Learning to Love our Wood Stove

I’ll admit it. I didn’t want to get a wood stove to heat our house.

I grew up with gas forced heat furnaces. You go to the thermostat, you set a temperature, you buy a new filter every couple of months, that’s heat.

So when we moved here our house came with minisplits in every room, an ancient gravity based propane furnace, and a big old fireplace.

And we froze. Yes, the mini splits generate heat but it’s horribly inefficient. And we had a blizzard where we lost power for nearly 2 weeks. The old propane heaters under the house? I couldn’t figure it out. Maybe it works great but I have no idea how to even turn it on. There’s a series of levers and knobs, it’s just not as simple as a normal furnace.

Again, we froze in 2023.

So, after some hand wringing, Kristen convinced me to invest in a wood stove– which is how most people in our area heat their homes.

This is our 2nd full winter with it and I’ve learned to really like it. I like how it heats our house… it puts off a ton of heat and we just run the ceiling fans in our living room to move the warm air throughout the house.

Here’s what I like about our wood stove:

1. You get to play with fire. All the time.
2. It’s environmentally sound. Our stove is really, really efficient. When it’s running properly its catalytic combuster is actually burning most of the emmisions. It’s pretty cool.
3. We live in a heavily wooded area. Not only is wood abundant, it’s basically free. This winter we’re heating our home with a couple of weekends of cutting and splitting wood, maybe 5 gallons of gas, 3-4 chains to be sharpened, and our time. Just on our 2 properties there’s so much wood we can heat our home for YEARS for free while also making our homes safer from wildfire.
4. It’s a nice form of heat. Gas forced heat and electric mini splits dry out the air– the wood stove does dry out the space but not nearly as severely.

Here’s what I don’t about our wood stove

1. It does take some effort. Calling the propane company is easier, for sure. We are regularly cutting, splitting, and stacking wood. Then we move it up near the house. It’s not effortless.
2. You can’t program a thermostat. Our lives revolve around being home. But if we worked away from the house or traveled, coming home to a cold house wouldn’t be great.
3. The learning curve. Ultimately, managing the stove is a skill and our skills are coming along but… sometimes we get the house way too hot!