5030
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2003
- Messages
- 26,986
- Location
- SE Michigan in the middle of nowhere
- Tractor
- Kubota M9000 HDCC3 M9000 HDC
At today's inflated prices, anything you heat with will be expensive...anything.
wood is good!Neighbor in damp and humid Olympia WA has a complete shop and the wood stove always fired and the shop is very dry but he is retired and in the shop 7 days each week.
He has all the wood he can use for the sawing and splitting.
He told me he couldn’t imagine not having wood and paying for electric in retirement.
North America’s abundant natural resource endorsed by President Carter with tax incentives…wood is good!
Yep… rotting in the forest or up in flames due to a wild fire or keeping the hearth warm on a cold winters night…And OH SO Carbon neutral!
@ponytug already alluded to this, but the condensation actually is "the direct fault of the heater". Each gallon of kerosene burned produces something like 1.3 gallons of water as a byproduct in its exhaust. Hard to believe, if you're not a chemist, but true. While folks heating their homes with kerosene space heaters in the 1970's probably loved this aspect, free humidification, all that added water is going to cause condensation the next time you let the temperature drop in that space.While the condensation was not the direct fault of the heater (it's more due to the difference in temps between outside and inside without proper insulation, vapor barriers, and airflow), it still was a problem.
Good choice. Just be aware of the cleaning requirements, and the various issues of different brands. hearth.com has a whole pellet stove forum, and reading through the issues guys seem to have with various models there, I'd be looking first at Harmon.My new idea and project to start soon is a pellet stove.
Length dictates static draw, diameter dictates flow. Generally, taller is more of a problem with over-drafting on modern low-flow stoves, as these stoves are typically designed for worst-case min draft. When dealing with wood stoves, those of us with taller chimneys actually have to restrict them down to behave more like a shorter chimney, rather than step up.Pricing stove pipe, the cheapest I have found so far is $350! And that is just the pipe, no other parts like elbows or the cap, etc. This is the DuraVent 4in x 36in chimney stove pipe at $35. (30/3x$35=$350). I'm not even sure if this is the right size pipe! Do I need to step up in size to run that length?
Not since at least the 1990's. This advice comes from older (think 1970's) wood stoves, that threw damn near half their heat up the chimney, and there were cases where you could take heat off the pipe without too much penalty. There were even special heat-exchanger stove pipes designed for this purpose. In many cases where too much heat was removed, they caused massive creosote deposition problems, and eventual chimney fires.It's actually better to have single wall pipe in the inside of the occupied space since you get more heat that way.
Keep in mind that Harmon is by far the most expensive solid fuel burning units on the market today and far as I know, none of them are corn biomass capable.I'd be looking first at Harmon.