Wood Burning Stove - is it worth having

[300UGUY]

I went in on a used one for $400 with 3 neighbors... great splitter, nothing stops it... too bad for us because now it is nearly a moot point with the Spare the Air burn bans.

You never seem to have anything good to say about where you live. Ya thought about moving?

 

[lockhaven]

Goes to show how much they know about anything. ALL of our smoke goes up the chimney.... idiots



Oh heck, State FARM dropped us because we have horses. They need to change their name, obviously....



We love our PE Summit too :thumbsup:

Ken

what was the reason that horses were so bad that they would not insure?

 

[Chilly807]

what was the reason that horses were so bad that they would not insure?

Horses carry a heck of a liability, particularly if they aren't yours, as in boarders, or if you give lessons, or host trail rides, things like that.

Sean

 

[300UGUY]

Horses carry a heck of a liability, particularly if they aren't yours, as in boarders, or if you give lessons, or host trail rides, things like that.

Sean

At one time, there was not a single rental riding stable in Michigan, due to insurance.

 

[Chilly807]

At one time, there was not a single rental riding stable in Michigan, due to insurance.

I hear you... I was surprised when my insurance agent didn't faint when I mentioned horses moving in this summer.

She DID ask all the right questions though, to determine that there was no income from any sort of horse operation on our property. As long as it's not a commercial venture they don't seem to have a problem with it yet.

I wryly explained to her that as usual, all the money flowed the other way :laughing:

Sean

 

[ultrarunner]

You never seem to have anything good to say about where you live. Ya thought about moving?

Yes... often.

Two things holding me back...

First, I'm the primary care giver for Mom since Dad passed and moving would devastate her...

Two... I'm old enough to remember how things were and am afraid I would just be buying time by moving... seems California is the Bell Weather for most things coming down the pike.

By keeping the wood burning, diesel engine topics and outrageous public sector pensions alive... I can alert other TBN members so they are aware of some of the pitfalls and perhaps avoid them...

In 2005 I had bought a home in WA and just about had the U-haul packed... the company where I worked had been sold, they were changing the name on the building and my position had been changed to contract and I was invited to bid... so I decided it was a good time to high tail it with a job waiting.

In one weeks time, the county filed an injunction against the company taking over halting the sale and the position I had lined up in WA was put on hold...

Since then Mom's Alzheimer's has progressed and she is very dependant on me... she has a terrible time with short term memory and much of my time revolves around her Doctor's appointments and making sure she has what she needs.

 

[brokenknee]

Guys, I have read most of the comments submited. Firewood (all hardwoods) in my area of Western PA goes for about $175 for a full cord. This is a lot higher than a couple years ago when the demand was not so great. I have my own wood. What I can't believe is the wimps out there who rush out and purchase a gas splitter. I am 68 years old and hand split 9 cords this year for my boiler. All the work includes cutting the tree down, cutting it into 24" pieces, carrying the pieces through the woods to my RTV. hauling to my woodyard, and then splitting with my 6 lb splitter. It's great exercise! Gee, did I forget stacking it in cords beside my funace. It's wood or Propane at three something a gallon.

PA, JOHN

Hey John, don't let a little feed back keep you from posting.

I am one of the "wimps" when I purchased my splitter it was mostly to split elm. The elm was free, but if you have ever tried to split by hand you know how difficult it is.

I now have a shoulder problem and would not be able to split wood by hand. The doc is amazed I am still out cutting wood.

I am glad to see you are in great health that you are able to cut and split your own wood. Some of us on the forum have health issues, some have time issues, some have both (like myself) and some prefer to get or not get their exercise in other ways. There is a great bunch of guys here on the tractor forum that will go out of their way to help a complete stranger out.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[clemsonfor]

It's official... zero burning in the 9 Bay Area counties for Christmas.

The Air Quality Management District has 70 highly trained wood smoke inspectors looking for violators... Fines start at $400.

The newspaper article went on to say that the Bay Area inaugurated the first Air Management District in the nation back in 1955 and little did anyone realize that one day it would ban the yule log.

The story also went on to say that those burning wood have indoor air quality 10 times worse than Federal guidelines and one fire is the equivalent of smoking 30 cigarettes...

Nothing was said about freezing during this cold snap...

Its a good thing that my wood stove dosent smoke into the house and make it smell like smoke. People dont even know its on, they draw well. Back when i had a fireplace, it was always smoking into the house though.

 

[dmccarty]

...
I can understand the smoke from a fire being bad for you, but I've never choked on the smoke from a fire in a fireplace or wood stove like I have just walking by a smoker. When I read somethng like this, it makes me wonder if anybody thinks for themselves, or do they just accept it and go along like sheep?

Eddie

Baa Baa Baa.

Also people can be just flat out stupid.

A few weeks ago there was a post on my county's chat list. A lady was complaining about smoke around her house. She said a friend was visiting and the friend complained about the smoke and ashes being on her car. The lady called the EPA. Yes, the EPA, to see if they could find the "point source of the smoke pollution." The EPA said they could not find the source...

Winter has been late this year and the leaves fell late as a result. My guess is that the "point source" of the pollution was someone burning leaves....

This lady, instead of getting in her car and finding the "point source" herself, tried to make a Federal case for burning leaves. :confused2:

To the OP you really want as much of the chimney in the building not only to capture the heat from the smoke but to help the draft. If you can pipe in fresh air to the stove, it really helps. My father in law ran a fresh air supply duct under his slab to his fireplace and the amount of air you can feel flowing out of the vent into the fireplace is amazing. We did the same thing in our house. Our stove does allow a direct connection but the outside air supply just dumps the fresh air behind the stove. Works just fine.

I have been hand splitting some wood since the tractor has some hydraulic problems. I can split in 2-3 hours as much or more than the hydraulic wood splitter. As long as the wood is not a fork. :laughing: Good exercise and I put up over a cord in about four days/eight hours.

We heat with wood because we have so much to burn and it does save us money since it does not really cost us anything. If we had to buy firewood I think it would be cheaper to run the heat pump. On the other hand, I had the house up to 84 when my parents visited over XMAS so that they would be warm. :laughing: I could/would not be able to do that with a heat pump.

It sure is nice to come into the house from outside in the cold and have the house toasty warm. Especially during a power outage! :thumbsup:

We looked long and hard at various wood stoves. In the end we bought an Osburn from Osburn Stoves. They had great customer service and really knew what they were talking about. We ordered mail order and it was shipped to our house. After the order was delivered, we needed more chimney sections and they were delivered ASAP. The chimney actually was shipped from a company near us. Not sure if that was on purpose or just dumb luck. Our stove is the 2200 in the link. It does not have a catalyst and works just fine.

Later,
Dan

 

[Vern]

Morning

I installed a pellet stove 4 years ago an dhave not bought propane since. I finaaly had them take the big tank out his summer and put in a 100lb cylinder. It costs me around 500.00 to heat the whole winter with pellets and it was costing 350.00 per month before the stove. It takes a little maintenance but well worth it.

Vern