Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Looking to install either a high efficient fireplace or woodstove in the house. Wife wants a fire place in the living room as its somewhat already set up for it, however I would rather have a wood stove which would fit nicely in the kitchen. Seems like a wood stove would come in a litte handier in a SHTF situation. Any suggestions?? Thanks

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Woodstoves are more efficient at heating a room if only because they stick out from the wall and thus radiate more heat. You can add a forced air blower to a fireplace but they tend to be noisy. Woodstoves have a flat surface so yes it would be easier to cook on or keep a kettle on. Aesthetics wise well they're plain ugly and noisy to open and close. I remember as a kid at my grandparents in appalachia hearing my grandmother getting up in the middle of the night to add more wood to the stove. Hauling and filling the woodbox was one of my chores as a kid also and I remember hating it once we converted from a normal fireplace to a cramped woodstove. Woodstoves are more picky about the size and type of wood you feed them, typically they require shorter sticks of firewood to fit inside the doors and it needs to be split to burn well. Adding wood to a regular fireplace is easy by comparison.
It gets to be a pain cutting firewood that's only 15" long and constantly refilling a small stove.
There's no pleasure in watching them burn either, unlike a fireplace. About all you can do with a woodstove is prop up your feet on them and watch the soles of your boots smoke when you come in out of the ice and snow. Great fun.
Now if you are talking about a full size wood fired kitchen stove then that's another story entirely.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

if your not going to do all the cooking you had better just stick to the fireplace

maybee you can find a fireplace that you coulod also do some basic cooking on

if you are not used to it cooking on a wood stove can be a bugger and if you did not want it in the first place it could cause a strike of the most uncomforatable sort ha ha

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

IMHO Wood stove is the only way to go. Much more efficient in terms of getting useful heat out of the wood than a fireplace.

But keep in mind too that the "quality" of the heat that you get is very dependent on the quality of the wood that you feed it. Well-seasoned hardwood vs fresh green pine. :biggrin:

If you don't have your own source of inexpensive wood and you will have to buy it, check into multi-fuel stoves that can burn pellets and corn and whatever in addition to wood. Fuel flexibility might be a very valuable asset in the future.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Wood stove as if the sht does ever hit the fan you'll get more heat out of your wood. It's a lot of work to cut it all, split it all, drag it all to the fire. Even if you have a lot of wood for free you'll appreciate not having to move so much of it.
A standard fireplace just heats up your chimney while even a small stove can keep a house warm.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

I too had a big fireplace which my wife was reluctant to give up. I convinced her to put in a Quadrafire wood insert. She thanks me every winter when it's 10 degrees outside and 72 degrees inside:ok:. With an insert, you can have the best of both worlds: the esthetics of a visable fire (through a glass door), and the heat generation of an efficient wood burning stove. My Quadafire boasts 70-80% efficiency and produces zero emissions and a low volume fine gray ash - all organic matter is completely combusted. It is clean and safe - no flying red-hot cinders to land on someones lap and ruin the mood!

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

A woodstove is hard to beat. It probably puts out 4 times as much heat as a fireplace. The large clear neo-ceram window in mine allows viewing the fire. Sometimes I cook a roast or pot of beans on it all day or open the door and place a couple foil-wrapped potatoes inside. During final construction I didn't have running water so I heated a 12 quart stock pot on the woodstove for taking a shower.

The advantages of a fireplace is that you usually have a better view of the fire and it usually takes longer logs. Also you can hear the fire better.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

good point, but ill add, Woodstoves can burn corn,pellets or whatever, pellet and corn stoves cannot!

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

"""wood stove would come in a litte handier in a SHTF situation"""
Nothing says ' Warm Comfortable Humans Inside ' like woodsmoke.
If you are REALLY planning for SHTF, you need to get a good shovel, and start digging a bunker.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Woodstove in the kitchen would be my vote.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

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Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

I've got a pair of Quadrafires (downstairs, upstairs)

Built into a pretty massive chunk of brick masonry

(10' x3', from ground floor to roof).

Warm up that chimney, and you are good to go.

They are not good for cooking.

That would be a woodstove of the kitchen variety, which,

By the way, if it is a good one, is not designed for throwing heat.

I'm looking for one of those as we speak.


scyth

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Woodstove if it's heating efficiency you want.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...y/DSC00314.jpg

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

All of the already mentioned benefits of a wood stove plus it is more easily made portable (if you know what I mean). Bx3

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

A fireplace actually cools the building. The hot air is sucked out the chimney. You feel warmer near it, but it actually pulling heat from the whole structure up and out the chimney. Go with a woodstove. They are efficient and actually heat the building.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

SGoldberg -

Ummm.

Doesn't matter if it is 10" metalbestos or brick chimney for the flue,

Still runs heat out of the house.

Any wood fired insert or stove is similar in this regard.

Just depends on the amount of radiant heat delivered inside

Vs. the hot gases/smoke run outside.


scyth

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Wood stove no question. No comparison.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Absolutely, woodstove. Put a pretty glass fronted one in the living room just because it looks nice doesn't mean it isn't functional too.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

I burn wood for winter heat with propane in floor heat as backup. I have a large masonary fireplace with a concrete block chimney with rock facade on the main florr, and the largest woodstove I could find in the basement.

In my 3400 sq ft house including all three levels (basement, main, upstairs), either one will keep my house toasty warm. The woodstove will perform this with 1/3 the fuel of the fireplace though.

One trick to avoid pulling cold air into your home through doors and other poorly insulated/sealed areas is to provide a cold air duct to feed your fire. My fireplace has a small metal sliding door with a flue connecting it to outside air at the front side of the fireplace. My woodstove also has a duct to an outside air inlet vent (similar to a dryer vent). Both provide cold dense air to the fire preventing the warm air from the house being burned.

Nothing beats a large fire in the fireplace for ambiance though.....

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

woodstove .........................................

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Wood stove!


http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/Stove2.JPG

They heat like crazy!

:biggrin:

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Decided to go with the lopi leyden woodstove with a fan. The only problem is I will have to locate it in the corner of my kitchen which is on the side of the house. My house is pretty open (lots of open space between the kitchen and living room ect), however I'm somewhat concerned that my kitchen will end up being 90 degrees and the rest of the house will be cold. Anybody have a stove in the corner of the side of the house and if so, hows the heat distribution. Thanks guys.

Kind of new to this board and i find myself turing off the tv and turing on GIM (you guys) to get the real scoop.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

I have a fireplace and am installing a Buckstove fireplace insert if that tell you anything. You get a woodburning stove going and it can drive you out of a house, I can pack my fireplace full and it won't even drive you out of the room.

Fireplaces are just decorations IMO.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

fireplace inserts are thw way to go wife and I picked one up off craigslist for 300.00 with all the pipe glass fronted so you can see it burn love our insert gets the house up to 70 and keeps it there for about 8 hours on one load of wood

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Anybody here have experience with Masonry Stoves/ Russian Ovens?

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

A couple of strategically-positioned ceiling fans will help distribute the heat.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

My house is real open also. Where the wood stove is the ceilings peak at 16 feet. I have a ceiling fan up there and by putting a small floor fan in the back of the house I move the the cool air (from floor level) into the the part of the house with the wood stove. The heat then makes its way back into the bedrooms in the back of the house.


Hope this helped



:biggrin:

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Right -

We just got the snot kicked out of us last night

By a high wind heavy rain line storm.

I've got no power, a 90' fir tree tipped over in the front yard,

And chainsaw sized limbs and standing water everywhere.

The inserts are doing just fine, thank you.


scyth

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

I have had fireplaces before (very inefficient as most heat is sucked up the chimney) and for a year I've had a wood stove in the room I finished in the basement, and that puts off heat efficiently... but it doesn't heat the upstairs anywhere near as much as I expected - it just doesn't rise up the stairwell as planned... So since there's a useless but pretty fireplace in the living room upstairs, I'm expecting to get a wood burning insert there soon. I've almost decided on a QuadraFire 3100 or 4100 insert. A true free standing stove would stick out too far into the living room and look pretty tacky, unfortunately. If anyone has comments on Quadrafires, please send me a message or post below.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Lopi makes a good stove I have their Liberty model. Mind if I ask how big an area you want to heat (sq ft)?

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

House is around 6 years old and 1950sq ft. Hopein for lower heating bills and preparing for LP prices to go through the ceiling (if you can find it) as the SHTF. We import 60 percent of our energy , I see some very cold nights :36_1_63:for people when we loose reserve status. I'll be sleepin next to my wood stove with a AR on each side of me.:sleepy13:

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

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Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Getting the fan mounted on the Lopi is an excellent idea. I would implore you to get the largest stove you can. Consider the Liberty model like I have you will not regret it. This will be the 8th year I'm heating my 2000sq ft house with it.
Good luck whatever you decide.

Do not burn wet or unseasoned wood, most of the energy is wasted burning off the moisture; It fouls the chimney too.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

They can be 90% efficient. compared to 50% for a regular stove. or 15% for a normal fireplace.

its all about capturing the heat going up the chimney.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

I have a homemade insert I bought from an old farmer and with one load it keeps the downstairs at about 95 to 98 while the upstairs above the fireplace is a 85 and the bedrooms above the garage are anywhere from 65 to 72 degrees for 6 hours and then the temp starts to decline. The dry heat is hell on trim and the wood work. Develope cracks in the winter. You can tell if Menards is selling good kiln dry wood or just junk with this dry heat.
I burn mainly Black Locust mixed with a little Oak to tone it down a bit and occasionly some Hedge for the real cold days.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Wood stove! A fireplace only real function is to look good. I got tired of the mess in the house and installed an outdoor wood boiler. It heats two homes toasty all winter. Can be operated with a small generator if the power goes off. Long haul it would be better to have a wood stove in the house for power loss.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

I just finished a basement remodel based on my coal stove. I'm a miner so the coal is free, woohoo. Anyway, the basement is about 800 square feet and last year the place was getting too hot. I did a little research and found that I really have the perfect setup to make the stove heat the whole house. As you know heat rises, so in order to make the stove circulate properly I needed a place for the heat to rise and the cold air to fall. The basement needed work anyway so I ripped it all apart and I left a large vent above the stove. That vent will channel hot air through the floor joist and into vents that will be cut into the upstairs floor next week. My cold air will fall down the stairs finishing the cycle.

One last thing. I think it will be worth your time to put a fresh air vent in. It allows the stove to draw air from the outside rather than drawing your already heated air up the chimney

I used the following forum for some of my research

http://nepacrossroads.com/

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

The Only place i can put a wood stove in the house is at the far end in the kitchen. The house is pretty open but I'm concerned the kitchen will be way to warm with the rest of the house cold. Anyone have the same problem.

Anyone heard of a lopi leyden. Dealer says they are great, however I have read some negative feedback on them. I need the tax credit this year so i'm going to have to move fast.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

Thanks SAUM!!!

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

I get the impression that most people don't even know what a Russian fireplace is, let alone the difference. They can also be designed with an oven or heating surface above the firebox, I'd bet. But I don't think its something you could easily add to an existing structure unless it was on a slab for starters, and it would also take up a lot more space than a woodstove or regular fireplace. The way I've seen them used is as a 2 sided room divider towards the center of the house.

As for woodstoves, I liked the soapstone ones because they have lots of mass to retain and radiate out heat after the fire has died down. But that was back in the 70's. Maybe there are better things available now.

Re: Fire Place or Wood Stove????
 

It also helps if you can pipe/duct an outside air supply to the firebox so you won't be pulling any of your nice toasty air from the room up the flue. :ok:

R.