wood stoves

[billbill1]

My first wood stove was an Earth Stove, they have come a long way. The original had a door that opened to the front and swung down fron the top on hinges. No ash drawer, you scooped the ashes out the door, it got ashes sifting throughout the room. I've burnt wood since 1980 and really enjoy the heat and exercise that I get from it. It costs money to produce the wood, even if the wood is free but still worth it to me. I have a USS Stove Co. wood burning/coal burning stove that I have used for the past 15 years, it's in the attached garage and goes into the ductwork of the forced air furnace. No mess in the house at all and no ashes in the living space, that's a nice feature as well as no dragging wood through the house. Getting into a 75 degree vehicle is nice too. I paid $700 for this furnace and probably should replace it, I think they are around $1500 at TSC now. Probably more efficient now too, I burn about a cord and 1/4 per month. Shaker grates and ash pans are a huge inprovement from the early stoves that I had. If you are a couch potato type, burning wood isn't for you.

 

[HomeBrew2]

I thought it was Mexalifornia

Possibly, you meant "Mexifornia" ... the title of Victor Davis Hanson's book. Some other responders may want to give it a read ... for historical perspective.

 

[bobkrack]

klm I thought it was Mexalifornia

Perhaps if you read history, you would know that California was Mexico for far more years that it has been the US. We took California from Mexico. The Mexican nationals who cross the border are only returning to the country their ancestors owned. We moved the border, they didn't.

I believe it was native american for a few years more than it was mexico.

Bob

 

[EddieWalker]

Recently, the Bay Area Air Quality Mgmt District (San Francisco Bay Area) has instituted "Spare the Air" alerts which are announced on the evening news and restrict or ban wood burning. It has gotten to the point where neighbors are encouraged to call an 800 number to turn people in.

WOW, they actually did it. I'd heard the rumors about them wanting to eliminate fires in home fireplaces for a few years before moving. People were worried about building a home with a fireplace and not being able to use it. Some of the rumors were that you could only have a fire on weekends, or that they would post days that you can burn and you had to check to see if it was OK to have a fire in your fireplace those days.

It sounded too rediculous to ever happen, but here I am suprised again. There must have been some sort of new agency created for this one. It makes me curious what there budget is and how it's funded.

Thanks for the latest update.

Eddie

 

[Steadite]

Back to the original question...cast iron, because it contains silicon, will not oxidize as rapidly as steel. This makes it better for high temperature use. Cast iron is also a better thermal conductor than steel because of the graphite in cast iron. Cast iron is more brittle and is not easily weldable.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm afraid to say that it looks like the days of being able to burn wood in California are numbered. Santa Clara county is paying a bounty for every wood stove removed with more counties expected to follow.

On a separate topic, don't forget that Mexico was also part of the Austrian Empire once...

 

[HomeBrew2]

One of my greatest forms of entertainment is watching urban areas in Kalifornia create more ways of ratting on themselves and creating more of an environment that contributes to the demise of their itty bitty lives. Rural residents may rat (no offense _RaT_) on each other but not for issues of surviving ... wood heat, fuel powered machines, [Kalifornia]"banned" weapons. It's the "code", and so far, it's still in force ... at least in my area.

On "the" separete topic. If they didn't get the picture the first time, we can make a more profound impression ... the "minute men" just effected the first step.

 

[Highbeam]

Well if they want my last five years then they can have them in return for letting me live my life the way I want. Those are the wheelchair years anyway.

 

[ljh2]

What I read is that they cannot burn efficiently since the burn box is surrounded by water which decreases the temp which does make sense.

Dan,
While the temp loss to the water blanket might reduce burn efficiency somewhat, the greater cause of 'dirty' burn with the outdoor wood burners is the fact that they are 'dampered' down to limit airflow -- they are far MORE efficient in the amount of fuel used per time between loads since they don't waste a bunch of heat by sending it up the stack. Unlike a gas/oil fired water heater, they have continuous heat rather than an on/off cycle. This continuous low heat allows these heaters to often go as much as 24 hours on a single load of wood.

I personally like the smell of wood smoke wafting through the air, but I do agree with you that these things sometimes produce an unpleasant density of smoke.