New to wood heating

[KD0AXS]

Hello everyone, soon to be a newbie to wood heating. With the current propane situation, my wife and I decided we need an alternative heat source. What we decided on was an Osburn 2400 stove. This will be going in the basement of our house, which is roughly 3000 square feet between the main level and the basement. Now I just need to find a good source for wood. We may have to buy some wood at first, but I plan to start cutting and splitting as much wood as I can get my hands on.

Any tips in general, or with this particular stove would definitely be appreciated. Seems like a lot of very knowledgeable people here, hopefully I can learn a thing or two.

 

[USMC80]

is this for supplementing heat or are you trying to heat the whole place with just the stove?

 

[Ashful]

No experience with the Osburn 2400, but I'm sure one of those owners will happen along soon. Let me be the first to tell you that you need wood, cut, split, and stacked today, if you want any hope of burning it next fall. General rules of thumb on required seasoning time:

softwoods: 9 months
most hardwoods: 18 months
oak: 24 - 36 months

Usage is usually 3 - 4 cords per stove, for most folks running their stove 24/7. So, here's the advice I wish I had three years ago:

Get yourself a load of 10 cords of mixed woods delivered today. Stack for three years, separating softwoods from hardwoods, and a separate pile for the oak. Burn the softwoods next year, the mixed hardwoods (ash, maple, walnut) the second year, and save the oak for year 3. Replace each year's usage in the spring with whatever you want, to be burned three years in the future.

If you can find a way to top cover all the wood, great. If not, just find a way to cover what you'll be burning the following year. Don't cover the sides, or you'll trap moisture in. Just cover the top to protect from rain/snow.

 

[KD0AXS]

is this for supplementing heat or are you trying to heat the whole place with just the stove?

Well, the idea is to reduce our propane usage as much as possible. We currently have a regular forced air furnace and a gas fireplace in the living room on the main level, both of which run on propane. Right now in order to conserve propane we have the thermostat set to 60° and electric space heaters running to keep the furnace running to a minimum. This makes it about 58° in our living room.

We were lucky enough to get 200 gallons of propane a couple weeks ago at $2.89 a gallon, but were told we better make it last the rest of the winter because we may not be able to get any more.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum KDOAXS.

We feel your pain. Actually you may be one of the lucky ones with your propane under $3.00 per gallon. We hear of some paying close to $5.00 per gallon. Nevertheless, I certainly would not want to live with my living room at 58 degrees!

My advice is to not expect miracles. The first year anyone starts burning wood is a learning experience. Usually the first learning experience they have is that they can not do like they can with propane or oil. That is, you can not install a stove then call for fuel. You may very well hear that you can buy "seasoned" wood that is ready to burn. My advice is to not believe it; it very rarely happens.

One other is to not buy any oak. Yes, it is one of the best woods for burning but the trouble is that it will take 3 years to dry properly in your area. If you can find some white ash, that would be possibly your best bet. Soft maple will dry fast too. Oh, don't believe it when someone tells you that you can cut white ash and burn it the same day. Well, you can, but you may not like the results.

If you can buy wood now that will burn next winter, so much the better but even that time is short. Your best bet will be to have it split small, then stack it so that it is off the ground. Stack it rather loosely because this will allow for better air circulation in the stack which will dry your wood the fastest. Stack it in the windiest spot you have. Cover only the top of the pile.

Good luck.

 

[Knots]

Sounds like you're ready to get serious about heating with wood. Read up on this site about how to get your wood dry, it's important...

 

[begreen]

Welcome. Heating 3000 sq ft from the basement could end up being a bit frustrating, especially if the basement is not fully insulated and well sealed. Is there a reason why you are trying to heat upstairs from the basement? The stove is an area heater. It is going to provide a more satisfying experience when located in the area you want to heat.

 

[KD0AXS]

Welcome. Heating 3000 sq ft from the basement could end up being a bit frustrating, especially if the basement is not fully insulated and well sealed. Is there a reason why you are trying to heat upstairs from the basement? The stove is an area heater. It is going to provide a more satisfying experience when located in the area you want to heat.

We had discussed the idea of replacing the existing gas fireplace in the living room with a wood burner. After talking it over with the fireplace dealer, the consensus was that it would make a nice warm living room, but a very cold basement.

Also, we'll be finishing the basement in the next couple years and our primary living room will likely be the one in the basement where the stove is going, since it's much larger than the one on the main level.

 

[begreen]

Until the basement is insulated up to 1/3d! of the heat will be lost to the walls. That can get very expensive if you are buying wood. Essentially every third cord burned goes to heating the outdoors and earth.

Also, basement installs often mean that the basement must be at 85-90F in order to make the main floor 70-75F. For some the basement gets too hot to stay there for long.

 

[KD0AXS]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that the basement isn't completely unfinished. It is fully insulated and some of the sheet rock is done. This is how it was when we bought it. (it was a foreclosure)

Thanks everyone for the input. This will definitely be a learning curve. I do realize that heating the whole house with the stove in the basement isn't ideal, but it will definitely be better than the situation we're in now.

 

[begreen]

Well the 2400 will be a good stove to start with. How will the heat get upstairs?

Follow the recommendations for dry wood and add hickory to the slow drying stack too. What trees are most common in your area?

 

[stevek21]

I'm in almost the exact same position you're in. I just wrote a check this morning for my last propane fill, I was nearly empty and got 400 gallons @$4.40/gallon, however because I paid within 20 days by check I got a huge discount of $.20/gallon. After seeing that bill my wife and I are thinking the same thing as you. I'm leaning more towards a Drolet Heatmax/Tundra or Kuuma, something along those lines. I have a virtually unlimited supply of wood so this makes more sense to me than anything else. Anxious to see how this works out.

 

[begreen]

The first thing to consider is how the stove or furnace will be vented. It can not share a flue with another appliance.

 

[Flatbedford]

I have been paying just under $5/gallon for propane for the last 5 years or so in NY. Even when its expensive there you guys are getting it cheap. Thankfully I have a better deal now at around $3.50 with no shortage around here either. Good luck with your first couple season's wood supply. Getting started is the hard part, but it pays off when you are 3 years out.

 

[newyorker]

Where in new York I've been buying for around 1.50 last few years and this year it has double to 3 in the fingerlakes. Have you considered a add on wood furnace to utilize your duct work

 

[Flatbedford]

Down state. About 40 miles up the river from NYC. Everything costs more here. Except when temps are in the single digits and teens, which is somewhat rare around here, our furnace runs very little. This year we have burned quite a bit of propane.

 

[toddnic]

KDOAXS, welcome to the forum! I have been in the same position as you for the past 10 years until this year. We installed our woodstove over the summer. I am saving about 500 - 600 gallons a year in propane. It will only take me about 2 years to recoup my stove and installation prices. I would encourage you to install the best & biggest stove possible for your specific application. I'm not familiar with the stove you mentioned but would encourage you to do as much research on this forum as possible. Definitely get as much wood as possible NOW and get it stacked and drying. Be prepared that your first year with the stove could be difficult due to moisture content in the wood. Just to encourage you on the temperature in your house.....it is now 76.1 in the main living area of my house. All the kids are in their jammies watching a movie (no blankets). Great to see the snow falling outside and be in shorts inside .

 

[tcassavaugh]

Welcome, pull up a chair and get reading. everything everyone is saying are all good points to consider. Wood, is one of the best pieces of advice given. start getting ahead now. if you can store it, joful has some pretty good advice. I like the advice of KDOAXS too. get the best and biggest stove you can afford. I have a PE Summit use as a primary and a small jotul upstairs but if I had to do it ALL over again to include the chimney/flu, I would probably get the Blaze King King (broken link removed to http://www.blazeking.com/EN/wood-king.html) instead of the summit. I like the idea of the large box, long burn time and adjustable thermostat/draft.
My primary stove is located in the basement. its mostly insulated and has drop ceilings. a lot of heat finds its way up through the drop ceiling, by removing a few panels. natural convection eventually takes over and you get some air movement. I think one thing you have to remember is that if you put your stove in the basement, it will take awhile to heat the house but it will get there. once there, you have to keep it going. good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions in here.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Buy Oak Now...... Get it now, while you have time to let it start seasoning, it can be the last that you burn but not getting it is a travesty, it might not take as long as 3 years the day you get it, if its been split already and you handle it right you may be surprised down the road, you could always split some smaller when you get it... Joful says to get a lot of wood now, and get a mix and keep it all separated. That's the way to go.....

 

[KD0AXS]

Thanks everyone. For now, the wife has vetoed the buying of any wood. Luckily, her grandparents have a bunch of wood they won't be using that's seasoned and ready to burn, so we should be able to get enough there for the rest of the winter. They also have a chunk of land and said we can go there and cut all the wood we want, but I'm not sure exactly what's there. One thing's for sure, I'm going to have to use this as an excuse to get a new chainsaw. I'll definitely need an upgrade from my little 14" Poulan. :D

The stove is being installed by the dealer we're getting it from. They have us scheduled for the 17th.

 

[red oak]

With regard to the basement, my wood stove is in the basement and it heats the upstairs pretty nicely. My basement sounds like yours, partially unfinished with some sheetrock on the walls. When we bought the house we noticed that a vent was in the upstairs living room right above the stove. A grate is on it and we can look down and see the stove. The heat gets upstairs and heats the main living area, while generally the basement is cooler. If the upstairs gets too hot, we put a carpet over the vent and then the basement is heated. The vent is about 3' by 1'. Pretty simple solution and I remember my grandparents doing something similar to spread the heat around in their house.

Welcome to the forum by the way!