There are so many stoves and so many ways to burn them, with drastically differing results at times. For me, it always comes down to heating this place as best I can, even if that means wasting some wood at times, or producing a bit more smoke/creosote if I must. On real cold days, I'd rather lose a little extra heat up the chimney than have it 5º cooler in here. Others seem to worry about how little wood they can get by with, or how often they need to clean the chimney. I got to wondering if this doesn't explain why we sometimes do things very differently, even with similar setups. Seems with burning wood, everything is a compromise. Change one thing for the better, another thing may get worse.
So, what say you? What are your wood heating priorities?
So, what say you? What are your wood heating priorities?