Hi Everybody,
I've been lurking on this site doing research for weeks, but I've only posted a couple of times. This forum is an amazing resource, and I wanted to thank everybody that contributes.
Thank you and welcome to the forum.
The barn stove was a barrel stove. Its a 6 car garage and workshop on the first floor, with a large pool room/ bar area above it.
Check the local codes. It might not meet code to have a wood stove in the garage.
I was under the impression that the two stoves would be coming with the house, so I could use them while I sorted out what I wanted to do, but it turns out that the stoves are gone, so I have to figure out a plan sooner than I thought. I'll be using the gas until I can get some new stoves in there. When he passed, the previous owner did leave around 12 cords of good local hardwood c/s/s in the yard. His son said that he thinks that its three years worth, which seems reasonable to me for burning in the house 24/7 and the workshop during the day.
I'm actually excited that the stoves are gone, instead of the wood, which would have been much more of a hassle.
Why would you be excited? You apparently thought the stoves came with the property. I'd be asking some questions and with the stoves being removed, I'd demand a reduction in the price to cover the cost of new stoves. On the other hand, having that extra wood is great! But do not just sit on that wood, replace it as it is being used so that you stay 3 years ahead on wood. This will save you many heartaches because most problems with wood heating come right back to the fuel folks are burning.
I would like to use wood heat as much as possible, but I'm not sure about the practicality of a wood stove in the house. I am out of the house for at least 10 hours a day for work, sometimes as much as 16 hours. There will be other people coming and going (girlfriend, roommate, etc.), but I do not want to have to rely on them to be able to effectively heat the place.
If I were to get a large stove in the house, I'm not sure that I'm comfortable leaving it for the day unattended.
I do not see a problem with being away from the house. And why not teach others how to use the stove. It does not take extreme intelligence to operate a wood stove. Also, why be afraid of leaving the house with the wood stove going? After all, being asleep in the house is not a whole lot different from being away. Just use good sense in how you are operating the stove and sleep well.
A cat stove might be able to get me the kind of burn times that I need, but if I'm not around to bypass the cat or reload, I'm going to ruin it.
What? You have been mislead somewhere about how a cat operates. You simply leave the cat on until you reload. At the end of the burn, even though the stove temperature decreases, there is no more smoke for the cat to burn so it is a non-issue. Simply forget that part.
I don't expect to be able to burn long enough with a non-cat stove.
You can get long burn times out of either type of stove as long as you have good wood. You just have to have a stove with a large enough firebox to hold enough wood. A cat stove will do better with lower burn rates so generally you can get longer burns but there are many non-cats on the market that would suit your needs.
I have access to unlimited free firewood (I own some other land that I can cut), and 3 years of wood already seasoning. I will be able to burn it off eventually in the barn, but I think its going to take me ages.
So what if it takes a long time to burn that wood? All you have to do is keep the top of the stacks covered and hopefully it is already stacked up off the ground. If it is touching the ground then the bottom layer will probably be junk but the rest will be good. Even if it takes you 10 years to use the wood, it will burn fine.
Just wanted to see what all the wise folks here had to say about the situation, and what they would recommend. Am I right in thinking that those kind of burn times are impossible?
No, you are mistaken. Those long burn times are very possible. Hey, what about us folks who heat 100% with wood? What do you suppose we do? I can assure you there is not always someone in the house stocking the stove. Relax.
Do people here even leave their stoves unattended? I know that the owners manual will say not to leave it unattended, but I'm just curious if that is what happens in practice.
As stated, yes, we leave our stoves unattended a lot of the time. You might even think back 50-75 years ago. Then most homes were heated with wood or coal. Because most folks lived on farms, that meant a lot of manual labor. So, if they had to work so much, how were they able to leave their stoves and houses? Simple. They put lots of wood in the stoves and made sure the drafts were turned down so the fire did not run away. It is all in learning how to operate the stove properly.
Thanks.
Good luck.
