I am new to the burning thing. My wife and I should be closing, depending on inspection, on a house in about a month. It comes with a brand new - never used - wood stove. Does anyone have any tips for me when it comes to burning? I have no idea what to do. What about finding air leaks and things like that?
New to burning just bought a house with a stove.
- Thread starter VinnyGuitara
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Read through this forum and you will find many answer to any question you think of. Have the chimney inspected and find some wood you know has been seasoned for a couple years would be a start. Have fun
mol1jb
Feeling the Heat
First you need to figure out what kind of stove it is. There is usually a tag on the back of a stove detailing make, model and clearances. Next you need to have the chimney inspected by a certified chimney sweep. If that checks out you need to start thinking about wood for next year. I won't burn wood in my stove unless it has at least 1 year to dry. Report back with the kind of stove and we can go from there.
Welcome to wood heat.
Welcome to wood heat.
countybrown
Member
Welcome! I agree on what has been said alway. Find out what brand and model you have. Read the owners manual for that thing front to back.
Start getting your hands on wood and get it seasoning. If you expect to try burning yet this season you will need to buy seasoned wood.
Let us know what you find out and I'm sure we can get you pointed in the right direction for safe use and good burning practices.
Enjoy!
Start getting your hands on wood and get it seasoning. If you expect to try burning yet this season you will need to buy seasoned wood.
Let us know what you find out and I'm sure we can get you pointed in the right direction for safe use and good burning practices.
Enjoy!
After you have the stove inspected and probably more so the chimney inspected and determined it's safe to use ( you said the stove is new I know) then you will quickly find out how you like burning wood.
There's nothing like the warmth of a wood stove. However it's messy, you get dirt, pieces of bark, ashes, etc in the house from carrying in wood, etc. you need to take out the ashes. Etc. You will have to experiment to see how much heat your stove puts out and how well that heat gets distributed through the house. Wood stoves are space heaters in the simplest form but depending on where it is in your house, and the house floor plan, you may be surprised to find it actually heats much more than the room it's in. It's possible it could heat the entire house. Or just a small portion of the house. It can certainly reduce your heating bills by a little or perhaps by a lot.
It's also a lifestyle for many. I cut and process my own firewood so my wood heat only costs me my time, and gas for saws, truck, etc. I enjoy it . I like the exercise and being in the woods. Others don't care for that and buy wood. If your buying wood then you should factor that cost into the equation.
I will say this. It's 15 degrees outside where I'm at. My insert stove has my living room and kitchen at a comfy 75 degrees. The remainder of the house a little colder . My furnace hasn't been on all day. I love wood heat.
Good luck and congrats on the home purchase.
There's nothing like the warmth of a wood stove. However it's messy, you get dirt, pieces of bark, ashes, etc in the house from carrying in wood, etc. you need to take out the ashes. Etc. You will have to experiment to see how much heat your stove puts out and how well that heat gets distributed through the house. Wood stoves are space heaters in the simplest form but depending on where it is in your house, and the house floor plan, you may be surprised to find it actually heats much more than the room it's in. It's possible it could heat the entire house. Or just a small portion of the house. It can certainly reduce your heating bills by a little or perhaps by a lot.
It's also a lifestyle for many. I cut and process my own firewood so my wood heat only costs me my time, and gas for saws, truck, etc. I enjoy it . I like the exercise and being in the woods. Others don't care for that and buy wood. If your buying wood then you should factor that cost into the equation.
I will say this. It's 15 degrees outside where I'm at. My insert stove has my living room and kitchen at a comfy 75 degrees. The remainder of the house a little colder . My furnace hasn't been on all day. I love wood heat.
Good luck and congrats on the home purchase.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
Agree with all of the above. I grew up with wood heat, didn't have it for 20 years, and now I have it again. I have lost 50 pounds so far, and my fuel oil bills have gone from $800ish a month to $50ish.
Please note that going out and getting your own wood is the key point to both weight loss and savings; if you pay someone to get it for you then you may not see much benefit in either department!
(You may also incur other financial problems... for example, I figure my very expensive new stove will finish paying for itself after about 1.5 seasons, so after that I can use the excess to buy a big Husqvarna and a wood haulin' pickup, and hell, this maul is heavy, maybe a splitter would be nice for the gnarly bits, and I should also build a solar wood kiln, and since I'm bringing in all this wood, why not build a sawmill to make lumber with, and oh look now I also need a lumber kiln.... and so forth.
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Poindexter
Minister of Fire
Babaganoosh
Minister of Fire
In order to not end up with the first year burner blues it can't be stressed enough that you need to get wood cut and stacked asap. You might even want to buy a cord and get it stacked and seasoning. In fact as someone who was in your situation 18 months ago I highly recommend doing that. You have so much going on with a new house that cutting and stacking wood becomes an afterthought. Don't worry though, if you are like the rest of us you will have firewood on the brain soon enough. You will be driving to work and you will start seeing trees down that you never noticed before. Catch yourself wondering if you should go talk to the owner of the property and see if you can cut and have it. The sickness is real.
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Rearscreen
Minister of Fire
Vinny, I helped to create the Bethel Cinema, lived in Bethel for a while, and if you buy me a beer at Greenwoods I'd be glad to look at your stove in your hopefully new home. I live in Vt but frequently get down that way. Working in Newtown and Ridgefield this weekend.
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