I can understand your concerns. As a new burner it can be a little scary leaving a fire burning in your house when your nor there. We have all been there and learned to trust our installations over time. May I suggest you try this :- Pretend the weekend consists of two work days, load your fire as you like and pretend to go to work. Do not touch the fire again until you would return home 8 - 10 hrs or whatever time frame works. Then reload and continue. This will help relieve those absent worries. Hope this helps.
Don't think he was intensionally insulting you. Many of us have been burning a wood stove so long it just sounds quite odd for anyone to say they are not ok to burn when not at home. BUT you got to do what feels ok to you. Of course I love to be a peace maker too.
I totally understand the worries here. I had/have the same thoughts. I'm lucky to have an oil heater for backup. so I don't have to depend on the wood. That said, I've been burning <50 gal. of heating oil / yr. since I installed the wood stove. So I'm using nearly 100% wood for heat. I have to say that YES, it was very scary to leave the stove (and the dogs) alone for 6-8 hrs., but inevitably the question arises, "Is it worth it?" For me, I learned that my stove/hearth/chimney was safe, as long as I knew that the the air control was set to fully closed. I have a PE Alderlea T5, so I have just ONE control. If it is set to fully closed, I know for sure that my stove will not burn the house down.
I remember when I was working 12 hour days I would burn just on the weekend. Didn't seem worth it to get the stove going in the morning and then leave. Now that we're home more hours keeping it going just seems like less work. It isn't really, just seems like it. There's a little bit of mindset to it too.
Hit it dead on. Im not worried about stuff, it can be replaced. My wife and daughter cannot. I smell just a wiff of woodsmoke and im up outta bed checkin the stove. I have been a wood burner for a long time and as a kid it was our main source of heat for quite a few years. Its just like anything, being careless can bite you.
Load stove at 5:30am, go to work at 6:20am, come home at 4:00pm, throw another small load in, then pack full around 8pm, repeat all winter depending on weather.
I will refrain from commenting on your first sentence. I've been around wood burning stoves for 47 years, I grew up with one. I've been operating one for greater than 30 of those years. Maybe that's not long enough to form an opinion on how to operate my stove and furnace. It's not odd to me at all that I think safety first when it comes to my home that I've worked my tail off to have. Think however odd you want to think about that. I'm far from alone in my beliefs. So, when someone asks for an opinion, I gave mine. OP can decide how he wants to operate his stove however he chooses....without him (or anyone else) feeling like they are odd or shouldn't be burning wood altogether because they choose to be conservative with their safety.
Not to sway anyone one way or another, I have a colleague who is a pilot and while flying over VT enroute from NY to Montreal looked down to see her very own house on fire. By the time she saw it, it was fully engulfed. The fire was determined to be caused by her relatively newly installed pellet stove. She lost everything including the dogs. When she rebuilt, she wanted nothing to do with wood or pellet heat. Don't know the details of why the pellet stove started the fire. Just know the results. Nothing is impossible and strange things happen.
I know exactly how you feel on that one guy. I keep it warm, I mean I load 2 to 3 small pieces in early am. Get coffee eat give the lady a squeeze, ready myself for wrk and by that time I know it's on its even keel. And isn't going to heat up or be more of a hazard. Close it down and turn fan on. I worry because I have my pups that are at home. I put in a dog door so they have a way out but still..
I see houses on the news about 6-8 times per year that are blown all over a 2-3 block area because of a gas leak too. Electric heaters cause a ton of fires...and heating oil can leak. Point is, heating the house is dangerous no matter how you do it. Just use common sense, do your maintenance, and be careful...'bout all you can do.
Fu Funny , I'm not retired and I'm doing that already. My wife tried to bury me in the backyard but I got up after I hit the hole. She said" next time the house is cold, you won't be so lucky".. oooooooh
Maybe an OWB is the closest thing to safe heat. You're right about common sense and taking care of your system and being careful.
Not foolproof either...there is a member here who dads OWB caught fire and burned the whole place down...can't remember his name right now. EDIT: It was Lodgedtree...
I completely understand the concern. I grew up burning wood and coal. Its always been natural to me. However, fire is fire and I would rather have a little under confidence than a little over confidence. Its ok to be concerned, but be smart and educated at the same time. When I first got my OWB I kept looking out the window to make sure the back forty wasnt on fire. I laugh at myself now but the concern was real. Now I sleep well with the heat of my own efforts. (Hope Im not over confident)
When I was a kid we had a oil wall furnace, one evening sometime after dinner the furnace started going ballistic, I don't know much about oil furnaces but it malfunctioned and was dumping too much oil in, the situation got so bad the fire department was called but by the time they got there my dad had gotten it under control. House was full of smoke and fumes I'm guessing that if there was no one home at the time that happened we probably wouldn't have at home.
Welcome to FHC CHeath! It felt uncomfortable in the beginning but it didnt take me long to get used to leaving the house or going to bed with the stove heating the house. I do wait until its cruising before I leave it though. Each to their own. Lots of good comments on this thread that I just noticed lol. I just loaded the stove with larch and will sit back and watch it and a tv show for awhile and then go to bed.
