Wood Burning Heaters - Safe, Effective ???

We had one when we lived in VA and about $500 worth of wood lasted us 3yrs... and it's gets a lot colder there in the winter than it does here! I did have to vacuum almost everyday because of the woodchips, and there was a BIG safety concern when my daughter was born. We ended up moving before her first winter, but if we had stayed we were going to buy a baby gate that's specially designed to go around stoves and other odd sized hazards.

We had one growing up and my parents still have it in their basement. I don't think it helps so much with heating the rest of the house as it helped with heating the basement room it was in. Also, we lived on the side of a mountain, so whenever snow/ice hit (like 3-4 times in 15 years), it was great to go down to the basement and be able to stay warm. My mom also got really creative with cooking food on the top. Of course we had soups, but she made cornbread and even a cake once. :)
As far as safety, the biggest thing they worried about was us playing on it while it was off and getting cut on the metal chimney part, or just getting dirty.
If you have young kids, you'll definitely have to stay alert to them wanting to touch it and the possibility of getting burned while you're using it.
But I'd recommend it. We have some great memories of it, and it saved us when the "Blizzard" hit and we were without power for a week with no way to leave the house.

We've had a wood burning stove in our living room since we moved in about 17 years ago, but it has a flue (sp) similar to a regular fireplace so as to release any smoke outside. How does he plan on setting it up?

Because I also happen to be rather ignorant about this type of matter, how is placing a wood burning stove in the basement going to heat the living part of your home?

Your talking about a wood furnace right? With a blower system? That is by far the best, we had one with a thermostat so if worked basically like a regular heating system. They are awesome to keep your house warm at a very low price, after the initial setup. Especially if you have land and can cut your own wood. The wood stove that only area heats is not near as nice, but works ok. That is what we have now and I still say it is much better than electric or propane $ wise. Though of course near it is super hot and the rooms farthest away are cold... But worth it to me :)

We put in a wood burning stove last fall and used it as our exclusive source of heat all winter. It took a few weeks to get the hang of it (I'm a city girl) but we eventually figured out its little quirks. We saved over $4,000 last winter, which made the experience worth while to me. It is a hassle to find, stack, split, bring-in, and cleanup all the wood. Just be mentally prepared for the additional work. We used around 10 ricks last year to heat a 2,500 sq ft house.
We have 6 kids (4 big and 2 little kids) and had no major issues with safety, though I kept them away from it! Bottom line... wood stoves are like having guns in the house; it is as safe as you set it up to be! (Yes, our guns are all locked in a safe.) Are you vigilent about watching the kids? Are the kids good at obeying and respecting things when you tell them to not touch something? Do you trust the kids around your kitchen stove/oven?
Good luck!!!

We use a wood burning stove for our primary heat source. Their great if you know how to work the stove and start a fire. Wood is messy(luckily yours will be in the basement) but cheap if your husband plans to cut it himself. I would suggest having a professional install it to make sure it draws properly or researching safety tips about installing and using your wood stove as there are alot of fire hazards that come with burning wood. We have used it for years with good luck so far. Luckily my husband grew up with one in his home and knows about them but I myself have had a few mishaps with trying to start and keep a fire going and learing how to turn the flu so i don't smoke up the house. I would also suggest gathering lots of small dead sticks, small limbs, pine cones and old newspapers.

Hi ...Yes I have had one almost all my life.And I am 38,...as long as he goes by all the codes you will be fine..

I grew up with a wood stove being the only source of heat in our house, and it was pretty effective. We never had any incidents with burns, only the occasional spark they managed to fly all the way to the carpet when we put more wood on the stove (we kept a pitcher of water nearby. Some of my fondest Christmas memories are of a big thing of water on the stove filled with cloves and cinnamon sticks for aroma. Mmmmm.
The only thing that may pose a problem is if one of your kids has asthma. No matter what you do, smoke and ash will get into the air. You may have to vacuum and dust more frequently.
To this day I love wood stoves, and during the winter I can never get warm unless I have an actual heat source to warm up by!

How are you going to vent the smoke?
I have seen them in the basement where it was hooked up to some pipe that went up through the other floors and out the chimney. Others pipe out through a window.
Then how are you going to get the heat in the other rooms? Vents?
We have used wood heat before, and the area around the stove gets nice and hot and the rest of the house gets cold...unless you have some way to circulate the heat...we used a ceiling fan.
G.

Hello, I just want to make a suggestion on another heat source that is awesome. It is a wood pellet stove. We looked into both wood and pellet stoves. The pellet stove won out. First you have to have quite a lot of very expensive exhaust tubes with the wood stove and then you have the stacking of wood and/or cutting wood. I have lived with both over the years and I love my pellet stove. It has a thermostat and turns itself on and lights the pellets and feeds itself. All I have to do is put a 40 lb bag in every 24-72 hours it depends on how high I have it set. The only place it gets hot to the touch is on the glass and where it blows out. You don't have to put up a special wall behind it. It can go up to two inches to a regular sheet rock wall. We have had ours for 5 years now and it was wonderful. I don't know if they are still up and running but I bought mine online at www.stovesdirect.com. At the time no one around here was selling them in the stores. Most home improvement stores carry them now. I hope this helps you do research. It all came down to that my husband lived in Colorado all his life and said he'd be fine never chopping another stick of wood. ha, ha.

We have had a wood stove since I was a little girl, and now we have one with my boys. It is totally safe as long as you clean out the flue regularly and make sure everything seals so smoke doesn't get out into the house. Another suggestion I have is, use a humidifier because wood heat really dries out the air and can irritate little noses if they get too dry.

I grew up in a home that had a wood burning stove as our only heat source. It was very cost effective and we never had any safety problems. Just make sure you have good ventalation for the pipes and a tiled or concrete area around the stove itself to prevent embers from catching the carpet on fire. It was always nice in the winter when there would be an ice storm and the power went out. We were warm and had a place to cook pretty much anything we wanted to.

J.

LJ,

We have heated with wood for the last ten years or so and find it saves us money for gas or electricity. We get our wood from the city limb drop-off site, off of Freecycle or from neighbors who know we burn wood. We burn just about everything but evergreen types like cedar. Be careful about burning extremely hard woods like osage orange because they spark really bad.

As far as safety, I've learned to stack the wood inside to where it won't fall out when you open the door; lay a fireproof rug in front of the door to catch the sparks; and if your stove has a glass door, don't burn those fire starter logs too close to the door. Last winter I called the fire department because I was sure the glass was about to break it got so hot. It didn't but I learned my lesson.

Both houses we've bought that had wood-burning stoves in them were obviously not designed to be heated with wood. Both stoves were stuck off in a back room and barely heated even half of the house. The one we are in currently heats about 1/3 of the house so DH is considering what he can do to help the heat get to at least the living room. We keep our thermostat at 68 in the winter and wear many layers because the back rooms are frigid. But, it's either do that or go broke paying the gas company.

I really enjoy burning wood because of the smell, the sight of flickering flames and being able to thumb my nose at the utility companies.

K.