Contact me this week if yes.

This blog singlehandedly (along with Todd and Jeremy’s additional posts) convinced me to bring a clean burning woodstove into the house this year. Thanks all.

Gretchan
gretjksn at aol dot com

A couple of points I’d like to make

Wood may be renewable but I don’t think it is sustainable. If everybody in Portland decided to heat their homes with wood, it wouldn’t take long to strip your local bare of trees. I learned in one of my forestry classes that it takes approximately 6 acres of forested land to sustainable heat one efficient 2000sq ft home with wood. In fact in New England wood use for heat is so prevalent that it is a real concern of many foresters.

As I use wood for my heat I recognize this reality but still us wood for several reasons. Mostly, the wood that I use would go to waste anyway and decay or be ground up for mulch. People falsely believe that decaying wood doesn’t release CO2 but that is far from the case. The microbial processes that happen as wood decays releases CO2 anyway. So I feel it is better for me to burn the wood and release the CO2 in a way that allows me to enjoy the heat energy. It also allows me to prevent burning a non-renewable carbon based fuel. In my case that is natural gas.

Also, I don’t tend to burn wood too much in the warmer months of Fall and Spring. Yes it is often cold enough for the heat to come on but if I were to burn wood, the house would become unbearably hot and I would be forced to open the windows. Instead of wasting that precious wood heat out the windows I simply allow the conventional forced air heat to come on, which it does only occasionally and is much easier to regulate. If it gets cold at night, typically bellow 42F, I’ll make a fire and have it burn through most of the night. Only if the forecast is for high temps below 45F during the day will I consider burning a fire during the day as well.

Finally and what I found most interesting is that you bring up burning wood in the first place. Here in New Jersey I know of at least 4 bicycle shops that use wood to heat their shops. For one, my wheel builder, it is the main source of heat if not the only source. There is something about being a cyclist that makes one keenly aware about the conservation of energy; whether that is in keeping ones momentum while on two wheel or heating ones home or workplace.

Keep the home fires burning!

My best,

Andy

Nevertheless, Todd’s excellent post inspired me to provide a little more perspective on the different methods for using wood stoves, as well as a few considerations. Check the article out here:

http://www.towseyfrench.com/2009/10/26/retrofitting-for-wood-stove-heat/

* installing a full stainless liner all the way up the chimney
* siting the stove 18″ from any combustible material
* placing the stove on a non-combustible pad of sufficient thickness to protect the floor/subfloor. Prefab hearth pads are available, but we contracted with a stone mason who laid down 2 thick natural slabs of bluestone, rough finish, working them just enough to fit together and the space. there’s a thick soft pad compressed beneath to protect the fir flooring.

Additionally we installed an outside air intake so the stove doesn’t send warmer inside air up the chimney. We routed it through the ash trap of our 1910 chimney; drilled a hole to the outside. Hard to describe… I don’t remember whether code requires this, but there’s an Oregon tax credit available if you do install it this way.

We deliberated whether to undertake the liner install ourselves, and in retrospect could have pulled it off, but we were too nervous to risk messing it up or missing some important safety issue in our inexperience. Plus our tallest ladder wasn’t really tall enough to do it. If in doubt, I’d say you should pay to have it done.

Feel free to drop by some cold evening or maybe one of our off days (ask) to check it out.