I have had this wood burning insert in my fireplace for the past three years, and it is just fantastic! Not only have I cut my oil consumption by more than 50%, but I am toasty warm and no longer concerned with the draft coming through my shitty windows!
Wood burning is not for everyone. Moving and loading wood requires a shitload of work, and the splitting, stacking and burning process is dirty as hell, but I find it rewarding.
If you are somebody who has considered the benefits of wood-burning, then I encourage you to pull the trigger, and stop freezing your stones off!
Though we’ve never used a fireplace or wood stove as a primary heat source my wife and I had an apartment with a wood fireplace and a house with a wood stove, about 15 - 20 years ago. We now live in a 1 yr old house in which we had a wood stove installed a few weeks after the closing date. We’ve also had one house with a gas fireplace. We live in a cold, damp climate and that wood stove takes the edge off nicely and it’s just nice to have it running in our living room. In our city power failures aren’t infrequent either so it’s nice to have as a back-up anyway.
We would never get a gas fireplace again, however; friends gave us a fireplace DVD as a joke and, sadly, it was more realistic than our gas fireplace was. We’ve also had numerous gas fireplace proponents comment on “the mess” associated with wood-burning, which we personally don’t understand.
As far as managing the wood is concerned we didn’t find that too odious either. We ordered a half-cord of wood last May and it was dumped on our driveway one day in August or Sept and an hour later it was stacked in our back yard. Fortunately the wood came in a variety of sizes, all of which fit easily into our stove so we didn’t have to do the splitting etc.
I miss having a woodburning stove. I love the splitting, stacking, ash scooping, all of it. And the smell. mmmmm the aroma of a woodburning stove…
Since my pellet stove is misbehaving right now, I’m not as enamored with heating with wood. But usually I love it.
StG
I just want to say that you will get my bakers stove away from my dead cold and rotting corpse. I might make the effort to come back and get it back.
I have a pot of chili simmering away on top right now, and I am raising a loaf of bread to get baked shortly.
Aruvgan, that Baker’s stove looks pretty cool. If I ever built a house I would certainly plan for a wood stove that I could cook with also. If money was not a concern, then a masonry heater would be nice to have also! The Masonry Heater Association Gallery I wonder if these things work as well as is claimed.
You get two heats from wood heat.
One from the choppin’
One from the burnin’
Author Unknown
important is having external combustion air into a sealed fire box. if not it will cause drafts and cold air infiltration into the house.
forced air circulation of room air around the insert helps more efficient use of the heat.