What would you do? (Sell or burn two cords of wood)

[Gearhead660]

Well, what's most important is that I'm now reasonably satisfied with the performance of my stove and not motivated to do anything further to it at this time, but basically a worker installed the pipes backwards and I had smoke in the house. That has been corrected.

The limitation of my stove is it's small size. It's a Canadian CFM previously sold at Home Depot. See the Englander 13 for an almost identical stove. The small size and imperfect draft (short vertical pipe, hole in the wall too low) mean it's not possible to stuff several large logs in the stove for a long burn. They have to be split smaller and criss-crossed. The door needs to be left open a crack for the first 30 minutes. The small size and design of the stove mean that wood has a tendency to roll forward when you open the door, increasing the risk of fire. Quite a few reviewers have commented on that. To prevent rolling I have to split round branches to have a flat edge and be careful how I place each piece in the stove so the wood collapses to the back of the stove as it burns.

I only mention the risk of fire because when you heat with oil you flip a switch and go about your business, as I did this morning. With wood, you have to be constantly vigilant. It's always in the back of your mind, "There's a fire burning in my house."

I've adapted to the idiosyncrasies of my stove. I really do understand the pleasure and feeling of accomplishment you get from burning wood. I love cheating the oil industry. The dryness in the house is pretty horrible (25%, one time 16%!) and not good for things like guitars and pianos. I just started burning wood a few days ago. Maybe I should give this a week or two and see how I feel about it. Previously I was forced to burn wood to save money. Now it would be a choice, which is different, perhaps more enjoyable?

Sounds like there may be a draft issue. Post some pics of your set up and the knowledge here may be able to get the stove performing better. A well running stove makes burning far more enjoyable.

You mention being vigilant because with burning wood, "there is a fire burning in my house". A wood stove is a steel box with a fire inside. The oil furnace is a steel box with a fire inside. Only difference is the wood stove relies more on you.

Burning wood is a lifestyle. It's not for everyone. If you enjoy it, burn away! If not, stick with oil.

 

[Caw]

We've already gone through this all in previous threads we don't need to rehash it here. It's a huge draft issue.

Also it's not a small stove. It's 1.8 cu ft and will heat 1500 SQ ft no problem. Tiny stoves are like 1 cu ft or smaller. You can fit a lot of wood in that box. You just can't do it properly because your draft is terrible as I explained in detail in your other posts. I have the fact same firebox that I stuff full every day and wood hits the glass maybe 2-3 times a year at most.

 

[Dabbler]

After rereading the above comments and the ones in my other threads I was able to make a decision. I was particularly struck by the comments that burning wood is a hobby or lifestyle. I realized that it's neither of those for me. I'm definitely an outdoors person, but I'd much rather go hiking than split wood. I like the feeling of independence of burning wood and not paying for oil, but I have a woodstove out of necessity, for power outages, not for the ambiance or pleasure of splitting wood. I burned only wood for part of last winter out of necessity, and it was a miserable time period. I realized from the good information offered at this forum that part of my bad experience is due to poor draft, which would always require me to be constantly tending the stove throughout the day. I have no inclination at all to get a new hole made in my chimney. I really like simplicity, and burning wood doesn't exemplify that. After weighing all this, I decided to keep the wood for power outages and to go back to oil heat. I might well have a morning fire in the spring and fall to avoid turning on the furnace.

Thank you very much to everyone who contributed to my threads. Thanks to your comments, I now have a working woodstove and a much better understanding of why it does what it does.

However, this afternoon it was time to renew the emergency wood supply in the garage. I went outside to the woodpile with the wheelbarrow. Aah! Fresh air! I loaded the wheelbarrow five times and stacked the wood neatly in the garage. On the last trip it began to snow, the first sign of the heavy snowfall that's on its way. I went in the garage and happily split some kindling just for fun. I can't deny it: working with wood and being outside can be pleasurable when it's a choice, not a necessity.

 

[all night moe]

I can't describe it but, it'll grow on you.