I know someone wanting a wood stove.

[whatscooking]

My sons have grown up and moved out and have married. One of my sons came home with his wife during one of the bitter cold spells recently and his wife really warmed up to the wood burner in my living room. They are somewhat forced to keep their home in the city in the 60es to help keep their gas bill down where they can pay it. We met them yesterday for a quick lunch and the wood stove came back up again so much they are looking hard at putting one in their home. Where do you start with looking into what it takes to put a wood stove into a home in the middle of all the nice houses in a large city, Carmel Indiana just outside Indianapolis. He says other people around have fireplaces for pretty and burn them some time, so does he, but to put a stove in and really use it might cause problems. I told him to check his home owners insurance.

 

[autoimage]

if he has an existing fireplace that burns wood he could put an insert in it, cant recommend a brand cause I have a stove but a lot people here have them. then he has to think about where to get wood is he going to buy it, process it himself, where to store and dry it.

 

[dave_376]

+1 on the insert. find a stove dealer and start shopping.

 

[esshup]

I have a Quadrafire 5000 series insert. I use it to heat the house during the winter, with a natural gas forced air furnace as secondary heat. One thing that I found out - I use more wood than my sister, who has a wood burning stove. She gets more heat with less wood usage with the stove in the basement than I do with the insert in the living room. Plus if the power goes out the insert needs electricity to run the fan.

I bought mine from Miller Stove & Coal in Bremen, Indiana. They also did the installation. Some homeowner policies require you to have it professionally installed.

 

[zogger]

The old cabin where we live used to have fireplaces, now they are bricked up so that any regular free standinhg wood stove or furnace can go in. There are flue openings up above where the hearth mantle used to be.

I would imagine with a newer high bucks home you would be required to have a chimney liner as well, but this should be doable for you.

I would much rather have a regular heater over an insert, but either will help cut your gas bill. Fireplaces, most of them, throw little heat for the amount of wood burned. There's a reason Ben Franklin invented the alternative.

And as mentioned, you want something 100% reliable if the power goes out.

I don't care what sort of rig or bucks someone has, put me in the camp where my primary heat is full passive, I do not want to be tied to an electrical grid or a generator that can break or you run out of fuel. A generator is nice, but I don't want to rely on one. And when does the power go out in the winter? Big nasty cold ice storms.

Free standing nice pretty wood heater, perhaps with a view window/doors/

 

[BillNole]

Thanks for posting this OP. I've been using an open fireplace for the past decade and find I use it more and more each year. It started as just enjoying the view, feel, sound and smell, but the heat was pretty good too. It's becoming more of the latter now that's more important to us though and I too am thinking about options. I've seen some really nice insert setups, as well as stove set up on hearths. I think the insert may serve us best and look forward to the feedback this thread generates.

IFL...

 

[cantoo]

Living in the city I think his options are very limited. Smoke will be the big issue, wood storage and availability and already having natural gas. 1st thing I would do is sit down and run the numbers first. Natural gas is cheap ( I assume) so would they be better off spending money on insulation, efficient windows and doors, vapor barrier and drywall to seal the house. More efficient natural gas furnace? Then price out the true costs of wood burning in the city. Maybe his best bang for the buck would be one of the batch boiler types where you have a hot hot fire and heat up a bunch of water then the fire goes out. I would assume that smoke would be less of an issue with these, especially if he fired at night.

 

[BillNole]

Living in the city I think his options are very limited. Smoke will be the big issue, wood storage and availability and already having natural gas. 1st thing I would do is sit down and run the numbers first. Natural gas is cheap ( I assume) so would they be better off spending money on insulation, efficient windows and doors, vapor barrier and drywall to seal the house. More efficient natural gas furnace? Then price out the true costs of wood burning in the city. Maybe his best bang for the buck would be one of the batch boiler types where you have a hot hot fire and heat up a bunch of water then the fire goes out. I would assume that smoke would be less of an issue with these, especially if he fired at night.

Why on Earth would you bring logic into this? The title of the thread clearly states that the guy is "wanting" a wood stove. Logic has no place in a discussion regarding what a guy wants, afterall!

 

[cantoo]

Sorry man, I'm, Canadian we're all this way. cep the frenchie's

 

[firebrick43]

Make sure he buys wood soon so it has time to season before next winter. Good stove such as Vermont castings or jotul along with dry fire wood and a good stove pipe don't smoke except at start up.

 

[Bushmans]

If he has a zero clearance type fireplace then he will be looking at the cost of installing a new chimney as well.
Will he be able to have stacks of wood "laying" around the yard in his neighborhood?
I'm glad I live out in the country!

 

[muddstopper]

About 35 years ago, I lived in a doublewide trailer that had a wood fireplace. You couldnt put enough wood in the fireplace to keep the house warm. I bought a Ashley wood stove and sit it in front of the fireplace and used a elbow and reducer to connect to the metal flue liner. I used a piece of sheet metal with a hole cut for the stove pipe, to cover the fireplace. I found the pipe coming out of the stove, along with the elbow and reducer to make the stove pipe angle downward where it came out of the stove. Removed the raised hearth and set stove on the floor with one of those stove pads under it and that cured the pipe problem. I lived in that trailer for about 10yrs and at 14below we could get the house hot enough to sleep with the windows open. In fact, our biggest problem was I bought the biggest Ashely wood stove available and should have bought a smaller size. With power failures, we could lift the top of the stove and set pots on the firebox. Pintoes and stew beef taste the best when cooked on wood.

 

[CTYank]

Make sure he buys wood soon so it has time to season before next winter. Good stove such as Vermont castings or jotul along with dry fire wood and a good stove pipe don't smoke except at start up.

Unnecesary, that. Light your fires "top-down." Bingo, no smoke & greatly reduced emissions. Thing is to avoiding quenching burning gases.

 

[Poindexter]

Lots of variables, definitely they should consult with a local pro.

They should go visit someone with a pellet stove. I only know of one pellet stove that doesn't require electricity, never seen one in person, everything I know about it is behind this link: http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/136350-non-electric-pellet-stoves . If you are running cord wood the Mrs. might not be impressed by a pellet stove. OTOH they can probably run a safe chimney for a pellet stove inside whatever chimney they have now with no demolition.

M2c.

 

[olyman]

Living in the city I think his options are very limited. Smoke will be the big issue, wood storage and availability and already having natural gas. 1st thing I would do is sit down and run the numbers first. Natural gas is cheap ( I assume) so would they be better off spending money on insulation, efficient windows and doors, vapor barrier and drywall to seal the house. More efficient natural gas furnace? Then price out the true costs of wood burning in the city. Maybe his best bang for the buck would be one of the batch boiler types where you have a hot hot fire and heat up a bunch of water then the fire goes out. I would assume that smoke would be less of an issue with these, especially if he fired at night.

no!! ng is getting damn high!!!