- Dec 19, 2006
- 55
Greetings from frigid Central New York!
I've been avidly reading this board for a couple of months now as this is my first season of running a wood stove in about 15 years. I've lived in a lot of homes with various types of heating, including a couple in New England that were heated pretty close to exclusively with just a wood stove. When we built our home a few years ago I knew that I wanted wood heating capability. I have plenty of access to forest land with wood for the taking and processing and I also didn't want to be entirely dependent upon either the electric grid or OPEC for my heat.
We ended up building a pretty conventional 2000 sq.ft. home on two floors with an oil-fired boiler driving a radiant heating system in the floor. I had looked at a duel fuel or add-on wood boiler system like a TARM, but determined it didn't make much sense given our budget. In talking to the heating guy on site he suggested putting in a class A chimney and two air returns on the first floor to enhance the heat circulation in the house. He did it in his home and he said that he was able to heat his whole ranch house just with the one stove. He thought if I put in a similar system it should knock down the heat load on the radiant system and if I later wanted to add the TARM or other boiler, I'd be all set.
Well, it took me two years, but I went out and bought a big honking 1980s Fisher-like wood stove. I had a similar one in Vermont that I really liked and I thought it worked a lot better than the early EPA certified stove I once used that I could never get to fire properly. I installed this "Surefire Mark V" in the Fall of last year and have found that it will pretty much heat the house entirely in weather above 25 degrees or so, and will take most of the load even down to the single digits. The house is fairly cool in the bedrooms upstairs (62 degrees) but everyone in my household prefers it that way.
In general I have been very pleased with the set-up. However, I have two questions:
1: The door seals are shot on this stove, it has a wide channel that had a flat woven tape as a seal. When I tried to replace it with conventional round gasket material it blocks the door and I cannot close them. I cannot find the flat material in the hardware store and it is very difficult to control the draft without a proper seal. Any idea where I could find such a material? (A picture of the doors showing the channel and a mating bead on the stove body is attached to this message)
2: Although the experiment has generally worked very well I have come to the opinion that I need a new stove. The one that I installed, although an incredible 450lb. beast is a very inneffcient burner. I would like a plain steel stove without the glass doors. For whatever reason I prefer the plain Fisher, Better N' Bens and Earth Stove styling of the 1970s and 1980s (that and I don't want to be bothered cleaning glass windows). Any recommendations for a big honking wood burning machine?
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Yours in wood burning,
Garet in Cooperstown
I've been avidly reading this board for a couple of months now as this is my first season of running a wood stove in about 15 years. I've lived in a lot of homes with various types of heating, including a couple in New England that were heated pretty close to exclusively with just a wood stove. When we built our home a few years ago I knew that I wanted wood heating capability. I have plenty of access to forest land with wood for the taking and processing and I also didn't want to be entirely dependent upon either the electric grid or OPEC for my heat.
We ended up building a pretty conventional 2000 sq.ft. home on two floors with an oil-fired boiler driving a radiant heating system in the floor. I had looked at a duel fuel or add-on wood boiler system like a TARM, but determined it didn't make much sense given our budget. In talking to the heating guy on site he suggested putting in a class A chimney and two air returns on the first floor to enhance the heat circulation in the house. He did it in his home and he said that he was able to heat his whole ranch house just with the one stove. He thought if I put in a similar system it should knock down the heat load on the radiant system and if I later wanted to add the TARM or other boiler, I'd be all set.
Well, it took me two years, but I went out and bought a big honking 1980s Fisher-like wood stove. I had a similar one in Vermont that I really liked and I thought it worked a lot better than the early EPA certified stove I once used that I could never get to fire properly. I installed this "Surefire Mark V" in the Fall of last year and have found that it will pretty much heat the house entirely in weather above 25 degrees or so, and will take most of the load even down to the single digits. The house is fairly cool in the bedrooms upstairs (62 degrees) but everyone in my household prefers it that way.
In general I have been very pleased with the set-up. However, I have two questions:
1: The door seals are shot on this stove, it has a wide channel that had a flat woven tape as a seal. When I tried to replace it with conventional round gasket material it blocks the door and I cannot close them. I cannot find the flat material in the hardware store and it is very difficult to control the draft without a proper seal. Any idea where I could find such a material? (A picture of the doors showing the channel and a mating bead on the stove body is attached to this message)
2: Although the experiment has generally worked very well I have come to the opinion that I need a new stove. The one that I installed, although an incredible 450lb. beast is a very inneffcient burner. I would like a plain steel stove without the glass doors. For whatever reason I prefer the plain Fisher, Better N' Bens and Earth Stove styling of the 1970s and 1980s (that and I don't want to be bothered cleaning glass windows). Any recommendations for a big honking wood burning machine?
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Yours in wood burning,
Garet in Cooperstown