Yep, I finished my chimney on February 2nd last year, and it was 2' F outside. Our utility bills would be anywhere from $450-$600, depending on how cold it was outside. Now with both our wood burner and propane furnace that bill has dropped to just over $200.
Wow so just that alone should really make her see how valuable that stove is. That is a lot of money saved! We save money but we have natural gas which is inexpensive but it's nothing compared to the warmth of stove heat. While its a lot of work, I enjoy it more as a hobby and we are hooked!
I load east/west. Stove is wider than deep. To be honest never really tried a serious N/S burn. The stove design doesn't look ideal for N/S, I'll give it a try tonight.
I have an insert that is oriented horizontally so my main splits go in East/West. But I also try and keep some short splits around that match the “10 depth of the insert. I use these shorties in a North South orientation to cross cross tommy longer east west logs. Can fit in about three layers to fill up the stove for a long burn with maximum log cabin style stability. Plus it allows for many air pockets so the fire can breathe.
I find that sad; she should be very grateful to have a man willing to work for her. There have been plenty of time I wished I had a man here to help me.
Yes it does. The house heat here is electric forced air furnace and even with the stat on as low as I could tolerate, I was seeing high bills for heating the house. Now my heating bills are much lower; mainly my labour to cut wood; cost to haul it, and the fuel and bar oil for the saw, and the cost for splitting. I have been lucky so far and not have had to buy any wood.
I was cutting wood to the longest length that would fit in the stove east-west. The idea of less cutting. However, I found it frustrating to load with logs wanting to roll out; and if the log is burning, you don't want it rolling out of the stove. So now I cut to the length that will fit north-south for easier loading of the stove. I just ignore any burn factors because not having a burning log roll out on me is the important thing.
N/S, E/W, vertical, angled, it all burns and I tend to end up with a lot of shorts and chunks. The Ideal Steel doesn't seem to care that much.