Heating house with wood fireplace

[Lucky]

I have heated with wood for several years. I believe it saved our lives during the blizzard of '78. Bought a new outside boiler to replace the free standing stove we had used prior. Long story short. Had to get homeowners policy renewed and they would not insure with the wood boiler installed as it was installed. Said it had to go from its current location to another further away. They would however allow the use of freestanding stove use inside the home.
After considerable study and talks with a friend of Amish faith, I went with a free standing coal burning stove. I could not be happier. Even tho I have several acres of available wood, I am certain the anthracite coal is a much better option. I wish I had switched YEARS ago.
If the time and money spent cutting wood is totaled, I know coal has to be cheaper and of course much easier option. I buy anthracite coal from Troyers market located on S.R. 3 at the rush/decature co line. Price at this time is roughly $280 a ton. Do yourself a favor at look at the BTU value of anthracite against the BTU value of the type wood you are currently using. Do your own cost comparison, I'm sure the true value of coal will be obvious to you.
I truly enjoy cutting wood and the whole experience but, I am getting long in tooth and it takes more effort that it used to take. I no longer have to go out and cut wood because we are going to run out if I don't. I hook up the trailer and give the man my money and I am good for another 6 weeks or so. I am much better off cutting and selling the wood rather than using it. Anthricite is extremely clean burning ( no smoke), no smell, and only takes about 5 minutes twice a day to maintain and load etc. ( I do it on commercial break and don't miss any of the program I'm watching).
Strongly advise at least doing a comparison before investing in wood. Many options exist for a stove and several will burn wood as well if needed.

 

[ghuns]

That tells me you have a wood splitter.

Nah. Just an outdoor boiler. No splitting required. If it's too big to pick up, I rip it in half with a chainsaw.

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[dan45]

Try a couple of well placed ceiling fans. They should be able to circulate the air just fine.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Anyone watching this thread would do well to check out Hearth.com and the Firewood hoarder's club. Both are chock full of good information.

 

[thelefthand]

I know this is an old thread, but the right answer was given early on. Blow the cold air from the other rooms towards the heat. Cold air is heavier. You can't push hot air hard enough with a fan to move it into a cold room.

 

[24Carat]

The best arrangement I ever put together was in a smallish tri-level home. The lower level garage was eliminated and finished out with a family room with fireplace. A midsize insert with blowers in a basement/lower level is the ticket. I cut an opening in the ceiling directly under the upstairs cold air return and installed a grate. Between this opening and the open stairway up to the second level it took zero furnace blower or fans to keep the whole house in the seventies down to an outside temp of 10 degrees or so. I got 3 cord loads of squarish bark free hardwood cutoff ends from a pallet company. Two loads would take me through the winter easily. With a bed of coals I could tightly pack the firebox with these random blocks of hardwood and then damp it down. 8 to 10 hours later the home was still toasty. If it got brutally cold I just turned the furnace fan on. Long story short, the real trick is convection. This set up spoiled me horribly.

 

[IndyBeerman]

Our fireplace is great. With good seasoned wood, it burns well and puts off a lot of heat. The fan blower in it is so weak, I have to leave the glass doors open and the fire chain mail looking deal closed, or barely any heat. Not sure if that’s normal, or needs an upgrade. When I do leave the glass doors open, the fireplace room gets 90+ degrees, but even with a fan going out of the room, doesn’t move the heat much from our fireplace room. Any thoughts on better circulating this heat throughout the house?

Having a cold air return duct is vital to move air. At my mothers old home, we had a Ole Hickory free sanding wood stove and we installed a 2x2 cold air return in a 24x36 room addition we had the stove in. Even with the blower on high to circulate the air and keep the room from getting to hot, we had to tone down how much we had in it. heated the whole house (3400sqft). Just hated having to split 6-8 ricks of wood to use it.

My home is 3300 sq. ft. and I have a fireplace that's never been used that I plan on installing a Pellet stove insert to cut heating cost. You can buy 1 ton of hardwood or corn pellets for $250.00, easy to store and a whole lot better than splitting wood, and it burns VERY efficient. Plus with the intake being run through the chimney I don't have to worry about heat loss from the inside air being sucked out the fireplace.