Is a wood stove worth the money? I have read that 70% goes up the fireplace normally, but that with a woodstove it doesn't.
Any comments are welcome. Thanks in advance.
Oh yeah, is it wood stove or woodstove???
Still a lot of the heat goes out the vent. However even if you get 60% efficiency, most places you will be spending far more for wood than for gas electric or oil. If you get your wood free, then that would be different.
Gas costs a tremendous amount right now. I guess I don't know how long a cord of wood will last.
Four years ago we bought a norwegian Jotul F 3 CB. Efficiency is quite high at 70 per cent. It is the most sold stove in N America. For just a 23x19" stove, it cranks out 42,000 btu and will easily heat 1300 sq ft of space. We love it, as we live in foggy coastal area, and use it sporadically year round. However, for us, it occasionally substitutes for central gas heating, does not replace it fully. Try this question on alt.energy.homepower - lots of expertise there. They can give you the metrics on wood use rates, alternate fuel comparison, etc, but as the prior poster says, depends very much on your area fuel prices, weather, local restrictions, and source and cost of wood.
Well it can cost $3,000.00 or more for... The special hearth on which the wood stove sits (which must have a specific R-value and have the proper distances in all directions out from the wood stove), the woodstove itself, and a new stainless steel chimney. Then everything must be installed to code, inspected by the building inspector *and* your insurance company if you want to be covered in case of a fire. Also you are basically required to have a new EPA certified woodstove which emits cleaner smoke.
Then for the money saving part, you would need a free or cheap supply of firewood. Then would need to buy a chainsaw and safety equipment (if you want to saw safely) like; good boots, chaps, eye goggles, gloves, hard hat (if felling), and ear plugs if a loud saw.
Also need to have a pick-up or trailer to haul the wood.
For splitting, I first cut all my wood, then rented a log splitter for $60 a day. Or you can buy one for about $1,300.00.
A wood stove is a great "exercise" program. Installing stove, cutting and hauling wood to truck, splitting wood, etc. A LOT of work! But I enjoy this type of stuff and really liked calling my gas company and telling them to disconnect my natural gas service(as I would be heating with wood this winter).
I look at things for the long term. I am broke as can be after paying for all this stuff, but several years from now, I'll have a lower cost of living. Also I can do with a bit of exercise. I also plan to install a new very efficient natural gas furnace and insulate my house better. I probably will not be able to cut firewood, etc. when I get older, so might be a good idea to have another source of heating if needed...
The question of cost is very dependent on you local pricing. Most places wood will still be far more expensive than gas, even at the current cost. BTW as gas goes up, you are likely to see more people go for wood and guess what the price of wood will do?
I have somone who wants gas logs and will sell me their insert for $250
- $500. That's just the cost to move it and install it. I don't know about the code part. I can get the wood to burn. I am mostly worried about fire and carbon monoxide poisoning. It has been very difficult to find mover or people that want to move the fireplace insert. I think they just want me to buy new. I guess I could get advice from the county on who to talk to.
insert for $250
I don't know
mostly worried
very difficult
insert. I
advice from
In many places, a woodstove must be "EPA certified" to be legally installed or re-installed. I'd check on that first. Check with the government about requirements, and check the stove for a certification label on the back or side, or talk to the manufacturer to find out.
A fireplace insert delivers real heat to the house, unlike a fireplace, which most sucks it up the chimney. The inserts I've used required a circulation fan to get much heat into the house. Without the fan, not enough air circulates around the stove.
My old insert smelled up the house when it wasn't being used. When the wind was "wrong" or somethind, the living room would smell of creosote. My (used) replacement certified stove has a stainless steel stovepipe up the chimney and is well sealed where it fits into the fireplace. No more smells, and I am sure the fire hazard is reduced because my chimney is an old unlined brick one. The new stove, because of the stovepipe fitted to it, draws better and I rarely get smoke in the house if I am careful about opening the vents before opening the door.
Wood makes some sense if you have the time and strength to gather other peoples unwanted wood. If you have to pay retail prices, it makes little sense. But you don't want to smoke out your neighbors, so you have to be careful about what you burn and how you burn it. This means watching and adjusting the fire frequently.
Bob
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote: : I have somone who wants gas logs and will sell me their insert for $250 : - $500. That's just the cost to move it and install it. I don't know : about the code part. I can get the wood to burn. I am mostly worried : about fire and carbon monoxide poisoning. It has been very difficult : to find mover or people that want to move the fireplace insert. I : think they just want me to buy new. I guess I could get advice from : the county on who to talk to.
Have you tried contacting the local chimney cleaning companies? Some of them may do installation and repair work.
i live in rochester, ny RIGHT by lake ontario (quite windy n cold) in a
40x20 house. the woodstove is in the basement. it heats up the basement nicely, then hot air does what it does best heating the upstairs. dont waste $$ on blowers. just buy a cheap fan and aim it at the woodstove. the real gouger is gonna be the flue - about 10$ a foot here. you ask if its worth it? local gas co estimated me all winter, i called in my readings. HUGE difference. thats worth it to me. my woodstove is the primary heating source with gas boiler as back up for those o so chilly nights. as far as wood goes, round here its about 60-70$ for a face cord. swing by some local construction sites. im sure they will be more then willing to let you take home scraps. sure its mostly pine, but buy a chimney sweep and sweep it more often to avoid the extra creosote building up
Neither. It's an insert (or is that in sert)....
;-]
I'll put it this way: We moved into a home which already had a woodstove. I love it. However, I don't love it enough for me to buy it.
Michael
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
Mine is a wood burning insert. All the wood is provided by a commercial company. Compared to friends and family my heating costs are significantly less. But most of all my interior temp is much nicer. To achive my average temps their bills would be out of sight.
Perhaps one of the hidden secrets is where and when to buy your wood. I get mine in April or May for use in the next season. Around here that represents a minimum 20% discount as the suppliers need business. Ideal for me as that means I know seasoning of the wood is at least 6 months when I activate the fires.
You need to find out immediately, for insurance as well as compliance with local laws. In Ontario the wood/coal stove section of the Ontario Fire Code is the only part that is retroactive, i.e. private home owners may be obligated to upgrade to meet new code requirements (e.g. for heat shields on interior cielings, not in the code 20 years ago)
-- and some home insurance companies require this.
I called the county where I live. They said there are no permits required. Thanks.
Wouldn't a lot of it be pressure treated?
When we lived in GA we had a fireplace insert. My husband took out the damper on the fireplace and built a metal cover with a hole in it for the stove pipe, and used it in place of a damper. He also built a fan out of a discarded kitchen stove vent fan we were not using any more and sprayed it black to match the stove....just layed it down in front of the stove to blow the air out into the room. You can buy stoves with fans built in... our insert put out a lot of heat.
This was 15 years ago and the price of wood wasn't too high - price of gas wasn't too high then either.
For me, *the* most important thing was to get coverage by my insurance company. Otherwise if there was a fire, I could lose everything. They would not cover it.
This means a label on the unit/stove, an installation manual, installed to code and inspected, and everything done to manufacturers specifications.
So a used woodstove would be worthless to me without it having a label and installation instructions.
Different stoves have different clearance requirements from the wall, chimney requirements, and hearth requirements. All of this is in the installation manual which the inspector wants to see.
And the chimney also has its own installation manual and specifications.
New stoves/inserts may not draft properly in an existing brick chimney.
All sorts of stuff to be concerned about here...
indeed. had an insert installed with a liner:
Then they insured me.
duh. dont use the PT wood. most will be hem fir untreated, PT rarely makes it to the dumpster.
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