Anyone ever put a wood stove in?

[CHenry]

back in 2004 I removed a gas log fireplace and inserted a St. Croix pellet stove in its place. It was on a thermostat and heated the entire house very well. A bag of pellets was $5 for 40 lbs and I would buy a pallet at a time, usually 2 tons per winter at a cost of around $500. That was in my last house, now I have a gas log that is very efficient, and I put a thermostat on it and it heats my entire house. Bedrooms are a little cooler than the main living area which is fine.

 

[Mr.Glock]

The only heat we had in our home growing up till I left home was wood heat, never had any gas in the homes except for propane cook stoves. We would bury a 8“ thick walled steel well casing into the ground about 6 feet, 4 feet from the home, stove pipe out the wall at an angle to well casing. We used these types in the photo below. I am drawing a blank on the name of those we used. They would burn out every so many years, seems like every 8 to 10 years when used like we did for only heat. My parents had 3 different homes on different farms and all had this for heat and no A/C. Houses all had metal roofs and sides, from time to time the well casing would ignite into a Huge Roman Candle and we would ooooo and ahhhh over it, it would burn out and the pipe was cleaned out. If It were dry out, all the ones living there would run out and wet the ground and watch it cook off. When snow, it still was fun to go out and watch it cook off best cause no buckets of water carrying while you watched it. Usually hoses were froze.

 

[cowadle]

The only heat we had in our home growing up till I left home was wood heat, never had any gas in the homes except for propane cook stoves. We would bury a 8“ thick walled steel well casing into the ground about 6 feet, 4 feet from the home, stove pipe out the wall at an angle to well casing. We used these types in the photo below. I am drawing a blank on the name of those we used. They would burn out every so many years, seems like every 8 to 10 years when used like we did for only heat. My parents had 3 different homes on different farms and all had this for heat and no A/C. Houses all had metal roofs and sides, from time to time the well casing would ignite into a Huge Roman Candle and we would ooooo and ahhhh over it, it would burn out and the pipe was cleaned out. If It were dry out, all the ones living there would run out and wet the ground and watch it cook off. When snow, it still was fun to go out and watch it cook off!


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yep those are great stoves.... ours had a thermostat that would control the burn.

 

[Mr.Glock]

Also as someone stated above the bedrooms stay cold. Ours were freezing growing up, big quilts and electric blankets, made us sleep hard! Cold bedroom I still use, sleep good. Last home we lived in, Imhad a return put in right above in the living room, central heat had a three stage blower motor. Turn it on low and it would heat the whole home. Bedrooms were a tad cooler.

 

[jackinok09]

Don't know how common this is but my fire place has a tag that says it's not suitable for insert. It's one of those prefab tin jobs common in the seventies and I assume the heat would be an issue??? It does have a place for a fan but I've never installed one

 

[Tinytim]

back in 2004 I removed a gas log fireplace and inserted a St. Croix pellet stove in its place. It was on a thermostat and heated the entire house very well. A bag of pellets was $5 for 40 lbs and I would buy a pallet at a time, usually 2 tons per winter at a cost of around $500. That was in my last house, now I have a gas log that is very efficient, and I put a thermostat on it and it heats my entire house. Bedrooms are a little cooler than the main living area which is fine.

I put.a return air directly over my free standing fireplace, I turn the geo thermal heat off and turn the central fan on.

 

[Rooster1971]

We have a wood burning insert in our fireplace.
You need to understand how having a fireplace can help or hurt your heating efficiency within the home.
For every cubic foot of air that goes up the chimney, there needs to be a cubic foot of make-up air that comes from somewhere.
In older homes that comes from cracks around the windows and doors, etc.
Newer homes are sealed tight, and it will be hard to get the fireplace to draw which means it will put smoke into the home as it can't make up enough air to exhaust out the chimney. 1 CF in, 1CF air out is the rule.
That in turn creates cold areas in the back rooms of the home where the radiant heat can't get to from the fireplace even if there are local heat return fans around the fireplace. The living room will be a blast furnace with the bedrooms being cold.
If the home has central heat, one can turn on the central heat fan to recirc the hot air around the house but that is really inefficient if you're sucking in cold air in the back rooms. It just can't make the house evenly heated.
The Partial solution is to get a fireplace insert or fireplace that uses outside air for combustion air which eliminates the fireplace needing make up air from the backrooms. They make them and may require some modification to the fireplace.
The ultimate solution is to have the fireplace use a heat exchanger that ties into the central heat system.
If one has an ample supply of wood cheaply you can almost eliminate the heating bill.
A pellet stove tied into the CA system is also a great saver and much easier to maintain with little ash that has to be removed.
Do some real investigation with the knowledge that One cubic foot of air out needs one cubic foot of air in or your throwing money out the window, then figure out the cost of wood vs pellets. I suspect in Guymon, pellets are cheaper than wood.

When I use my fireplace, I can feel cold air being pulled in. Use it only when necessary.and block off the den and close doors to bedrooms. Good advice

 

[Mr.Glock]

All the wood and pellets we owned had fresh air to them. They truly would be 100% heat producing in not robbing heat to run.