What I was told at the fireplace store

Rick, yeah I can. I meant to say that those who haven't been following this from the beginning probably don't want to read four pages of stuff to figure out what the last comments are about. Especially since along the way we've wandered off into horses and trucks.

Tonight I'm looking online at all the choices for a wood stove for the basement shop. I'll probably be by tomorrow with questions for you folks.

Take care.

What he said! I caught myself tonight looking down at a pile of oak that I've been working on...

My 2-cents worth:

Although there are differences in cost, to me the biggest differentiator among gas/pellets/wood is TIME. Gas requires virtually no time, pellets more (buying, hauling, cleaning), and wood the most. I've used all three. My favorite (ignoring time) is wood. I won't use pellets in my home again (in my shop is okay) due to messy cleaning.

Dan, I have to somewhat disagree. How much time does it take you to earn the money to pay the gas man? Rhetorically speaking, since that's none of my business.
I'm really not trying to be argumentative, but I worked for almost 35 yrs., retired, then started burning wood. If you have no time left at the end of your work day, then you just pay the gas man from your salary/wages and move along. Been there, bought the t-shirt, etc......
Burning wood saves me at least 200-300/month, for the 7 months we burn. When working, I could make that extra money in pretty short order, but retired, not so much. They ALL require time/money............which one do you have most?
For me, it turned into a lifestyle change. LOTS of work, but I don't do it all in a weekend, and now that I'm ahead of the game, life has gotten more retiring-like. :cheese:
Cool avatar,...your house?

wow someone dug up a blast from the past... I love it when people do that on web forums

That's been happening a lot lately . . . maybe we should have a contest to see who can dig up the oldest thread on this forum . . . and still be able to post a relevant comment to that thread.

ditto!!

Nevermind.... after I posted I see this post if super old. I never read it to the end before I posted...

Dave11, your confusing me a bit. You don't want to use the central furnace, yet you are willing to install a nat. gas insert? Maybe we don't see the whole picture here?

If your gas furnace is an older less efficient model, I would think that a new efficient one would be better money spent than the gas insert. Then work toward updating both fireplaces with wood burning inserts.

Wood pellet market is unreliable, you need to be able to purchase and store a whole season of pellets to be cost effective (at least in this area).

If you have the wood to cut, or enjoy wood heat and the work that goes with it, then wood heat is wonderful, and you help out whoever you are buying wood from. But you have to enjoy it, or you will be using that gas heat, and if you are going to do that, then you might as well be doing it with a good efficient furnace.