Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

Hardwood , I think mostly

I agree

Council has spoken , pellet stove users allowed in thread on a technicality

 

Smells like Oak, usually

I feel honored.

 

Well if Pellet Stove users are allowed, then here is my current set up. Bought a brand new Harman Accentra 52i pellet stove and installed it a month ago - haven't used oil since we bought our house and it will be a cold day in hell when I finally call the oil man for a delivery.

Have 3 tons of softwood pellets (definitely pine from the smell) and go through about a ton a month. Placed an order for 2 more tons and should be all set for when jack frost shows up. In regards to pellets, softwood IMHO is the way to go. Yes they do ignite faster and burn quicker, but they put out immense heat and leave a very fluffy ash compared to the dense ash of a hardwood. Can leave the stove turned down a bit to compensate for the heat which means less pellets being burnt - more or less a wash.

 

Nice!
We had a pellet stove at our old house (much less cost prohibitive to install a pellet stove than a woodstove, since the house had no chimney, nor a place to put one) and I found the same thing with softwood/hardwood pellets. I used to buy 1 ton of hardwood pellets and 3 tons of softwood pellets. We'd burn the softwood pellets during the cold part of the season when you want that extra heat, and bookend with the hardwood pellets in the spring and the fall.

We've got a propane stove in the living room at our new house, in addition to the woodstoves. We use it when we just need to take the chill off on a damp morning or in early spring/late fall, but don't want to fire up the woodstove because if you do you'll be opening the windows to an 80 degree house in no time. I want to rip it out and replace it with a pellet stove because I hate buying propane, but since I don't use it very often I haven't been able to justify replacing it. The cost of a pellet stove and chimney buys an awful lot of propane.

 

Presumably your propane fireplace has a switch to turn it on or off. Just buy a thermostat to control it, either the really cheap mechanical kind or spring for a battery powered programmable to replace the switch. They are really easy to install.

 

I've already wired it up to a T-stat; I just don't like buying propane. No more often than we use it I shouldn't care, but I much prefer burning wood products to burning fossil fuels.

 

If it is hooked up to a tstat, then there shouldn't be any issue of house overheating to 80. Propane is also cleaner than wood for burning. Wood leaves the creosote buildup if not properly seasoned, while propane doesn't have to season. Also, in getting wood, there are a few costs involved, including chainsaw, maintaining the chainsaw, gas/oil, hauling the wood, time to get wood, time to split it. With all those taken into account, propane can be a big winner.

 

...We use the propane stove when we don't want to fire up the woodstove, because the woodstove will kick the house to 80 degrees in no time.

What I'm saying is that I would prefer to have a pellet stove in the living room rather than the propane unit that's in there now, because I prefer burning pellets to burning propane.
I heat primarily with wood, with a big Hearthstone Soapstone stove in the cellar, and we have a wood cookstove in the addition. I usually go thru about 4 cord a year, but last year with the polar vortex it was more like 5. I was nearly through my last rick of seasoned wood by the time we shut the stove down for the season.

 

I just dropped $4K on that stove so its not cheap....but when I ran all the numbers, in three years it's break even (assuming 4 tons of pellets a year) and then anything after is less money out of the bank (assuming oil stays at $3.60/gal). And on the added benefit, I set the stove to keep the house at 70 instead of a thermostat for the oil tank at 65 and cringing when the air kicks on.

 

I do something similar; the thermostat for the boiler is set at 62, but when we're running the woodstove 24/7 the house spends nearly all of its time around 68-72, unless it's REALLY cold out, like -20 (-29, if you're Oz)

 

Does your TV stay where it is pictured when you are burning? If so I assume you have not had any trouble with it getting too hot.

I am thinking ahead to future setups. I would like someday to have a house with a stove setup in the living room, simply because I enjoy watching the fire. Of course I see two major downfalls with this: The dirt and ash would be unwelcome in the main living area, and overheating said space and its contents.

Anyway just curious.

 

I have an open fire place in my living room, never had any problems with making a mess. My wood burning stove can get a bit messy, but thats because I play with the fire too much. Anywho, ash is extremely easy to clean up, so I wouldnt worry about it.

 

Hahaha; that's part of why we like having the woodstove in the cellar. It's got a glass window, and whenever I'm down there I feel the need to open the door and poke at the fire, even if it's burning fine. I babysit the hell out of our cookstove whenever we're using it, too. No glass door, so I'm constantly lifting one of the pot lids to peer inside.

 

TV stays right where it is. The pellet stove blows the heat directly outward and hardly any radiates laterally. The only issue is the stove can be a little noisy with the fans running on max, but just turn the volume up and you're OK.

The room does get pretty dusty when using the stove but that is due to dumping bags of pellets directly into the stove. The wife dusts a little more often to keep my house warm. Its a hard sacrifice, but one I am willing to make.

Question, what do you guys use to battle humidity in the winter?

 

You're having a problem with too much humidity during the winter?
Wish I had that problem.

I keep a pot of water on top of the cellar monster that I fill every morning when I load the stove, and we we run a 7-gallon humidifier that I fill once a week.


During the summer we run a dehumidifier in the basement. The pantry's in the back room in the cellar, so I try to keep it around 50%.

 

Guess I should have been more specific: What do you guys use to keep humidity UP in the winter? The pellet stove (and all stoves for that matter) dry the hell out of the air and make it pretty uncomfortable. I have to little humidifiers that I bought at CVS; one for the living room and one for our bedroom. But they never seem to keep up.

 

Ahh, I see. Derp on my part for assuming you had too much.

Here's the humidfier that I use:

Lasko 1128 9-Gallon Evaporative Recirculating Humidifier

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VP7FWA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Turns out it's a 9 gallon, not a 7 (whoops)
I replace the filter every year, but I haven't had to do anything else with it in the three years that I've had it. Keeps our clothes from sticking to us, and keeps us from zapping the cat.
The only problem is that it's fairly noisy. We keep it on the lowest fan setting so it's not really an issue, but I do wish the fan was a little quieter.

 

We simmer a pot of water on the stove, and we exhaust the dryer indoors.

 

In my last house, tea kettle with the spout open so it won't whistle, or pot of water on the wood stove.