The idea of burning wood for a primary heating source was once completely foreign to me. I can recall many years ago when my husband and I first moved to Wisconsin, we planned to live off the grid. We built a bermed home; with the intentions of heating it with wood we would cut ourselves. Freeing us from energy costs by installing many passive solar systems into our home was the goal of that time. As it turned out the house was extremely efficient, but heating with wood was not a real joy. It was a lot of physical work to "Make Wood". The task of using a chain saw to cut the trees down, the work of tossing chucks of logs into a wagon and hauling it down the hill to the shed was brutal. It was backbreaking labor, splitting the whole pile was more than I could endure. It was then, that I first learned as an X-city girl, that old country saying... "If you heat with wood you'll heat yourself twice". That was very true... a few years later we installed a gas furnace thus ending my "Wood Making" career.
Today I do still have some wood-burning going on in my home but it is a much cleaner. I have a pellet stove in our family room. It is very eco-friendly and enormously back-friendly too. Basically you buy bags of pre-made pellets at the local Tractor Supply Store or similar store. No muss No fuss, just tear open a bag and dump it into the stove, push the on button and let the little auger do its job. Instead of throwing another log on the fire, the stove automatically deposits a steady stream of pellets into the little fire chamber. The pellets look a little like rabbit food; burn clean because they are low moisture and basically there is very little ash, after-wards to clean up. With the deep freeze of sub zero temperatures already here, we are staying toasty warm and saving lots of energy, as well as, our backs. So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, as long as the pellets don't run out.
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Cut wood....? Heat twice ? My idea of roughing it is slow room service....two points for being adventurous....this looks to be a challenging winter in the heating department...David and the cats live next to the fireplace...stay warm !
Hi Mary, Well it sounds as if you are roasty toasty warm. Have a wonderful holiday and take care!
My brother uses the pellet stove and he likes it a lot.
Sally, I totally agree, no thanks to chopping wood to stay warm.
Sandy, Yes we are, over the next few days we will be spending a lot of time in front of the family room TV watching movies and humming up the pellet stove.
Gene, they are great, at first I was not totally sold on them, but since using one for a few years now, I would say they are better than a wood fire.
I've never found any type of fireplace useful for heating the house, but they sure are nice to sit around and read a good book.
Best wishes for health, happiness, peace, and prosperity in 2009.
Sounds like a nice way to keep your little tootsies warm.
Merry Christmas!
Russel, I agree the old fashion fireplace is pretty inefficient for heat.
Ah Mary, you've done cut your energy efficiency in half!!
Heavy load makes for a strong back (or back failure)
I'm glad you're enjoying the stove.
Hello Erby, Yes shortly I am going into the family room to enjoy a DVD and a warm place next to pellet stove.
I used to have only wood heat and don't miss those days at all! I'd love to have a pellet stove as well . . . but our home is so energy efficient that we haven't installed one -- so much cleaner than all that mess from the wood!
Hello Margaret, Absolutely cleaner than any wood fireplace or stove.