In the springtime, I'm giving the idea of replacing my woodstove. It sits, hearth-mounted, in a finished basement and vents via an outside chimney at the far end of the basement. The stove itself is a Kent Sherwood, built sometime in the mid 70's I would guess. I bought it second hand for all of fifty dollars when I first moved into the house a few years back.
The Sherwood has two controls - primary air that downwashes over the glass, and a second control that redirects the exhaust gases through a baffle instead of directly up and out the stove pipe. No cat. No epa cert. Just heat. Its a steel construction stove that I've lined with some stovebrick to give it a little more mass and heat retention.
I burn clean. I get the stove up to temp quickly and I let the fire cycle naturally, controlling primary air only to keep the stove from overfire. Lather, rinse, and repeat until spring. My fuel is primarily "EcoBrix" (pressed sawdust blocks), EnviroLogs (pressed food grade cardboard logs) and yes, sometimes even cordwood.
I'm not unhappy with the Kent. Actually, I quite like it. However, with the whole federal tax credit thing going on, and the new clean technologies that are out there such as secondary air, catalytics, etc, I'm considering an upgrade.
Would the efficiency of a new stove be worth the investment, or would you stick with what works? What do the fire gods and gurus think?
The Sherwood has two controls - primary air that downwashes over the glass, and a second control that redirects the exhaust gases through a baffle instead of directly up and out the stove pipe. No cat. No epa cert. Just heat. Its a steel construction stove that I've lined with some stovebrick to give it a little more mass and heat retention.
I burn clean. I get the stove up to temp quickly and I let the fire cycle naturally, controlling primary air only to keep the stove from overfire. Lather, rinse, and repeat until spring. My fuel is primarily "EcoBrix" (pressed sawdust blocks), EnviroLogs (pressed food grade cardboard logs) and yes, sometimes even cordwood.
I'm not unhappy with the Kent. Actually, I quite like it. However, with the whole federal tax credit thing going on, and the new clean technologies that are out there such as secondary air, catalytics, etc, I'm considering an upgrade.
Would the efficiency of a new stove be worth the investment, or would you stick with what works? What do the fire gods and gurus think?