Wood burning stove story/question??

[TxDispatcher]

Had a Ashly console stove growing up, heated most of the house. This was in the 70's, the timber companies in SW Arkansas would allow the public to cut the hardwoods in favor of growing pines. I was the pilot, dad would cut it, I would split/load/stack and pile it. No telling how many loads of red oak we burned.

Funny how my parents never burned wood or had a garden after I left the house.

Thanks for the chuckle this morning

[Duckhead78]

My parents built their house in the 80's with a real fire place in it and it has saved them several times. My house is over 100 years old with 11 foot ceilings. I have a central air with a gas furnace, but it doesn't do well when it gets like this. The walls aren't insulated and the heat goes up to the ceiling. I have an Ashley stove in the living room. With the ceiling fans on and that stove genning, I can start sweating. I would never live in a house that depended on electricity for heat only.

Yeah my parents got rid of the stove and the gardens also..

[WrecklessRanch]

I bought an older Lopi off craigslist for $500 about 8 years ago. It cost around $1200 to install (including the insulated stovepipe). It's in the living room of my small, 1750 sf, house. I've kept it burning nonstop since Sat. Yesterday my heater never kicked on once. At one point in the afternoon it was showing 74 degrees on my thermostat and my dog was panting. One of the best investments I've made in my house.

[sendit]

When I built our home a couple of years ago I chose to go with a wood burning stove over a fireplace mainly due to efficiency. Being that it was a DIY build a fire place was going to be more work on my part. Had a vision of what I wanted and started researching various brands and models. Finally settled on a Lopi Cape Cod. It’s a beautiful cast iron model that has performed just as advertised. It is nestled in a alcove made of Austin white stone. I cut a oak slab that is 6” thick 16” deep and 8’ long. Have a life size mount in an alcove above that. There isn’t any exposed flue other than a short piece at the top of the stove.

Today’s catalytic stoves are very good at heating and using less wood without a lot of emissions. Mine is one of the cleaning burning stoves made today though its not cheap. If there is a down side to catalytics you need to burn dry wood which for me isn’t a problem having a thousand acres of oak around me. Another would be aesthetics, some don’t care for the look. I guess this could be considered a downside, the insulated flue is pretty expensive but needed in cases.

Personally I would highly recommend a good stove over a fireplace but that;s just me.

[Mike D]

When I built our home a couple of years ago I chose to go with a wood burning stove over a fireplace mainly due to efficiency. Being that it was a DIY build a fire place was going to be more work on my part. Had a vision of what I wanted and started researching various brands and models. Finally settled on a Lopi Cape Cod. It’s a beautiful cast iron model that has performed just as advertised. It is nestled in a alcove made of Austin white stone. I cut a oak slab that is 6” thick 16” deep and 8’ long. Have a life size mount in an alcove above that. There isn’t any exposed flue other than a short piece at the top of the stove.



Today’s catalytic stoves are very good at heating and using less wood without a lot of emissions. Mine is one of the cleaning burning stoves made today though its not cheap. If there is a down side to catalytics you need to burn dry wood which for me isn’t a problem having a thousand acres of oak around me. Another would be aesthetics, some don’t care for the look. I guess this could be considered a downside, the insulated flue is pretty expensive but needed in cases.



Personally I would highly recommend a good stove over a fireplace but that;s just me.

I agree with all of the above. It will be a major renovation project to install one in an existing house to use on like sensor or myself installed. I’m sure there are free standing options that are efficient as well.

This is mine. There are several other threads going right now that discuss the performance of my stove.




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[SaltwaterSlick]

When my in-laws built their home back in the '70's, they put a "heatalator" insert in their fireplace that was manufactured by Carolina Stove I think. That sucker was basically a wood burning stove insert that fit in the fireplace. It had a forced draft radiator that was tied into the central heating duct work of the house, and with 3 or 4 small sticks of wood at bedtime, you could sleep without covers in that dang house!! I used to hate to go up there in the Winter time and spend the weekend... they kept it so hot it felt like it was 80 degrees in the house... That was back in the '70's... I can imagine that technology has progressed a lot since then so today's equipment I'm sure is a lot more efficient...



I've begun my research as this will be an addition to my new shop build project... That and a whole home generator of some sort... We were VERY blessed that our power (so far) has not gone off at all... and we are all electric... I don't want to be dependent on lektrik to stay warm again! I'm going to have a Plan A and a Plan B!

[Roscoe]

I bought an older Lopi off craigslist for $500 about 8 years ago. It cost around $1200 to install (including the insulated stovepipe). It's in the living room of my small, 1750 sf, house. I've kept it burning nonstop since Sat. Yesterday my heater never kicked on once. At one point in the afternoon it was showing 74 degrees on my thermostat and my dog was panting. One of the best investments I've made in my house.

We bought a Lopi brand 4 years ago. These past winters we used it exclusively until Sunday and I ran the heater, since it was getting so cold. I turned the heater up to 72 at dark and built a fire in the wood stove. Then, a few hours later, the power went off and we were out for 52 hrs.
The wood stove kept us warm and us and 2 other sets of neighbors, out of around 12,cindy this rural area, were able to stay in their homes. Electricity came on yesterday and I turned on the heater to heat the house back up again. Now I turned the thermostat down and we are very warm.
Enabled us to stay and keep our chickens and goats alive.

We’ve got a Lopi in our house also. Does a heckuva job heating our house.


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[rjet]

Growing up we had an old Ben Franklin cast iron stove in our living room which was used for many years until my dad could afford central air & heat. I hated that thing as I was the one who had to cut/split the wood and clean out the ashes. I was a lazy kid I might add. This weather has made me reflect on the times I spent in from of that stove with my dad. I can even remember the smell of the smoke billowing out into the house when I forgot to open the damper. Even though Southeast Texas does not get this cold often, it happens. When we built our house in 2018 we did not install a fireplace . Even though we did not lose power on this storm like we typically do, I now regret not installing a fireplace. I'm now considering adding a fireplace where possible. What are y'all using? What are some quality brands out there?

You and I pretty much grew up the same. We heated the house with a big franklin stove. Spent summers cutting/splitting wood for many years.
This subject I talked with my GF about just yesterday. My cabin has an insert and was telling her about the franklin stove and how it is not in my plans to rip the insert out and put in a franklin. Best of both worlds. Can open it up if you dont want a lot of heat and enjoy having a fire, or close that sucker up and heat up the whole cabin.
I like the franklin due to the heat they can produce. Are some dang nice inserts out there with blowers but those blowers dont do much good when there is no way to power them.