A woodstove/ insert/ fireplace snob! I was at my sister's and they have a farmhouse and use a pellet stove to help offset heat costs. I was sitting near the stove and thought how boring! No dancing, mesmerizing flames, no wood burning tv to watch, no splits stacked off to the side, no aroma of wood burning. The heat is different and feels like a "cold" heat to me if that makes sense. No offense to our pellet stove brethren, but it's just boring to me.
I understand about not seeing flames. I used a fireplace insert first time ever recently and at least it had a glass door, and I felt that helped add some ambiance. Now, if I opened the door, you could feel that wonderful radiant heat hit you, but you can't do that all the time because you ruin the efficiency of it but it's nice for a couple minutes. I don't know what the ideal is, as I def do like the 'feel' of an open fireplace, which is what I have. Lately, I am thinking of adding a vertical grate, a 'fireback' piece of metal at the rear of the fireplace, and a fan to move air. Somebody on here did that, maybe it's LordOfTheFlies . I also saw somewhere that you could aim a regular fan AT the fireplace and it would move air in the room in a good manner. Adding these pieces would make the fireplace much more efficient and retain the feel of radiant heat and view of open flames.
I burn with my insert door open all day long when I’m able to be watching it. I have a blower too which helps with the heat. I think it actually heats the house better than with it closed
Hey, that's good to know! I have only the limited experience. I was just cautious about letting smoke into the room. When the fire is going good, it did seem to not let any smoke in.
Don’t get me wrong. They are designed to burn with door closed, but I like the faint smell and crackling noise of the fire and that’s why I do it. With my automatic blower on low I find that the house stays 71-72 on the main floor and about 67-68 upstairs where we sleep. Key is dry wood. Yes you will also go through more wood this way
I've never really been able to figure it out, but there has always been a ...something.... that has been around when you heat with wood. One year we stopped the wood stove and started the boiler, and there felt like something missing or something gone. Kind of like when the electricity goes out, you notice it.
Heated my house with a pellet stove for 3 winters, seemed to work Nothing beats a wood stove!! If I'm at my folks place and their stove is going full tilt i find myself needing a nap! Very comforting heat after working outside all day in the cold
Bahaha, I've never had a window on a woodstove till we bought a pellet stove, it still startles me to this day! Once in awhile at my previous long time home we'd open the doors and put the spark screen on and it was nice for the moment, guess I'm set in my ways.
1 ton of coal is equal to about 1.5 ton of pellets btu wise. And a ton of coal is $50-100 cheaper than pellets. If I didn’t want to use cord wood I would get a coal stoker. They work on the same principal but you get more heat for less $$
A love of the wood stove heat. A love of chainsaws. A love of cutting and splitting firewood! I've never loved stacking. Your either born with it, or it gets in your blood and never leaves.
We have both that are located in our basement, your wood stove will always give you great heat for a period of time but if I start an overnight fire with wood at 10 p.m. and go in the basement in the morning, it will have cooled off. Do the same with a pellet stove set on manual feed with both the heat output selector set on the highest medium setting and the fan on high and in the morning you'll shut it off because it's too hot. You might think it's boring but the constant heat just keeps building, it's all about the heat not the flames for us.
I helped my buddy install an American harvest pellet stove into his existing fireplace/ hearth. He works long days and it took a while before his fireplace would heat up enough to actually make heat. The bricks of the inside chimney needed to heat up before it would put it positive heat. So he'd get home, and in a half hour to get the fire going, then 2-3 hrs later the bricks of the chimney would finally be radiating heat. Now, he starts his old tech pellet stove, and in 10 minutes the blower starts up and it's making good heat. IDK, for him it makes sense. Sure, it's not as crazy of flames us wood stove people get, but it's heat and light. Sure there's cost of the pellets vs the wood, but it's less mess then wood, and especially vs his open FP, the pellet hopper will outlast what can be loaded on the stove. If he wants, he's got the extended hopper add on too. He'll still cut and split wood, and sell a couple face cords and that will offset any pellet cost. There's pros and cons to literally everything....
