Wood burning in the South

[Chap]

I have noticed that the majority of people on this board come from the more northern latitudes (which of course makes sense...so I know I must be CPT Obvious ).

My family and I recently bought 38 acres of trees near Columbia, South Carolina and as we plan to build our new home I have been adamant that I want to heat the house solely with a wood burning stove. The main floor and second floor adds up to 2000 sq ft and then there will be an unfinished basement primarily used for food storage, laundry and a work space for odd jobs until a work shop it built. I have planned on placing the wood stove on the main floor in the center of the home, right next to the stair well with the chimney running straight up through the house.

I love the idea of heating with wood and I definately have all the trees I need out on the property, but I have begun to wonder how well heating with a wood stove will work in our South Carolina climate. We definately have long hot summers, mild shoulder seasons and our winters can get into the single digits or teens, Fahrenheit, but usually more like the thirties. My family tends to keep our house on the cool side (we dress like it is winter when it is winter, ie no shorts and short sleeves during January) and I do not want to heat us out of house and home using a wood stove. Considering that I am not up in the frozen north with the rest of you, I have begun questioning whether heating using a wood stove makes sense down here.

So what do y'all think? Any other people out there heating with wood in the Deep South?

 

[begreen]

The Pac NW has similar winter temps, but with longer shoulder seasons. We heat with wood here and have for a long time. It can be done with a cat or non-cat stove. If building new it would be best to invest heavily in good insulation and sealing of the house. Pay attention to southern exposure too with long eaves that block light in the peak of summer but allow it to enter windows starting in the fall through spring. Doing this will save you money and increase comfort year round by reducing heating and cooling loads. For a stove, a mid-sized stove will probably suffice if you don't mind supplementing some auxiliary heat during the coldest weather. That may only be for a week a year. Or you can get a larger stove that will idle most of the time and work up to capacity just a week or two during the coldest weather. If the latter is the choice then a cat stove will probably be a better choice. They can smolder and yet burn up the smoke before it heads up the stack.

For the best results run the heat calcs on the house envelope before building to determine the heat loss and heating requirements. Modern tight houses can run on remarkably little heat if they are sited well and take advantage of solar gain. Also, placing the stove right at wide open staircase can create a convection chimney where most of the heat accumulated at the second floor ceiling. Usually this is undesirable. You might want to put the stove in an adjacent large room or area that has a large opening passageway to the stairway. In our house this is the case and eventually I had to add a false transom to block some of the heat from going up the open staircase too easily.

 

[Grisu]

A modern catalytic stove (e. g. from BlazeKing or Woodstock) can be run at a continuous heat output of ~10,000 BTU per hour on low. I would do a heat load calculation and then determine if that is low enough for you when it is in the thirties outside. You will still have enough capacity to turn it up when it gets colder.

Check with your home insurance if they require another heating appliance. A few electric baseboards may be a cheap backup heat source. Or maybe a mini-split heat pump?

Make sure your wood is dry before starting your first fire. That usually requires splitting and stacking the wood in a sunny and windy location for one to three years depending on the wood species. You are aiming for less than 20% internal moisture content.

 

[HisTreeNut]

This is a great place to get sound advice. Everyone is very helpful, honest, & they know their stuff.
begreen is right about the sun exposure. The house we used to rent was aligned so we caught sun through the windows at sunrise & sunset. Helped keep the chill out and since it was all electric house...that was a good thing. In our new place, we have cleared a bunch of scrub & dead trees from our yard and we are catching more of the early & late day sun. Makes sipping that cup of coffee or iced tea much more pleasant. The yard & flowerbeds are enjoying it as well.
We just put in a Buck 94 NC much for the same reasons as you...we want to heat mostly with wood and are just shy of 2200 sq feet. My house is older, partially insulated, and needs updating so I went with a stove that was a little bigger than what I theoretically need. I have limited space for storage, no room for a shed of any kind, & I will have to buy a majority of my wood, so a non-cat stove is better option for me. I will have issues with well seasoned wood. You seem to have a good supply of wood, have room to store wood & have it season well, will have a well insulated house, so a cat stove would probably be your best option. There are a lot of good stoves out there, so do your research and ask a lot of questions. These folks will keep you straight.

 

[blades]

Insurance co and banks will want a conventional heating system of some sort ( they do not consider wood fired units conventional don't know their thoughts on coal, but hey they make there own rules). I would also install a door system of some type top or bottom on the stair case to the second level- in the cold weather you will get a lot of cold air flow down those stairs ( warm air rises , cold sinks) so that can make for an uncomfortable draft - might consider a cold air dump located to feed that draft to basement ( this something that current home designs fail to consider - back in the day quite normal) Like the over hangs out side to limit sun energy in the summer but allow collection in the cool months. There is a reason those old southern homes had huge verandas. 18th and 19th centuries tech sometimes beats 21st century tech.

 

[2fireplacesinSC]

I know it's been a while, but wanted to see if the OP had any luck in wood stoves. I'm in the Columbia area as well. Check in with Bart Fireside (Tracie or Lori are very helpful). I just got a jotul F3 installed August from them. Went smoothly. The installer didn't really seem to know about block off plates but that's ok. I was going to get a buck 81, but changed to the Jotul for the looks. The block off is coming, just have to prioritize things.

My chimney sweep and Bart's strongly recommended the F3 because of the room set up , it's off to one end of the house. So far it's worked well. It could easily overheat the room though. Burn times will be an issue, but it's small and non-cat so expected. I wouldn't be scared of a cat stove if you are going to try 24/7 burning here. Unfortunately barts only seems to have buck, high valley, and one bk princess insert in stock as far as cats. But they seem to be able to order whatever you want. They pushed me away from the bk saying they only rarely (every 2-3 years) sell one. And it's expensive! Wow! Like twice and more the price of the jotul. I'm glad I went with the Jotul though. No smoke smell in the house and drafts great.

It can be done to use wood "only", but probably better/easier to do "mostly". You will need a back up heat source. My friend down the street has been using a heatilator fireplace installed a few years ago and got me on to the idea. Can be a big savings considering SCE&G $0.12-0.13 rates. I'm all electric in a 5600+ square foot house well insulated and didn't have to use my heat hardly at all in this recent cold snap.

As for firewwood, consider going someace like Gabby's firewood in batesburg. You can get kiln dried wood for around 0.05 per pound. You just drive in, they weigh your truck (and trailer), you load, they weigh, then pay and on the way. They have a good reputation with people around here. No pine, only hardwoods. Call them to verify the price and that they have some to get though before making the drive. No where else in the area has kiln dried for the price that I've found, and the craigslist "dealers" aren't too good in my experience. Very green or rotted wood.

Wish you well. Keep us updated. Lots of great people and info on here.

 

[ccmac]

I used a fireplace insert while living in Tucson Arizona and we used it a lot!. I loved it. We were in the teens for 4 straight nights (a record for that area if I recall) Funny how that seems so mild now! I only fired up the fireplace on evenings in the winter but on rare occasions we'd have it going all day. In Indiana now and love my fireplace and wood stoves

 

[RFarm]

Hi Chap,

I live in N. GA. in an off the grid home on several acres of tree covered land. We heat exclusively with wood - it is our only heat source. Insurance is a bit higher because of this but we had no trouble getting coverage. My stove is centrally located on the main level next to the stairs to the second floor. Honestly we just burn small, hot fires. We usually do one in the evenings and if it was a particularly cold night we may do one in the morning. Only in the coldest stretches will we burn 24/7. Our house does get warm - 76-80 on average when the stove is kicking, but cools down to 72-74 by morning. We are shorts and t-shirts year round here. I personally grew up in the north and since moving south have noticed ny blood has really thinned out - anything under 70 and I am ready to spark up the stove!! The best advise I can give is go with a bigger stove than you need and burn small, hot fires. At some point you will be glad you did when a massive ice storm rolls through knocking out power for a week to 10 days. Being warm and having a backup source for producing hot water and cooking is a life saver. Good luck - it sounds like you are heading in the right direction.

 

[sunrayjack12]

I have noticed that the majority of people on this board come from the more northern latitudes (which of course makes sense...so I know I must be CPT Obvious ).

My family and I recently bought 38 acres of trees near Columbia, South Carolina and as we plan to build our new home I have been adamant that I want to heat the house solely with a wood burning stove. The main floor and second floor adds up to 2000 sq ft and then there will be an unfinished basement primarily used for food storage, laundry and a work space for odd jobs until a work shop it built. I have planned on placing the wood stove on the main floor in the center of the home, right next to the stair well with the chimney running straight up through the house.

I love the idea of heating with wood and I definately have all the trees I need out on the property, but I have begun to wonder how well heating with a wood stove will work in our South Carolina climate. We definately have long hot summers, mild shoulder seasons and our winters can get into the single digits or teens, Fahrenheit, but usually more like the thirties. My family tends to keep our house on the cool side (we dress like it is winter when it is winter, ie no shorts and short sleeves during January) and I do not want to heat us out of house and home using a wood stove. Considering that I am not up in the frozen north with the rest of you, I have begun questioning whether heating using a wood stove makes sense down here.

So what do y'all think? Any other people out there heating with wood in the Deep South?

I had to go join to reply to you, I just found this forum.
I live outside of Augusta and started heating my 3600 sq ft ranch with wood only , with two wood stoves, although the house was not planned for it we do fine.
The back of the house is a little cold, but that's were the kids are and they like it that way, we just got them electric blankets.
They came and filled my propane tank with three hundred gals, just before that big ice storm a few years back and handed me a bill for 1500.00 dollars.
Needless to say I pooped my self, then told the guy ,that would never happen again, and it has not.
Now, they are always calling me to see if I need gas, I tell them the same thing every time, I will let you know.
I would love to have 40 or 50 acres to get wood off of, but I do have a big sthil, a dump trailer and a bobcat with a grapple and as you know down here fire wood is not a problem to get if you are willing to work some.

 

[toddnic]

Chap,

You're getting some good advice from others on this Forum. I live about 3 hours from you in western North Carolina. I'm at a much higher elevation so my weather is definitely more diverse than yours. There are a few things that you should consider regarding heating solely with wood. (1) The first thing to ascertain is if the building codes and lenders will allow you to only have a wood burning stove as a heat source. In some municipalities this is not allowed. We have a propane furnace in our house but rarely use it since we heat almost entirely with wood. (2) Regarding heating your house solely with wood, that is definitely doable. You will need an EPA rated woodstove so that you can better regulate the heat output. Using an older stove will most likely frustrate you on those milder mornings when you only want a "little heat" versus a lot.

I would encourage you to do your research on EPA rated stoves for your specific house size. You probably won't need a large stove with your mild climate and floor plan. There are many options available. We have a Woodstock Progress Hybrid and really enjoy the "softer heat" provided by the use of soapstone. I'm sure you will find what you are looking for!

 

[sunrayjack12]

If and when ,I get around to building another place centered around using wood for a main heat source, i will still have a backup furnace.
You just never know, being prepared works both ways.
So i agree with toddnic on both ,the conventional furnace and the epa stove.

 

[begreen]

If and when ,I get around to building another place centered around using wood for a main heat source, i will still have a backup furnace.
You just never know, being prepared works both ways.

That's a wise and good plan.

 

[Simonkenton]

Hell yes you can heat with a wood stove. I used to live in Milledgeville, Georgia. Very hot down there, not quite as hot as Columbia but similar.
I had a 1750 sq ft two story log cabin that I heated with a Vermont Castings Resolute. Now, this was a 1988 model Vermont Castings and they made great stoves then, they don't make great stoves any more, sadly.

On those January days with a low of 50 and high of 70 I just didn't light the stove. But it was a real delight on those 30 degree days.
Dig around and you will find a good stove for your new house, especially since you have a 38 acre firewood farm. You can design your home around the stove, that is, make a big great room to put the stove in, and big door openings to get that heat around the house.

Toddnic whereabouts are you? I am 30 miles w. of Asheville

 

[toddnic]

Hell yes you can heat with a wood stove. I used to live in Milledgeville, Georgia. Very hot down there, not quite as hot as Columbia but similar.
I had a 1750 sq ft two story log cabin that I heated with a Vermont Castings Resolute. Now, this was a 1988 model Vermont Castings and they made great stoves then, they don't make great stoves any more, sadly.

On those January days with a low of 50 and high of 70 I just didn't light the stove. But it was a real delight on those 30 degree days.
Dig around and you will find a good stove for your new house, especially since you have a 38 acre firewood farm. You can design your home around the stove, that is, make a big great room to put the stove in, and big door openings to get that heat around the house.

Toddnic whereabouts are you? I am 30 miles w. of Asheville

Simonkenton, I'm in the Cashiers / Highlands area.....about 1 1/2 hours SW of Asheville but much higher elevation.