father had the builder install a chimney on the outside wall of his attached garage of his new house (at least 10 years ago) and installed a stove according to county code. Don't really know why it would be more dangerous than having a gas furnace or water heater in the garage, which is standard here, or having the wood stove in the house.
"George E. Cawthon"
Biggest problem with a solid fueled heater is that an ember can be hot and ignite fumes even a couple of days after the stove has cooled to the touch.
Could be the stove is installed according to NFPA 211, but in the wrong place.
Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net
No, the *biggest* problem with a solid fueled heater is that you have to burn up so many turning blanks. :)
Not to mention all the sawing, splitting, stacking, sawing, splitting, stacking, sawing, splitting, stacking...
Boy, burning wood used to suck.
Good heat though.
"Silvan" >
If you get "free" wood, not so bad, but if you must buy it, oil is not all that much more, Used to burn 3 to 5 cords a year. My wife is no longer able to help due to her health. I find it very easy to turn the knob on the thermostat. Ed
Working on the basic Mother Earth News estimate that a cord of average hardwood is equal to 150 gallons of fuel oil, wood seems cheap at the $60/cord delivered price. Folks on propane backup _really_ prefer to tend their stove.
Wood really does warm you several times, but I'll forgo the first two - felling and limbing - in favor of delivery.
Our references differ (Formulas, methods, tips, and data for home and workshop) as does the cost of local wood. Oil is 136,000 Btu per gallon or 13,600,000 per hundred. Wood is listed a 12,500,000 per cord. Of course that will vary with type and even how well it is stacked.
Most wood stoves in the past were less efficient that oil burners. That may have changed but both are probably far ahead of figures from 10 years ago.
In my area, I can buy 100 gallons of oil for $110 to $130. Wood, delivered, is about $90 to $125. As you get closer to the cities, like Boston, wood is $150 to $200. For me, at these prices, it is just too costly to burn wood considering all the labor involved When I bought my stove, oil was $130, wood was $50. I used to add some wood first thing in the morning. Now the programmable thermostat turns the heat up 15 minutes before I get out of bed. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net
I too have just started heating my house with an air-tight wood insert and everything is going great, but I looked down the chimney and noticed a thin layer of hard/glazed creosote. We've only been burning it for about three weeks (24/7) and I can't say for sure if the stuff was there before we started running the insert (I knew I should have checked), but I do recall there being glaze on the smoke chamber before they installed it. We had a chimney sweep inspect the chimney at the beginning of the season (before the insert was installed) and he said it did not need cleaning yet, but he rendered it unsafe because of cracked fire brick...that's why I bought the insert.
We have a "positive connect" to our existing 8x13 masonry fule tile chimney which is code (we have a permit) in our area. Is all this cause for immediate concern? The research I did on the web says the "glaze-type creosote" is the most dangerous...should I just breakdown and pay for a direct connect installation ($2,000+)? Like most, I don't have a plethora of money, but my family's safety comes first.
There's no problem with draft and I have been able to use the controls to good effect. The firebrick looks like the original color and the glass is clear. In the beginning it did get a little brown but it cleaned itself after my fire-making improved. I've been burning white oak that has seasoned for less than one year and sometimes smells sweet when I re-split it into smaller pieces. On the other hand it does not sizzle a great deal and I have been keeping a nice bed of hot coals and there is very little smoke during operation.
How much creosote is too much? The rule of thumb I read was more than
1/8 inch and it's time to schedule a cleaning. At the top of the chimney there's a paper-thin buildup of that glaze stuff...am I stressing over nothing? I need to be sure, because I want to sleep well at night. I've read the Chimney Sweep's horror stories and they freaked me out!Thanks, Chris
Chris Snyder asks:
snip
Get it cleaned. Have the sweep inspect the chimney as he cleans (he should anyway). He can let you know if the build-up is too bad. In normal use, I used to clean my chimneys at the start of the season, and halfway through if there appeared to be any build-up. The one time I ignored that, I was sitting in the LR with my (now) wife and her daughter when the chimney lit off. Amazing sight. The yard was a bright orange and flames shot out the top of the chimney. The fire department was there in about an instant, it seemed. The reason I hadn't cleaned that chimney was simple: old, stone, no liner and I knew damned well it was going to fail with no other source of heat in the house. And I was rentiing from a nice couple who weren't about to spend an extra dime on the place.
One consolation: once the chimney fire was out, the chimney was clean.
Charlie Self If God had wanted me to touch my toes he would have put them higher on my body.
That's quite a story! The Sweep is on the way...I think I'm going to get the positive connect (SS liner to the top) so I can sleep well, get the best performance, etc. Does anyone know where I can get a temperature sensor for this kind of setup? I can get a magnetic type that sits on top of the stove, but it seems like "exahust temp" is more appropriate. This is a non-catilytic stove.
Thanks, Chris
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