Loaded the stove pretty full about 9PM last night woke up at 7AM and looked at the outside temp -18, looked at the inside temp 69. Walked down to the wood stove to find a large bed of coals and stove top temp of about 275 ish. Grabbed an arm load of wood and threw it in the top of the stove, turned the air on full. Came back down about 15 minutes later closed the damper and its 73 in the house now and still only 3 outside. It just can't get much better than that. When I decided to buy a wood stove last fall (didn't start burning until this fall because the stove dealer said I would never be able to get dry enough wood) everyone told me how I would be tied to the stove constantly walking up and down the stairs to check on it, adding wood and such, how much easier could it get. The only thing I'm mad about is that I didn't do this 8 years ago when I bought the house. Wasted alot of money on oil heat, and spent years covered in blankets becasue I was too cheap to turn the heat up. I paid $850 for 10 full cords and even if I burn it all (probably won't burn half that) its still less than half the cost of oil, lost 15lbs using the saw and the maul to boot. I looked over last years electric bills and my bill had gone down about $30/ month, must be from not having to run the dehumidifier in the basement because the stove has dried it out a bit (could be some savings from not having to run the water pump on the boiler too not sure). I will say it again, thanks to all the guys and gals on here for the advice, and support. I did have a bit of trouble figureing out how to run the stove in the beginning but with all the advice I recieved I was an expert in short order. Even my wife who was dead against burning wood becasue of all the "work" and "safty issues" said she would never want to heat with oil again.
Mike
Mike
