Woodstove Recommendations

[fabsroman]

Originally Posted by skeet

Well Fabs..I must admit it looks as though you have thpught the money angle out. Even in Md though the weather will probably require more than 7 hours a month. It did me and the woods for my fuel was a whole 250yd from the house. We heated completely with wood. And most prople will not cut wood in the summer in Maryland. They do here cause you can get wood in the National forest with a permit. Closest is 60 miles for mer one way. Also remember the safety factor with young'uns. Both of ours got burned..once ...as did the grandkids..once. Well not the granddaughter. Wasn't bad..and grammy the nurse fixed it all up. Skinny is right about the pellet stove. I have a Quadra Fire in the garage(40x32) and that sucker can keep it up to about 70 when it is below Zero. The other nightwhen it was 21 below i checked the temp out there and it was 66 at knee level. The pellets i have were purchased at an auction for 80 bucks a ton so heating is pretty cheap with them..but i just bought a ton at Sam's Club for 175 for a ton.

For me, doing physical labor once in a while is actually therapeutic. Better to spend the time on that then the time and money to see a psychiatrist. LOL I have promised myself that I will spend at least one day a week doing something other than sitting in front of the computer and typing. For the most part, I am calling it the "get my hands dirty day". I want to build a barn and put a vehicle lift in it too.

There are a lot of things that appeal to me with wood or pellet stoves. One is that they are a renewable resource. I hate depending on oil. That is why we bought a small little car for our everyday driving without the kids. It gets 35 mpg on the highway and it was CHEAP. LOL I am seriously thinking about buying a plug-in as our next vehicle, but that will not be for about 10 years and the technology should be a lot better by then, along with the price.

One farm is about 5 miles down the road from where we are trying to buy. I get to hunt there too, so that is going to be awesome. Another farm where I can get wood is about 30 miles away and I get to hunt there too. I know the guys that manage Sugarloaf mountain park and that will be about 30 miles away and the wood would also be free. In a day, my dad and I can usually cut 2 truckloads of wood. Like I said, if it becomes a big hassle or I find that I don't really have the time for it, I can always resort to the oil furnace. I just want to try it out before saying no to it. Kind of like trying a new type of hunting, a new food, or anything else new.

By the way, my dad also told me that a wood stove is a dirty endeavour, but this is coming from a man that has used a fireplace to heat his house for the past 20+ years. I'll try the wood stove and if it turns out to be a PITA, then I'll probably go to a pellet stove, and if that turns out to be a PITA, oil heat it will be until the furnace blows up and then it will be on to propane.