overhear said:
I am new to this forum . . .
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Random thoughts . . .
First off . . . welcome to the forum . . . I think you'll find most folks here are pretty friendly and will offer you good advice . . . unless you catch us on an off day and ask us whether dousing your firewood with water will make the wood burn better . . . in which case we may act and sound like a pack of rabid dogs chasing a hobbled rabbit.
To answer your question . . . many of us use woodstoves as either the sole or primary source of heat in our home and a good number of us are working stiffs or just plain busy . . . there's not many home bodies who just sit at home all winter long and keep stoking the firebox . . . heck even the retirees keep plenty busy out of the house . . . so yes . . . you can run . . . safely run . . . a woodstove and heat your home for many hours and leave your home. I mean to say, you can't turn off the oil furnace or gas boiler and go away to Aruba on a two week vacation and expect your woodstove to keep the place toasty warm . . . and most folks will tell you that in all honesty as the hours tick down the house will get cooler -- a lot depends on the weather, your house construction, type of woodstove, etc. -- I think it would be safe to say that many folks get 4-10 hours of decent heat out of their woodstoves.
Normally I would recommend going with a larger woodstove and heating the whole house -- while it may get warm in the room with the stove the further away from the stove you are the cooler it becomes . . . even though using a fan to help move the heat helps regulate the temps to a degree so that it isn't 97 degrees in one room and 58 degrees two or three rooms over. However, since it sounds as though you are simply looking for occasional heat and want the beauty of a wood fire I would say your plan is probably sound . . . although I would not be surprised if down the road you decide to upgrade and get a larger stove to heat the entire house.
Heating a smaller space with a smaller stove means you will not be getting those all day burns . . . or all night burns . . . you will need to load a little more often, but the trade off is you get a nice, warm comfortable place to hang out . . . assuming of course this is where you plan to spend a lot of your time since generally it is recommended to put the stove where you spend the bulk of your time since this is where it will be the warmest . . . typically folks put stoves in their living rooms or great rooms or even their not-so-great great rooms . . . but there have been more than a few folks who have put them in the kitchen.
With a smaller stove you'll need smaller wood -- which is fine . . . and as stated you will need to reload more often. I don't suspect you'll light a fire in the evening and find a whole lot of -- if any -- coals in the morning to do a relight . . . or you will relight in the morning and come home from work to find much heat coming off the stove. That said . . . lighting a fire is a learned skill that once mastered is a relatively easy affair -- many folks can offer advice on the different methods (I like the top down method), kindling choice (many folks here absolutely love Super Cedars, others like fatwood and others make their own fire starters or just use kindling) and in short order you'll learn how to get your stove going from no heat to pumping out heat in 30-45 minutes.
As others have said . . . if you choose to go with this plan . . . get your wood now . . . better yet build a time machine and get your wood last year . . . waiting until Fall to buy so-called seasoned wood may prove to be a frustrating disappointment and an excercise in futility as the newer woodstoves offer great views, longer burning times and fantastic heat and less wood consumption -- but the trade off is they all need very dry (i.e. well seasoned) wood. Most folks suggest wood should be cut, split and stacked for 9-12 months prior to use . . . some of us have found that wood seasoned longer works as good if not better.
Overheating . . . it's possible you may over-heat the small space . . . although picking the right size woodstove will help . . . also bear in mind that unless you completely close off the area some of the heat will move out to the rest of the house . . . and if you use a fan (regular old table fan set on the floor pointing towards the woodstove) you can help move off even more heat and help moderate the temp in the room with the stove. If all else fails you can always open a window for a bit.
I suspect many of us have overheated our homes on occasion -- especially when we're first starting out and don't understand how to really run our stoves --not knowing why it is important to know the forecasted temps for the day, loading too much wood, loading too often, etc. In time you will learn and be able to run a stove comfortably and will not overheat the place or run the stove so that it gunks up your chimney. For example, burning now . . . I burn less often, smaller loads and use my "junk" wood to quickly warm up the place . . . fire is nice to look at, I burn cleanly and the heat radiates and heats the place for hours.
Final thought . . . I don't think you'll be able to light the stove, leave the house and come back to a toasty warm room 8 hours later . . . but I think a small woodstove would heat the place pretty quickly . . . and honestly . . . while it is more work in terms of mess . . . there is just something about those dancing flames, smell of woodsmoke outside and the heat that is incomparable.
