How did you get started with wood heat?

I too loved the woods when I was younger. I went to school for forest resource management. And have made a career out of it.

I have a vogelzang highlander I think its called that I installed in my farm house a few years ago. This was to curb or make unnecessary the oil burning furnace. I had planned it when oil was $3-4 a gallon. I had to pic that stove as j didnt want to spend much as we were not there much in winter plus I was setting it into the open fireplace. It keeps that hose nice n warm. I wish it would burn longer but when the whole stove takes on larger split and two small ones it can only burn so long.

 

Back in the late 1970's growing up when electric bills were so high in an all electric house. Dad went to a local wood stove shop here in central Indiana. Anyone living in this area will remember the place as it was very popular. The day we went the place was packed and people were buying wood stoves like hotcakes. Guess we were not the only family tired of high electric bills. I think the stove we got was an Aurora stove which was high tech at the time since the welded square tubes going thru the fire box for the heat to be better transfer to the air that was being blown thru the stove. Its funny to think about that with today's technology. I think it could be called a gimmick these days. ITs was an insert as our house had a fireplace. It wasnt till years later we got a liner. Basically you just pushed the stove back into the fire place and let the draw of the flue pull stuff up and out of the back of the fireplace. You sealed the surround for an air tight fit. Then when we got the liner it still was not a direct hook up as the fabricated a metal opening in the top of the fireplace for the liner to hook up too then they went up top and poured loose fill insulation all around the outside of the liner. Then we just pushed the stove back into the fireplace and sealed the surround and let the draw of the new liner chimney pull the smoke up and out of the stove. I am sure people remember those days. We would get wood from were ever we could find it. Some times buying slab wood and cutting it up our selves. Well that ole fireplace has a ventless gas logs now and out of commision. The first house I bought after moving out of my parents house had an old Buck Save stove. A little bitty thing but I tried and heat the house with it. Then I bought a used Blaze King stove which looked alot like the ugly blaze kings of today but not technology inn them , its was a deep stove and bigger which was a good thing at the time. I then bought me the house I currently live in and the first thing I did since it had electric baseboard heat was I installed a used energy king wood furnace and installed all the duct work and return duct. The house had 5 bed rooms and I only installed a few ducts in rooms we used and kept the doors shut on unused rooms. It was hard heating that year as not enough air flow thru the house but as I later got the rest of the rooms with ducts the house was easy to heat with that Energy King wood Furnace. I spent lots of time tuning that thermostat upstairs to kick on that wood furnace and provide heat to the upstairs but not burn too much wood. I burnt that wood furnace for 14 years. Then when I got to busy with my 3 kids I quit as I didn't have time to cut wood or mess with wood heat. Then fast forward 6 years later we remodeled the basement and made a family room down there in half the basement. The other half was our garage. I need a heat source and was looking for a small stove but when I went to Menards they had a big stove sale going and I bought the next size bigger called Vogelzang The Performer. I was appreciative of Vogelzang providing stoves that are affordable. Those line of stoves were nice stoves for the price. Good for people just wanting to get into wood burning and not break the bank. To my surprise the new high tech design put out much more heat than I expected and got all night burns with much less wood. This stove would heat the whole house easily from the basement. It was truly amazing it was doing what the big wood furnace took lots of wood to do. So bam I was full blown back into wood heating and wood cutting. I actually saved enough money to pay for the stove and a new wood splitter the first year of burning again. I already had the flue and chain saws so I didnt have to put out more money for thoses. I burnt that Vogelzang Performer stove for two years but that one ver cold year with lots of below zero days really made the stove struggle so I upgraded to the Drolet Myriad as a bigger stove and have really like the North/South Loading and going from a 2.12 cu ft to to a 3.2 cu ft stove was really nice increase in capacity. Plus the Myriad version one really radiates heat much like the old stoves of yesteryear. Old man winter come get me now. But this year is a little lame. As far as cutitng wood I have been fortunnate here in South Central Indiana to alway find some logging going on and tree tops to cut. Last year I cut right across the county road I live on and now I just go permission to a new woods logged just a mile north of me. I wish I had more time and stamina to reach my goal of 3 years ahead but have only been able to get one year at a time. I usually get 10 to 12 4'x8' ricks cut split and stacked all by myself. This year being mild I might have some left over and allow me to get closer to a two year hoarding.

 

Started burning to save money. An old inefficient furnace guaranteed a quick payback.

That and splitting wood was good and cheap therapy as I went through my divorce!

 

Feels good to pretend the log is "the boyfriends" face, right?!
I don't know nuttin 'bout that...

 

Hehe...um, no comment.

 

The vogelzang highlander pedestal stove I have is like 1.6 cuft. With dry wood it will throw off heat all over. With wet wood not so much.

I say try the vogelzang again

 

I heat about 600-800 with the VGZ that I have. Its at the farm house which is an old drafty wood home on the farm has insulation but leaks air like a sieve I think

 

Growing up in Vancouver BC (actually Richmond if you know where that is) we never had a reason for heating with wood. We had a fireplace that we would burn in while watching tv from time to time, sure was nice to warm your back with that wood heat! We had a stack of wood on the side of the house that dad would ask me to split from time to time. Mom was worried I would cut a toe off or something but I never did have any injuries. Moved up to Whistler where you actually get winter. Several years went by and then I got married, my wife and I ended up renting properties that had wood stoves in them so we thought what the heck. I had an old Husky that was passed down from my grandfather who used it the day he died... I liked doing anything in the bush and that included running chainsaws. I had a 94 f150 long box that we called Hilbert that we would use for wood hauling. Fir, red cedar, yellow cedar, easy pickings. Never did get up the nerve to drop trees until many years later. Moved out to the Rockies 17 or 18 years ago and purchased a house with a 3 cf non cat blaze king. That sucker kept us warm as can be but chewed up the wood like crazy. Moved towns 10 years ago but still in the Rockies to a property that wasnt set up for using a wood stove so I had to take some years off. I then purchased the house we live in now. Its 2600 sq ft early 80s build. It has a fireplace that I burned (past tense) lots of wood in just because I liked the way the fire heat felt. It also had a gas free standing in the basement where the super 27 now sits. I finally broke down about 4 winters ago and put in the wood stove. Nice to be back burning. I have to say that lots has changed for me since my early days of burning. I didn't have any guidance so was self taught. Once I discovered sites like this that can help teach a guy I was amazed at how much there is to learn, and its fun stuff! I never knew about stove top temperatures, moisture content, btus of different kinds of wood. Of course I had enough common sense to take care of my chainsaw and to try and dry my wood before using it, cleaned the chimney regularly etc. Now I burn clean, take care of my stove and stacks and have refined my entire approach. Thanks for reading!

 

Yep the secret to using that Vogelzang Performer stove is dry wood. If you are not sure you can buy a moisture meter at Lowes. Wood needs to be 20% moisture or less checking from freshly splitting a piece.
Startups using kindling and a good strong firestarter to get the heat built up in the fire box. Once the stove top temp gets to like 400-500 you will see secondary flames up around the burn tubes. The stove works better from a good hot bed of coals. You can still use kindlin and firestarter to get the heat back up quick in the box. But your wood has to be dry in any of these new stoves. The Wondercoal is an old stove doesnt need as a dry of wood. But it will smoke alot. The new stoves once up to temps no smoke comes out of the flue or very little.

 

A Fisher Grandma Bear came with the house when I bought it and I swapped out for an EPA tube stove. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, while people were freezing their arses off, we had gorgeous wood heat, a Weber propane grill, a Big Green Egg and a generator. Despite the labor involved with wood heat, I will never, ever get rid of the wood stove. Come hell or high water, there is always fire to keep warm in an emergency.

 

Summer of 2008 when oil hit $135 a barrel or something like that. Local places wanted $4.55 - 5.15 a gallon. That would have been a cost of $6,800 - 7,700 to heat the house.

I bought an old Vigilant for $400, and spent $1500 to have it installed and the chimney lined.

 

Just bumping up for some more wood heat stories...

 

I guess you are qualified to know what a "tiny" stove is ... and what isn't "fancy" next to a vogelzang ?

 

My Country C160 insert is 1.6 cuft as well, when it gets cold i have to feed it alot and in the rare times when it gets real cold ( for Seattle standards) it wont keep up

 

The Vogelzang is at the farm house. It only gets used a few times a year when we go there in winter.

My main stove is a HughValley 2500. Looks just like a Buck 91. It has 24K gold plated door. Its a $2500 stove new. Not quite as cheap as vogelzang. My other stove to be installed in the house is a Englander NC30...not quite a pretty stove as some call it but what I like!

 

My family moved into a house with a big fireplace made of field stone when I was 8. We tried burning with it but it did not make much more than a smokey house. Someone gave us one of the Franklin stove inserts and we slammed it in there and it didn't last too long either. Third time was a charm as we installed some kind of steel wood stove and the fireplace was sealed off with a metal plate. My mother raised us three boys alone as she was a widow and together the family had about as much wood burning knowledge as two boxes or rocks. (not an exaggeration )

I recall we bought wood from a neighbor and having an older neighbor boy cut up wood that was down in our back yard. I was quite proud of helping the family by hauling home snow covered frozen logs of all sorts; really didn't matter to us as long as it was wood. At my age it was quite pleasing a task and I remember it clearly; we had lots of "tree of heaven", sassafras, tulip poplar and hickory. Back then we didn't have seat belts and nobody spoke of moisture content or seasoning that I can remember. That may explain why I remember two chimney fires from my youth - hey, it was kind of an exciting experience for me. We did gain a bit of knowledge over the years ... about one box of rocks worth.

My wife's parents heated with a coal stove insert and she knew how to load it and run it so when it was time to build our house we both agreed we wanted a wood stove for backup heat and for fires in the evenings and on weekends. We picked the stove based on looks and how we thought it would fit with the house; it was a Hearthstone Harvest down draft catalytic stove. Like so many, I bought wood in the spring and it seasoned until needed in November. Really never thought about it nor cared much about this stuff until a few winters ago when we ran out of wood, propane spiked and they began rationing propane sales. Realized I did not like the idea of going cold; while in some ways it was an adventure cutting dead standing elm/cherry to make it through the winter ... it was hard work. The Hearthstone was old by then and could not hold an overnight fire so night time loading was necessary (ugh, that is a chore I am glad to be done with). Ended up finding one of the online firewood/wood stove forums and one thing leads to another and I am here and for some unexplained reason have developed this odd addiction.

Quite pleased to have a new efficient wood stove, a nice wood splitter and over 20 cords css. Not sure how long this addiction will last as it was developed late in life, but for now I am quite happy to be so afflicted. For me it is all one day at a time, so tomorrow always holds the answers to today's questions.

 

We had a wood stove when I was growing up, but mom and dad got a house built in my teens, and that was the end of that.

Later in life I had bought an old mobile home with oil heat, and as a bachelor, let's just say it was mighty cool in here....59 at night, 64 in the evening kinda thing. I never considered a wood stove, as I wasn't sure on the safety. Years later, with a better half, and insane oil prices, we made the leap. It wasn't a hard sell either. We saw a stove on sale, and bought it without the first clue.

I had no clue what to expect, thinking it would be a helper and hey, it would have to shave at least 1/4 of the cost of fuel, maybe more! Boy was I wrong. Apparently mobile homes aren't that hard to heat, and it's more like 66-75 percent savings on fuel oil. I'm sure it could be slightly more, but then I'd be getting up in the middle of the night. And the fact is, I need to run the furnace to keep the water lines from freezing during some of the uglier weather.

That's my stoves only fault, a small firebox. But it works great for our situation. With much reading on newer stoves, the learning curve was easy to overcome. Second year wood burner, and happy as heck.