Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

So y'all like cutting and chopping wood. I don't. To each their own. I don't like having to mess with a wood burner every couple hours to keep getting heat out of it, and the whole time it's sucking up your heated air for combustion and throwing it out the chimney. That air has to be made up somehow, probably with cold air being sucked in somewhere.

 

Not sure about everyone else in here, but I don't have to mess with my stove every few hours unless I feel like it; I can fill it in the morning before I go to work (usually around 5:30), and then fill it again in the evening when I get home (also usually around 5:30) and I usually will top it off before I go to bed around 10:30 or so. There's always enough coals that I don't need to do anything besides set the logs on the coals, leave the door open for a minute to let them catch, and then button it up. I probably only spend about 15 minutes a day dealing with the stove during the week.

Plus, a lot of modern wood burners have outside air kit adapters. Besides, failure to regularly exchange the air in a household has been linked to a lot of health problems that pop up during the winter. I don't notice any air leaks from around windows, doors, switches, etc. when I'm running the stove, so I assume that the air exchange unit in the attic is doing its job. And since the house is comfortably warm during the winter no matter how cold it is outside I don't see any reason to get flustered about whatever air the draft from my stove draws in.

That being said, I enjoyed using a pellet stove when I had one, and plan on replacing the LP Jotul in our living room with a pellet stove at some point. They are convenient, and they're a good option for people who don't want to/can't deal with heating with wood. However, I very much enjoy not needing to use any electricity to heat my house, since we've lost power for at least a week twice since I bought the place a little over two years ago.

Besides, if you enjoy cutting, splitting, stacking, and burning wood (which I really do) then a pellet stove is just plain damn boring. Plus a wood fire in a good stove has a flame that dances and weaves around the firebox and is mesmerizing to watch. Watching a pellet stove burn is like watching a big candle in a box.

 

What are the dimensions on your woodshed?
I like those little Jotuls; we had one in my parents camp until somebody broke in and stole it (probably for the scrap value of the cast iron rather than to sell it. Idiots) and it used to keep that uninsulated 15X18 box very comfortably warm on just a low burn.

 

The wood shed is approx 12'Lx5'Wx7'H. The way I see it I can store a little over 2 cords which is enough for me in one season. Also the Jotul is a 12 5/8" x 18 7/8" OD. This means that anything that I'm burning usually is cut and split pretty small in order to fit in my stove. Sorry to hear about yours getting stolen. I had my catalytic converter hacked out of my truck one night. That $25 score for that bum was my $250 problem.. I hate scumbags

 

Bought a cord of Tamarac or Hackmatack as the locals call it.
Chopped it up, four truckloads worth. Will add it to the other few cords of maple and spruce cut down last year from my backyard.

 

I go through 2 to 3 cords of wood for. 3k sq foot home per year. That pile will last me 2 plus years. I also have a water jacket in the stove to heat the radiating floor, works great. Nothing like wood heat and a well insulated home.

 

Is the water jacket your idea? Never heard of it before. Sounds like a great idea.

 

Yes and no, Vermont Stoves use to make a water jacket but stopped for some reason. All I did was take 3/4 copper flexible tube and make one bend and install it in the back of the stove so the water would flow without a pump and install the pipe to a copper water tank the tank has a gage on to to run the pump when the water gets at tempture that's set pushing the water into the radiating heat that's in the slab of the floor. Work great but you need to know what your doing or you could make a steam bomb. Old timers use to do it to heat water behind the wood cooking stove.

 

What model stove is that? looks a lot like my VC Intrepid but maybe a little bigger?

Anyone ever use a "heat reclaimer" http://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...ci_sku=45025&gclid=CJ-VjvmNqsICFW8V7AodZVIAfw

My little stove in my basement doesn't make a whole lot of difference. the basement is 1400sqft of uninsulated cement floor and cinderblock walls, so unless you're right infront of the stove or have had it burning for a while, its still chilly down there. And it doesn't make any difference up stairs.. I can burn wood all day and the furnace will still kick on.

I have a 6" diameter chimney so I'm limited to stoves with that size flue collar but I'm sure I can find one thats bigger and my thoughts are the bigger the stove the more heat it will put out.

 

What kind of wood are you burning if you are unable to heat a basement with your stove ?

 

The newer, more efficient stove designs almost all use a 6" flue unless they're a very large stove. My Hearthstone is rated to heat 2500 square feet and it has a 6" flue.

I'm guessing that it's of the 'wet' variety.

 

Same for my Pacific Energy Alderlea

 

You have the T6?

 

I have the T5 on my main floor , it's good to 2000 sqft

 

A buddy has one of the reclaimers on one of his stoves. It does blow quite a bit of heat, but not sure if this results in more creosote or not as he just started using it. He seems to be happy with it.

 

Got a new toy over the thanksgiving holiday...

 

I'd definitely be hesitant to use a heat reclaimer with a modern woodstove. The older stoves you could probably get away with it because they lacked the complex baffling systems that newer stoves do. A lot of the older designs sent a lot of waste heat up the chimney, but the newer models pull as much heat as possible out of the flue gasses before they ever hit the chimney. A heat reclaimer on a modern woodstove seems like you'd be begging for a chimney fire.

Just my $.02

Congrats!
How many tons is it rated for?

 

My stove is the original intrepid which apparently was only made for a little while. It's about 30 years old. Not sure if that counts as modern or not.


The wood I burn is mostly oak and locust. The first time I bought wood I got the $50 half cord mixed hardwood, seasoned in log.

The other day I bought a $90 half cord of seasoned oak that is much drier.

The stove is so small that I have to be very picky with what wood I bring inside to make sure it fits. I end up cutting all the longer pieces in half. And I have to add more wood every hour or so to keep a good fire going.

I also have been leaving the air flow damper on the stove open so the fire burns hotter. Not sure if that's common or not.

Thanks.

 

At full open on the damper all the time , most of your heat is going up the chimney