Last week we had a wood stove installed. When we purchased our house last year and had it inspected we were told the chimney was unlined and thus not safe to burn fires in the fireplace. So, we had planned, down the line, to have a wood stove installed, thinking it was a luxury we would save up for and when the time was right, put one in.
This was our first winter in our house, which has oil heat. We have since learned how expensive oil heat is and the wood stove we thought was a luxury, suddenly became the most cost effective way to heat our house. We live rurally, gas heat is not available and installing a new electric furnace is expensive. So, we moved the wood stove up on the list of things we would like to have at our house, called Black Knight Chimney (who I would recommend to anyone in the Pittsburgh metro area…they are fantastic!) and it was installed on Monday.
We spent all last week learning how to season a new stove, how to light an efficient fire, how to get it to produce heat and how to move that heat through the house. Our goal is to ultimately be able to heat our house entirely with the wood stove (which we have estimated should save us about $1500 next winter, paying for itself pretty quickly). The house is an open floor plan and not very big so, we should be able to do so but, at the current moment, we are accepting that there is a learning curve before this will happen. Today, we have finally reached a comfortable heat through the whole house without the use of the furnace. So, this snowy March morning has become super cozy with a fire burning, magazines and books to read, music to listen to, cookies baking in the oven and no where to be but here.
This was our first winter in our house, which has oil heat. We have since learned how expensive oil heat is and the wood stove we thought was a luxury, suddenly became the most cost effective way to heat our house. We live rurally, gas heat is not available and installing a new electric furnace is expensive. So, we moved the wood stove up on the list of things we would like to have at our house, called Black Knight Chimney (who I would recommend to anyone in the Pittsburgh metro area…they are fantastic!) and it was installed on Monday.
We spent all last week learning how to season a new stove, how to light an efficient fire, how to get it to produce heat and how to move that heat through the house. Our goal is to ultimately be able to heat our house entirely with the wood stove (which we have estimated should save us about $1500 next winter, paying for itself pretty quickly). The house is an open floor plan and not very big so, we should be able to do so but, at the current moment, we are accepting that there is a learning curve before this will happen. Today, we have finally reached a comfortable heat through the whole house without the use of the furnace. So, this snowy March morning has become super cozy with a fire burning, magazines and books to read, music to listen to, cookies baking in the oven and no where to be but here.
