I miss my woodstove :(

[drewmo]

We moved and our new house has no woodstove. We might get one, but not this winter. Truthfully, it sucks. Fortunately, we have a high-efficiency propane boiler for baseboard and DHW. And overall, the house is pretty tight, so I think we'll do OK with the winter heating budget. But I'm admittedly cheap, so the thermostat never sees anything north of 65. Ever. The stove/oven is gas as well. It's a treat to feel a bit of extra warmth off that. I think I'll bake more often. Previous owners put in a nice Hearthstone gas stove for ambience, but I just can't justify using it. Am I wrong? There's just something special about knowing whatever room your woodstove is in, regardless if it heats just that room or the entire house, that room is going to be warm. You are the lucky ones.

 

[Gearhead660]

We moved and our new house has no woodstove. We might get one, but not this winter. Truthfully, it sucks. Fortunately, we have a high-efficiency propane boiler for baseboard and DHW. And overall, the house is pretty tight, so I think we'll do OK with the winter heating budget. But I'm admittedly cheap, so the thermostat never sees anything north of 65. Ever. The stove/oven is gas as well. It's a treat to feel a bit of extra warmth off that. I think I'll bake more often. Previous owners put in a nice Hearthstone gas stove for ambience, but I just can't justify using it. Am I wrong? There's just something special about knowing whatever room your woodstove is in, regardless if it heats just that room or the entire house, that room is going to be warm. You are the lucky ones.

I prefer wood to gas. Like the ambience and the heat. Love the smell too. Guess you can use the next year to gather firewood for when you install a new stove!

 

[webby3650]

Have you tried using the gas stove for any length of time? They do pretty good at heating a reasonable space.

 

[begreen]

We moved and our new house has no woodstove. We might get one, but not this winter. Truthfully, it sucks. Fortunately, we have a high-efficiency propane boiler for baseboard and DHW. And overall, the house is pretty tight, so I think we'll do OK with the winter heating budget. But I'm admittedly cheap, so the thermostat never sees anything north of 65. Ever. The stove/oven is gas as well. It's a treat to feel a bit of extra warmth off that. I think I'll bake more often. Previous owners put in a nice Hearthstone gas stove for ambience, but I just can't justify using it. Am I wrong? There's just something special about knowing whatever room your woodstove is in, regardless if it heats just that room or the entire house, that room is going to be warm. You are the lucky ones.

Oh no! I feel for you drewmo and will appreciate our stove's warmth a little more now. Hope you are able to get a woodstove set up soon. In the meantime I would splurge once and a while and run the Hearthstone, just to exercise it and enjoy a little warmth. Can you sell it to help finance a wood stove? What are your options?

 

[coutufr]

I can fully relate. The first 10 years living in this house I wasn’t allowed by the city to install a wood stove. They changed the law 2 or 3 times. When I finally was allowed to install one I did and it completely changed my relationship with winter. Winter is a great season if you have a wood stove and use it! Knowing that there is a warm place in the house makes it more tolerable to have colder places in the house. A gas stove produces nice heat but it isn’t the same as a wood stove. To me there is just no way around it

 

[firefighterjake]

Cheaper than propane typically . . .

Always on, no worries when there is a power outage . . .

That warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you park yourself in front of the stove after being outside shoveling or plowing snow for an hour or two in the freezing cold . . .

What's not to like about heating with wood?

 

[nola mike]

It's a pain in the ass, it doesn't distribute the heat to the whole house, it's more expensive (at least not significantly cheaper. Factoring in my time it's *way* more expensive), just running it is way more time consuming...etc

 

[begreen]

FWIW, drewmo has been heating with wood for a while both in France and Maine. I know the feeling of missing the stove. When we bought our first house it didn't have a good location for a wood stove.

The hassle factor depends on the stove, stove size, stove location, house layout, etc. Mike. Our stove is fairly centrally located in an open floorplan that heats evenly on 2-3 reloads a day. Not a big deal for us and the warmth is greatly appreciated.

 

[Old Red]

We moved into our house two years ago and my wife has said no to a wood stove. She's a clean fanatic and has convinced herself that a stove is smelly and dirty. In her defense our first wood stove experience included an oversized masonry chimney and some draft issues. Anyways I haven't argued; the house layout doesn't provide a good central location. Still I miss having a nice warm wood stove. We have an 'outdoor room' that I have almost convinced her we could convert to an 'indoor room' with a small stove.

 

[PaulOinMA]

We have a gas insert on OBX. Had the gas tank taken away since we're only there Christmas week in the dead of winter.

Neighbors across the street are there all off-season and said their gas insert puts out a lot of heat. Really the only option. No firewood on the Outer Banks where we are.

Have been over neighbors there with the gas insert going. Works well.

 

[nola mike]

.

The hassle factor depends on the stove, stove size, stove location, house layout, etc. Mike. Our stove is fairly centrally located in an open floorplan that heats evenly on 2-3 reloads a day. Not a big deal for us and the warmth is greatly appreciated.

Sure. But no question that heating with wood is more of a pain than other methods. I think it's worth it despite having cheap ng available. Can't just flip a switch, especially from afar. Just trying to make him feel better.

 

[keegantimber]

Have a family cottage that I used to visit..main attraction was the wood burning fireplace insert.
Built my house 20 yrs ago on a woodlot. Wanted a woodstove but sadly I installed gas fireplace as gas was readily available and I listened to others... and....although the gas is nice I wish it was wood burner.

Now today I have an over abundance of dead ash falling/need to come down. Been cutting and splitting for past 4 yrs and selling it cheap to get rid of it.

Now having a hard time justifying the cost of a woodstove installation. Take quite a few years to recoup the cost with the little savings I would have on the gas bill. The ambience and radiant heat sure would be nice tho. Might be an idea to have a small cookstove to save a little on heat AND electric bill as my stove is electric...
And keep the gas fireplace? Decisions [emoji21]

 

[Jackfre]

How does that old saw go? You don't miss your water 'til the well runs dry? You ask if it is worth running the Hearthstone. I always bring this down to what is your comfort worth? You are in your home with an appliance that you don't know well. Run it. Monitor the gas usage against your comfort and decide how to go. You can't know until you evaluate the comfort against the cost and compare it to the wood stove you want. Here in the foothills of the Sierra, a very much more moderate climate than central Maine, when we remodeled the house the decision was made to ditch the wood stove. I couldn't build a small enough fire to not blow you out of the house and i don't care how small a wood stove you buy, with the clearances to the pipe, the body of the stove and hearth clearances you do a do-si-so with the stove every time you walk through the room. My wife wanted a little gas stove so we got a little VC red enamel unit. Pretty, but inefficient. I do not like it at all. She thinks it is cute. After 45 yrs I have learned that if "Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." For the cost benefit arrangement, I buy gas!

 

[FPX Dude]

Ruh-roh...you know you'll be getting one sooner or later, why wait, enjoy it now!

 

[jetsam]

You might have some of the same psychological issues I do.

For me, it's okay to crank up the woodstove until it's 85 inside if I want to, because I know that I am the one who has to go drop, buck, split, haul, stack, and re-haul that wood. It's not OK to burn electrons or gas for that purpose because they "cost money".

This is clearly muddled thinking, as the tools I use to process the wood are far from free, and I use my personal time to make both my firewood and my bank account.

I am getting solar panels put on next week. I can't wait to see what THAT does to my crazy internal rules regarding heating.

The wood stove is still going to be nicer to sit next to than a space heater run by "free" electrons, though!

 

[drewmo]

You are in your home with an appliance that you don't know well. Run it. Monitor the gas usage against your comfort and decide how to go. You can't know until you evaluate the comfort against the cost and compare it to the wood stove you want.

To all who have suggested the above, you're right, I should run the stove a little and see how we like it and at what expense. It probably isn't as bad as I think. Just naturally biased towards a wood stove.

Can you sell it to help finance a wood stove? What are your options?

I suppose I could check with the local hearth shop to see what sort of swap we could work out. A wood burner would require new pipe, whereas I could swap it out with a pellet stove and use the current direct vent. But already with an efficient boiler in place, it might be difficult to justify the cost of either of these options.

 

[begreen]

A wood burner would require new pipe, whereas I could swap it out with a pellet stove and use the current direct vent. But already with an efficient boiler in place, it might be difficult to justify the cost of either of these options.

The gas stove is likely to be much simpler and quieter. A pellet stove is a mini wood furnace. Many are not very quiet.

 

[peakbagger]

You might have some of the same psychological issues I do.

For me, it's okay to crank up the woodstove until it's 85 inside if I want to, because I know that I am the one who has to go drop, buck, split, haul, stack, and re-haul that wood. It's not OK to burn electrons or gas for that purpose because they "cost money".

This is clearly muddled thinking, as the tools I use to process the wood are far from free, and I use my personal time to make both my firewood and my bank account.

I am getting solar panels put on next week. I can't wait to see what THAT does to my crazy internal rules regarding heating.

The wood stove is still going to be nicer to sit next to than a space heater run by "free" electrons, though!

Warning thread drift, If you are typical new PV owner you will check the PV output daily and fret everyday that the sun is not out and worry about fluffy clouds, then you wait until the first power bill where your PV makes a dent. You will wonder why your winter generation is so low and then as spring comes on you will be checking daily production while it ramps up. If the system is sized for surplus you will check out how much surplus you build before you start eating it up in the late fall. Not sure what NY has for net metering rollover date if they have one but if it does you will fret when you realize that they are going to write you a check for far lower than your residential rate for your surplus (time to burn some KWs) Usually after year or so you will start to ignore it like the appliance it is.