I really dig the engineering of this stove. I never realized that they are a bit more complicated than just a steel box with some firebrick inside. They have designed these new stoves for maximum efficiency...which means the fire burns the wood, most of the ash, and even the smoke! And the box is built with these tubes in the top of the box that direct air forward toward the glass which keeps the glass from sooting up (well..mostly anyway)... Pretty darn nifty..

Bah! All you need for splitting firewood is a sharp axe, and for those difficult pieces a sledgehammer, a couple of steel wedges, and a four pound engineer's hammer to start the wedges. I'm 53 and I still split wood the old fashioned way.

Of course, I still run 10 kilometers fairly often when I'm not dogging it and being lazy, and I guess there's not too many guys my age doing that.

Maybe I'm just too dumb to do things the easy way.

As for stoves, I've got my eye on one from Vermont Castings that I believe will be taking up residence in the new house before too much longer.



The Lioness picked it out, and I have to agree with her, it's a nice one!

Cheers!

Rick...

That is a nice one. The nice thing about the free standing ones is you get the full cooktop. Since we had a fireplace we needed to fill with something we obviously had to go the route of an insert, but I made sure to buy one and have it installed with just enough room (8 or 10 inches) to still be able to lay a skillet on it if need be. And if push came to shove we could pull it out further and expose more of the top surface. I love the one you are thinking about though Rick because it can be taken off and cleaned..(the cooktop surface)..

Next up I want to get a small utility trailer that I can haul some small loads of wood with. In our local Craigslist there are always people giving away free wood from downed trees. That would further reduce my heating costs (I think I can get it down to near zero!).. I like this little one that was posted on Craigslist. Obviously it wouldn't be capable of carrying a ton of wood (wood weighs a lot!)..but it would get a dozen splitting size pieces in it for local transport (less than 10 mile radius - non-highway)..

http://charlotte.craigslist.org/grd/2651134656.html





Might not buy that exact one - might be better to have one that is unslatted so that I can carry stone and mulch without it leaking through the slats...

BeachAV8R

Yep beach, I remeber us discussing the insert thing a while back. You and I agreed that if you do an insert, make sure it extended enough to have some usable heating space on it as back-up cooking.

I always enjoy our discussions OG. I think you have a very good line on why I'm a fan of off the grid amenities. Guess you wouldn't have much of a use for one in your warm locale...?

We had one of these years ago before we built a 20X20 family room with a full sized fireplace.

http://tinyurl.com/3lolgbf

I bought the Jotul used, installed a triple wall chimney along with a slate floor and tiled wall behind it and we were off to saving on heat bills. Only problem was the stove was too big for the small room and no matter how we tried to build a comfortable fire that would last a while you had to sit around in your underwear to be comfortable.

My brother in law was visiting and built a fire that would have heated the neighborhood before I tried to damp it down but not before it cracked a sliding glass patio door that was on an adjoining wall. End of wood stove experiment.

I know it's not efficient but the fireplace is comfortable and provides a nice touch on those cold Winter nights.

Enjoy it Beach and family. As the old saying goes "wood is the fuel that warms you twice, cutting and splitting it, and burning it."

Yes, but I did when I lived in Baltimore. As I said I had an insert with some extension. And as you are thinking, I used a steaming pot to balance humidity. It was good to have when we lost power a few times in winter storms. It really cut the electicity bill when I used it to take some of the heating load.

I think you are on the right path Beach.

Ouch.

I also have a ~ 2000 sqft house...just outside Milwaukee, WI. Considerably colder climate.

My total energy bill for the year (gas and electric...not just heat) doesn't go over $2K. For 2010 it was like 1500-1600.

That's at > $.13 / kwh and somewhere over $10/MBTU for gas.

Inserts are nice and all, but for heating your house (in a colder region at least) you need something like this:

Tulikivi heat accumulating soapstone fireplace.

Nice! Soapstone is the gold standard for wood-burning heat. I bookmarked that one.

Cheers!

Rick...