We are considering the purchase of a wood burning stove to assist with heating our home. It is not something we WANT to do, but think it may be prudent... If you have one I'd appreciate any input.

I will send you a PM next week....I built a house a couple years ago and have one we really like and works great (and saves a couple bucks, and live in Northern Minnesota)

ScottK

We have on older one in our family room. If I burn hardwood in it, it heats it up so much I can barely take it. Most times I just stick a duraflame in it and it keeps the two rooms nice.

Soap stone is a nice even heat, but not much good for a quick warm up in the morning.
Almost all manufactures are making some very effecient stoves these days.
How many rooms you planning on heating, do you have an exsisting chimney? How do you plan on using it?

Years ago when we were young marrieds we used a wood stove to heat our small home and it was almost an adventure - way back when. (Almost like the fun of having no electricity for a few days and living by candlelight... that too has lost its appeal now that the water to flush toilets comes from a well! LOL!)

We would use the stove to heat six primary rooms. Yes, existing chimney is place for our wood burning fireplace (which we use extensively and love). If the day comes when our "energy costs would necessarily sky-rocket" (quote/unquote) the stove would be used in place of heatpumps to heat our home.

We use a wood burning stove to heat our place in Maine and it
does a great job! Most economical heat source, and it is able to keep an average ranch
style home very warm. Ours is a Smaller, less efficient woodstove and it will not burn through the night without needing a re-load. It is not our primary residence so we never bothered to upgrade, another option would be a pellet stove because you can turn them off/on automatically, and they can run on low for close to three days unattended.

We use a wood stove as our only heat. My husband (the primary fire builder) likes to keep it 80-85 in the house, sometimes he manages to get it up to 95, in that case I am the primary damper-closer and occasional window and door opener. Other than those occasional roastings I'm pretty spoiled in the winter.

Our biggest expense is a good chainsaw and the fuel for it (pretty darn cheap, really). Wood heat is soooo much cheaper than gas or electric. The really nice part is that unlike a furnace the wood stove never blows cold air at you before the lukewarm air finally gets into the room, it's just nice warm heat radiating out. And when we come in from the cold we can park our butts in front of the stove and get nice and toasty.

We have a wood stove as our primary source of heat… LOVE IT!! It’s an old Murphy, my second best friend in our northern winters.

Once installed and maintained properly, there is absolutely no cost – well maybe a bit of gas for the chain saw and truck to get the wood. Of course it’s not quite as simple as cranking up the thermostat but once it’s fired up it’s easy to regulate a tremendous amount of heat. With appropriately chopped kindling, they’re a breeze to get going too. You learn very quickly how important air flow is to fire.

Of course there’s also a bit of work involved in chopping, piling and storing wood (outside and in). I suggest a good firewood holder; we had ours built by a friend.

Besides the calming and penetrating effect of the wood heat (nothing like it) what makes it really enjoyable to me is that I’m not allowed near an axe. I can handle a mean chainsaw but a few nicks with the axe got me banned from that process. I’m totally good with it.

You also want to be sure the wood is dead dry (at least 2 years standing dead or on the ground) no fresh stuff – this will cause a very dangerous creosote build-up. All woods burn differently. Most folks like fir but my hubby swears by lodgepole pine – slower, more even heat, hotter coals. Your cedar burns very quickly so you want to stay away from that. Oh and did I mention that I LOVE IT. Once you’re spoiled with the comfort of wood, you’ll never want to go back.

Mine is an actual wood stove – in the winter there’s always a hot kettle of water simmering on it and generally a pea or chicken soup or pot roast stewing. Wet hats and jackets hang on the backs of chairs in front of it and oh I’m sure I must have mentioned that I absolutely LOVE IT!!

We do have to stoke it up once during the night but this generally co-insides nicely with a pee outing for at least one of the boys. A full night’s sleep is over rated anyway, hubby and I take turns… he likes to get up much more than I do of course.

Thanks for the encouragement on how much I'll love it... We've got the super dooper chain saws and a kickin' log splitter, log racks out the ying yang, etc... since we use our fireplace so much in the winter. Aside from Murphy - what brands of stoves/inserts do you have?

I have a Pacific Energy in a new home. 1500 sq. ft. coverage rating. With my efficient 1800 sq. ft. living area house, (R26 walls, R50-60 ceiling, and lots of passive solar through windows) a small fire is all that is required even at -10c.

The new stoves burn cleaner and completely combust the wood, with less smoke and less ash.

AM