Greetings, I’m new here, been an occasional lurker on and off for a couple years.
An introduction…I’m a Pacific Northwester, living in suburban Portland, OR. Been burning a wood stove for supplemental heat over 20 years. I purchased my first wood stove, a Lopi Endeavor, in 1999. I loved the Endeavor and wish I would have kept it when I sold that house. I don’t think I had the best burn times or performance from my Lopi the first few years, perhaps my novice fault. I was also buying my wood back then, which was perhaps not always seasoned as well as the sellers swore it was, imagine that. Still impressed by the build quality and my experience with the Endeavor, especially when used with seasoned wood. Fast forward a few years and I combined houses with my now spouse about a decade ago. Our house came with 1987 Avalon stove placed in a brick alcove built specifically for a wood stove. The Avalon is I believe a 901 on a pedestal. It’s an insert which can be installed as a fireplace insert, with legs or on a pedestal. The 901 is also an early generation EPA stove with a single (sometimes visibly working) secondary reburn tube at the top of the burn box near the brick baffle. Depending on what’s available I now cut and season my own mix of Pacific Northwest doug fir, coastal range silver fir, maple and oak. I’m fortunate enough to have room to season my wood for two plus years before burning it. What a difference seasoned wood makes in the stove. I currently have two cord of doug fir needing to be split and placed on seasoning racked.
So, what brings me here?...My spouse is now retired and keeps the wood heat going most days while I’m still at work during the week. Our supplemental wood heat has increased to over half of our heat. Stove goes all weekend long as well. We’re getting close to 4.0 to 4.5 cord of usage annually. Our 901 is built like any standard Travis Industries battle tank and performing as well as can be expected for a 36 year old fireplace insert on a pedestal. I’ve maintained fire bricks, baffle blanket, seals and kept it going. As well as the 901 is still working there are more efficient stove designs today. The 2023 biomass tax credit is a pretty big carrot for us to make an upgrade with something more efficient. We’re also venting up a 9” x 13” tile chimney, about 13’ tall. A 6” stainless liner as part of a upgrade. I’m thinking that the chimney liner may also help with stove efficiency and improve draft. Our house is single story 1800 square ft. the Avalon does a good job keeping us warm. Windows are updated and insulate well. Wall insulation is also good.
I’ll be continuing to research our upgrade options and may ask questions, were not in an urgent hurry. Looks like most qualifying biomass tax credit stoves are catalytic varieties, which would be a learning curve for us. Not ruling out catalytics, but have a desire to keep things as simple as possible with a proven design. Stoves we’re considering (including catalytic) at this point are Lopi Evergreen, Kuma Tamarack/Aspen and Hearthstone Mansfield. Still need to actually go to local shops and have a look. I’m hoping that Lopi perhaps looks into the Endeavor for an engineering change to help it achieve another single percentage point of efficiency to qualify it for the tax credit. I’m willing to wait for that, but not too long as I believe upgrading sooner will make more efficient use of our seasoned wood.
Thanks for your time
Joe
An introduction…I’m a Pacific Northwester, living in suburban Portland, OR. Been burning a wood stove for supplemental heat over 20 years. I purchased my first wood stove, a Lopi Endeavor, in 1999. I loved the Endeavor and wish I would have kept it when I sold that house. I don’t think I had the best burn times or performance from my Lopi the first few years, perhaps my novice fault. I was also buying my wood back then, which was perhaps not always seasoned as well as the sellers swore it was, imagine that. Still impressed by the build quality and my experience with the Endeavor, especially when used with seasoned wood. Fast forward a few years and I combined houses with my now spouse about a decade ago. Our house came with 1987 Avalon stove placed in a brick alcove built specifically for a wood stove. The Avalon is I believe a 901 on a pedestal. It’s an insert which can be installed as a fireplace insert, with legs or on a pedestal. The 901 is also an early generation EPA stove with a single (sometimes visibly working) secondary reburn tube at the top of the burn box near the brick baffle. Depending on what’s available I now cut and season my own mix of Pacific Northwest doug fir, coastal range silver fir, maple and oak. I’m fortunate enough to have room to season my wood for two plus years before burning it. What a difference seasoned wood makes in the stove. I currently have two cord of doug fir needing to be split and placed on seasoning racked.
So, what brings me here?...My spouse is now retired and keeps the wood heat going most days while I’m still at work during the week. Our supplemental wood heat has increased to over half of our heat. Stove goes all weekend long as well. We’re getting close to 4.0 to 4.5 cord of usage annually. Our 901 is built like any standard Travis Industries battle tank and performing as well as can be expected for a 36 year old fireplace insert on a pedestal. I’ve maintained fire bricks, baffle blanket, seals and kept it going. As well as the 901 is still working there are more efficient stove designs today. The 2023 biomass tax credit is a pretty big carrot for us to make an upgrade with something more efficient. We’re also venting up a 9” x 13” tile chimney, about 13’ tall. A 6” stainless liner as part of a upgrade. I’m thinking that the chimney liner may also help with stove efficiency and improve draft. Our house is single story 1800 square ft. the Avalon does a good job keeping us warm. Windows are updated and insulate well. Wall insulation is also good.
I’ll be continuing to research our upgrade options and may ask questions, were not in an urgent hurry. Looks like most qualifying biomass tax credit stoves are catalytic varieties, which would be a learning curve for us. Not ruling out catalytics, but have a desire to keep things as simple as possible with a proven design. Stoves we’re considering (including catalytic) at this point are Lopi Evergreen, Kuma Tamarack/Aspen and Hearthstone Mansfield. Still need to actually go to local shops and have a look. I’m hoping that Lopi perhaps looks into the Endeavor for an engineering change to help it achieve another single percentage point of efficiency to qualify it for the tax credit. I’m willing to wait for that, but not too long as I believe upgrading sooner will make more efficient use of our seasoned wood.
Thanks for your time
Joe