It had to happen sometime

I started mine sunday night. My wife and I cleaned the basment and moved stuff around so I could get to the stove I thought it would be a good time to start the first fire and check everything out before it gets real cold. It sure is nice having warm floors to walk on upstairs before going to bed.

Had to kick the heat pump on once to keep the wife from freezing to bad. Hasn't been cold enough for the stove yet. It's an insert with a 3 stage blower. Can't get any heat out till the blower kicks on. Too warm yet for that. Once that blower kicks in we would have had to open all the doors and windows did pull it out last weekend, and clean the chimney though

Last week I flushed and purged my radiator wall panel and cleaned out the intake in my boiler. It's a Weil McLain Ultra that is 5 years old now and hasn't given me one problem. I have it programmed to fluctuate its water tempature depending on the outside temp. It heats up the house fast with only 160deg water with these mild/cool temps and doesn't burn much gas.

I prefer to have a fire in the fireplace every night when it's still mild outside. It doesn't have a fresh air intake so it tends to draw in too much cold air inside. When the temps get down to the teens I don't even bother burning it, 1 out of 2 of my heating zones will run all the time.

Nothing beats potatos wrapped in foil and baked in a fire! Yum

OldeEnglish said:

Last week I flushed and purged my radiator wall panel and cleaned out the intake in my boiler. It's a Weil McLain Ultra that is 5 years old now and hasn't given me one problem. I have it programmed to fluctuate its water tempature depending on the outside temp. It heats up the house fast with only 160deg water with these mild/cool temps and doesn't burn much gas.

I prefer to have a fire in the fireplace every night when it's still mild outside. It doesn't have a fresh air intake so it tends to draw in too much cold air inside. When the temps get down to the teens I don't even bother burning it, 1 out of 2 of my heating zones will run all the time.

Nothing beats potatos wrapped in foil and baked in a fire! Yum

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Fire place insert makes a huge difference. Got a 36"x40" fire place. Neighbor mentioned they were giving their wood burning insert away 20yrs old but only used about 6 times. Thing looked brand spanking new. father and brother in law happened to be at the house at the time. Insert was in the garage within an hour had a trim ring made up for 180$ at the local fab shop and dropped my electric bill from 200$ a month, to 68$. Paid for itself in 6 weeks and one really toasty wife. Heats an 1800sqft single story house with ease. Only draw back is no ash pan, and small fire box. the furnace might kick on maybe 3 times in a 24hr period

I kept telling her to "layer up"! She said if I don't turn the heat on it's gonna be awful cold at nite for me.
So I turned the heat on.

Darren,

Your absolutely right but I have a very interesting little cape house... I actually have 2 fireplaces, one in the basement, one in the living room, with a central chimney. My first floor is my main living area and is only 1000 sq ft. It used to be my grandparents home and it had an old 1940's pork chop 3 section oil steam boiler with radiators. My grandfather was an old polish farmer and always heated with a wood stove insert in the basement. Wasn't very efficient but heated the whole house with no problems. He even had a stove insert for the living room but being such a small area you would be walking around in your skimmys.

My father built the fireplaces and chimney when he first got back from Vietnam. We had to rebuild the chimney 5 years ago when I purchased the home from the roofline up due to many years of weather pounding the masonry. Reminded me of the good old days of working for a Vietnam Marine, ahh memories....

Anyways, the first thing I did to the home was rip out the old oil steam ship and install a natural gas high efficacy hydronic system with Hydronic Alternatives radiator wall panel, and a towel warmer for the heat in my bath. These panels are pretty tough to beat even with radiant heat. I'm not a fan of fin tube baseboard and would be happy to explain why if anyone wants to know.

I don't cut and split my own wood for the fireplace and it costs me $200 a truck load. So if I fired up the wood stove, it would cost me twice as much to heat with wood compared to my heating system and all I have to do is turn up the thermostat. Wood stoves work great, don't get me wrong, but I would rather burn wood to transfer the heat to water (wood boiler) than a stove. That way it puts the heat in your home where the heat loss is (exterior walls, windows, and doors). If I had the choice between oil or a wood stove, I would be out there splitting wood. On the other hand they are nice to have when the power goes out and to help dry things out.

I'll start another thread and explain a few points about heating systems that most people don't know unless your in the business. The way homes are built today and how new systems work have changed dramatically in the past 10 years.

I completely understand about those thin radiant base board heaters dealt with my fair share of those over the years i get the wood for free. Between the trees in my yard and the neighbors. Theres always a twister coming though so i can always grab a trailer load or two helping folks clean up. Only need about 1 1/2 cords to heat for the winter here, so i usually collect through the summer, and split one weekend in the fall. Found out my coworker has a splitter so i'm getting it for the weekend for a case of beer and a full tank when i return it sounds like you have a really nice house. Especially the history. I was heart broken when my grandparents sold the farm in vermont. Was in the family for over 80 years, and you could see the ticonderoga new york paper mill from 50 miles away on a clear night.

Free wood is always tough to beat. A guy I work with has a big home with a barn in Vermont. He heats the entire property with a outdoor wood boiler and even heats his in-ground pool with it during the summer. I think most guys prefer the wood because it gives them something to do to get away from the wife, kills two birds with one stone.

My house is just an old small place that needs a lot of work and money. Property values have dropped in my town over the years I've owned it so I've been a little reluctant on spending any more money on it that wont pay for itself.

Yep I have as well just a little fire , just enough to drive off the damp of the last few days. My wood comes from a friends farm fence lines, and it costs me some smoked stuff when I fire up the smoker, I smoked a ham and gave him about half, still warm out of the smoker, he acted like nobody ever gave him anything before. I have hot water heat so the stove has a blower hooked up and blows up the basement steps, I had forced hot air in the old house and had it plumbed in the the duct work,, a slow steady heat that stove had a small 350cfm blower fan and the floors got toasty warm. the kids and the dogs loved that,,lol

I started pellet stove a couple weeks ago. Been on and off since.

Burned 6.5 tons of pellets last winter. Usual is 5.

Just had fuel tank topped off - only used 14 gallons of fuel oil last season.

Pellet stove has paid for itself every year I've owned it.

North Idaho Wolfman said:

You lucky bugger, I use 5 to 6 cords and I'm not talking face cords.

We had our first small fire 3 weeks ago it was in the 30's for 3 nights and cold and wet during the day.
Winter is a coming!

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Our winter here is about the equivalent of your fall hell we're planting our cold weather veggies by the third week in February winter usually only lasts about 2 months with a very extended spring and fall, where it will be cold for a week, mild the next. I did screw up on my math. I cut and split 2 1/2 cord and used about 2 last year

Yeah, I've got it tougher than all of you.

I have to read the darned LCD readout on the computer controlled thermostat and read if it's in heat or cool mode. Once you get through the NASA grade manual to get it programmed, that's about the hardest thing I gotta do... suckers!

Then again, my housing costs here are about 4 times what anyone elses are... hmmm, maybe I'm the sucker!

I haven't lit the stove yet, but I did switch the heat pump control over from cool to heat a month or so ago. Our fall has been warm so far, with low temps probably 10 degrees above normal so far. I suspect I'll be burning in another couple weeks.

Still running the AC here in Texas - it is great to be able to have the house cool without knowing it costs an arm and a leg like in August!

Don't even have to worry about making sure the pilot light on the natural gas heater is lit since it was replace recently and has electronic ignition.

Sometime in November maybe and probably in December for sure we will have the smell of the dust burning off the heater for the first time!

Nothing like releasing a "shed load" of carbon into the cool winter skies!

I am selling my rental house. We cut down three 50' pine trees and they left the trunk in 18" sections which have seasoned for the last 7 years. At least three quarters of that was left so I hauled it home for an outside fire pit. Can't wait to light off a nice pile! I also have some Chilean mesquite which burns nicely and smells marvelous! A roaring fire is wonderful on a cool starry night.

If this year will be anything like the last 62 I suspect it'll turn colder before we begin to see warm weather again.

My goal this year was to complete the following....for heating anyway

1. Rebuild the chimney - Complete
2. Line it with a SupaFlu pour in liner - Complete
3. Find a very small cast iron wood stove - Complete
4. Scrounge enough free wood for the season - Complete

Chimney

The chimney was straight forward and finished up quite nicely. Its inside dimension was about 12" square which now has a 6" hole right up through its center. At the minimum, the new liner is 3" thick, from opening to the corner is about 6" and the beauty is it's once continuous piece...It's somewhat expensive but I'll never have to worry about functionality or safety ever again.

Woodstove

This was quite challenging as I wanted one small enough to fit in a particular place and take no longer than a 12" log. I did find a couple of new ones but at $1500 these folks were playing with it.

I stopped by an antique store and while rummaging around I saw an old woodstove. It was cast iron and it's exterior was slightly rusty in spots. It was as if water had dripped on it so the rust was very light.

What I did discover was this was a wood & coal stove. I opened the door and believe it or not it hadn't ever been used. The firebrick was still packaged and the firebox was full of pieces. The price tag was $125 but I offered them $75 and they took it!

Once I got the stove in the shop I was shocked at how heavy and well built this was. Whoever assembled it did a piss-poor job so I disassembled everything I could and began the restoration. I replaced all the screws with stainless. The doors were sealed with an asbestosis rope and that was also replaced.

Interestingly, the cast iron thimble attached using (4) 1/4-20 screws but the holes didn't quite line up. I opened these holes up to 3/8 then mounted it without an issue.

I wire-wheeled its exterior then on a warm sunny day painted it with 1200 degree semi-gloss paint.

The stove came out great and is perfect for this application. The firebox door has a mica window which I also replaced and is great for keeping a watchful eye on its wood supply...

Wood

I live in an area where wood is available and I've been able to salvage quite a bit of dead-fall and damaged trees as well. So far this season I've cut and split about 5 cord and had another two seasoned.



That's my story and I'm sticking with it!