Fireplaces & Wood Stoves

[angiepoo]

I think my husband and I are pro fire starters now.  We keep a basket of kindling near the fireplace and a big roll of paper that he brought home from work (unprinted newspaper).  As long as you have a hot base then you can start to put the bigger pieces of wood on.  I had forgotten to open the flue a few times when first starting a fire and then the smoke starts to pour out in to the living room.  We have a an insert and we close the flue at night so that the fire will burn longer.

[ForestGal]

[Wrightwood]

I can't take credit for coming up with that original link as Mountain Witch had posted it. All I did was go back and look at the original postings in this topic.

It is a very useful website.
http://www.woodheat.org/

[snwbnny]

We have a normal open brick fireplace. We haven't had it cleaned yet so we haven't used it. But from past experience this type of fireplace doesn't produce great heat. I'm looking at my options to get better efficiency. A friend is trying to convince me that a pellet stove is the cheaper, more convenient route to go. They love theirs and buy the pellets by the pallet and spend less than they would for wood. You can also adjust the thermostat on it and turn it off whenever you need to leave for s bit. Sounds pretty darn good to me. But I want other opinions.

We had a wood stove inside a fireplace in the past (maybe an insert, but it didn't stick out past the front of the fireplace at all and didn't have a blower). We never could get the thing to give off any heat so we were never impressed. But another friend in Baldy always had the whole 2000 sq ft house heated by their wood stove insert so obviously it can be done.

One of my concerns (and another reason I'm in no hurry to get my fireplace going yet) is that I have to leave my house fairly often throughout the day. I wouldn't want to leave a fire going while I'm gone and I can't exactly put one out right away, right? I hear some people say they leave their wood stove going when they go out - is this a safe and/or normal practice? Obviously with pellets I could just close the hopper and the fire goes out, so this appeals to me. But the electricity usage and the possible maintenance of pellet stoves worry me.

I'm really torn on my options. I know I'm in for a big cost putting something in there at all, but I'd like to spend the least I can to get something efficient. I know there are things I can do with the regular fireplace (the back plate and the heat-a-lator thing) but I figure why waste the money if I'm eventually going to put in an insert, right? Or do you guys think those types of improvements will be enough?

I welcome all opinions . . .

[budnett]

I hate my heat-a-lator thing...it's very noisey!!

[samsonite]

Pellet stoves are AWESOME!

We have a GIANT BLaze King woodstove, and although it heats 80% of the house, every year we think we will get  a pellet stove.

1.  They can run on a thermostat.  Just set it and forget it.  No getting up in the middle of the night  to put more wood in.

2.  They are the some of the most efficient stoves there are.  They produce very little smoke emissions and burn the pellets extremely efficiently so there's not even that much ash.  It's a green choice imo.

3.  There's not much mess.  You load it once a day or less even if you buy one with a big hopper.  No dragging firewood and it's assorted dirt into the house.  Much less allergy reactions.  No spiders or other bugs.  No bark, dirt or pine needles.

The cons are that sometimes the price of pellets will go high when transportation costs go up.  But it's comparable to the cost of natural gas, and you can buy pellets by the pallet, so they are cheaper.  Always buy quality pellets though as you get more heat out of them. And always watch the price to get the best deal.

Also, it's not a deal if you are willing to get free firewood every year.  It will be cheaper than paying for cord wood.  But if you are willing to cut, haul, and split, then obviously it's cheaper to do that than buy pellets.

The only other con that I see is power outages.  However, we have always looked at the battery backup pellet stoves.  I would for sure get a battery backup model since we do occasionally have power outages and of course your furnace and your woodstove would be useless then.

I leave my woodstove burning when I leave the house as it's all we use to heat.  But I check to make sure that there is nothing nearby that will ignite, that the fire is burning at a reasonable pace, that the door is shut, etc.  You just always have to use caution.

[SkierBob]

I just removed my giant blaze king stove, framed and drywalled over my fireplace  in Palmdale.    When I recently rebuilt the house I added 2x6 studs to the existing 2x4 studs making the walls almost 10 inches thick, then I had a vabor barrier installed and insulation blown into the 10 inch think walls, I also installed r45 insulation in the attic. Between the insulation and heating my floors with electricity generated by my wind turbines I should be done with wood forever. 

I considered replacing the blaze king with a pellet stove but since I've been spending money like there's no tomorrow on my remodel I decided to avoid the expense and hide the fireplace for now.

I'm thinking if anyone is interested I should take a picture of my Blaze King and see if anyone wants to buy it for cheap.  It is the Giant blaze king so it would only fit in a large fireplace. If someone is poor and real cold I'd consider giving it away.

[SenD-n-SpiN]

With a picture, dimensions and a baisc spec. I would consider buying a used insert.

[snwbnny]

It is the Giant blaze king so it would only fit in a large fireplace.

How large is large? I'm starting to wonder what size of either type of stove I should be looking at. My fireplace looks rather roomy to me, but it won't once I'm trying to fit something in it . None of this is going to happen any time soon since I can't afford it right away, but I want to be prepared when I do. Right now blankets and jackets are working well enough!

So lots of people seem to like pellet stoves. I'm a little worried about all the parts that could go wrong compared to a wood stove. Looking at diagrams, it looks like more things could break. The electricity going out also concerns me - this isn't an issue with a wood stove, right?

[Bob C]

So lots of people seem to like pellet stoves. I'm a little worried about all the parts that could go wrong compared to a wood stove. Looking at diagrams, it looks like more things could break. The electricity going out also concerns me - this isn't an issue with a wood stove, right?

I also have a pellet stove, and love it. Yes, very cheap to run.. a $5.50 bag of pellets lasts somewhere between 25-30 hours of constant run time, depending on the setting. I go thru maybe 15 or so bags per season.

The things are very clean too. No smoke, no soot to speak of, and the whole bag generates very little ash. I dunno, I think not even enough to fill a coffee can.

They're pretty much "set and forget". When you turn them off, they go out in about 10 mins or so.

Yes, there's moving parts. Mine's over 18 years old, and I haven't had to replace anything major yet. We do give it a good cleaning before the season starts.

Yeah, they won't work when the power is out, but I connect mine to the generator, when that happens.

We'll heat the entire house with it, except at night, when we go to bed. Then we'll turn on the furnace.

The bad news, is they're not very cheap.

[clint]

"...we do occasionally have power outages and of course your furnace and your woodstove would be useless then.

What???

That's funny we have three wood stoves and not one of them requires electricity.

We don't have a pellet stove, but from my experiences with other people's I am considering changing one of wood burning stoves over to a pellet. Stove I think everybody is on track with that.

As to leaving a wood burner burning when you leave the house, if ours is roaring and we have to leave I just shut down the air intake and it goes out in a couple of minutes.

[Giorgiann]

We use a pellet stove, and LOVE it!! We clean it before the season starts. It uses electricity for the thermostadt and the screw (the pellets are fed into the fire with a big screw that turns).

It is very inexpensive to run, and if you buy the pellet bags by the ton they are cheaper. Can cut off a dollar (sometimes more) per bag.

We heat our whole house, and it is 1767 sq. feet (not a big house, but I find that impressive with just one pellet stove!)

[Giorgiann]

And yes, we can plug it into the generator for that...

[snwbnny]

Where are good places to be shopping for a stove? I've heard bad reviews on the place right off the 15 (country oak & stove).

[mechanicalpencil]

Country Oak & Stove are really nice people, but a bit pricey.  I had a good experience while doing price comparisons down in San Bernardino.  Here is the link to their website

http://www.sbfireplace.com/

[Calindy]

We use:
A Fireplace Store & Design Center, Inc
17205 Eucalyptus Unit C9
Hesperia
760-949-8300
We have a FIREPLACE XTRORDINAIR, it has a blower and keeps us VERY warm! I love fireplaces, but knew they would be a waste as far as heating the house. Once I saw the FIREPLACE XTRORDINAIR I knew I could have the fireplace look, with the wood stove heating.

[Giorgiann]

We got ours at Country Oak and Stove. Yes, they are a bit pricey. but they had just the one we wanted. It is absolutely beautiful, and fits inside our fireplace. They did the install, too.

[Tumblebush]

When it comes to pellet stoves there's one small drawback, you are at the mercy of a manufacturer for your fuel source. As my neighbors found out one year during an ice storm when pellet supplies ran out all over, they were stuck with no heat. Another instance, they lost power one winter and their generator ceased up...again..they were stuck with no heat. Here to say they no longer own a pellet stove.
I love our wood heat. True blue and reliable.