My fellow wood burners!

[JAG1]

12 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Wow! A normal sticks & bricks home its OK to pull from inside? Building codes are all whacked...

It's been that way for a long time, also a manufactured home has to have insulated piping all the way from stove thru roof and on up.

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Not happening.

Both houses (stove above) and a shop stove. Heat two houses with 6-8 cords of wood. These stove are bulletproof. This main house stove will run you out if you turn it up and plug in the blower.

 

Stove built like that has to made of titanium how else would you move it?!

[Killer223]

Mine isn't insulated all the way up, just through the attic. I used to burn 4 cord a year. Now it's down to maybe one to one n a half. 1-1 1/2.  

I Cant upload pics... 

This one worked... 

[CSM]

Moparman, I love Jack's Stove.  So to speak.  

What do they run?

[Buzzinhalfdozen]

Does any one have any experience with pellet stoves? Either wood or multi-fuel. I'd really like a wood stove but my wife doesn't want to load one while I'm gone, or deal with the mess from hauling in wood, or stare at a wood shed in the back yard.... I figured a pellet stove might be easier to sell her on.

[Mopar1973Man]

8 hours ago, CSM said:

Moparman, I love Jack's Stove.  So to speak.  

What do they run?

About $1,500 for "Stove That Jack Built" Built solid. Heavy plate steel and constructed for life. You'll never wear this stove out.

6 hours ago, Buzzinhalfdozen said:

Does any one have any experience with pellet stoves? Either wood or multi-fuel. I'd really like a wood stove but my wife doesn't want to load one while I'm gone, or deal with the mess from hauling in wood, or stare at a wood shed in the back yard.... I figured a pellet stove might be easier to sell her on.

I think AH64ID is pullet burner.

 

[Wild and Free]

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

I think AH64ID is pullet burner.

Bad cook eh? Over cooking chicken?

Pullets = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken

[LiveOak]

12 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Not happening.

Both houses (stove above) and a shop stove. Heat two houses with 6-8 cords of wood. These stove are bulletproof. This main house stove will run you out if you turn it up and plug in the blower.

 

Wow!  That wood stove is the spittin' image of the old Fisher Grandma Bear wood stove.  I have one and also have a Fisher fireplace insert.  This are built like a WWII battle ship.  Unfortunately Fisher went out of business back in 1982 due to the EPA and other reasons.  Is Wrights Welding still manufacturing these wood stoves?  If so, I would LOVE to buy one of their biggest models. 

[AH64ID]

7 hours ago, Buzzinhalfdozen said:

Does any one have any experience with pellet stoves? Either wood or multi-fuel. I'd really like a wood stove but my wife doesn't want to load one while I'm gone, or deal with the mess from hauling in wood, or stare at a wood shed in the back yard.... I figured a pellet stove might be easier to sell her on.

 

I bought a house last December that has a pellet stove and a propane furnace. Based on the price of propane I use the pellet stove for the bulk of our heating needs. It's a Quadrafire 1200-i. 

From December thru May last year we used about 2 tons of pellets and only 300 gallons of propane from December thru September and the propane also fuels the hot water heater and stove. Either way our fuel costs were not bad for nearly a year. Very little propane was actually used for the furnace on a standard day I would guess the furnace ran for about 15 minutes at most, sometimes more if we were out of town or forgot to fill the pellet hopper. 

Our house is 2450 ft2 and we keep the main living area at 68°-70° with the stove which keeps the bedrooms about 58°-62°.

I was not happy with the thermostat that came with the pellet stove so I installed a Honeywell WiFi thermostat which took a bit of work since it needs 24 VAC and the stove is 12VAC. I put a 24 VAC transformer on the stove circuit and ran thermostat wiring from the stove to the wall next to the furnace thermostat. I then added a 24VAC coil relay so the thermostat opens and closes the relay with 24VAC but the pellet stove is still on it's own 12 VAC circuit. I also added a break on delay relay to the thermostat side of the relay to have a minimum of 10 minutes between call's for heat so there is a smaller chance of a misfire at startup.  

All in all the pellet stove is a great way to heat the house and based on my experience with both I will take a pellet stove over a wood burning stove for a house anytime. While it is possible to get wood cheaper than pellets ($199/ton) that is where the advantage stops for me. The pellet stove starts and feeds itself as long as you throw a bag of pellets in. The stove maintains a set temperature and can work while you are gone. The pellet stove still has the feel of a wood fire but a lot less hassle. 

Pellet stoves are also a lot more efficient, the pellets take up less space, and they don't waste fuel because they turn off when the house gets warm enough. They also maintain the temperature in the house while you are at work which takes less energy than reheating a house that has cooled off quite a bit. 

I currently have 2 tons of pellets stacked in the garage which takes up about 73% of the area of one chord but has the BTU's of 2.18 chords of Lodgepole or 1.92 chords of Douglas Fir, which are the two most common firewood trees around here. Pellets have about 3 times the BTU's per sqft of storage space, which is why I only went thru about 2 tons last winter. 

Figure about a bag a day on average so 1 ton will last ±50 days. 

There is my 0.02. 

My wife LOVES the pellet stove. She can handle a 40lb bag with ease and if she wants a fire she turns the thermostat up and waits 2-3 minutes. They do make some fan noise but we hardly notice it anymore. 

I do really enjoy wood stoves too, but IMHO they are better in a shop/cabin and pellets are better for homes. 

Edited November 24, 2015 by AH64ID

[Royal Squire]

7 hours ago, Buzzinhalfdozen said:

Does any one have any experience with pellet stoves? Either wood or multi-fuel. I'd really like a wood stove but my wife doesn't want to load one while I'm gone, or deal with the mess from hauling in wood, or stare at a wood shed in the back yard.... I figured a pellet stove might be easier to sell her on.

Quadrafire pellet stove in the house we rent. Has a programable thermostat on the wall like a furnace. Supposed to be able to burn corn, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and I don't know what all. We just burn pellets. House has cathedral ceiling above stove, so upstairs stays warm but back rooms downstairs don't. Still need shed for pellets, has some ashes, best to clean once a week or so. Outside of this stove doesn't get hot like a wood stove. Once in a while it has electronic glitch and shuts down or won't start. Can turn down to 50* and it will burn for a couple days if you have power. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Now on the other side. I will admit @AH64ID and @Royal Squire make great points for pellet stoves for heating device. How about cooking? That where you bonus out on a wood burning stove. I know this should be more on the SHTF thread but like with my place when the power goes out I lose my cook stove, oven and drier (too large of load for the inverter). Now with the wood stove in the basement all these things can be temporarily resolved during a long term outage. The basement typically is much warmer so drying clothes after washing can be done. I've cook off a wood stoves in the past through long term power outages.

So pellet stove are less messy, programmable, self feeding, fuel takes up less room etc. Only good for a heating device. So you have to consider you applications of your heating device and why.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Mopar1973Man

[AH64ID]

Only free standing wood stoves have cooking surfaces and even then most newer models are baffled to the point where cooking is slow if even possible. 

We were in a Yurt a couple weekends ago with a free standing stove that I couldn't fry an egg on with it roaring full with a stove stack temp above 600°. 

I have a propane stove/oven which I can use the stove without power and the oven with minimal power, so cooking is easy. Without power I don't have water so I will have power and the ability to cook. 

[Wild and Free]

For cooking I roll a bit different. I have a fire pit built into my patio with an adjustable height grill on it. I like camp fire cooking and I only cook with cast iron.

http://www.campfirecafe.com/shop/

 

This is me cooking pork chops over the fire a couple weeks ago and then bacon wrapped cottage cheese stuffed jalapenio peppers. We make cowboy coffee all the time when camping as well in the summer.

Me getting the bed of coals prepped for cooking over. Can't cook over the fire that is too much heat and burns things too fast, easier to control the cook over hot coals once the fire burns down.

[dorkweed]

3 hours ago, AH64ID said:

Only free standing wood stoves have cooking surfaces and even then most newer models are baffled to the point where cooking is slow if even possible. 

 

This is my 4th season heating with wood.  Bought my stove new. I cook on it a lot.  I need a trivet to keep food from burning/cooking too fast.

[AH64ID]

1 hour ago, dorkweed said:

This is my 4th season heating with wood.  Bought my stove new. I cook on it a lot.  I need a trivet to keep food from burning/cooking too fast.

Very nice. 

 

Are stove EPA regulations different around the country? 

[dripley]

Never heard of a chicken powered stove. 

I was a little late on that one.

Edited November 24, 2015 by dripley

[Mopar1973Man]

My darn tablet will correct spelling or typing errors sometimes replaces words with the wrong one. (Pellet / Pullet) 

[Killer223]

most wood stoves were designed to slow cook meals anyhow. getting home and starting to cook is a modern thing. back on the ranch we had a stew cooking. as we never really knew when we'd get back to the house. sometime it was 3 in the afternoon sometimes 1 am. good ol wood burner slow cooking stew was the norm.

pellet stoves have geat things to them. but that is only if you have power and or IMO live in an urban area. i'm rather rural and could and would never rely on the power company. so i'll never get a pellet stove. no power no heat. yes you can get a generator, but like really? i have some old school lanterns. candles. and lotsa wood.

the High efficiency stoves on the market are great at keeping the house warm all day long. mine is anyhow. 

 

[dorkweed]

1 hour ago, Killer223 said:

most wood stoves were designed to slow cook meals anyhow. getting home and starting to cook is a modern thing. back on the ranch we had a stew cooking. as we never really knew when we'd get back to the house. sometime it was 3 in the afternoon sometimes 1 am. good ol wood burner slow cooking stew was the norm.

pellet stoves have geat things to them. but that is only if you have power and or IMO live in an urban area. i'm rather rural and could and would never rely on the power company. so i'll never get a pellet stove. no power no heat. yes you can get a generator, but like really? i have some old school lanterns. candles. and lotsa wood.

the High efficiency stoves on the market are great at keeping the house warm all day long. mine is anyhow. 

 

This^^^^^^^!!!!!!

[CSM]

7 hours ago, Wild and Free said:

or cooking I roll a bit different. I have a fire pit built into my patio with an adjustable height grill on it. I like camp fire cooking and I only cook with cast iron.

http://www.campfirecafe.com/shop/

 

This is me cooking pork chops over the fire a couple weeks ago and then bacon wrapped cottage cheese stuffed jalapenio peppers. We make cowboy coffee all the time when camping as well in the summer.

Me getting the bed of coals prepped for cooking over. Can't cook over the fire that is too much heat and burns things too fast, easier to control the cook over hot coals once the fire burns down.

 

Fantastic.  I want to camp with you.  

My camping is usually a minimalist affair that closely resembles A Fine and Pleasant Misery.  However, my wife claims that camping should be done to her standards, which resemble some sort of solid structure, hot food, and entertainment in a mostly bug free environment.  

Also, this so called "bed of coals" you speak of... I've never seen one before.  Typically, I've only cooked over what we call The Smudge or The Inferno.  But, then again, the last true camping I did was done at work, and consisted of a very rough week of backpacking a U.S. Issue ruck that eventually took on a striking resemblance to Mike's steel stove.  After returning from that, I tried to convince my wife that ants, are in fact quite beyond edible, but also good to eat!   She still hasn't tried them... I think we may have some trust issues.  

Edited November 25, 2015 by CSM

[Me78569]

Just bring you wife up to 11 mile this winter for a weekend of winter camping and icefish. 

 

After that anything.....and I do mean anything....will look like a 5 star hotel    Gotta set that bar low to start.   I can only put the bar so high and I don't plan on doing that until 20-30 anniversary.