what is a good choice for an add-on indoor wood furnace? I've been eyeballing a Firechief fc700 It's rated at 150000 btu's. Looks like a pretty good unit.Why do I wait for the snow (yep, 4 inches last night) to start thinking about keepin the house warm?

Some of the best wood stoves are local built. I've got a "Stove That Jack Built" and it's solid with 1/4" Plate steel, blower, etc.

Local built stoves are some really good ones, the one I used for a while was built by my father in law off specs from a name brand, but with high end fire bricks (they owned a brick company so specially made some to really hold heat) and much thicker steel than the store bought. It took a while to get it all heated up, but once you did it held the heat like none other. Only problem is around my area now if you heat with wood insurance companies are requiring you to provide them with the UL number off your stove and a photo of the UL plate. If you do decide on going some route like that be sure to check before you spend the money.

How much space are you trying to heat??Whole house??? Most of house???? Several rooms???

Local built stoves are some really good ones, the one I used for a while was built by my father in law off specs from a name brand, but with high end fire bricks (they owned a brick company so specially made some to really hold heat) and much thicker steel than the store bought. It took a while to get it all heated up, but once you did it held the heat like none other. Only problem is around my area now if you heat with wood insurance companies are requiring you to provide them with the UL number off your stove and a photo of the UL plate. If you do decide on going some route like that be sure to check before you spend the money.

Small shops building limited numbers of stoves probably won't have the UL listing. (UL listing requires a fair amount of money for UL to review/test, etc. and issue the UL listing.) NOW - if you want a special stove installation - then the work-around would be to have the stove design and installation to be per Engineering Design. Have a Professional Engineer review the stove design and fabrication, and then specify correct installation of said stove into the house - and get the proper permit to install from the city or county - and you probably have a legitimate installation that an insurance company would not argue with. Too many "do-it-yourself" (DIY) types might take unacceptable short-cuts on the design/fabrication of a stove, or buy a stove that really is shoddy ...and then installation might not be to Building Code...leading to a fire and a claim. I can't blame insurance companies for wanting some degree of certification that a legit stove was installed properly. BUT - the cost of getting a PE involved might be more than buying a UL listed stove....However - for a really nice, well built stove (as described the poster) - it might be worth the extra effort. Obviously - this is an area not to take short-cuts, not a place to avoid getting any required building permits, inspections, etc. - because failure to do so could be used by an insurance company in denying a claim!

The stove I recently installed and have been using is made by Englander. They also go by the name of Timber Ridge and Summers Heat. They are sold at the big box home stores like Home Depot and Lowes. The model I have is the 13NC..............the big brother of this stove is the 30NC. Both stoves are no frills heaters, but built like tanks and very resonably priced. Below is a great site for wood stove, pellet stove, coal, gas stoves etc. Be forewarned though; the site is run by folks that lean way Left in their political views. They are very knowledgable about stoves though. http://www.hearth.com

How much space are you trying to heat?? Whole house??? Most of house???? Several rooms???

most of house, about 2500 sq ft. ( I'll tap into existing forced air duct work). Thinking a 150,000 rated stove will give me 80-90% of needed heat.

What's up Rancherman??? What'd you decide on?? Did you check out that site I linked??

What's up Rancherman??? What'd you decide on?? Did you check out that site I linked??

In the info gathering stage right now, and with last week's wind storm/snow.. will finish up harvest asap. Then I'll get serious on finding a furnace. Thanks for the link!