Wood Burning Stoves: Beautiful and Efficient

There is nothing like the warming, comforting heat of a wood burning stove on a cold winter day. The cracking and snap of the wood as it catches fire, the mesmerizing flames, and the soothing aroma of soup simmering on the stovetop. I used to think that wood fires were not environmentally friendly. But in fact, they are a carbon neutral heat source. It’s also really easy to use your wood stove for cooking, almost like a slow cooker, and for heating a kettle which of course just saves on energy.

Today’s wood burning stoves are more high tech than the ones your grand parents had. They provide greater comfort convenience and efficiency. They are efficient because more heat is released per pound of wood, and less pollution.

Some things you’ll want to look at before you get your wood stove are:

• Where do you want to put the stove in your home?
• What size would best fit your needs?
• Are you using it to heat the space completely or just to supplement?
• Do you want a cast iron wood stove or soap stone wood stove?

The wood stoves available today are beautiful and efficient when used properly.

Here are some tips to heating your home effectively with wood burning stoves.

• The wood must be carefully selected. Cost and overall heat production is something that we all must think about. The dryer the wood the hotter. So it is best to use properly dried hardwoods (i.e. oak, maple, beech, ash). I also recently found out that pine, normally a softwood, once it has reached about 40 years old turns into a hardwood, and has the same burning properties as hardwoods.
• Start with a small fire at first this gives your chimney time to warm up and draft properly. A big, roaring fire in a cold chimney will produce a lot of smoke and put a lot of stress on the stove. A handy tip is to crumple up some dry paper and place it on top of your kindling, then light it before you light the tinder under your kindling. This will warm the air in the chimney sufficiently to provide an updraft which helps your fire get started. Try it, it really works.
• You have to keep your wood burning stove clean. Throw the ashes out regularly. This keeps the air flowing right inside the firebox. I’ve found that it helps to leave just a thin layer of ash in the bottom, I’m not sure why but for my stove at least, it helps the fire get started.
• Keep in mind that your wood burning stove isn’t a garbage disposal unit. Only burn the right wood, make sure that the wood has not been treated with chemicals that could be released during the burning and harm you. That means no painted or stained wood. Be sure that if you are burning timber off cuts that they are not tantalized treated timber, the kind that’s treated for outdoor use, as arsenic is often used in this process.
• You will want your wood to burn completely and efficiently, and to do this, the stove must be loaded correctly. The best way is to keep logs stacked along the bottom toward the rear of the firebox, with the paper, kindling or embers toward the front where the air comes in. Do not pile wood up to the very top, leaving space between the top log and the secondary air tubes.
• A wood burning stove produces a lot more heat than you can use. A soapstone stove can store the extra heat, to stretch out, and make the heating cycle more even. Soapstone wood burning stoves produce 100% more BTUs that a cast iron or steel wood stove, using the same amount of wood.

Wood burning stoves can be a beautiful and energy efficient addition to your home. Wood fires are a very dry heat, so if you have a humidity problem where you live, they could be an ideal solution.

Related posts:

1. Comparing Wood Burning Stoves