How did you get started with wood heat?

If this topic has been brought up before, sorry, I did a search and came up with zip. (I might have put this in the wrong forum?)
I didn't grow up with wood heat like many of you probably did. We had fuel oil. My uncle that lived nearby had a wood furnace that I warmed by a few times as a kid, but that was about the extent of my wood heat experience, well, that and a fireplace at a different uncles place when we gathered there during the holidays.
Anyways, for me, I got hooked into all this fun by my buddy. He was buying a new stove to replace the Ashley wood/coal circulator (Wondercoal) that came with his house, and he wanted me to help him build a stone hearth and back wall for the new stove. We figured a Saturday would do it...HA! I think we had 3 or 4 Saturdays into it before it was all done. That was probably a good thing though, I had recently been through a divorce and did not need to be at home by myself. He said he didn't know what he was gonna do with the Ashley, asked me if I wanted it for my time/trouble. I said "sure!" as I was heating with fuel oil, and that was getting to be pricey.
Little did I know, a free wood stove is like a free dog...no such thing!So a $900 chimney later I was off on my journey to wood heat adventures. I was like many of you, I had to learn my lessons the hard way. From the importance of doing a proper install/setup, to burning wet wood. I thought my problems were all because the Ashly was a POS. I found a good deal on a Yukon Big Jack add-on wood furnace on CL to replace the Ashley...that led to their website...that led to AS...then to H..., well, you know, that "other site", then eventually FHC! And learning much all along the way! I now have a Yukon Husky whole house wood/oil furnace for my main heat, a Vogelzang Defender EPA stove in the fireplace for the "shoulder" season, and a used Drolet Heatmax setup as a add-on wood furnace (mainly just to play and experiment with) I have done a good a good half dozen (actually, 7 or 8) installs of wood heaters, mine and for others too, and I am thoroughly hooked on wood heat. Or "tore up from the floor up" as some would say
So what your story, what got you started?

 

Always had an open fireplace as a kid that I loved making fires in. I used to roll tubes of newspaper and let them burn slow. They would act like little chimneys and then burn out. Later we had an Elmira airtight that threw nice heat.

My first house had no fireplace so I had to satisfy myself with a cast iron chiminea. My current house is in a densely wooded area with two fireplaces. I used the one that now has the insert a couple times but it never drafted all that well (smoke smells) and I knew enough to know that I wasn't gonna heat with it. Had some tree work done in 09 and kept the wood. Fall of 11 I was burning 18 mo CSS locust in the Jotul. Even with that the first year was tough (Locust burns like coal).

 

Woodburner born and bred. I didn't know there was anything else until I was 13.

 

It all started for me back in Montenegro Yugoslavia when my grandfather and father used stoves to heat the house and my mom used it cook with. Today makes it 42 years that we came to America. I would watch them split wood with a axe. I bought my house 8 years ago and went to a stove dealer and I told them I wanted something to heat my 2000 Sq ft house and they sold me a Jotul F55 and I been heating with it burning very little oil..learned mostly everything from the FHC crew...

 

Finally took the advice from my co worker who has been heating with wood for years

my story is i bought a house with those small electric in wall heaters in each room, well they worked fine for the bedrooms if you closed the door, but not for the living/dining kitchen area. we had a really cold winter a couple years after I bought the house and i found out how bad those things really were, they could not keep up with the cold this particular winter unless i turned them up to like 80 ( than the electric bill sky rockets) that my sliding door off the deck was actually frozen shut and had a little ice build up on the inside of it

So I had NG ran up my little easement from the main road and had a NG forced air furnace installed along with other appliances, this was better than the elect heaters but still not super warm but i thought good enough and it costs my a sh!t pot of money to have done

My co worker kept bragging about how he heats for free with his wood stove and I should look into that, I kept saying no as I dont want to deal with the wood,bugs,dust and all that. well finally one year I broke down and had a insert installed in my ZC firebox (again big bucks involved) of course I had no wood to burn so was burning pallets and skids that I got from work along with north Idaho energy logs North Idaho Energy Logs - Home. And found out I really liked the heat that was being put out

So it has been about 8 or 9 years now since I had the insert installed, but it aint free heat as my co worker bragged about as I have bought saws, a splitter, a wood hauling truck,etc but I still like the heat and scrounging for the free firewood off C/L. only thing I wish I had done different would have been to install a free standing stove vs a insert, think I may had been able to get a rear venting one and build a hearth and vent it up the ZC box chimney, may do that some day

 

Kinda gets in your blood, huh?!

Happy anniversary!

My friend just had gas ran to his house and a NG forced air furnace installed, new duct work and all, BIG $$$. He was tired of freezing and having $800 mo heat bills from his in-ceiling electric "radiant" heat, (what a stupid setup!!!) The bad thing is, he lives in a woods, Heck I get some of my wood from his place. He says he has no interest in "fooling with wood", hey, whatever man, it's your money, and it leaves more wood for me!

 

Heating oil went from less than a dollar a gallon to over five dollars. At the same time wood burning went from ambiance to financial necessity to a great hobby with great exercise. I not only saved money on oil but on the gym membership also. Now that oil is more reasonable again I am still out there scrounging and splitting firewood.

KaptJaq

 

yep, i had the furnace and duct work done as well when i had NG ran to the house. matter of fact I a running it right now as it is 48 degrees outside at 9AM to warm for a fire

 

Thank you brenndatomu

 

I grew up feeding a Des Moines furnace and we bought our house it had a coal fired boiler in it. Prev owner removed that and the chimney was clay lined. So we got a Clayton 1600 made by us stove. Never looked back.

 

In December 2013, we bought a house that had nothing but an Allnighter for heat. It was our first experience with wood heat, and the first time I really used a chainsaw, maul, etc. (Thank goodness for this site!)

In the 2 years since, we have discussed adding another way to keep warm (electric baseboards, radiant floors, heat pump, central furnace, etc.), and just keep happily burning wood. I suspect that someday we will add some other source of heat, after we finish tightening the place up and install the 30-NC recently acquired.

But we really like the wood heat and probably will continue to use it exclusively for quite a few more years.

Greg

 

In 1990 the first home we bought in this area had a majestic zero clearance fireplace (non-EPA) with glass doors. This home (1993) had a big Fisher (circa 1975) generation-1 already installed. Replaced that with a VC Encore 2550 cat stove in 2008, now have the IS in its second year of use. Went through the same evolution as many here may have done, learning about drying wood, scrounging and something akin to a 3-year plan. And running a stove in the good way. I look back laughing hard about "Man, could I have really been that stupid?!?!?" Wet wood, smoldering fires, wasteful wood usage, burning dirty..... embarrassing to remember back then..... heheh....

 

great stories!

Here's mine. We had a wood stove at camp but did not use camp after thanks giving. bought my house out of foreclosure in December of 2003. Furnace was a Tarm wood coal oil combination boiler. guy before me switched oil to propane. problem the firebox was like 5 cubic feet. then there was a propane explosion in lower NY and prices skyrocketed. Had a little wood stove in kitchen insurance would not let me use it hearth too small. Switched it Tarm back to oil and built hearth to correct size. basically used it to dry kids snow pants and mittens loved it.. next spring I started cleaning up woods and fields and just piled the wood.. by summer had 7 cord so I split and stacked it by then I was addicted

10 years later found FHC started learning to do it right

 

Bought my house in 2008 with an oil furnace. Wasnt sure about oil heat but liked the house a lot! The heat was good and liked not having a gas bill every month. Didnt like the big hit to fill the tank! After the second winter the oil furnace had trouble. Found water in my 1000 gallon under ground tank and a crack in the heat exchange. So I figure if I had to replace both I was converting to NG. Dug my yard up and installed gas to the house and bought the best furnace I could afford. Now to the good stuff. I came home from work on the second day of the install. Looked at my new high efficiency gas furnace in my warm house. It was January 2nd in Pennsylvania so it was cold! I saw the cap on the old flew pipe going into the chimney. I pulled it off and looked inside to find a stainless liner. I asked to furnace guys if thats what I was seeing they confirmed. I asked if I can set a wood burner here and use that the chimney with the stainless liner for it. They said you sure can. I jumped on the ohone calling all over Pittsburgh to see what I could find. Found a US Stove model 2000 at a TSC 40 miles away. Three hours later it was sitting in front of that chimney. It heats the basement and part of the main floor. Love the heat but should have bought a bigger fire box. This stove has fueled my addiction to chainsaws and wood hoarding!

 

Thanks!

I agree!

 

I started with a match and newspaper..... And I cannot believe no one else posted that already.

Had an uncle (my mother's uncle actually) who heated his garage (business garage, not private car storage) with a pot belly woodstove and scrounged wood.... along with just about anything else that he thought might burn.

When I bought my house in '89, I found a masonry thimble in the chimney in the living room. The chimney was really for the oil boiler but I ganged them together- this was back when that was legal and [not yet horribly unsafe]. A friend gave me a Tempwood stove, which I heavily modified and started burning wood that first year; the oil boiler was from the '50's and the whole system was about 18% efficient (seriously). Found a local pallet manufacturer and I cut a deal on buying a 'basket' full of the blocks left over from them cutting the skids; 4 X 6 hardwood ranging from a few inches to about 10 inches long. Foolishly built a stove to burn those specifically and went along like that for maybe 7, 8 years or so when..... the pallet mfg. burned to the ground in a fire possibly started in their industrial sawdust burner although I do not know if that was really the cause, merely what I have heard. Then started using firewood but the stove I had was not set up for that- it is a top- loader and the small loading door that I used for the blocks would not work for splits. Opening the 'big' door basically made a mess so I made a few more mods. and started looking around for another stove. Bought and Ideal Steel last year, and this is my first store bought, used as- built (mostly) stove.

Brian

 

Bought this place in Sept. of '06 and the Ashley Step top was already here.

I struggled with wet wood, and the stove had leaks I was unaware of for the first couple months or so. Also didn't know to check the flue, and when I did, found the 8" ID pipe was necked down to about 3" diameter with a nice fluffy layer of brown ash/creosote that had mostly built up from the previous owners. I'm sure I contributed some as well.
I kept wondering why the wood wouldn't stay lit and why I was getting smoke rolling out the door. Wet wood and a clogged flue might have had something to do with it.

I did a search for info on the stove, and found "another" site, where I stayed for about 7 years and learned what I already suspected......water doesn't burn.
Never did find any info on that stove, but fixed the air leaks and got it running pretty darn good while yearning for something gooder.
Finally put the 30NC in after spending 3 years gradually upgrading the stove pipe, Class A system, and building a new raised hearth.

The year after we got here, I turned off the gas and electric to the wall heater because it was noisy and really inefficient. The last 2 winters, as cold as they were, I started running the DV heater in the laundry room to help keep the house warm when the stove couldn't keep up.
I intend to make my life easier ASAP by ordering some more wood, and also getting into the woods. Just can't keep up with the wood use doing that by myself.
Previous owners left us about a cord do split Oak on the front porch.......wet.
More Oak about where the back of the pole barn now sits, in rounds. Had to order more wood (Oak) to finish that first winter (wet), then called the guy the following spring to bring me more, which he did........in August. Before he was done, I had found a source for log loads and had one delivered on Sept. 11, 2007. 10 cords for me and 10 for my brother. I had told myself I wasn't going to depend on someone else to make sure I had dry wood. No, it hadn't taken me long to get to that point....I was there the previous winter, but things take time.
Winter of '08 was the first one where the wood had been dried for more than a couple months, and being Oak, it still wasn't dry. '09 was gooder, and by '10, we had gotten close to woodburning Nirvana. Ahhh, finally, dry wood.
That's the short, highly edited version.