Wood stoves 2
 

Well winter is in full bloom here and my wood stove is heating the house better than the furnace did last year (save the basement).

I have been using mostly Ash and Red Oak. It's a lot of work but I see it is worth it. This cold season we have used the furnace less than 40 hrs. Just on days that we are cleaning the stove.

There was a lot of talk about new stoves a while back and I was wondering how it's working out for others.


:s1:

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

We just installed a wood stove in a house we moved to last fall. We have been trying to use this as our heat source for most of the time and the electric furnace with heat pump only as a backup. The layout of the house is not good for heating the bedrooms with the wood stove though. I will be getting some fans to circulate the air soon, we have had a very mild winter so far, so usually only fire it up in the evenings and then only for a few hours on days as needed. Around here, I only have fir, alder and maple available to burn. Overall, one of the best investments I have made in the last year. We tend to loose electricity a few times a month, and the stove has made sure we always are warm.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Wood heats you in more ways than burning
it....I know , going to miss one, cutting, stacking.
splitting, stacking, burning, ash clean out.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Has anyone had any long term experience with wood fueled water heaters? The kind that are attached to modern cook stoves.
What kind of life span do these water heaters have? Are they a one time purchase?

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My electric furnace has a switch so that you can use only the fan--no heat--I use the fan to circulate the heat from the wood/coal stove. It works pretty well in this house.

Doug

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Thanks for the suggestion. I actually have tried this a few times, and yes it does work to an extent, but not well enough. I am not sure if the fan is too powerful and buy the time it is recirculating the warm air to the other rooms, if it is cooling it off or if the length of travel plus cold ducting is what is causing it. I am not sure what the watt or amp usage is for the furnace fan, but I am sure it is quite high. I figured the expense of that combined with wood, and the no so impressive efficiency of it, does not make it worth while to do.

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After years of an open fireplace with a water grate that circulated the water to a storage tank in the basement, for loops in basebd radiators, we went to a wood stove insert this December.

It's a Regency "hearth heater" as pictured below. BEST move we've made in a long time. I can already see my wood use going from 6-7 cords/yr to about 2-3. I can't believe the amount of heat that thing produces on such a small amount of wood. Supposed to be 86% efficient, and I believe it.

We have another stove ( older, Fisher model ) in the basement I will fire up if the weather drops into the teens, but other than that, this stove does 2200sf. ( layout is an open living, dining, kitchen, open ceiling to 2 bdrms above, master on main floor backs up to living rm ). Bedroom stays a little cool if we keep the door closed, but that's fine....I like it cool to sleep. The master bath we heat with a small electric heater when using it, none otherwise. I plan to install an "in tile" cable heater when I re-do the bath.

http://www.regency-fire.com/CMSPages...d-d3335f789d06

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All -

What Andy said.

I've got a pair of Quadrafires, one downstairs in the "daylight basement"

Which is really living quarters - and by the way having half your house

Dug into the ground is incredibly efficient -

And one upstairs in the living room.

Normally all I do is fire up the downstairs one, keeps the house just fine.

I don't even have the luxury of eastcoast hardwoods, just

doug fir, hemlock and alder.


scyth

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Yeah scyth....you'd LOVE a cord of shagbark hickory or white oak or black locust ( that last one is almost as hot as coal ).

But burn what you have ( I do ) it all burns ( except eastern white pine....I swear, you have to soak it in diesel to get it to burn )

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My little Lopi Patriot woodstove keeps my place warm. I close off the loft so I'm only heating about 1000 square feet. Here it is January 17th on Montana and I've only used a little over 1 1/2 cords of Pine and Fir. It's been a mild winter so far.
The little stove only takes 16" logs so I'm planning to upgrade to something with a little larger firebox eventually.
When I lived in Texas I was spoiled with Live Oak. That stuff has some BTU's in it. When I started burning these soft woods I was pleasantly surprised that they hardly make any ashes at all. I can go up to 3 weeks without cleaning this little stove.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

just replace my old stove with this one .... Built by Two old Railroad coots by the name of Blue Moon Stoves. This stove is one of a series called the Blue Moon 5. We know the economy is bad and that is the reason why we created this series. This stove may look plain compared to our sculptured series but this baby has ALL the THRILLS and FRILLS as all the others. It is constructed in entirety, with the exception of the door of 1/4''plate steel, stick welded with 8010 rods, Ground to a SATIN finish, SANDBLASTED and metal prep and painted with high temperature paint.

The Stove has a series 120 heat exchanger in it, a 140 cubic foot blower which can be easily coupled with a rheostat in order to adjust air flow to you EXACT need. The door is 1/2'' steel plate with a 5/8'' braided graphite impregnated gasket for AIR TIGHT seal mounted on 2 high hat hinges for easy opening and low wear on gasket. The door has a 4 inch precision damper for air control.

Measures:
The stoves foot print is 3'' deep x 24'' wide
43'' to the top of a 6'' thimble
Door opening is 13'' x 15 1/2'' for easy loading
a 8'' Ash Catcher which is an absolute MUST for a serious wood burner
Fire box is lined with brick and has the capacity to hold up to 24'' wood

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That's a damn good looking stove there, mick.


Here's a drawing of what heats my mobile home. I wouldn't dare putting a wood stove inside.
Our local MFA was selling Firechiefs for several years then dropped the line. Too bad, its a good furnace.


http://www.firechiefwoodfurnace.com/...ief_notext.jpg

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Thats all I burn is black locust starting this year.
Hard as hell and easy to split with a wedge (I mean real easy). No need for a log splitter at all.
Just using Black Locust alone has cut my wood burning in almost half to 4 - 5 cords.
Got to be carefull with it. It has already warped the door and cracked 3 fire bricks.
Looks like some repair work on the old stove this spring.
Only draw back with burning Black Locust is the smoke. Smells like smoldering leaves and just as thick untill it get to temp.

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I really considered getting on like that but............
You'll be replacing the catalyst in that in about 2 to 4 years for anywhere in the range of 300.00 to 400.00.
But the without the catalyst it would never put out the tempature it does.

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We have a Lopi too. the best thing that we did is install a
(Magic Heat Blower/fan) in the flue pipe. lots of heat goes out the flue.
Heats a 3000 sq ft house in the hills no problem. doesn't use much power.

http://www.peasefeedandcoal.com/Magic-Heat.html

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we recently saw a quadrafire pellet stove in action... I am SOLD.

We just went through 500gal of propane for this winter.. That has GOT to stop.

I am looking to see if I can fit one in our fireplace.

If anyone has any good links to suppliers for quadrafire, please post them.

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I don't have a fan on mine. Having the stove in the middle of the living room under a cathedral cieling allows for heat to dissipate into the room before it goes out the support box. I don't use much wood.

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I have the exact same insert that TN Andy does and it is fully capable of heating my entire house (2300 s.f not including basement). I generally burn soft maple (silver maple) only because it is abundant here and easy to get (Silver Maples often drop limbs in any big wind).
My biggest complaint is that the fire box is on the small side. I have had it for 4 years and think that the refractory is ready to be replaced (it has been occassionally making a loud thunking sound as it heats up).
It could be my sole source of heat if I didn't work full time. Even in summer I use about 50ccf of gas each month for hot water, dryer and cooking. Last month I used 92ccf - my parents have a house about the same size with gas heat and used 249ccf so it definitely helps with the heating bill.
If anything it tends to overheat the room it is in when it has been running all day. My thermostat reads 70 right now but probably closer to 76 in the room with the wood burner.

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I would recommend that you also look into a stoker coal stove before you buy a pellet stove. My dad bought one a few months ago and I installed it for him, he loves it!. The coal is awesome because it can still burn when it's wet. In fact, the bags of rice sized coal he bought comes wet and the supplier stores them outside on uncovered pallets. I was amazed by this, but we put the wet coal into the hopper and it burns great, + the wetness keeps the dust away. You get a LOT of heat from coal, more BTU's for the buck, comparing heat output/pound or ton, coal is the winner. The BTU rating for hard coal will range between 22 and 30 million BTU /ton. Because of their varied composition, heat from a ton of wood pellets may range from about 17.5 to 19.5 million BTU/ton. If you take an average BTU rating from each fuel, coal produces about 7.5 million more BTU/ton than pellets, Expressed as a percentage; it equates to 40 percent more heat!. I think you can also use pellets in the coal stove, but not visa versa. The coal is hard to light though, it took us almost 1 hour to get it to light because the stove kept feeding the
coal down the shoot before it was fully ignited causing the fire to push off the edge of the shoot. we discovered that the trick is to build a hot kindling fire with wood while the feed motor is turned off until the coal is glowing. The heat this little stove can produce is amazing, I think he is using a bit under 30lb per day in this very cold weather. The stove was made by Leisure line and is the Econo I model, it cost less than a pellet stove would have.
The stove comes with an electronic control that allows you to adjust the feed rate and / fan speed parameters, my dad love it! his buddy bought a pellet stove the same week and it cant come close; heat production wise.
The company link: http://www.leisurelinestoves.com

http://www.leisurelinestoves.com/ima...ed_216x324.jpg

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Aren't those covered with 6" thorns that have 3" thorns that have 2" thorns ???

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" in tile " cable heater?

are you talking about something like this http://www.suntouch.com/mats/ ?

If so i just did this type of installation in my bathroom over a concrete floor and i give this type of heat and installation my highest recomendation we absolutely love it.

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you might look at a breckwell P2000I i have had one for 3 years or so hooked up to a thermostat and couldnt be happier....when i bought mine they made 3 different sized trim kits to fit different fireplace openings

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Andy:

What do you do with the rocking horse? And have you thought of making wine with the grapes?

http://www.regency-fire.com/CMSPages...d-d3335f789d06

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may feel good on your feet but electric? :hissyfit_m:$$$$$$$$$$:bawling:


does your meter move like this one?:yippee:
:bear_cry:
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I have a three story house (including basement) with a wood stove in the basement. The wood stove heats all 3000+ square feet beautifully. I have vents that allow the heat to rise easily to all levels of the house. I also have a semi efficient fireplace on the mainfloor that works quite well also. The key to both is to have a pipe bringing combustion air directly to the stove/fireplace so heated inside air doesn't go up the chimney.

That said, my next purchase will be a wood fired boiler which I will keep outside. I'll place it right in the woodshed, so I don't have to haul anymore wood. No more mess/ashes/dirt/dust/spiders/bugs in the house from hauling in wood.

I'll put it on a propane backup so if I am away or don't feel like going outside. the thermostat will cause the propane side to turn on.

http://www.rohor.com/index.html
http://www.centralboiler.com/

These are a couple I am looking at. I'll use a big 5000 gallon tank buried in the ground (under a greenhouse or something) to act as a heat sink/heat exchanger to maximize efficiency.

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It draws less than 3amps when its on (60sq/ft)(i bet that is less than the computer you on right now) .....its thermostated at the concrete floor and once the floor slab is warmed up initially it doesnt run much.....i havent had a chance to run a load study on it yet....but i plan to..

i notice because the whole concrete floor slab is warm the room itself is much warmer feeling

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TTazzman,

Yeah...I think that's the same in floor system....I was looking at it the other day at Home Depot. I plan to put that programmable wall thermostat on it, and set it to come on a 1/2 hour before we get up, so the floor is toasty warm for morning bath time, then cut off the rest of the day, since we don't use that bath most of the time. I don't need much floor space....maybe 30sqft.

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Mick,

That is an exact copy of the Fisher stove I have in the basement....the dimensions are real close as well.

Funny thing, last week it was colder than a well diggers backside here, day highs in the teens, and I was running both stoves then. I go outside and look up at the chimney.....the flue with the new Regency, you see nothing coming out...just a shimmer of heat, enough you can tell the stove is burning.....the other flue, with the basement Fisher, is belching all kinds of smoke. THAT shows the real difference in a high efficiency stove and the older type.

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Yes they have thorns, but not as near the thorns of a honey locust.

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Nope...no catalyst in many of the new stoves, including Quadrafire and Regency.....they have gotten away from that technology.

They use a series of stainless steel "re-burner" tubes that vent the exhaust gas back into the fire for a complete burn....nothing to burn out, they carry a lifetime warranty. ( at least the Regency does.....I assume the others do as well ) You can see them in the top of the stove, venting gas back into the fire when you get the stove rocking.

The fire box on mine IS small.....I thought I was going to be really disappointed in the amount of wood I could get in there ( about 3 'average' sized pcs is it ), but then, I was used to sticking 10-15 large pcs on my fireplace before turning in, then closing off the doors on it.

BUT as it turns out, this thing produces so much heat with a small amount of wood, the only thing a bigger firebox would do is last a lot longer on the burn time. We've been stocking it at bedtime ( usually around 9:30-10), cutting the damper down, and there are usually enough coals in there to just throw more wood on in the morning ( 5am ).....especially if I use oak/hickory for the night stocking. That's all I need.

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We originally went looking for the Quadrafire, based on Mamboni's recommendation. I just got online and found a dealer down below Asheville, and we went to look at it one Saturday.

I needed an insert type stove, but wasn't really impressed with the insert Quadrafire makes...but we saw the Regency, and I really DID like it....I like the fact most of it sticks out on the hearth ( we have a deeper hearth than the one in the Regency photo above ), and by having it stick out ( which most inserts don't ), you get a lot of heat from radiation ( like a typical wood stove ) rather than have to depend totally on the fans for heat, AND you get a cooking surface if you need it ( My wife already tested that feature.....ahahaha )

I wouldn't go with a pellet, or coal stove, because again, that puts you at the mercy of fuel suppliers....but then, I have the advantage of a forest out the back door that I'll never make a dent in. The UP side of pellet or coal is you can stockpile the fuel, and both are dense forms of solid fuel...especially coal. I grew up with coal, both stoker coal ( small, auger delivered like wood pellets ) and lump coal furnace....it was my job from an early age to clean out the clinkers and keep the furnace running. Coal is a great heating fuel, but man, if you think wood is dirty, coal is awful !

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I ride that horse on virtual roundups, while eating grapes and looking at that clutter on the mantel, all the time wondering why that wood box is so small.

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Hey Andy, did you have to put a liner in your chimney to run that insert ?

If so , did you insert the liner yourself ?

Did you install the insert itself, or did you have someone install it for you ?

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

I agree with you here. I put a stoker in my mom's house 4 years ago. I grew up heating with wood. Been there, done that. I will not go back unless I have no choice. In fact, my next move to install a coal boiler. Here is a great link http://nepacrossroads.com/

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

I don't know what Andy did but I had a double walled 8" stainless steel chimmney inside an external wood frame/sided run with my original fireplace. I did put a 6" flex liner in that I wrapped in insulation and a wire mesh. I was told by the store that sold me the insert that you had to do this to enable the hearth heater to draw properly - like Andy says it is very efficient so much less heat goes up your chimmney. I have noticed the same thing that he has - once it gets going there is almost no perceptible exhaust while other guys who have wood burners on my street exhaust a lot of thick smoke.
I installed both the liner and the unit myself (mainly because I couldn't find anyone to do it locally at a fair price and in a reasonable amount of time). The unit is very easy to install other than it weighs about 400lbs so you need a couple guys to help you move it. The liner was a little more difficult but only because I was stupid and didn't put an installation cap and rope on it - I basically shoved it down my chimmney from a ladder on my roof which worked fine until about the last 3 feet which were very difficult - an installation cap with a rope would have allowed the person in my house to pull while I pushed.

I think I paid about $1,800 for the heater and maybe about $800 for liner materials. Installing both was about a 4 hour job for me with 2 helpers. I imagine about half that for someone who knew what they were doing. The store I bought it from wanted a little over $2,000 to install the liner with a one month wait! I called a few other places and they didn't even return my phone calls (the economy was better then).

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

2,000 just for the liner install:36_1_25: Holy crap!

Thanks for the reply and the info on your experience.

I would gladly take on the install of the insert, but not sure about the liner. The top of my chimney is over 30 feet from the ground, not sure i could do it without renting a JLG (Man Lift) ,and that would be expensive.

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I honestly don't think it is a difficult job. I leaned an extension ladder from my roof up to the chimmney run and had my dad on the roof elevating the wrapped liner with a long push broom to help me get it started into the chimmney. My chimmney is probably 25 feet - my house is kind of a salt box design with two stories in front that tapers down to one in back. A lift might help but the wrapped liner is fairly heavy (about 100lbs?) so the hardest thing was getting it started down the chimney. If you could get well above the chimmney top with the lift and had someone guiding the liner in at the top of the chimney it would probably work well. Definitely worth screwing a pull cap on with a rope attached.

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Millwright,

I did have a liner put in my existing masonry chimney. They used a flex stainless 6" pipe....picture a bigger, stronger version of the aluminum flex duct used for bathroom fans or dryer vents. No need for insulated liner since this is going in a masonry chimney.

The liner ran 500 bucks ( 20' ) and the install was another 500, so I didn't think it was too bad, but having watched, it was a pie deal....they were done in 4 hrs including lunch.....I'd do it myself if I had to do it again.

Biggest problem they had was removing my old damper in the fireplace throat....it was stuck in the open position, and they had a bit of a job getting it out...finally a sawsall did the trick.

The liner itself simply slips down the existing flue ( I had a 16x16" flue liner in the chimney ), and clamps on a "T" on the back of the stove....then clamps on a cap on the top, which is siliconed to the top of the chimney....nothing to it, really. One person could probably do it, but handy to have a second to work it in around the damper throat in the fireplace opening.

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Seems like it would be hard to clean. I'm trying to envision what whoud happen if you ran a brush through a corrugated flexible duct.

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My experience is much like Andy's.

I don't have time to to give you a sales pitch.

I am happy as a PIS with this stove.

http://www.lopistoves.com/product_gu...il.aspx?id=211

Get the fan unit for it.

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Andy does your stove/insert have a means of removing ash below the firebox without disturbing the fire?

Mine does not and that's my only gripe.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Cleaning is no big deal - I have had the chimmney swept once since I put the liner in - they just use a smaller brush. The liner is screwed into the top of my chimney with a couple sheet metal screws and screwed to the back of the stove with the same. I didn't caulk like Andy says but high temp silicone or caulk might be a good idea (My chimmney cap covers all so fairly weatherproof as is). With my insulation it is a very snug fit - no way that a brush could move it in cleaning. Truthfully these things burn so clean that cleaning is almost unnecessary.
I also had a problem with my damper - I could not figure out how to get it out so I cut it out by hand - I'm not planning on going back to an open fireplace and if I do I'll find someone who knows what they are doing to replace the damper.
I'm not the most handy guy - if I could do this anyone can.

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I started a thread titled "Wood Gasification Hydronic Units" specifically for the high efficiency water heaters for infloor hydronic heat systems.

Don't own a high efficiency unit myself and am blowing a lot of wood out the chimney every day. My wood boiler is a factory made unit from Malleable Iron Range Company of Beaver Dam Wisconsin built 1980. It is rated at 140,000 btu and my guess is it is 35% efficient at best. Malleable Iron is now out of business. Monarch was one of their product lines: http://www.monarchrange.com/

The trick is to have a ceramic lined burning chamber and to collect and use the heat in a secondary chamber, but that makes for a very large and heavy unit. Anyway, the thread is here: http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=134939

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

I have had many wood stoves over the years including a Vermont Castings with a removable ash pan. The ash pan was the only part of the Vermont castings stove that I liked.

The ash helps insulate the coals helping to hold the heat. Wood stoves seem to perform best with a good amount of ash in the fire box to hold the coals and preheat the wood.

The house that I have now has ground level windows next to the wood stove that work out very well for supplying the wood. I just stack enough wood for 24 hours out side the window and reach out to bring it in rather than walking through the house with it.

My stove is usually lit in early Oct and doesn't go out til late March or April.

I have a method for removing the ash that works very well in this house. I have a scoop shovel that is ~13" wide. The door and the fire box on the stove is ~15". I just wait till it is full of ash and let the fire burn down to just coals. I put a galvanized steel tub out side the open window, open the stove door and shove the scoop shovel in the fire box shake it til the ash and coals are not falling over the edge and remove it immediately to the window and outside into the tub.

This is a delicate operation and it takes a steady hand. I like it because I don't have to let the stove go cold and it takes less than 30 seconds.

I have tried putting the ash and coals in a steel tub in front of the stove using a vacuum to try and suck the ash dust out of the air it works but it is messy and time consuming.

Letting the stove go out and then cleaning it is possible too if a person waits for a warm day.

With the scoop method there will be some ash and coals left in the stove just add some more wood and it is good to go for another 2-3 weeks.

Caution; this is not an officially approved method and not intended as advise.

I live in Idaho so I just use ponderosa and lodgepole pine. Lodge pole is the better one of the two as it leaves very little ash. With a larger than recommended stove the inferior BTU pine does the job just fine and it is free.

Black walnut is available here too but it stinks when it burns and leaves soo much ash I won't use it at all.

My quadifier is very efficient and leaves little build up in the pipe, IMHO it is foolish to assume that the stove pipe will not need to be cleaned at least once a year. I do it at the end of the season and once in the middle of the winter just for peace of mind.

Chimney fires are no fun and do not need to happen.

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You guys are all missing out if you don't have access to Osage Orange aka Bois D'arc aka Hedge. It'll make the walls of the stove glow if you're not careful. We burn Ash, Oak (Red and Pin), Elm (Chinese, Native, and Red), Black locust and Walnut. Nothing comes close to Hedge.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Thanks Bugle....
I use a metal dust pan to remove the ash and it's too wide to clean just the grey ash and leave the hot embers alone. I will take your advice and get a narrower ash shovel.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

The shovel I use is a regular 5 foot long large scoop shovel.

I do it after it the wood has burned down to coals. It is still too hot to use any kind of short handled device.

One scoop done.

When I do it I just scoop up all the ash and coals that will comfortably ride in the shovel without spilling. It is a hot load and you have to be very careful. There will be enough coals left to rekindle the fire no problem. I don't even try to separate the coals out.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

:biggrin: I grew up on burning hedge in a wood stove....Hedge will burn with a blue flame just like gas once the bark is off and last a long time...

one major drawback to burning Hedge.....the grain in the wood is twisted and it is a major pain in the arse to split back then we hand split everything and i have no clue if a hydralic splitter will do the job

Anyone had any experience burning Honey Locust???

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Has anyone re-lined their woodstove yet? Mine is only 4 years old but I think the refractory bricks might be worn out. The sides seem fine but the bottom bricks seem to swell up after a long hot fire and when I clean it out I have noticed kind of a caked ash that I can't tell is part of the refractory brick or just from the wood. I don't think the brick is expensive so I will probably just buy a re-line kit this summer. I'm also curious if the fire proof insulation above the top baffle needs to be replaced. When I installed mine it was kind of like a piece of fiberglass insulation that I put on top of the baffle and then weighted down with a piece of plate steel - I remember thinking at the time - no way this stuff can last long.
I thought about soap stone but a guy I talked to from a soap stone manufacturer told me that the mass for a stove that size is so small that it won't perform any better.

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My fire bricks have cracked due to manhandling by the owner but they never swelled up. I have steel cross beams and fire brick on the roof of the fire box. I have replaced the cross beams once as they had warped. Never replaced the fire bricks. This is the stoves ninth season.

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It's ceramic wool. The "glass" in the door is ceramic, too.

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I bought an extra set of firebrick with mine when I bought the stove. I tend to do that with stuff.....like the tiller for my tractor....bought 2 extra sets of tine/bolts when I bought the tiller.

The time to find out you can't get parts is not when you need them :biggrin:

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Ha. You sound like my dad - the man has two of everything and if there is a good sale look out. He still has tubes of chasis grease that he made me stand in line alone at Clarkins to buy when I was 5 years old (limit 10 per customer). I think he has 4 or 5 rolls of Romex in his basement that he bought a few years ago for $20 - I asked him what he was building and he said nothing - it was just a good price and you never know when someone will need it.
I wish I was that organized - I buy something extra and it quickly becomes lost or the kids break it.

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Yep, I've burned Honey locust.
Its not as hot as the black and smells a whole lot better than the smoldering leave smell of Black Locust.
I've burnt hedge before and i think the Black locust is just as hot and with a blue flame.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Here is everything you wanted to know about kaowool and more.

http://www.anvilfire.com/sales/pages/kaowool_index.htm

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

I don't often get it but black locust is probably the best I've found in Michigan. Iron wood burns pretty good too but nothing has burnded like the black locust when it is seasoned good. I burn a lot of hard maple scraps from my gym floor installations and they burn great, nice blue flame. I burn mostly dead oak though because that is what is available from state and federal land around here. It is great stuff, usually dry as a bone, standing dead. We had a terrible plague of root rot that hit mainly the red and black oak round here. The woods look much different now days.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

JC, I have an outdoor boiler unit from Central Boiler. It is great and handles an enormous load of wood so I don't have to fill it often. It smokes like a volcano though and I see valuable gas and alchohol literally going up with the smoke. I keep thinking there must be a simple way to condense these gases into wood alchohol for fuel use.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

We had a homemade wood stove when i was young, someone (could have been a friend, dunno) welded a water jacket to the back of the wood stove with a 20 gallon drum beside it. We'd pour cold water in to the drum and there was a pipe at the bottom to feed cold water into the jacket and the hot water would feed back into the drum thru a pipe at the top. As long as the stove was going and the drum full we had hot water. Oh, and a spigot at the bottom of the drum of course. Was a fairly simple set up.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

That sounds like a gravity system. When I was completing construction here I would simply place a 12 quart stock pot on the woodstove and then carry it to the shower and use a large cup to dip warm water out and take a shower. It really worked fine and 12 quarts is enough unless you're shampooing long hair.
A gravity system like you refer to could have a pump and a pressure tank downstream of it, but care must be taken that the resevoir doesn't go dry and cause the pump to run dry when you're away.
Pressurized wood fired hot water heaters are problematic because of kaboom factor. Propane water heaters have a constant amount of heat and a relief valve.
Some people use copper coils around the flue to heat water. I wonder if condensation dripping on the stove is a problem.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Not gravity, buckets carried up from the lake lol. We kept a lid on the drum to keep too much from evaporating. it was just a simple 'cold water sinks' that kept the circulation going. But my brother in the Yukon took an old satellite dish and made a shower from it. Drainage system and drilled holes and put wood slats on it, a solar heated barrel of water above, says it works great.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Yep

The heated water in the jacket expands and gets lighter,
and rises. And the cold water in the tank replaces it from
the bottom.

Convection water cycle, low flow but no pump needed to
circulate the water.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

A couple of q's for you skid.

First, what kind of stove are you operating?

Second, how many vents and what size are they to allow heat migration to upper floors? Are you assisting with a fan?

Third, how did you set up your fresh air to ensure you don't have cold air spilling into your house?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

How much did that run you?

Has anyone seen or tried a fireplace in the center of a room? I've seen a few in hotel/ski resort lobbies, but are they efficient? The central location would have to emanate a lot of heat, and it would really make for an awesome place to sit and read or play some music.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

In the corner....Where it belongs.:s1:

http://goldismoney.info/forums/pictu...pictureid=1709

http://goldismoney.info/forums/pictu...pictureid=1708

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Or against the stairs.

Tulikivi makes a double sided fireplace, they're all custom installed so you can have a fireplace in the living room on one side and a cookstove in the kitchen on the other. Horribly expensive but worth every dime, over 90% efficient.

http://www.positivechimney.com/chimn.../showroom2.jpg

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Been looking around and it looks like my options are limited for an insert for me.

We have a prefab fireplace with metal triple wall flue (wortheless)

Looks like I can do a quadrafire pellet stove, and they support installing their insert into this setup, but it looks like a normal wood stove is out of the question.

I guess quadrafire can do it since the pellet stove if force vented and uses a small pipe.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

of course you want it in the center.

and you want a FIREPLACE, not an ineffecient wood stove. :confused_ma:

Google is your buddy

and if you have restrictions on what you can install you are living in the wrong place and should move somewhere safer. :P

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

You burning cat food?????? :biggrin:

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Kitty litter bags....hell yeah.

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They haven't caught fire yet. Need more wood in there! Looks kinda close to the walls and other combustibles. No worries, or have you used some greenboard or something?

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Techguy your fireplace sounds similar to mine. Do you have a hearth? If you do my guess is that the Regency hearth heater that TN Andy and I have is also an option. I had very few options because of the pre-fab fireplace too.

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Is that an Avalon Olympic?

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Ours is about 2 ft, but I could expand it by 1 ft for a few hundred bucks.

How does that regency vent? Does it hook up to the existing pre-fab flu?

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http://www.lopistoves.com/product_gu...il.aspx?id=211

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Bump.......Hey Skid, where are ya??

Re: Wood stoves 2
 

Yes - the unit sits on the hearth and might extend a couple inches into your existing pre fab fireplace. There is a piece of extended molding that goes around the fireplace opening to cover it. There is a 6 inch pipe coming off the back of the unit that gets connected by a 90 degree elbow to your chimmney flue - you might have to line your chimmney with 6 inch flexible SS duct to make the proper connection. There is a sliding air control that controls the inflow of combustion air from your room into the unit. As the unit heats up it consumes more air so you can damper it down once it gets hot to a nice burn rate.

I'm sure the quadrafire is nice and if you prefer pellet fuel over wood it is probably the way to go - I just suspect that you could install the hearth heater if you wanted to. If you have a basement you might have to shore up the support for the hearth to accomodate the weight of the unit and the hearth extension. My builder poured concrete into a wood frame that kind of cantilevers over to the poured wall - I could probably post a picture.

I think I paid about $1,800 for mine.

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Im thinking about installing a lopi endeavor in the corner of my house (only place for it) before the crap hits the fan. Anyone have any feedback on a lopi endeavor. thanks

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I have the Lopi Liberty the biggest one they make. I highly recommend the factory fitted fan it doubles the heating capacity.

I would also recommend you consider the Liberty model. My house is 2000sqft.