grandnational
ArboristSite Lurker
Greetings,
I mainly heat my home w/ my wood stove fireplace insert (a Vermont Castings off-brand DutchWest dw2500) and its really efficient...ie it has secondary burn, is epa certified, has air control, etc...
As the weather gets colder and colder here however, I'm finding that seeing that the stove isn't large enough to cram w/ 8 pieces of wood, I can't get a full nights burn out of it, and the furnace will kick on in the morning. I have oil heat, and that aside, it's more out of principle than price that I don't want it to kick on..I mean what's the point of heating my suburban home w/ wood if I still have to rely on Arab oil? That, and I don't want to get up at 3am to throw wood in the stove.
That being said, I've seen these BioBrick things over the last few years and have wondered about them. They appear to be molded sawdust w/ some sort of binder...like an 8"x8"x4" wood pellet. People that I have asked about them in stores that sell them swear they will last (and put out heat) for over 12 hours. To say the least, I am skeptical. Maybe with 8 of them in the firebox...but who knows, as they aren't cheap, about $17 for 50 or so bricks.
Does anybody here have first hand experience w/ them? Do they heat well? Are they worth the money? Do they output heat for 12+hours? Are they a pain to get going? Do they burn clean?
Thanks in advance!
I mainly heat my home w/ my wood stove fireplace insert (a Vermont Castings off-brand DutchWest dw2500) and its really efficient...ie it has secondary burn, is epa certified, has air control, etc...
As the weather gets colder and colder here however, I'm finding that seeing that the stove isn't large enough to cram w/ 8 pieces of wood, I can't get a full nights burn out of it, and the furnace will kick on in the morning. I have oil heat, and that aside, it's more out of principle than price that I don't want it to kick on..I mean what's the point of heating my suburban home w/ wood if I still have to rely on Arab oil? That, and I don't want to get up at 3am to throw wood in the stove.
That being said, I've seen these BioBrick things over the last few years and have wondered about them. They appear to be molded sawdust w/ some sort of binder...like an 8"x8"x4" wood pellet. People that I have asked about them in stores that sell them swear they will last (and put out heat) for over 12 hours. To say the least, I am skeptical. Maybe with 8 of them in the firebox...but who knows, as they aren't cheap, about $17 for 50 or so bricks.
Does anybody here have first hand experience w/ them? Do they heat well? Are they worth the money? Do they output heat for 12+hours? Are they a pain to get going? Do they burn clean?
Thanks in advance!
