thinking about a wood stove

[jim sylvester]

the more I hear about the heat you guys are getting from yours, I'm thinking about putting one in the home.

just built 3 years ago, and did not put an extra flu in the chimmney stack for a future wood stove

what are the steps in putting one in?

I would like to put it in the basement

can wood stoves be transferred from one house to another?

Are inserts for mansonary fireplaces worth the money/ or just go for the woodburning stove?

thanks for the advice guys

jim

[tattoobob]

If you have a fire place aready I would go the insert route, I had a wood stove for many years and they are alot of extra work first you have to buy the wood which can be done a number of ways, I used to buy graffle loads and cut and split it all by hand, I would go thru 6 to 8 cords a year, Then I put a new heating system in and I went to only using 3 to 4, If you buy it cut/split/deliverd it is still move it 3 times before you even burn it.
Putting a stove in your basement is a great idea to the stainless steel all fule flue pipe is very expensive I think it is $10.00 a inch, When I installed mine I had 3 36 inch sections, a roof flashing, some brackets, and a cap and it was somewhere around $1000.00 and I had to install it.

I am not trying to discourage you just letting you know the work involved

I have senced moved and don't even have a fire place and I miss the heat bad, I am always cold, but the wife doesn't want the mess of the wood in the house, she doesn't like pelet stoves either so I may get a gas stove but we are going to go and look for one this week, I am going to try and get a pelet stove.

[justplugit]

Look into a gas stove like Bob said. I had a wood burner for 20 years and it worked great, but being i had to start buying wood i wasn't saving that much. Went to Vermont Castings gas 10 years ago and like it alot. Nice thing you can vent it right through the wall about 30 inches above the stove.

[ProfessorM]

Putting it in the basement is nice but you will spend as much for the chimney as the stove probably as mentioned above. You have to be above the ridge line of the roof if you are within 10' of it I am pretty sure so from the basement that is a lot of pipe. The fireplace inserts are good too and efficient and you can get a nice glass front so you can enjoy the fire, but you will be dragging wood and ashes thru the parlor so it will be messy that is why the basement is nice. A new stove is expensive now a days. Probably between 1200 and 2500 bucks. A lot of towns make you put in an efficient stove too. The days of polluting metal bare bones stoves are gone. It has to be a clean burning stove, at least in my town, so check with your town. Wood is a lot of work but I like the exercise, I can use it. Make sure you get it inspected so not to get in trouble with your insurance comp. Easy enough to do your self if you are handy.

[Slingah]

I have an insert...love it...glass front ...nice -n - cozy
ya it's work...but worth it in my opinion

[ProfessorM]

Free wood helps too.

[Karl F]

All Good Advice.. Look at the gas, and the wood inserts, best to use your existing chimney if you can. Expensive to run a new one, SS is way up now.
Buying wood, not too cost effective.. I get mine for free, brother in law in tree business.. (just scored more today, from another source, happens a lot, once you put the word out)
Love it tho.. heat from a wood stove goes right to the bone, laugh at my wife, when we stay at her mom's house, she says "it's cold".. then a little later, "it's hot".. I try to explain how a furnace cycles.. wood heat.. constant.

My house is tight, ( fairly small too, 28X30, 3/4 cape, with a shed dormer) so I rarely use more than 3 cords per winter, and, I have a small stove in my shop in the cellar, that gets used the days I'm down there. I built the house in 1983 with the idea of wood heat.
2X6 walls 16 inch center, R19 walls, R30 attic, Anderson HP windows.

A lot to factor for you, cost effective would be #1.

[tattoobob]

Ya free wood was always great, also having a pick up truck was good to when towns cut trees back from the road.

[tynan19]

Seems like everyone I know with a new stove installed the pellet stove. Much cleaner and less refilling. We have a wood stove in the basement with a great in the floor above it. It literally heats the whole house. We get free wood. We either cut off our acerage or help out the farmer who owns most of the ajoining land by thinning the woods surrounding his fields. Lot of work in splitting and storing, but I love it.

[Thom]

WE have a pellet stove and in the past we had a reg wood stove. Probally not saving much with the pellets but the house is much warmer and it is easy loading a fourty pound bag of pellets than wood, also easier to keep clean about 5 mins a day with my pellet stove. THomT

[Goose]

haveing a wood stove is alota work but well worth it.

[Swimmer]

When I built my gambrel 24' x 36' I had three flues in the chimney, one for fireplace, heater, and one for a stove in the cellar. I burned coal for 6 or 7 years in the cellar until the little black chit that ends up hanging from everything at winters end drove my wife up the wall. I added on and put another fireplace in that room and put a wood stove there, which is even running today but very low. Wood takes more work nop doubt. I get mine log length. Anywhere from ten to twenty foot trees. Some of them after cutting it to length still take quite a bit of oompf (sic) to get it onto the splitter, because they are so big around. Got the splitting done early this year, last spring actually. Just finished piling, stacking it yesterday. Used to go and cut my own and bring it home in my F250. Now I pay by log length $50 to $70 a cord delivered and he piles it right where I want it so thats the way I go now. If you have not been cutting wood and are middle-aged I would give serious second thoughts about starting out now. I enjoy the exercise but it isn't easy. A gas stove is very nice. It can be vented like Bob said very easy.

[tynan19]

Split 3/4 of a cord this weekend. Tough work by hand but the house is toasty with last years burning now. Many places to find burnable wood.