Winter in New England #4: Wood and Pellet Stoves

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Sunday, October 27. 2013

Winter in New England #4: Wood and Pellet Stoves

This winter series is re-posted from last year -

A friend did the research on this topic for me, because we were both looking for something good, and we have tons of wood and hate paying our heating bills (I have oil heat and propane stoves).

My friend concluded that Harman makes the best products in that area: furnaces, fireplace inserts, free-standing, etc. I like the idea of something that works for wood, pellets, or coal. The "green" aspect has no importance to me, but I do like to have flames to look at to warm my spirit.

To warm a house and for cooking, there's still nothing better that a wood-burning cook stove to turn a house into a home. Here's a modern version that the Amish make:

Posted by The Barrister in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 12:20 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (3)

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Weblog: www.julescrittenden.com
Tracked: Oct 15, 09:37

Winter in New England #8: Do you need snow/mud tires?
We all must adapt! With Global Cooling hastening our certain death and doom by freezing to death, we offer this final post in our Winter in New England series. The prior posts in this annual series were: Winter in New England, Part 1: Lamp

Weblog: Maggie's Farm
Tracked: Oct 28, 12:32

Weblog: Maggie's Farm
Tracked: Oct 28, 12:35

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A little OT: What does firewood cost to you all?

Here in Portland, rather near the trees that provide it all, the cost is $250 or so for a cord, split and delivered, of hardwood mix.

I realize that true farmers make their own firewood, but I am mere city dweller and coughing up a quarter kilobuck seems like a lot considering the mountains of cut wood they have for sale.

I am hoping for a good Craig's list find. "Estate sale remnants- come take it all" or something....

#1 Phil on 2008-11-04 14:40 (Reply)

At the farm I produce my own, but here you pay $0 for green and unsplit from the yard guys, $175/cord for aged, split and dumped off the truck in a pile.

#2 BD on 2008-11-04 14:47 (Reply)

My Italian grandmother cooked on a wood stove (I remember this from the 1960's, my early preteen to teen years) in Middlebury Connecticut. She was living above her daughter in a second floor flat. She had an iron pot and wooden paddle she used to stir polenta (my mother still has the pot and what's left of the paddle). She was a marvelous cook. She also never had any understanding about rambunctious boys who lover to explore in the junkyard and stalk in the woods.

She made marvelous meals on (and in the oven of) that wood stove. Meals I only dream about today. Such a different era.

#3 JoeC on 2008-11-04 19:06 (Reply)

What did she serve on the polenta?

#3.1 BD on 2008-11-04 19:24 (Reply)

I've had a Vermont-produced woodburning stove made of soapstone for 30 years and I swear by it. The stove holds a fire for 12 or more hours, hot coals for hours more, and radiates heat from the stone hours after the fire is out. Located in the basement, it provides heat for the whole house when the temp is below freezing. We'll have to order ahead for the Amish kitchen stove pictured in the post, since the 2008 production is sold out.

When I was younger, my chainsaw and I could get wood for free nearby after storms. The federal government has areas of national forests set aside for firewood, and you can apply for several cords, which you have to cut and haul yourself from designated areas. I bought prime aged red oak and hickory for $150 a cord here in northwest Georgia, but I had to haul it 10 miles from the gentleman's farm where it was split and stacked.

#4 twolaneflash on 2008-11-04 19:14 (Reply)

My son is marrying into the pellet stove business (and works there now), so thanks for the industry plug.

#5 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2008-11-04 21:11 (Reply)

I used to burn both pellets and wood for heat. The price of pellets shot up here in this region from about $2-3/40lb bag to ~$5-6/bag when the Trex and other synthetic wood folks started up. Seems that the sawmills used to virtually give their sawdust away to the pellet folks. When Trex came along there was much more of a demand and they could sell to the highest bidder.
We only burn wood now and have installed a Daka wood furnace that is tied into our duct work. Fired it up for the first time this season a couple of nights ago.

#6 Dave J on 2009-10-14 14:51 (Reply)

Do these stoves have catalytic converters to deal with the air pollution?

#7 Gringo on 2009-10-14 16:00 (Reply)

wouldn't work. Most of it is soot, with some carbon monoxide if the temperature is low.

Catalytic converters reduce mostly NOx and some partially combusted carbohydrates, but get clogged by soot.

You could install a soot filter I guess, but the amount of soot produced is such that it would need to be replaced frequently (like, every few days of operation).

My parents used to have a big hearth in their old home, which we used to run once in a while until we discovered cracks in the chimney which turned the upstairs bedrooms into gas chambers.

#7.1 J.T. Wenting on 2010-10-18 01:28 (Reply)

I have an old A.Y. McDonald coal stove in the basement. It is my only source of heat and I burn wood. If I had the money I would buy one of those outdoor wood stoves where only the hot air comes in the house. An out door stove would reduce the fire hazard to practically zero. When it gets very cold and I need a hot fire, it is hard to sleep at night worrying about a chimney fire burning the house down.

#8 feeblemind on 2009-10-14 17:11 (Reply)

So clean your chimney regularly, and don't worry about it.

#8.1 Bird Dog on 2009-10-14 17:21 (Reply)

Many of these pellet stoves require electricity to power the auger and blower. So you need a generator running all the time when the power's down just to get heat.

#9 KBK on 2009-10-15 13:12 (Reply)

"pellet stoves require electricity" - this is exactly why I didn't get one and stuck with the old wood burning stove; Power goes out (and it has gone out for a couple of weeks at a time lately) you can still heat and cook.

#9.1 Charles on 2013-10-28 15:04 (Reply)

I remember fondly my little Irish Waterford stove, enameled dark blue on the outside. Only one burner though!

#10 pbird on 2010-10-17 12:47 (Reply)

We have corn stoves here in Ohio.

#11 bob sykes on 2010-10-17 14:50 (Reply)

My Grandmother had a coal/gas combination kitchen stove. It had a firebox on one side, and a gas range on the other. I suppose the oven would work with either heat source. The firebox tended to leak smoke, possibly due to age, so she didn't use it very often, at least during my time. I wish I had one like it.

#12 Jose on 2013-10-28 14:14 (Reply)

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Sunday, October 27. 2013

Winter in New England #4: Wood and Pellet Stoves