Wood stoves: Yea or nay?

[Packy]

Wood is good, but under certain conditions. It is definitely not for everyone. A readily-available source of good wood---reasonably priced or free for the taking, is needed. I burn fairly small stuff, mainly oak scraps from a hardwood flooring factory, mixed with less-desirable stuff from tree work. It really is a job, keeping the stove fed and cleaned. It's pretty essential to live in a suburban or rural 'hood where it is acceptable, because it is hard to conceal that you're burning wood. I see that some people buy it at the grocery store in tiny $5 bundles just for occasional uses in fireplaces! Not very economical, though. I use it in concert with electric heat, which kicks on when the temp drops from the fire needing more wood. But, it is a good way to heat if you live in a well-insulated small house, without little kids around. The cats like to lie near the stove; last year one of them singed her fur, so she was a brown and white cat for awhile. Another thing is your homeowners' policy. As you know, insurance companies don't want to take any risks, and they have fussy-wussy underwriters that drive around, looking for reasons to cancel you or raise your rates, and wood stoves can be one of them. So, be aware of that.

[ctg492]

I have had wood, propane, natural gas, oil, electric and corn, all in MI. Corn was big leap of faith for us several year back when it was the rage here. I found as far as work all required some, more then others, except natural gas. I just adjust the thermostat and never think about it. I don't know if that is good or bad. But propane required watching tank, prepaying after watching prices. Oil was nasty. Wood we all know that work involved. Corn same as propane watching cost, then we would trailer 3,000 pounds, same as wood with filling and cleaning. Environmentaly, not sure which is better.

[Float On]

I grew up with wood heat and like it. I'm visiting my parents this weekend and it's been fun to watch the outdoor wood furnace. They set a pan of water on it and the birds love the heated water (every water source is frozen for mile). Dad has to go out more often to fill the water pan than he does to put wood in the furnace.

[sweetana3]

I would not mind one too much but friends have an outdoor furnace for two houses and the three brothers have to split and handle a large pickup truck load of wood each weekend. They ran thru all they had in reserve. It is obvious but you 1) must have a source of wood and 2) the labor has to be available to process it whenever needed. If sick or incapacitated, need another source of fuel.

[Tammy]

I've found that wood smoke exacerbates my asthma.

We heated with wood a few years in the past. It was a lot cheaper and I liked being able to sit closer to the wood stove when I felt cold. But now I react even if someone is burning wood in their fireplace and I'm sitting outside next door to their house. If the world ends from an electromagnetic pulse and wood is our only option I'm in trouble.

[Radicchio]

I love the idea of a wood stove. I think it's a wonderful heat source and very homey. Plus, you can use it for cooking during a power outage and, if you put a kettle full of water on it you can add some humidity to the dry air. On the downside, I, too have asthma and simply cannot tolerate being around wood burning anymore. In fact, I prefer not to use candles in a power outage anymore because my lifelong asthma has worsened over the years.

[Francie]

When we lived in the mountains of FAR Northern California wood was our only source of heat for 22 years. No air conditioning, either ... we used a cooler. Wonderful heat. The power went out all the time in the winter, but we had a gas (propane) cookstove so didn't need to use our wood stove to cook on, but could have if we'd needed to. Wish we could heat with wood exclusively still, but we live in the "wilds" of a subdivision in Boise, Idaho, so ... no ... would cost too much, and don't have the truck to go into the woods to cut the wood anymore. Aaaah, the good old days ... {sigh}

[Teacher Terry]

When we were young & lived in Upstate NY we used it daily. Free wood everywhere. Now on the west coast you can't burn unless you are in a house where your fireplace or woodstove was grandfathered in & the air is clean enough to burn. However, now that I have asthma I can't be around it anyways.

[Gregg]

We lived in the mountains with a National Forest for a back yard for many years. We had frequent power outages so installed a very efficient (EPA rated) wood stove and used it as our primary heat source. The carbon emissions from gathering/processing/burning standing dead trees, in the end, were probably no more damaging than the emissions from the natural decay would have been. It also gave us a fair sense of independence and saved us a lot of money. Now that we have moved from that place and no longer rely on wood as a primary heat source I am quite content to leave the effort, the mess and the spiders in the past.

[bae]

A neighbor just dropped off two dump truck loads of "assemble it yourself" firewood today, which will be my winter conditioning/strength-training project.

Yay for free heat and nice neighbors!