Does anyone use a wood cookstove all year?

[canfossi]

I was wondering if anyone here used a wood cookstove all year or most of the year? I was thinking of it as an alternative to an electric or gas stove. Thanks Chris

[Michael83705]

I used to and am considering doing this again, so I'm bumping the thread.

[Alex]

We use Katie-The-Cookstove when we are the cabin. Sometimes we use the propane gas BBQ on the back deck -- for veggie burgers, etc, and canning. And once in a while Nancy will get out the hot plate for some reason.

Katie is wonderful, radiant heat in the morning and bread or pizza out of a wood stove is the best. We love ours.


Pancakes, umm!



Get one, enjoy,

Alex

[bearkiller]

Nope, only average about 7 months of the year. Simple reason. My location is very hot in summer time, often high nineties and low 100's. During the heat coming into the cool house is a real blessing. Summer cooking is done on gas grill outside, propane stove inside. Works for me!

bearkiller

[JAK]

Somewhat different needs. A lot of old homes, even small homes, had a summer kitchen and a winter kitchen. For winter use in a cold climate a kitchen wood stove should provide space heat, oven heat, stove heat, and hot water heat with a overall efficiency of 80%. In summer you don't cook as much, but when you do it should be efficient at just oven heat, stove heat, and hot water boiling. Solar heat should provide the bulk of hot water heating up to 160F. You could somehow make small amounts charcoal in a woodstove during the winter and use it during the summer, but small wood stoves can be very efficient just using dry wood or any dry biomass. Bringing a gallon of water to a boil from room temperature could take as little as 4oz of wood. The camping world and the third world provide good examples because they deal with warm climates and have more specific efficiency needs:

Examples:
http://journeytoforever.org/edu.html#stove
http://journeytoforever.org/edu_hobostove.html
http://journeytoforever.org/at_woodf...Improvedstoves
http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page...=2,40733,40996
http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups...es/Reed/T1.htm
http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups...eed/Turbo2.htm

Certainlt up where Alex lives there are opportunites 9-10 months of teh year to run a woodstove and do some cooking to take the chill off. We have 80 year old cedar cabin under some tall pine trees and even in August it doesn't hurt to do a little cooking on the wood stove, especially for breakfast, but we still use a small charcoal hibachi outside for steaks.

Remember these:
There is not much left of ours but we still use it.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/HIBACHI-Cast-Iron...ayphotohosting

[Haggis]

Herself and I do and have for most of our 34 years together.

[freeinalaska]

We use ours year round, but definately less in the summer. We are not in a particularly hot location, but you really don't want to start baking bread at nine at night after the sun has been shining on the house since 3:00 AM.

[fordson major]

we get our bread from a bakery that has a wood fired oven . they bake bread even in the heat of summer. they fire the oven with wood, the bakery just passed into the third gen of bakers in this family. the third gen has kids so hope that the forth will continue the tradition. during an ice storm and the resulting 2 week power outage this bakery and family cooked food for the whole comunity.

[Sammy]

My bro in law has been useing one for almost 30 years.

[outofmire]

We use ours year round. It gets hot, but we've learned to adjust the way we cook to make it a little easier, such as smaller, quicker fires and cooking only once in the coolest part of the day.

I like to cook first thing in the morning during the summer. I can cook breakfast and lunch/dinner. I can often start a roast or other meat in the oven while I make breakfast, and it bakes over the next couple of hours with just the residual heat. Then we'll have it for lunch. Dinner is often leftover meat sandwiches...something cold. I need more cold meal recipes that we enjoy.

Cooking only in the morning makes the heat tolerable. Also, we usually work outside the rest of the day, so we don't have to be in the house if we don't want to. We never cook in the evening because it's too hot to sleep. I think we're getting AC next summer.

I'll never get rid of my cookstove. I love the money we save too much. I can heat water, heat my house, and cook... for free! Those three things are the biggest energy users in a house.