reduce heating bill with Wood Stove

[Michelle K linnane]

MERRY CHRISTMAS I have been thinking about a wood stove more and more lately. I recently had an event at my place we cut wood for an campfire to keep eveybody warm and it only took about 3 hours to get almost a cord of wood out cut
up in 4 foot lengths for fire. I really never wanted a wood stove before due to
work of the wood, but fuel prices are changing my mind. I have a hot air furnace and still want to use it but my house is very open. Living room, kitchen and dinning room all one big room with cathedral ceiling. The house is well insultated with R44 in ceiling, r21 in walls and r22 in the floors. House is on a crawl space. But I think I could save a great deal by using a wood stove. I know nothing about wood stoves and would like some suggestions on ones people like and use, I would like to get some brand names and ball park prices if someone recently brought theirs. Here is a floor plane of my place and My model does not have a fire place. I was thinking of placing the stove in the left back corner. Near where blue print shows fireplace. I also do not have a staircase in my house. Man have prices increase I bought my house for $68,000 and now they start at $90,000 about 6 years ago. I do know a few things I do want and dont want. My house is 15 sq feet, and open area is about 700 sq feet, that is all open. My plan is too cut wood place on pallet and use tractor to place full and empty wood pallet on deck cut out handling so much. Will have teenager in summer to stack wood for me.
Do want Stove Pipe will go through the roof of the house.
Fan or blower to help push heat out in the room.
Pan in bottom to empty ashes out.
Be able to fire must have a glass front.
Want to keep stove on left side of house as you look at floor planes as there is a deck and sliding glass doorsto bring wood in.
Do not want
Top loading stove
Will not use as primary heat source on supplement

 

[Nightrain1]

I hear rumours about the epa not being fond of wood burners. Since the epa is already circumventing congress, I wouldn't wait around on the purchase of a new stove.
I want an outside burner that heats our water also. Keeps the mess all outside, but sure makes a dent in the wallet to get started.

 

[tthopskin@yahoo.ca]

the EPA are going after the outside boilers as for the chimney if you get stainless steel never use a steel brush use the poly type wood is a nice steady heat and you have the wood big bonus so look for a used wood stove the one your looking for never burn out and cheaper then new but always try to burn it hot once a day get a chimney thermometer run up to 500 then shut down this will keep you pipes clean or they can plug in one week with green wood 35 years with wood ps keep some galvanized cans around and if ever you have a chimney fire through them in shut down tight this will suffocate the air and out goes the fire :thumbsup: best of luck ps make sour it is on you house inc i payed myne and they never put on the policy this would have voided my inc ---you can never keep up to them to add a wood stove added $25 to my policy

 

[nybirdman]

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.

 

[Kyle241]

My previous two homes were heated by woodstoves, the first had a backup oil furnace that rarely went on (hated it) and the second house had backup electric convection heaters (not the prettiest but they worked). In both cases the homes were very comfortable during our Canadian winters. In our current house, we have a masonry heater that I believe is superior to a woodstove however much more costly! It heats the house with ease and I have backup propane furnace.

The woodstoves we have had are: Vermont Castings and Jotul. The first was when VC was still making top of the line stoves then they were bought-out by somebody and their quality went down. All our family have had VC stoves and have been very happy with them however again this was about 10-12yrs ago. In our previous home, we had a Jotul and could not be happier as it performed very well. Both the VC and Jotul stove models we had were not cheap. The VC was about $3500 way back then and the Jotul that we purchased 9 years ago was something close to $5000 if I recall correctly.

Things to note is that if you want the best heat from a woodstove (or any radiant heat source), ideally it should be centralized in the house. You note you are planning to put it on the back wall which is not ideal but would still work. The other thing is you should have the chimney pass straight up through the roof and not out the side of your house and up as you want most of the stove pipe warm and the top cold for improved draft.

Then you want to have good quality dry wood, e.g. maple, ash, hickory, elm, birch, etc. (depends somewhat on where you live). Ideally you want to stack it and cover it but let the air get at it so it dries. Wood should be left to dry for at least 6mths, ideally 10-12mths if you can.

 

[EddieWalker]

I recently went through a similar process. http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/related-topics/184260-fireplace-advice-part-2-a.html

My house is only 1,000 square feet and I wanted a wood stove to save money on electric heating, but also for a source of heat if I lose power again like I did last year when it snowed. My oriniginal thought was to buy one from Northern Tool, but when I looked up their brand, I read quite a few complaints. I did the same with stoves that I saw on Ebay and then what I found for sale around town.

I read a lot of good reviews on Napolean, but there isn't a dealer anywhere close to me. I did a statewide search on Craigslist and found the exact model that I wanted just ten miles from where I live!!!!!

My stove is rated for a 2,000 square foot house, and I think those ratings are more on what will keep you alive, not actually heat the house. I don't have a blower and don't need it. Mine heats my living area very nicely. I have to be careful of getting it too hot or I'm uncomfortable. I bought a canvas sack from Ace Hardware to carry in my wood. I can get the stove hot and maintain it all night without using all the wood that I can carry in that one load. Some nights, I have wood left over.

I have an ash pan on my stove, but never use it. I bought a fireplace shovel from Home Depot that has a sort of long handlen and a small shovel end that is perfect for scooping up ash and putting it into the metal bucket that I also bought. Very small amout of mess and it's very quick. I do this once a week.

Getting the ash into the ash pan was a lot more work then just scooping it out.

My advice is to buy a stove rated for at least 50% bigger then your home. If you put a blower on it, or get one with a blower, you can go smaller, but be sure to check to see how loud the blower is. The ones I've heard make a ton of noise. I hate the sound of them, and don't want one myself. Wood storage has been my biggest suprise and challenge. I've got a plan now, but it's taken some thinking and planning.

Price wise, my stove sells new for around $1,500 and the pipes and fittings add another $450 to it. I put in tile for a base for under a hundred bucks, but you could buy a platform or put in brick for less. I didn't put anything behind my stove because I never found anything that I liked better then the walls that I already have. My stove is Moble Home rated, which means it's sealed better and can be installed closer to a wall by a few inches.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[firefighter jim]

Recently bought a Napoleon wood stove to supplement our primary furnace and to use as a back up if our furnace should break down. Love it. Should have installed one a few years ago. $1500. or so plus $100. in 6" black pipe and fittings. Should note that we had a second flue installed in our brick chimney to provide for a wood stove when we built our house 3 years ago so the recent installation was fairly simply. Like Eddie, ours has an ash pan but I find it easier just to shovel out the ashes into a bucket without using that feature of the stove.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

There is a lot of good advice there about the stoves. I really like wood heat. I get a lot of wood from my tree jobs which makes it easier for me. I have a cheap woodstove that came with the place I am in now. It does have a blower which helps pull out some of the heat before it goes out the stack.
Insurance should be one of your concerns. Check with your agent. If you get a stove shop for a good one that is large enough to get more than kindling sized firewood in. You might want to check into pellet stoves which are a lot less mess.
Around here the biggest problem is tripping over the lazy cats that plop their tookis in front of the woodstove.
Don't burn trash or green wood. Keep the stovepipe clean as mentioned by opening up the air draft to get it hot. The stoves that have an ash pan are nice so that you don't have to let the fire go out to clean them. Don't put the ash in a plastic bucket or out on a deck after cleaning is more good advice.

 

[SARG]

We started with a Vermont Castings wood stove and used it for almost a decade. It really threw heat to the point we had winter nights with a blizzard outside and the doors open because it would be very warm inside. It was also nice because you could cook on the top if needed during an outage and keep a water pot on top to control house humidity.

Finally just got sick of the variable heat and the mess .... dirty wood..insects ... and associated extra work. Pulled it all out about five years ago and really don't miss it at all.

If I was looking for that kind of heat again I would focus on the new coal burners. For the money and the labor content they seem to be the best.

 

[AHNC]

For the fan side I would refer you to Room to Room Fan : Crawl Space Ventilation : Dryer Booster Fan : Tjernlund Products, Inc. Look at the Airshare. If that doesn't work for your construction you may want to look at the higher static in-line fans and run a duct from the top of your cathedral to at least the back of the house, either into a bedroom(s) or the end of the hall way.