What got you started with burning wood?

I also built my house in 1979 during the first "Gas crises" when we had 2 hour plus waiting lines for rationed fuel here in New England.

birth....

It doesn't really fit one of the categories, but the blizzard of '78 in CT was the start.

After sleeping on the living room floor near the fireplace for days, my father promptly went out and bought a wood/coal stove. Haven't been without since.

Got tired of paying a gas bill every month and had just bought a new chainsaw so I figured I didn't have any excuse for not getting out and finding my own heat. I started burning wood with a Mama Bear Fisher in the early 90's. I made the step into epa land about 5 years ago and have no regrets. I have more firewood hoarded up then I ever had and have no intentions of stopping now.

Thanks to this forum my wood burning education has really payed off for me.

I grew up with wood heat...fireplace, then an Earth Stove, then my folks transitioned to a Lopi with a catalyst. The wifey and I wanted a house with a fireplace when we finally bought one, and it has one. The ambiance was nice but the fire really only kept the chimney warm. Add to the that the outdated, hot water electric baseboard heat and the killer $400.00 electric bills with the temp set at 58 [yes 58...it was a cold winter last year in more ways than one]. Enter the Buck 94NC. Have not turned the baseboard system on yet. The electric bill has not been over $140.00 this winter.
I like to to cut, split, & stack wood and I am not afraid to burn pine. The wifey is warm and life is good.

Edit: Almost forgot to mention that I am a "pyro" as well. I like to "play" with fire and I have a very healthy respect for it. It is a very powerful "frien-emy."

Fire. It heats, lights, cooks, hurts...3 out of 4 ain't bad.

Money and the Emerald ash borer..

All the ashes on my property were diseased and dropping limbs all over my property. The price to take down trees and have they hauled off was shocking. At the same time the price of oil heat was climbing. I was paying $ 400+ a month to keep the house at 65. I still have about 15 more to take down

Now I'm addicted... Let's be honest I post on a wood burning forum, I now have 3 chainsaws, a woodshed and I bought a second stove.

My springs first victims..... The 2017-18 start

I bought my house in 1984. It has electric heat. After the first electric bill I got in the winter I bought a stove. A Consolidated Dutchwest Federal Air tight large. It came in 3 sizes small, large, and extra large. I still have that stove today and it works great.

My grandpa heated his garage workshop with a gorgeous antique parlor stove that I inherited. My dad put a smoke dragon in the house in th 1970s.

My wife came home from a garage sale a few years ago with that smile that makes me scared.... she'd bought a new fangled epa stove with an emissions sticker on the back.

Google searches learning to run that thing brought me here so often I registered. Trimmed about 1200 gallons off my oil usage last winter, from 2000 down to 800 gallons.

Love the feel of wood heat, I don't intend to be without a woodstove for the rest of my life. It just feels better.

Also a pyro. I currently own 5 bbq grills and have a special torch just for crusting creme brulee.

For a burner, I was born born in the wrong place, southern California. Always loved starting fires for BBQ though. Bought a house with a fireplace and the rest is history.

A. Luv having the fire!
B. Like sticking it to the Man!

I tended a wood stove as a teen and split the wood for my parents when I lived up in the Sierras.

I've recently moved to New Hampshire and have kids of my own now. Bought a beautiful, historic colonial New England farmhouse. It's truly a colonial, with the first ell (the original home) built in 1784, when New Hampshire was a colony free of British rule but not yet part of the Union.

My wife and I planned to add a wood stove back to this home when we bought it this summer, but this winter, my first in this home, accelerated our plans. We're paying right around $1,000 a month to keep the house 60-62 degrees farenheit. Propane and electric heat, about a 60/40 split. EVERYONE around here heats with wood as their primary source, and I understand why.

So I'm stoked. Driving to West Lebanon and buying a Progress Hybrid tomorrow from Woodstock Soapstone Co. Having our chimney rebuilt and lined and insulated by a local CSIA sweep week after next, who is also building us a hearth. Got our first delivery of wood today, stacked it in the garage (this one is already well seasoned). Going to start amassing wood for next winter.

I have a lot of fond memories of the giant cast iron smoke dragon from my teenage years in the mountains. It will be good to enjoy wood heat again.

I already posted as to doing it due to both cash flow and a love of burning stuff.

Update: The first bill since "going wood" arrived. The normal 500-600 USD electric
was $360 !! Most excellent start as the billing cycle had two weeks of electric heat
before firing up the pig, which has rarely fully cooled since. The next bill will tell all.

We're around or even under 100 bucks in the summer even running central air so we
have a very good feeling about the "Kw hrs used" on the next statement of charges !!

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeap

Extended power outage during Hurricane Sandy. That was a wakeup call that I needed to have seem wood on hand for emergencies.

Which poll option suits that? I don't know.

I live in wild land fire zone category HIGH. Lots of dead juniper trees and branches. The more they are cut back the better. Defensible space and all that.

High pellet prices. $300 a month for pellets is unacceptable! Picked up a used Fireview a few months ago. Also, I Will be putting a coal stove in this summer so I will be well prepared next winter.

It was all my wife's fault!

BrotherBart said:

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ETA: And bet I am the only person on the forum that ever got handcuffed and read his rights for picking up construction scraps at the curb to take home on his way from work to feed that stove.

Click to expand...

Back when I was a kid, in the late 60's I ran cross country in high school. This was way before everyone and her sister ran cross country, that started late 70's. It was no problem in the Fall, I'd run near the school out in the country side.. To stay in shape, off season, I'd run a few miles in the neighbor hood. Trouble was, in my old neighbor hood, if you were running, you probably had a really good reason, and staying in shape didn't remotely approach a good reason

3 out of 4 times I'd be stopped by the cops, with full lights and music blaring, lazy pokes did not want to get out and give chase. I'd always stop, and approach the vehicle , hands visible. The only thing that let me get by, with out arrest, was my good manners, well , that , and there was no place to hide anything of value in my silk shorts and top.