starting up your stove and cleaning out the ash. The stove is located in the living room that usually runs around 80 deg or so, Like mentioned in your post I use a fan placed by the side of the stove several feet away to blow the air toward the colder part of the house, the other rooms stay around 70-75 deg and run the ceiling fan in the kitchen. Maybe a bit colder when its real cold outside. Aside from that Its mainly something that is self taught. Once you get the hang of it its easy.. The pic with the weather station is heating with just wood and cycling the furnace every 3 hrs or so for about 20 min during last years polar vortex. Good luck!

eladdvf, your wife has the same concerns mine did, and these have been repeated here many times by wives of husbands aspiring to heat with wood. We keep one stove going 24/7 from Halloween until whenever we run out of wood budgeted for a given year (hopefully end of March, but sometimes sooner), and two stoves burning weekends and exceptionally cold nights. My wife's prime concerns were odor and dust, often associated with open fireplaces. I can say that in our fourth year with the stoves now, there is NO dust outside the immediate area around the stove, and the only odor problems we ever had were in our first year. Those odor problems came from burning poorly-seasoned (wet) wood, and having trouble with the stove belching when we'd choke the air down too far on said wood. All quickly resolved with time and a little help from the experienced folks here.

I empty our ash pans 2x per week, and have a once per week ritual (Saturday morning, for me) to vacuum both hearths, which keeps the room clean and my wife happy.

I seen several people mention the ash dust issue here. I found this several years ago. Never bought one, but I plan to make one...one of these days.
It's called a Ash Dragon. No affiliation, just an FYI for y'all...

I love my little shop vac that I got onsale for $20 ... but I am very careful nothing hot gets in there too.

I'd love to invest in a vac that will suck the ashes right out of the stove...if you hate dust the vacuum is your friend!

brenndatomu said:

Joful,
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brenndatomu
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I seen several people mention the ash dust issue here. I found this several years ago. Never bought one, but I plan to make one...one of these days.
It's called a Ash Dragon. No affiliation, just an FYI for y'all...

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The ash dragon looks cool in theory but you still need to empty that thing into a bucket which is where the biggest risk of ash ploomage happens. That is, unless you take one little dragon scoop at a time outside.

BobUrban said:

That is, unless you take one little dragon scoop at a time outside.

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I think that is how it is meant to be used. It is pretty good size, I know one scoop a week would do my stove if I was burning 24/7...

I know opinions vary on ash pans, but I really like those on my Jotul F12's. The entire bottom of the firebox (excepting a small perimeter) is a grate that allows ash to fall thru to pan. Twice a week, I just open a door on the bottom of the stove, slide the pan out, and walk it outside. Absolutely zero mess, unless I forget to do it for more than 5 days, and then the pan overflows a bit when I slide it out.

begreen said:

Keep the area behind the pan very clean. There is not a lot of space between the ashpan handle and the ashpan door. When ash overflows behind the pan or when inserting the pan pushes ash to the read of the pan holder, the ash become impacted and eventually can stop the ashpan door from closing tightly.

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Definitely. In fact, I have a special tool for this job, which consists of a flat stock welded to a rod handle, which I can insert in the pan drawer and pull all the ashes forward. I'll try to get a photo tonight.

begreen said:

Although I liked the ash pan system on the Castine better than most. I found the stove got better burn times when I let the ashpan fill up and start to cover the bottom of the grate, so I stopped using it. Being a lazy person I liked having to clean out the stove only once a month.

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I've heard this more than once, and I wonder how a pan empty or full can make that much a difference. I still have 2" of ash atop the grate, even when my pan is empty, since the grate slots are small enough that only the fine ash drops thru. I want to keep those solids above the grate as long as I can, since there are still BTU's there to be had!

Joful said:

I've heard this more than once, and I wonder how a pan empty or full can make that much a difference. I still have 2" of ash atop the grate, even when my pan is empty, since the grate slots are small enough that only the fine ash drops thru. I want to keep those solids above the grate as long as I can, since there are still BTU's there to be had!

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I don't think the difference can be that much if you normally leave a lot of ash on top of the grate...and I do. I'm not sure, though, I've never let the pan fill up...didn't want that mess on my hands.