I'm pretty new to this wood game but as of lately I've been into cutting, hauling and splitting my own wood for burning. Despite some sore muscles, that part is going great. My issue is that my home, which I recently moved into has a regular old fire place. While nice to look at, as most of you know its not very effective in heating the house. I get about 2 rooms out of it and the fires don't last very long. I kinda feel like I'm wasting good wood by burning it in a fire place. To make matters worse, as you all know, a lot of work goes into gathering and preparing firewood just to "toss it out the window" so to speak by not burning it to it's full potential.
Needless to say, I need either a wood burning stove or a fire place insert. I've done some searching into the archives of this site and from what I've learned, a free standing stove is much more efficient than an insert. Free standing stoves require no electric while inserts need a fan. At least that was true in 2008 and 2010 when these treads were created. My question is, has anything changed since then in wood burning stove technology?
-Are the stoves still better at heating a home than an insert or are there inserts that can keep up with the free standing stoves?
-My house is about 3600 square feet. How much stove/insert do I need to heat MOST of the home? Biggest capacity stoves I've seen so far are made by Quadra Fire, is there anything bigger out there?
-Are there ways to route the heat from the stove/insert via existing duct work in the home?
-Whats the deal with EPA rated stoves? Better/more efficient than the pre EPA models?
I'm sorry if I'm asking rookie questions but there is lots of info but most of the threads I found were 4-5 years old and I'm curious to know if anything has changed since then.
Needless to say, I need either a wood burning stove or a fire place insert. I've done some searching into the archives of this site and from what I've learned, a free standing stove is much more efficient than an insert. Free standing stoves require no electric while inserts need a fan. At least that was true in 2008 and 2010 when these treads were created. My question is, has anything changed since then in wood burning stove technology?
-Are the stoves still better at heating a home than an insert or are there inserts that can keep up with the free standing stoves?
-My house is about 3600 square feet. How much stove/insert do I need to heat MOST of the home? Biggest capacity stoves I've seen so far are made by Quadra Fire, is there anything bigger out there?
-Are there ways to route the heat from the stove/insert via existing duct work in the home?
-Whats the deal with EPA rated stoves? Better/more efficient than the pre EPA models?
I'm sorry if I'm asking rookie questions but there is lots of info but most of the threads I found were 4-5 years old and I'm curious to know if anything has changed since then.