Wood stove thread

I posted this to get input for myself and for others to use if thier considering a woodstove for heat. Any discussion about wood size, kind of wood that you use, how long you let it cure befor useing, anythng. I figured theres alot of guys out there that have a few questions about burning wood and this discussion may answer them.

I personally have been burning wood for three years and as far as im concerned the heat is second to none. I cook on mine because its going all the time, warm my hands on it, dry my gloves and warm my clothes befor I get dressed in the morning, theres alot of uses for a wood stove. Any discussion is good because I think we all have a few questions about heating with wood. I have a box stove in my frontroom and wish I could find a nice wood cook stove for the kitchen with a couple ovens below and a warmer or two above, complete with a couple thermostates, maybe someday I’ll get one. So anything you guys want to talk about and what you guys are doing is good.

I just wish I had one! and considering i own a tree service here in Madison, I have access to as much wood as I could ever burn. looking to put a small one in the garage though. Speaking of which, if anybody in the area is looking for some free wood or knows someone who does, feel free to PM me and I’ll see what I can do. Things are starting to slow down for me right now, but I still have a little bit of work left.

and just a tip, most of the tree services (in my area anyway) don’t want to mess around with splitting wood, so if you are ever in the need, give a couple in your area a call and see if they have anything at their shop or whatever. I use to have a great big pile that about a dozen guy would pick through and they didn’t even put a dent in it. I ended up having to pay a guy with an end loader and a triaxle to haul it away.

I burn wood and I will post later. My folks burn too. I will reply later. I have so good info on woods stove that my folks bought and my brother just bought one not too long ago and they both are really great.

Ive been working alot so I haven’t had the time to go across town and cut some oak some people want to get rid of so im burning cottonwood thats been cut for two years that I can get close by. It burns ok but was told it gives off more soot and I’ll have to clean the chimney more often but thats no big deal considering the woods free. Whenever I see a dead white or red elm I cut that up too, elms not real hard like oak or hickory but it is a hardwood and burns good.

I’ve got a forced air woodstove on the back porch that I rebuilt. I took the top off of it and instead of the stovepipe running straight up when it comes out the back I rerouted it and split it up so now theres two seperate pipes that go twards the front and then back to the rear of the stove again. They rejoin into one pipe again and then with a couple 90 degree elbows it goes straight up then, total of 11 elbows to make all the turns in the stovepipe.

I have to build a shroud that will cover the twin stovepipe assembly that cover the entire top of the stove and pipe assembly so it connects to the furnace ductwork that enters the house. I cut a bigger hole in the back and mounted a furnace blower assembly to the rear of the woodstove. Im now going to get a thermostate, limit switch and a transformer for the thermostate so when it gets cold in the house here the furnace kicks on. All I have to do is just keep wood in the stove and close the damper and air intake down for a slow burn.

The tree services here in town give thier wood away also Phish otherwise they have to pay tonnage on it at the recycle center at $20 a ton. Most services will drop it off as is and a guy has to do the rest. Start in spring or summer and make some and within a couple months you have enough wood for two winters.

I have a very large forced air unit in my detached garage that I would like to install a hot water system to heat my house with also. Has anyone tried this? I’m thinking of taking the tin covers off and wrapping the exterior of the fire box with a metal pipe and using a small boiler pump to get the hot water to the house. Or maybe just taking the tin off and replacing it with a steel jacket and inlet/outlet fittings? I am a pretty decent welder, and the price of steel has dropped a bit. The stove pipe coming out of the heater supplies a lot of heat and I never turn the fans on when I’m in the garage. Thanks for any input.

Hey Genger, im going to hook up a hot water device too my stove too being its going most of the time in the winter, so why not use that heat to get the water to 140 degrees. Heres what im going to do. I don’t want the water getting to the boiling point because of the pressure then Id have to have a steam pressure release valve to blow off the extra pressure. What im going to do is take and make a box about 2 ft. square by 12″ high and mount that over the shroud that covers the twin stove pipes. Im going to get a thermometer and hang it at diffrent heights over the stove to find that 140 degree area. I know it will depend on how much wood im burning and if the blowers running or not. In the past i’ve sometimes put my stovewood on the old shroud to dry it out if it has gotten wet and it sometimes gets hot enough to ignite the wood to the point where it will burn. So Im looking for that average height to hang the upside down box and I think thats going to be around 24″ or a little more.

What im going to do is make that box and wrap copper tubing around on the inside of it. Im thinking a 12″ sided box by 24″ square, wrap the copper coils around the inside then hang it upside down over the stove. I think wraping the coils around the firebox and the water would boil and pressureize the system too much, even with a boiler pump and routeing it back to the water heater where it would cool some. I don’t know it may be the thing I’ll have to do too but im going to try hanging it above the stovepipe shroud first.

Im going to use copper pipe for the coiling and connect those coils to sometype of flexable water grade pipe so I can raise and lower it if I need too, then run the water through pipeing that connects to the water heater. I’ve also got a water pump from our old boiler system and im going to use the sending unit and thermostate setup from it to get a temperature of the water. When it reaches a certain temperature in the copper coils the pump comes on and pumps the water to the waterheater where its stored. You could keep the pump running continously because thier a low amp. pull pump. I asked a boiler repair guy one time how many amps. He said the pump pulls minimal amps. and only about $15 a month if it ran continously so not a major expense there. I want to put in the thermostate so it only comes on when the waters at 140 degrees. I think tapwater is in that range so it dosent burn the hands accidently when the faucet is being turned on. It can be done and i’ll find the area and range I need to have.

I split the stovepipe up and ran it across the top of the stove because thats immediate heat to heat the house with or it just goes up the stack. You know how the pipe heats up in a matter of a few minutes, way befor the firebox does and you need that befor you get any heat to blow out of the holes on top, I took the entire top off and ran the stove pipe over the top of the stove so the blower blows that immediate heat into the house. As soon as the pipe heats up I get heat whick is just a few minutes. When the firebox heats up I’ll not only get the heat from the hot stovepipe but now heat from the firebox too, or both of them. The shroud that goes over the top and is connected to the sides of the stove covers the stovepipe and is connected to the furnace ductwork and the blower pushes it throughout the house. If you get that water system built let me know how it works. I know mines going to work good.

My buddy just got finished installing a boiler system onto a wood burner. I am not sure of how big the wood furnace has to be but the one they installed was on a furnace that has a 4ft fire box. I am sure that you don’t need a furnace that big, but I have no idea how small you can go either. I guess the hook up for the deal is pretty strait forward. I think you can get a kit that has everything that you will need if that is how you want to go.
I use a wood stove in my house but only for heat. I have found that the best way to get my stove good and hot is to use good dry oak. Once you have your fire to the desired temp I switch over to burning larger logs of elm. The elm dosn’t seem to burn as hot, but it burns longer than the oak.
I also have a water pan that I leave on top of the stove to humidify the air. Before I got that the wood heat was so dry that my wife was constantly complaining of dry skin. Just an FYI for you married guys looking in to wood heat.

I just had three truckloads of oak firewood givin to me because I helped do some drywall work for some older folks that couldn’t afford to hire a guy because of the flood here, thier whole house went under. Anyway the oak they gave me did burn up faster then the white elm that I have burned, I wasen’t sure because oak is more dense but thats the way it seems to me too, it does burn slower with less heat but burns longer with enough heat. I wasen’t sure but now that you say it does I think so too. White elm burns great and theres alot of dead elm trees around and most people will let you have them just to get them cut down and get rid of them, its darned good firewood.

I got a brain fart today and though about getting another radiator or two just like the ones in my house and setting them on top of my wood burner and just let my existing boiler pump the fluid thru them. I would only be adding about 32 linear feet to my system and I could use my existing thermostat to run the system. The quicker the house heats up the less natural gas burned.

I think that would work having another heat source besides the natural gas source. Keep the entire system the way it is and put the radiator on top of the woodstove. One thing I wouldn’t do is put it so close that the water gets to hot or close to the boiling point. Maybe you could find out what the water temp has to be in a boiler then adjust the height of the radiator above the stove. I had a guy tell me once that cast iron that comes in contact with a flame dosen’t do well but just putting it on top of the stove wouldn’t hurt it. One thing that I think comes into play here is the radiator shouldn’t have any air left inside so the water will flow through it. I know sometimes when theres air in a system the water dosen’t transfer right from one end to the other and it causes a vapor lock. If you can purge the radiator by running water through it by hooking up one feed pipe then when the water fills the radiator fully it purges the air. Then hook up the other end to the pipe that goes back to the boiler. Maybe by standing it on end while it fills, then hook up the other end to the boiler. I do know you have to then purge the whole boiler system to get the air completely out of the system so it dosen’t vapor lock. Maybe theres a bleed off valve or something on the radiator you could temporarily take out for the air to escape then when the water comes through just put the valve back in. Its worth a try and would be a cheap source of heat if it worked.