Archive through October 27, 2008

[bbranstetter]

New chimney is in. How does it look? Never put one in before. Last one is the walnut burning in the fire place. Doesn't do to bad compared to most of the junk that I've had before.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Brian, looks good to me!

Seeing as that is a new to you stove, if you use it a lot it wouldn't hurt to clean the chimney sooner then later just to get an idea of how it's burning. After you see the build up, if any, of creosote and/or soot you can determine a cleaning schedule. Better safe then sorry. A clean chimney is a safe and happy chimney.

 

[bbranstetter]

Yup. I didn't put a locking band on the cap just for that reason. The cap is a quarter twist to take off so this should make it easier.

 

[aaytay]

Brian-
Looks good. Nice clean install.

Quick question: What type of building inspections did you have to go through after the chimney install?

I'd like to do something like that here, but would like to do the work myself.

 

[kide]

Kraig:
Creosote - like this?

We started the second season on the outside furnace.
Made a few updates..A bigger draft fan (140 CFM)

A light on the roof to see when it's calling for high fire (power to the draft fan)

And a "drool trough" under the door to catch the liquid creosote

I've cut about two cords of wood - that should get us through December..

Didn't get the wood storage built this year, we'll see about next summer..

 

[bbranstetter]

Art,

Haven't gottin to that part yet..

The chimney is installed to code just need to find the right person at the fire department to clear things first. Note there is nothing hooked to the pipe yet.

I know a few people over there just need to get them over here!

 

[blanasa]

New "wood shed"

Still needs shingling


Wood rack for under the deck

 

[kmcconaughey]

Kendell, yep, creosote like that. Nice improvements.

Brian, that's one fancy wood shed.

 

[kide]

Just discovered one drawback to the outside furnace..Wife can't handle the wood chunks and I've got a !@#$%^&*@!! bad cold (stayed down all day). Rainy and cold here - I "enjoyed" getting dressed just to go out and feed the monster.. Ah well, I'll live

Time to go listen to PHC....
Brian-looks good, we'd need a little bigger here (about 12 8 foot x 6 foot rows x18 inch for a full winter).

 

[cellis]

Here's a couple pics of our Hearthstone wood stove. It's a huge thing. Built in 1996, it is an "exempt" stove as it does not comply with EPA regs - no secondary burn system, etc. It is made out of soapstone.

We heat 2300 square feet with this and about 500 of those feet are a glassed-in sunroom. We have an open floor plan log home but the bedrooms upstairs are walled off. Still, we have no trouble circulating heat - no blower system, the heat just migrates around the house by itself. The box you see in the photo in the flue stack is a custom welded plate steel box with a clean-out door installed. This is how I clean my chimney stack. It's a bit messy but it beats climbing around on a 12/12 pitch roof...in winter (or anytime, for that matter).

We burn very well seasoned hardwoods (three to five year seasoning) and this stove is our primary heat source. We have hot water baseboard heat for backup but seldom use it. I have learned how to manage the fire load in the stove to keep the glass clean, flue clean, and not generate so much heat that it blows you out of the house. In February when the temps can hit zero, the stove will still keep up.

TTFN

 

[kide]

Craig:
Pretty nice stove (very nice looking house also). We built our house 30 years ago this winter and knew we were going to heat with wood, so we put the chimney in the middle of the structure, rather than on the outside. It helps with the creosote buildup quite a bit, as the smoke gets all the way to the attic level before it hits cool tile..

We've now got four ways of heating (Oil furnace for backup, Johnson 9900 in the basement, outside hydronic unit and an Englander box unit in the living area). We haven't used the Englander in a couple of years, but found out as you have that it can easily heat the entire living area (only 1240 Sq feet on the main floor). The major drawback is that it sits on a pad on a carpeted area, so cleaning and feeding it wood becomes a pain.. Still keeping it as a backup for now, though.

Edit: Just noticed from your profile that you're to the east of us...I'll try to keep the smoke down....

 

[cellis]

Thanks, Ken.

I liked that "will trade bailout credits..." line. LOL. I'm looking to sell some of my carbon credits but I can't find anyone dumb enough to pay pay me for them. Maybe I'll call that guy in Tennessee...nah, he won't want 'em either.

 

[bbranstetter]

Craig

That stove is beautiful! I wish I could have something that nice in my house....but then the stove would be worth more than my house.

Here's a few updates on my stove experiment.. My grout job is horrible but it will serve the purpose. I definately never claimed to be a mason.

 

[bbranstetter]

Action shots! It lives!

Don't tell the epa

 

[kide]

Kraig:
Way to buy firewood!!!!!
I've bought 10 cord (full) a couple of times (split a 20 cord semi load w/next door neighbor), but the rising price of diesel a few years ago made it almost impossible to get the cordwood guys to haul from northern lower Michigan into the southern area.
I've been scrounging locally for the last few years ...it's free, and I've got the time to do it now, but I'd sure like to have one of those big stacks to work on again....
Here's the last wood I bought - this is how <u>not</u> to do it - it was supposed to be six full cords, it turned into three grain truck loads (this was from one of our local firewood suppliers - he's got one of the large processing systems that you feed straight logs into in one end and the conveyor dumps split firewood out the other end.) Can you guess why he sold us this stuff??

BTW -we're back on fuel oil for the duration (with three ways to heat w/wood)

 

[kmcconaughey]

Kendell, why are you back to fuel oil? Did you run out of seasoned firewood already?

 

[kide]

Kraig:
Got three rows left, arms aren't long enuff... (we went searching for the owner of that junkyard I looked at about a year ago)

 

[bschoeffling]

A little red oak for next year! great website

 

[dfrisk]

KENDELL - What's fuel oil cost? I paid $1.999/gal for LP on I think it was 12-23-08.

 

[bschoeffling]