If it's cold where you live, what are you heating with and what is it costing?

[deezler]

A well-sealed house needs a fresh air intake for a wood stove or fireplace or it can't make a draft up the chimney nor draw enough air for good combustion.

Not really, though. My 2015-built house is pretty dang tight and I went back and forth about whether to add a fresh air intake to my napoleon woodstove. In the end I ran out of time and figured I could add it later if needed - I found out it's really not.

When I'm lighting the stove from cold, I do leave my adjacent french door cracked a wee bit, just to make sure the initial fire blast knows to head up the flue. But after that we shut it and don't worry about it again.

An EPA rated woodstove is typically pulling less than 40 CFM - less than your clothes dryer or range hood. Whereas an open fireplace can pull up to 500 CFM! When my fire is getting low, we do need to be cognizant of turning on the dryer or range hood, because they can reverse the chimney draft if the conditions are right, and that does stink/suck/blow. 3 puns intended.

Edit to add: A major downside of adding the outdoor-air-kit to your woodstove, is that on extremely cold days, you're bringing in frigid air for combustion, which causes a substantial efficiency loss (you use combustion BTUs to heat that air up). Room temp air burns wood more efficiently. But I dont know how big an effect this really is.

note: My house does have an HRV running 24/7 exchanging fresh air, so there is that.

 

[deezler]

I'm curious who's buying the little $10 bundles of firewood. Is it campers?

I think around here in suburbia, its rich people who want to have one or two fires a week in their fireplaces. Out grocery shopping and oh look! firewood, nice.

 

[MossRoad]

That's what I thought. Don't some woodstoves come with an option to plumb make up air into them from outside the house? I'm thinking back to 20 years ago when I was considering a woodstove in a manufactured home. I believe the woodstoves I was considering had mounting kits to attach them to the floor and outside air supply options since newer manufactured homes can be pretty airtight.

Yes. Mine has a hole in the bottom that you can remove and plumb a pipe from outside to near the hole.

 

[MossRoad]

Not really, though. My 2015-built house is pretty dang tight and I went back and forth about whether to add a fresh air intake to my napoleon woodstove. In the end I ran out of time and figured I could add it later if needed - I found out it's really not.

When I'm lighting the stove from cold, I do leave my adjacent french door cracked a wee bit, just to make sure the initial fire blast knows to head up the flue. But after that we shut it and don't worry about it again.

An EPA rated woodstove is typically pulling less than 40 CFM - less than your clothes dryer or range hood. Whereas an open fireplace can pull up to 500 CFM! When my fire is getting low, we do need to be cognizant of turning on the dryer or range hood, because they can reverse the chimney draft if the conditions are right, and that does stink/suck/blow. 3 puns intended.

Edit to add: A major downside of adding the outdoor-air-kit to your woodstove, is that on extremely cold days, you're bringing in frigid air for combustion, which causes a substantial efficiency loss (you use combustion BTUs to heat that air up). Room temp air burns wood more efficiently. But I dont know how big an effect this really is.

note: My house does have an HRV running 24/7 exchanging fresh air, so there is that.

I also have a Napoleon wood stove. Since our house is drafty, I don't need external air.

My in-laws have a really tight house. They cannot light a fire in their wood burning stove unless the open the sliding door to the 3 season room, then crack a window in there. If they don't do that, they won't get a good enough draft, and smoke will come back into the house. Once the fire is good and hot, they can close the window.

Here's my wood stove lighting from cold.

26 minutes later....

2 hours later...

 

[deezler]

Yeah, I've certainly heard of folks having this issue. 2 keys I've learned for a good draft include:

1) The total length and placement of your chimney pipe as it exits your house. Prevailing winds outside can either help suck a draft, or really fight you. Too long a total length, or too many bends, can really hurt too. Mine goes 13' straight up.

2) Only using good dry firewood, and building the fire good and hot from the beginning. My wood stove is not for ambience, it is for HEAT. We tend to avoid using it when the outdoor temp is above ~45f, as it hurts the draft quality. But our house design also only really requires heat when its truly cold out or hasn't been sunny in many days.

I also replaced the gasket on my stove door after the first 3 winters, to get a nice tighter seal.

 

[jyoutz]

I'm curious who's buying the little $10 bundles of firewood. Is it campers?

Those folks are the dominant market for those small wood bundles.

 

[Jstpssng]

I'm curious who's buying the little $10 bundles of firewood. Is it campers?

That’s mostly who buys it here. The Forest Service tries to discourage people from bringing in firewood from other states, trying to keep the ash borer and Asian Longhorn beetle at bay. Statutes say no further than 50 miles. But I can’t blame people for ignoring that; you can’t even build a decent fire with those tiny bundles, let alone have fires for a week.

 

[ovrszd]

Firewood. Have only used a half face-cord so far this winter - it was a warm fall!

I would say it is basically completely free (tractor I would own anyway, inherited a Stihl saw and log splitter from my pops, just cutting deadfall or nuisance trees from my own land in my spare time) but then some of you would get all angry for no good reason.

So fine, I bought an extra used chainsaw last winter as backup for $300. Chainsaw and log splitter needed around 7 gallons of gasoline this season. And my wife took the chill out of the living room by running our mini-split on heat mode for a handful of mornings this fall, so that was probably an extra 4 dollars or so also.

Firewood is never free. Even if someone gives it to you.

 

[ovrszd]

Not really, though. My 2015-built house is pretty dang tight and I went back and forth about whether to add a fresh air intake to my napoleon woodstove. In the end I ran out of time and figured I could add it later if needed - I found out it's really not.

When I'm lighting the stove from cold, I do leave my adjacent french door cracked a wee bit, just to make sure the initial fire blast knows to head up the flue. But after that we shut it and don't worry about it again.

An EPA rated woodstove is typically pulling less than 40 CFM - less than your clothes dryer or range hood. Whereas an open fireplace can pull up to 500 CFM! When my fire is getting low, we do need to be cognizant of turning on the dryer or range hood, because they can reverse the chimney draft if the conditions are right, and that does stink/suck/blow. 3 puns intended.

Edit to add: A major downside of adding the outdoor-air-kit to your woodstove, is that on extremely cold days, you're bringing in frigid air for combustion, which causes a substantial efficiency loss (you use combustion BTUs to heat that air up). Room temp air burns wood more efficiently. But I dont know how big an effect this really is.

note: My house does have an HRV running 24/7 exchanging fresh air, so there is that.

If air is going out your chimney, air is coming in your house from outside. No magic.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

My parents got a wood stove for one fireplace in late 1960s and I was always helping Dad felling trees, hauling/splitting wood. It was great exercise. Then I put in a vent through block wall, running ductwork through a utility room we insulated then facing upstairs. I put a quiet boxer fan in it that ran 24/7. Amazing how much heat it sent to upstairs bedrooms.
There's nothing like wood stove heat and Mom always had a copper kettle on it...hot water for humidity, tea, etc.
The downside is breathing wood smoke is not good and they had emphysema.