Newbie member, newbie wood burner

[baydraftmare]

Hello all. I just moved to a 4000 sq ft, 100 yr old house in the northern piedmont of NC with electric baseboard heat. Holy Electric Heating Bill Batman! We have 7 existing fireplaces (4 down, 3 up) and have begun installing our first wood stove. The house is divided into many rooms with many doors and hallways and we think it'd be best to have 3 or 4 small (1000-1500sq ft rated) wood stoves downstairs to heat the whole house rather than one big one in the den. Does anyone else have a house they are heating like this?
The only downside is that installing 4 woodstoves is frightfully expensive as well when it comes to the "code" for chimney liners. We are only on our first one and the liner system is more $$ than our used Jotul 3 ( I think it's a catalytic one) we are hooking up. We have our work cut out for us, no doubt. This forum has been helpful already, though I can't get the hubby to sit down and read anything yet. He says he has too much wood to cut.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. I would install a larger stove in the core of the house where your family spends the most time. You'll want the longer burn times afforded by a larger stove. Don't be discouraged if the wood is not ready to burn this year. Unless it is standing dead wood, it takes a year to season. More if it is oak. Ash would be your best bet this year.

PS: Is hubby the type that won't ask for directions when lost too?

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

4 stoves would be a considerable electric bill savings but also a ton of work to maintain. I go through nearly 4 cord on a typical winter (last year not being one of them) and I only heat 2,000 sq ft of 2500 that I have. I'm sure you can do the math and the work involved with your square footage and amount of wood to be used. Welcome to the forums!

 

[baydraftmare]

4 stoves would be a considerable electric bill savings but also a ton of work to maintain. I go through nearly 4 cord on a typical winter (last year not being one of them) and I only heat 2,000 sq ft of 2500 that I have. I'm sure you can do the math and the work involved with your square footage and amount of wood to be used

two times the size.. minus the lattitude zone...carry the one... I think we'll be in the 4-5 cord range when all is said and done for a typical winter. Though we've had pretty atypical winters here in NC for the past two years, it's been very, very warm.

Don't be discouraged if the wood is not ready to burn this year. Unless it is standing dead wood, it takes a year to season. More if it is oak. Ash would be your best bet this year.

Yes one oak that was a thunderstorm casualty this spring. Another large beech we think (we have yet to learn to ID all our trees, no idea what an ash tree looks like) that was hit by lightning last fall. He's also cut some locust, elm maybe, cedar, and maybe several others that we cleared from our new drain field area. We have several standing dead trees he's cut too though we don't know what they are.

And hubby is the type to laugh at me when I bought a moisture meter for the firewood. He does everything by his gut. I'm sure many of you have heard that before. All I can say is I'm here on this forum, so I can learn what to do when his gut instinct turns out to be a stale bag of pork-rinds he found in the back of his truck.

 

[baydraftmare]

Before the install, fireplace 1, the newest, circa 1950, and least problematic maybe. Hearth to come down to 3" high and extend further out into the room for the hearth pad.

26 ft of chimney, 5.75" diameter flue. "straight and true" says our chimney sweep.

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

And hubby is the type to laugh at me when I bought a moisture meter for the firewood. He does everything by his gut. I'm sure many of you have heard that before. All I can say is I'm here on this forum, so I can learn what to do when his gut instinct turns out to be a stale bag of pork-rinds he found in the back of his truck.

You can always just poke him with it if he gets too feisty...

Welcome, sorry I don't have a lot of knowledge about any of this, I usually just hang out and make sarcastic comments.

 

[Wood Duck]

I'd go with one bigger stove in the part of the house where you spend time and see how that works. You won't be able to heat the whole house uniformly, but I bet you don't use the whole house uniformly. It would be a ton of work to keep four small stoves burning all the time.

 

[milleo]

You rock....Glad your not afraid to ask questions just cause hubby is to stubborn...I can't help, can only be moral support, welcome to the forum and ask away. Us girls gotta stick together.

 

[Oldhippie]

I vote for a big one and then a 2nd one someplace that might not get any of the heat from the main stove, but sees some use. Like maybe the other side of the house.

I have a small home and 2 stoves and the primary one works for all the time and then the 2nd gets fired up on those 10'F days (or weeks) or below. Or during prolonged power outages.

Burn what ya' brung, but understand that it may not burn too well until it's seasoned and may get the chimney's all blocked with creosote too.