How many of you.........

[jcappe]

Have a OWB and a wood stove/fireplace both? Just curious. I do not, but thought maybe someday if I ever get the extra cash and things paid off I might put a small wood stove in just for the ambience and type of heat that my OWB does not give. Plus the extra heat wouldn't be a bad thing when my OWB isn't keeping up with the heating demands when it is below zero and windy.

 

[Circle B MN]

I heat my house with a CB5036, and the shop with a Fisher style stove. I think I like the Fisher better, but I like not having fire and smoke in the house....

 

[applefarmer]

I do, and I love them both for different reasons. My owb is a hawkin, and I have a epa Lennox fireplace. The boiler gets fired mid October till mid May. It truly spoils you for easy wood fuel heat and hot water. Load it once or twice in 24 hours clean ashes once a month, constant house at 72. But for WARM COZY drive you out of the house heat nothing can replace a indoor stove or high effecient fireplace. These give a tremendous amount of heat for the small amount of wood they consume, but I could not imagine trying to use it for the primary heat source. It needs small split wood, needs to be tended at least once every 6 hours, and requires the ashes to be delt with once in 48 hours. Also it requires a little burning knowledge, IT tells you when it is ready for the primary to be shut, rush it and you will soot the glass within an hour, do it right and the glass stays clean for a month. Like I said I love them both but if I could only have one it would be the boiler, it is just too easy compared to traditional.

 

[H-Ranch]

Our house has a very large natural fireplace as a focal point. It's beautiful and I love having a fire just for the ambiance. I did try to use the fireplace for auxiliary heat the first year we bought it with a tubular grate that I built connected to a manifold and a small blower. It would basically maintain the house at 65 degrees if it was 25 degrees outside. Other than that it wouldn't keep up. It required a lot of work and constant supervision of the fire.

Now I use the OWB I built to heat the home. It makes me smile every time I fill it because I know I'm not using propane. I had considered installing a fireplace insert, but didn't want to lose the fireplace. We still have fireplace fires, but mostly for company or when we feel like sitting around it for the evening.

Different purposes for sure - OWB for heat, fireplace to complete that feeling of home.

 

[Medman23]

I have a Pacific Energy woodstove that I use in the shoulder seasons and through the winter to supplement the EKO boiler. The woodstove is also great for drying all of the kids' (and my) wet outdoor clothes and boots, etc. I love the warm and even heat from the woodstove, but put in the boiler because I couldn't keep the whole house warm with just the stove - and the electric bill was killing me!

 

[blackdogon57]

My sickness started with an open fireplace. I liked it but it smoked up my house an only heated a small area. I put a small airtight insert in it and really liked it but it didn't come close to heating my whole house so I put in a free standing stove. Love my stove but it won't heat my basement, kennel building,hot water or pool so I installed CB 6048.

I really don't need the indoor stove or insert anymore but still use the wood stove quite a bit for pure enjoyment. Wife likes living room really hot and the upstairs stays nice and cool when the indoor stove is running.

 

[jcappe]

Most of you had the stove and then got the OWB the way it sounds. Exact opposite of the way I'd be doing it. I would want it simply for the ambience and additional heat to help cover the load when it's absolutely freezing out. I have a generator so electricity isn't an issue for the OWB either. Maybe i'm crazy for even thinking about it. I would really like to put it in the basement. I'm in the process of getting it finished. I'll have knotty pine walls and all my dead animals on the wall so a stove would fit right in.

 

[Butch(OH)]

We have both. The add-on furnace is still in the basement and a 80s vintage Arrow stove in my work shop but neither has had a fire since we installed the OWB. They arent eating anything so they will stay for now. In the 4 years we have operated the boiler (4400 Woodmaster) we have yet to see it cold and windy enough to make it work up a sweat, let alone not keep up. My wife does not miss the mess and smoke from the inside woodburners one bit and frankly neither do I. We got over sitting around stareing at each other 25 or so years ago so we dont need a fire for that purpose either, LOL. Personaly if I was worried about heat in a power outage Id take the money needed to purchase and install a wood stove and invest it in a diesel genset,,, like I allready did.

 

[loadthestove]

Have a century free standing in my downstairs living room,and have a homebuilt OWB outside.Rarely use the free standing anymore but have no plans to get rid of it.
Like a few others here I started with stove inside and then switched to my OWB.