What Are Your Priorities?

For me, its getting the most heat out of my stove.
Just having to buy 195 gallons of oil at 3.25/gallon...is a main factor for me.
I have plenty of wood for the season, and although its probably running 21-24% mc, its a hell of a lot better than running the freakin oil sucker in the basement

Getting the most heat out of my stove. Oil yesterday in NE PA 3.38/gallon. yikes!

My goal is to NOT use my oil baseboard at all. I did use it a smidge this year, but I love not having to pay the oil man like I used to.

I chose the second option, getting the most efficiency out of the wood. I'm usually walking the fine line between enough heat (that's what a stove is for) conserving wood (hey this stuff doesn't grow on...oh yeah, it does) and a clean burn. I'll usually sacrifice the longer burn for the cleaner one and more heat if it comes down to it. That finds me operating in the 500 to 550 range typically for the hottest part of the burn.

I chose the first option, mainly because we just came out of the winter's lowest temps. However, I would agree with the post above from BeGreen. It really depends on the outside temps, time of year, time of day. I guess I want my cake and want to eat it too!

Its all about getting the most heat out of the stove as possible, for each load. vary the load size to conserve wood/add heat. then at night longest burn times with enough heat to not freeze. Really its a little bit of all the options, except the neighbors part. if my fire affects them, they best leave my property. 800+ feet away is as close as they should be

I try to burn as clean as possible, and that is how I voted. I feel like burning clean means getting the most heat out of the wood, or at least the two are closely related. Another top choice would be 'reduce my electric bill as much as possible.' I can't heat the whole house all the time with wood, so 'never using the other heater' is not an option for me, but if I was in a differnt position that would be a fun one to try for a while. I bet it would get old fast. I like having another system that can heat the whole house if I choose not to burn for a while.

I want to be efficient, but I also want to be warm.

We didn't actually buy our stove as primary heat, but as back-up and just so when we did burn, all the heat (and some) didn't go up the fireplace chimney. It was after it was installed that we thought.. gee, we could just run this a lot and keep the house warm, and save money... When it gets down near or to zero (or below) like the last couple nights, clean efficient goes out the window for warm comfortable. Above 20 out, and we can do both.. it's around 1000ft to the closest neighbor, so I don't get to worked up if I burn a little dirty.

BK, I think I use the stove to get the most heat that I need at any given time.
That changes from month to month, and sometimes, day to day.
Ex: last night was -4 and I loaded the stove to the gills on a rather large bed of coals, and hoped it would keep the house warm for about 4-5 hours.
Today, it was cold in the house (again) when I got up, so I put in only 5 splits, and left about noon. Temp outside is about 25, and I just now loaded 5 splits which will probably last until 9-10 tonite.
Last couple days, I couldn't do that, and had to load the stove and run it hot (650-700).
I can run it today about 450-500 and be fine.
I think the first 2 and the last options all go hand in hand. YMWV

Not sure any of these answers quite fits my case. The stove is not our primary heater. I like to have a fire when the kids come over or in the evening when I am home, can watch the flames, and feel cozy. (Standing in front of the stove and warming one's lower back is very pleasant!) I grew up in Nebraska far from the sea and where we did not have fireplaces or much wood. (Buffalo chips are not a good substitute.) Guess it was sensory deprivation that drove my interests in seafaring books and fireplaces.

This year I didn't have enough wood to do many overnight burns. I would rather save wood for when I can watch. Next year may change, as I have cut down a large maple and have done a lot of scrounging. Finally, I think of the stove as a back-up in the case power goes out. Then, I would be interested in maximizing the heat output.

There is one further benefit: I get great enjoyment from collecting and splitting wood.

For me it is a combination of the first three. I want the most heat for the longest time with the least wood consumed. Being a scrounger, I go for the most scrounged BTU per hour spent scrounging and processing. From September through May I work days, nights and weekends, sometime 6 days a week and between 50 and 70 hours a week. I don't have much free time so I try to keep the whole process as efficient as possible. I try not to travel too far for my wood, take only highest BTU and easiest splitting woods. I will turn down knotty soft Maple and hope for some high BTU/volume Oak, Locust, etc. I will buy a $200 cord before I spend hours fighting with something like Elm.

Since wood is our only heat I go for comfortable indoor temps or at least what we think is comfortable. I gave up worrying about efficiency a long time ago. When the outside temps are cold enough to burn clean I do but during shoulder season I will let the stove run much cooler than most here would. Sometimes I let the fire go out after the house has reached temp as I know at those temps it will stay until next day. Sometimes its not very cold 25f but the wind is blowing pretty good and the fire needs to chug along at a low even temp of maybe 300 to 350.
Even with these practices I only have to clean once a year. I speculate that our cold which is considerably more serious than most enables us to burn at a high enough rate to really clean things out. I also think that these EPA stoves or at least mine burn cleaner even when kept at a lower temp than optimum. My only non scientific reason for that thought is there is never as much smoke as I had from the smoke dragon days.
This is all based on dry wood. I would not try this with marginal wood.

I, also, agree with FbFord, but with a conditional 4.

Most of my hours a worked from early Spring to mid Winter, so processing time is limited. I want the biggest bang for the split as far as stove out-put; fuel out-put; time/length of out-put. But, if I'm not burning clean(er), in my smoker, I've gotta dig out the ladder and brushes to clean the flue more often. I'm lazy that way - gotta dig out the extension ladder from the shop; find the brush and poles (not that hard to find either - they're in the shop); rig up the ladder so that I don't come flying off of it, or the roof, 3+ times a year - or just burn hotter and cleaner. Simple choice....

In other words -I W A N T I T A L L ! ! ! ! ;-)

I think mainly #1, but I think I'm burning as efficiently as I can to get there. I dial down as fast as possible after reload and eventually the primary is fully closed. My stove top reaches maximum temps desirable for stone with excellent secondaries throughout the pre-coaling stage of the cycle - I can't do better than that for efficiency. If I had to burn less efficiently to heat the place, I would. Cheers!

For me; A, B, and C.

I need flexibility in the shoulder seasons and a lot of heat during the winter.

I look forward to a day when A isn't the primary motivator.

Well, I certainly want the heat I need, don't want to burn anymore wood than I have to, but burning wood has always been way more than just the heat and saving paying the gas man. For me it is just so basic....man has warmed himself by a fire for far longer than any other method. The entire process warms my heart and soul as well as my body. It makes me feel self sufficient. It is my therapy in the winter. Whether it is cutting, splitting, hauling, burning or just admiring it all, I like burning wood.....so, really hard to answer with the choices, but I voted for # 1.

For me it's choice "E" thats keeping my house and hot water at a steady temperature for half the cost of OIL. I use a conversion pellet burner on my Hot water baseboare unit. Great savings so far.

I voted Burning clean, not really because of the neighbors, as they are too far away to be effected, but because glaze creosote is a major pain to clean the chimney of , I never want to do that again. Since I have an EPA stove, burning clean also means a decent level of efficiency.

The Jotul 600 puts out as of much heat as I need.

I am for aving money, so its getting the most BTU/lb