[simi-steading]

Just curious who heats with wood through the winter? Also, what kind of stove do you use? Wood pellet stoves are included..

Do you cut your own wood or buy wood? Is wood your main source, or is it in addition to some other type of heat?

Myself, I have free gas, but I also heat with a wood stove. Once I get it lit, I let it burn for a few weeks at a time before I let it cool to clean it out. Letting it burn on top of my ventless gas heaters makes the house a lot warmer and feel less drafty...

I've got a Dutchwest catalytic stove stepped up to a single wall 8" pipe with a damper in it.. .Allows me even more control.. That vents into my hand cut stone chimney, that's lined with a 6"x10" steel liner..

I also cut all my own wood. This year I put up about 4.5 cords of wood.. Mostly white and red oak, along with some maple..

It is a lot of work, but it sure makes for a lot homier feeling house.. Here's the stove I have.. Mine is a smaller one that's for heating 1400 feet...

Oh, I got mine at a yardsale for $200... what a steal, especially since it was hardly used...

 

[badlander]

We have a Century EPA stove that heats over 2000 square feet for us and 29 acres of pasture/timber that provides us with all the wood we could need. Last year we started thinning out the woods so we have lots of 4-8 inch logs to harvest and burn.

This year we bought a wood splitter with a Honda engine. I think it's a 28 ton splitter and we love it. This is the first year in 5 that we have been here that I haven't had a sore shoulder from swinging the maul.

I have to admit I do miss the exercise though.

 

[simi-steading]

My neighbor splits by hand... But he also isn't here all winter.. He may burn a cord at most, but I still can't imagine splitting oak by hand.. At least not the knotty stuff..

I've got about 50 acres or so of woods.. I've been using all the fallen stuff that's up off the ground for a couple years now...

I bought a home built log splitter with 50 ton hydraulics, and a 30hp engine.. The engine is overkill, but it's what they had I guess.. .The I beam is right about waist high and perfect.. No bending. It also has a hydraulic lift that lifts the large rounds up onto the beam for me... I've split stuff that is almost 3 feet across.. It's the only the only splitter I've not had a sore back from being bent over the whole time splitting wood. I can stand naturally and work it all day..

 

[MichaelK!]

The catalytic Dutch Wests are great. I had one, but it was too small. Bought it use from a neighbor, bought a new catalyst, but then discovered that the firebox was only 14". Standard peices would only fit at an angle, which meant I couldn't snug tight fitting peices at night for an overnight burn. BUT, it was the cleanest burning stove I ever saw! When I first get it running, it was so clean burning that when outside, I always thought the fire had gone out, because not even a trace smoke was leaving the chimney.

I replaced it with a generic glass-door secondary combustion stove, that does produce a little smoke, but still leaves me with a virtually clean chimney pipe.

My property is a Oak woodland habitat type, and I feed my stoves with 100% winter blowdowns. My usual habit is to chop wood in early spring, get the firewood stacked, and let it age/dry over the summer. I just spend this last weekend getting the dried wood under cover on the porch, so it will easily accessable during the cold wet winter months.

 

[FarmboyBill]

Ive got an ancient wore out stove called a Jumbo. Ive rebanded the sides, and it has at least one can under where a cast iron leg broke off. It heats great, and warms a 14 X 40 room that is off the ground by at least 3ft on the N side.
I cut wood with chainsaw, sledge hammers, a doz wedges, axes, mauls, jacks and prybars. After its been split enough to handle, I run it through a 1940 buzz saw givin by my granddad to my dad for a wedding present in 1940, powered by a 1934 CC Case that granddad bought around 41.

 

[Jokarva]

We have a Century insert that has a reburner, like it a lot but the fan blower on it is noisy! Had the chimney cleaned this summer and sweep said it had almost no creosote (and we see little smoke when burning), so the efficiency is good. 10 acres of woods provides plenty, and DH bought himself a logsplitter last year. Set up under a canopy with the big fan blowing and he can split all day in relative comfort.

My bil's sister has a home made Big Bear copy stove in her basement, that thing is huge and will blast you out of the house when it gets going. Big flat surface that is great for cooking...I love that stove!

 

[Jolly]

This topic is kind of a regular. If you search you'll find a ton of posts.

As for me, I'm still using my Hearthstone I bought 31 years ago. Other than maintenance (I had to replace the seals) no problems whatsoever. A little expensive, but they are great stoves.

This year I'll be feeding it oak and elm.

 

[mrs whodunit]

We have a Stove that Jack Built. Great old fashioned stoves that really heat.

The old house we currently live in has never been heated with just one heat source..... it is now

I cut our own wood, about 12+ cords a year.

 

[Solar Geek]

LOPI Liberty woodstove. Has 2 cooking surfaces and heats our large house almost too hot. Had one in a 2400 sq ft place before and same thing, had to really watch to burn plenty hot (so low creosote buildup) but not so hot we were opening windows in January in WI!

We have a 22' ceiling so this time we used the stovepipe run that is not insulated so as to maximize heat gain from the exhaust in the pipe. Love the heat and feel of a wood stove. 35+ acres of oak so no problem with wood supply.

I love cooking on it but you will get marks from splatters and spills - no matter to me but will bother those who need pristine looks.

 

[Vickie44]

I heat with wood. 700 sq ft house, 100 yrs old not much insulation. Normally use 4 cord, last winter used closer to 6.

Use hickory , elm , cherry, maple and whatever else falls in the hay fields. Chunk it out , haul it home , have a 27 ton splitter. I stay a year ahead so the 6 cords I just did are for next year.

 

[indypartridge]

We have an old Englander insert - came with the cabin - as our primary heat. There's a propane heater (no duct work) in the basement that'll keep the pipes from freezing if we go away for a few days during winter.

I cut & split deadfall in the surrounding woods, mostly red oak, some maple & sycamore. There's tons of poplar, but it's so light it's not worth the gas & effort to cut.

 

[karenp]

We have a pellet stove. I would rather have a wood stove, but it's the next best thing. We buy the pellets by the ton in the spring, when they are at the lowest price.

 

[halfpint]

We primarily heat with wood in the winter. We have an Ashley insert in the fireplace on the main level, and a woodburning stove in the basement. We usually only run one of them at a time. If it's really cold we'll run the wood burner in the basement, as by heating the basement the floors upstairs are heated and we've rarely needed to run both. We also have a heat pump, but it rarely comes on - usually only when we are out of town - which isn't often. But I live in Alabama, so we typically only burn 1-2 cords of wood per year. We live on 8 acres where we get most of our wood, and several friends who will call us occasionally to cut up trees from their property. We even have one that often cuts and chops it for us as he likes to do that. We haven't needed to purchase wood since we've lived here (27 years). We had to purchase wood for our former homes.

Dawn

 

[Jennifer L.]

I've had a Quadrafire Isle Royale for the last 7 winters and use it to heat exclusively, although I do have an oil furnace for back up. I have a splitter that goes on the skid steer but don't use it much, mostly buy wood because I don't like to go to the swamp alone any more with the chain saw.

It's a great stove, I cook on it most of the winter, as well.

 

[chickenista]

We heat only with wood.
-A Mama Bear by Fisher in the front room. (craigslist $125.00)
-Soon to go in the kitchen is my Fat Boy woodstove. Need to finish fixing it up, but gonna be a true joy.

We either take dead trees out of our woods or have tree companies drop dump truck loads in our field. Or both.

I only like wood heat.
I hate, detest, abhor heat pump heat. It's freezing cold! I can't do moving air. It freezes me to death.
I like my woodstove.
I like seeing the smoke curl and smelling the spice of smoke.
I like to soft heat it gives.
If I am chilled, I move closer.
Can't get any good out of standing over a heat pump vent. Brrrr.

A house just isn't a home without a fire going.

 

[Rustaholic]

I started looking for this place when I was 18 years old. I finally found it just after I turned 19. I proposed the same day.
I built this house with a walk out basement because I always knew I wanted wood heat and it is so easy to get wood into the basement with a walk out.
WE started with a locally built Herman's Wood Burning Furnace.
It was made with bad metal. The metal crumbled in six years.
All I had was a two barrel stove in the garage that my father-in-law had made all from scrap metal. It was two 15 gallon grease barrels. That lasted seven years.
Just when I needed it I ran across a $100 deal on an All Nighter Big Moe.
It is a 535 pound air tight wood stove. This is the 25th year I have headed into Winter heating with this old beast and all it has needed was one new door gasket two years ago. Just two hours ago we started the first fire of this season. For almost all of this time we have burned only used shipping pallets.
It has a two level flat top that is great for cooking on.

 

[light rain]

We have an Ashley woodstove that we got several years ago. It is not made anymore I think. We had two wood furnaces over the years and I really liked them but they were in the basement. DH has mobility problems so we moved our wood heating to upstairs. We also have a LP boiler system.

I would like to get a better stove next summer with ability to preheat the water going into our water heater. Our stove is not efficient but we make do and are grateful to have the wood stove making life comfortable. Hope this winter is not going to be like last year... :umno:

 

[farmmaid]

Heated with wood for 40+ years. Our Vermont Casting Defient has moved twice with us. It now heats our 1700sq ft, earth bermmed, passive home.....wonderful stove!

 

[billfosburgh]

i have an outdoor wood boiler. 14yrs this winter. we only heat with wood and always have. i love to make firewood. i cut and split and my wife loads and hauls. this is our 8th load in 2 days

 

[manygoatsnmore]

Another Vermont Castings here - I have a Resolute and it heats my house perfectly. I have a forced air electric furnace for backup heat if we're going to be gone and don't want the pipes to freeze, but other than that, 100% wood heat. My woods are mostly hemlock and Doug fir, so that's what I burn the most, along with alder, dogwood, and pallets, along with anything else I can cut for free or haul home. I grew up with 100% wood heat, and nothing feels warmer to me.