Wood stoves - Q&A FAQ

Electric hot water, range and dryer. The range and dryer are the new pulse technology meaning they turn on and off a lot saving lots of power. The water heater is old as is my Refrigerator . Got many things to finish here. I would like to have a complete off grid home in two more years. Its goin to be tough but I think with some hard work and smart shopping we can get it done. I just pray I have enough time. Kingfish

 

We use an outdoor wood boiler. It heats two homes very comfortable with no indoor mess. Takes about the same amount of wood as it would if we used two indoor wood stoves. We have some wood on our land, just not enough to sustain continual harvesting. So, we buy whole logs and cut them up in the length we need for the boiler. In a power outage, we do have a backup generator, but overall these do not require a lot of electricity. I know of one fella on another forum who changed the pumps to 12 volt and powered them off a solar setup of some kind. Could have been forum legion, but i don't see why it couldn't be done with some type of off grid arrangement.

Link here to the type we own.

 

We only have 10 acres but its mostly oak. I am saving that wood for later. As long as I can cut in the federal lands Ill take that route as its standing dead trees or down tress. That makes it all dead and dry. Lots of wood real close to our house so we take our time and cut on cooler days of spring and fall then we tarp it and keep it dry. My father in law has a new boiler as does my brother in law. Both of them use twice what we do in cords. They also have much bigger homes. Both of them were paying over 400 per month for propane. The Osburn takes 20 inch logs but I cut them all at 16 to 18 (bar length) . I picked up a Stihl 290 Farm boss which is a great saw and even at 52 years old Im still splitting with a maul. Might get a splitter next season though. Wood is good. No heating bills really just have to go cut wood every year for a few days. Kingfish

 

I'm going to be setting up a basement log burner and I can customize it with coils.. we'll have an on demand propane water heater so this will require a separate, insulated storage tank. Here's what I came up with for links


ThermalSyphan - Google Search

 

I LOVE my Stihl 066 Magnum. It's 15 years old but only seldom used and near new, in fact. Have two 36 inch bars, 8 chains and it was super useful this last summer. Our retreat land where we are soon to build has a small back road running through it (homesite is far above the road, and below the road is our massive swamp, down a slope 75 feet or so, that we can harvest from since it does not become swamp for some distance) Well anyway the county advised us that two of our massive roadside trees were looking dangerous and needed to be taken out. They dropped them and left the 4 + foot diameter logs in 25 foot lengths on a roadside pullout pad. That was wonderful

I split the wood with some buddies with the deal that they would bring a crew and split the pieces small enough to haul, and they would do the hauling, since my big van is currently down. We each got 3 cords of hemlock and Douglas fir and I am sitting here in our urban home at 80+ degrees F with hemlock purring in the stove

I split all my wood by hand with a maul and sledges. I'm only 50 and in good shape, martial artist and runner

That Stihl has the square chisel teeth and made mincemeat out of those large logs. I did all the saw work except for a few small limbs. Nothing gets the blood pumping like being out in the woods, amidst sawdust and nature. Took several days but it's enough for two really cold winters as our home is very well insulated and we mostly just heat the 2nd floor up to "human standards".

I'm going to buy a used bandsaw mill in the future to finish our home, and maybe for a little side income in the future. We will not likely be able to use even the windfall wood all up since we have 5,000 + feet of road side timber x 2, and some could be sold as lumber. Those two trees alone were about 2,000+ board feet, maybe 2,500

 

The Mrs has the day off and we were just discussing that very idea. The main body of the home will be 2 stories (11 feet and 8 feet) and there will be two towers of 3 stories, 8 foot each floor, maybe 15-18 foot diameter. One of the tower tops will be a guest room and I think that would be the perfect place to put the hot water tank. The other tower top will have a cold water tank system and all our control systems for the solar, wind, hydro, etc. That way we have gravity water feed and the water pump does not need to turn on, simply for water pressure. It just needs to pump when the system gets low

I've been planning this in my mind and on paper for years. It's getting close now

BTW with insulated concrete forms the water lines can be run in the walls, and after installation I can fill the groove with the spray type foam-insulation stuff, trowel off and then finish the walls in whatever finish we want for each room

 

For those researching wood stoves...

All of these articles might be of interest to anyone considering a wood stove-
Sweep's Library - Answers to wood stove, gas stove, fireplace and chimney questions

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Great info. will deffinatly be researching into it.

 

Wood COOK Stove

I am looking for a wood cookstove for "just in case". The new one are high as camel... well you know. What do I need to look for in a used or "antique" stove?

Thanks

 

Look for rusted out places,make sure the grate is good. Check the part where the pipe hooks to the stove.If it has a warming cabinet overhead that's a bonus,as is a reservoir for water.Check the operation of dampers..

 

I would also check where all the door hinges are mounted and make sure that they aren't hogged out. Check where the legs are mounted for the same thing.

 

also check for cracks in the firebox especially in cold weather states. if these stoves have sat for awhile in a barn or something they can be very rough. If you doo find one and I do wish you luck on finding one. allot of the more reputable antique shops if they have one they will also be higher than a cats back. It is allmost just as good to buy a new one. I would look at the lesser known antique shops in small town america. Hit Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa, Minnesota, Missourri, then the southeast. Stay away from shops in Atlanta and charlotte N.c. Bigger cities higher prices actually higher than new. Your best spots to find one probably will be western Kentucky or far east Kentucky then again Iowa. Dont search big cities you will be sorry, once again higher than a cats back.

 

Just Checked ANTIQUESTOVES.COM. I saw one there for 1750 bucks with a 125 crating fee then whatever rl shippers or fed ex would charge to ship it I think you could get it for about 2600 shipping and all. antiquestoves.com..........Good luck brother.

 

Thank-you, sure like the prices. Does anyone know which would be best to put into an outdoor kitchen ? I am thinking about building an outdoor kitchen this summer and sure like the looks of these.

 

Well nadja that truly depends......on whether you just want one for heating purposes. Or if you want to cook on one you would have to have something more substantial. The stoves Broker put up are basically Heat only, or maybe warm water for a variety of drinks. if you are truly wanting a good wood cook stove I would go to Lehmans website and look at what they have. Lehmans.com..... I can answer almost any question about a wood cook stove since I grew up around them.