reduce heating bill with Wood Stove

[JDGreenGrass]

Not sure if this has been mentioned.....Install the stove on your North wall.

I have heated with wood for 20+ years. It is much like gardening...good for the soul.:thumbsup:

I will always have a wood stove.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

Just for the record....A ton of pellets around here goes for about $225-$250.

A cord of green firewood....$180.

I like a pellet stove but, they take electricity to run. Therefore, where I live, a woodstove is more dependable.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

While I still stand by going for a stove rated bigger then your square footage, I'm by no means knowledgable about what I'm saying. I have a good fire going in mine, and it heats my living area very nicely. Basically I can get 20 feet or so around the stove hot enough to wear shorts and a t shirt when it's freezing outside. Go farther back into the house and it's cool enough to sleep with a blanket on.

I dont think it's so much how big the stove is rated for, but how big of a fire you want and will enjoy. I can get mine a whole buch hotter if I want, but have found that once I get it going, adding a log onto it about every hour or so, depending on the size of the log, is plenty.

I carry in one load of wood in a canvas sack for the day, and never burn all of it.

Here is the manual for my stove. There is all sorts of good information on stoves in there that you might find useful.

http://www.napoleonfireplaces.com/Tech/installation_manuals/EPA.pdf

Eddie

I totally agree with getting a big stove. You can build a small fire in a big stove (Fall & Spring) but....you can't build a big fire in a small stove.

I have a Pacific Energy woodstove. It has been a great stove and having the window just "feels" warmer.

Napolean makes a nice stove, as well.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

Well, I have 3 consecutive posts.....here's the 4th.!! Ha.!!

 

[Car Doc]

Just for the record....A ton of pellets around here goes for about $225-$250.

Yeah JD I agree and that is similar to my area and its too much compared to gas when they were $125-175 a pallet it made sense financially. Wood makes the most sense of all methods as long as you don't have to pay anyone for it.

Btw most of these pellet stoves like mine will run effortlessly on an inexpensive 300w inverter so a 12v deep cycle battery would run one for a long time especially with a cheap solar charger hooked up fwtw its just a matter of being prepared for the worst imo.

I have monitored my gas usage over the last 4-5 years along with pellets and corn and wood stove and my pellet stove will burn 1 1/2 bag of wood pellets in 24 hours on low that's $7.50 that's pretty steep considering I am at the upper edge of zone 6 our average lows in the cold months are around 20 deg. my 2c

 

[andrec999]

Hi,

We've had a wood stove since we built our house back in 1978 and we made sure that we added the proper chimneys to install them . We were 21 days without power in 1998 during the severe ice storm and we were glad that we were able to stay in our house for the entire duration of the outage, we cooked on the kitchen wood stove and heated with air tight one.
At that time we had a Fisher Grandpa stove wich are the first generation of the slow burning stove, it gave a pile of heath but was not the most friendly as far as smoke is concerned. Now we have a smaller Drolet 1200 stove wich burns very clean as far as EPA emissions. I also had an old Belanger kitchen wood , that I removed from the kitchen as it was taken to much place, but still have the spare chimney if I want to install another small one later on.
I love the heat of a wood stove and the wood is very cheap since it is on my property and now that I am retired I have more time to cut the dead wood.
They are dirty and smokey but I wouldn't live a winter without them.
I guess it is like owning your tractor and snowblowing you own lane , is it cheaper , I don't know, but it sure is fun.

 

[Natureboy]

You may want to do a lot more research;burning wood is a lot of work.
Maybe worthwhile if you have your own woodlot.If you have to buy wood(depends on the area) may or maynot be adviseable.
I take it you have a tractor,cart,chain-saw,safety gear ect.
You will need fuel for saw,tractor,maintaince items for saw.
Buy the best stove you can afford. ie Vermont Casting
Wood storage also has to be considered,should cut wood a year in advance to dry.
Have the stove installed by a pro,check local regulations.
Lastly;CHECK WITH YOUR HOME OWNERS INSURANCE AGENT.
Good luck,we have burned wood for years,just installed a out-side wood boiler.

NYbirdman hits the nail on the head. ALOT of work, but well worth it if you have the time, energy, space and cheap source of wood. We have been heating with wood for about 7 or 8 years now. Definitely get the best stove you can. We have an Avalon, no complaints. Professional installation is the only way to go.
NYbirdman, how is the outdoor boiler working out so far? Do you heat your indoor water with it also?

 

[beenthere]

And from what I read, the OP is very aware of and not shy about doing the work.

Only thing I would add, is to season the split wood for at least one year and two years is better. Stack and cover the top of the wood pile only (not down the sides) for better drying. Stacking green split on pallets and setting for two years is what I do, and just set the dry pallets of wood near the wood burner when needed. No additional handling. The OP has the right idea using the forks to move her pallets around.

I've been burning only wood to heat two levels of my 1400 sq ft home since 1974. The last 28 years with an indoor wood boiler for hot water system. It is a great heat and fear the day when I can't burn wood for heat anymore.

 

[pat32rf]

When buying a wood stove another thing to consider is the door swing. When we got our fancy new stove we built in a woodbox beside it (about 1/4 face cord). Then when we got rid of that stove and went back to our old Drulet we found that the door swung the wrong way. Bit of a pain but we live with it.
We also installed our stove on a platform about 12" high so we don't have to bend our old bodies so much to put the wood in. (bad knees) This higher mounting is also great when we are cooking steak, venison chops or chicken IN the stove over a bed of hardwood coals.
I probably cook more in the woodstove during the winter than on the propane BBQ during the summer. Tastes better too.

 

[jas67]

Just for the record....A ton of pellets around here goes for about $225-$250.

A cord of green firewood....$180.

I like a pellet stove but, they take electricity to run. Therefore, where I live, a woodstove is more dependable.

And, currently home heating fuel is $3.14 /gallon. A ton of pellets if worth about 120 gal of HHF, so the $235 ton of pellets I just bought is worth $376 worth of oil. I pre-bought 6 ton of pellets for $215 a ton, but it's been extra cold, so I bought an extra ton to be safe. So, at current prices, oil is about 60% more money. I have a pellet boiler, so aside from filling it daily, and scraping the burn pot weekly, it is just as convenient as the oil furnace (got one of those too, was here first).

Even though they are a bit cheaper than oil, I get most of my firewood free, so we run the Jotul Rockland 550 insert constantly , so long as someone is here to feed it. As someone else mentioned, Jotul is quite optimistic with the burn times. It is a very efficient unit though. On several occasions, I've had guests ask if it is a gas stove, because once it gets good and hot, hardwoods burn with a nice blue flame with yellow tips.