I used to live in a home that heated only with wood. I LOVED it! There's nothing like wood heat to warm you all the way to your bones.
I used to warm the boy's towels on it when they took their bath. I would cook on it. It was especially helpful when the electricity went out.

We have a Buckstove, which is a wood burning stove with a catalytic converter. We really like ours although it tends to get the house too hot if it is not really cold outside (under 40 degrees). Sometimes it is going and the front door is wide open. :-)

How neat! I love the smell too. I had a friend who put one in his garage, so he could have Buddies over to play cards in the garage. It was neat and the cigerette smokers had a warm place to go.

Gayle

We have an airtight woodstove that my son installed about 4 years ago. We are in southern Ontario and we do have some nasty weather in the winter. Most evenings, you will find me curled up near the stove, watching the flames through the glass door. We load the stove up at night before heading off to bed & it keeps the chill off the house. I've only had the natural gas furnace going since last weekend. The thermostat is set at 65 so it does come on very early in the morning. The biggest plus to our woodstove is that it has cut our heating expenses away down. In the heating season 2004-2005, we used 3800 cubic meters of gas. During the same time frame in 2007-3008, we used slightly less that 2000 cubic meters, so a little more than half of what we were using. It doesn't sound like much but with the price of gas at 39.5 cents a cu. mt., that about a $700 savings.

Could you tell me what brand wood burning stove you have? We are in the market for one that has something that you can see the fire (not necessarily glass doors). We don't need it to heat the house, we just enjoy sitting around the fire and my back porch will be sealed and we can sit out there. Don't want to spend a fortune though.

We had one installed this summer. It sure does warm the house and keep everyone cozy. It will keep the costs down. The stove we had installed in our other house sure did. We like having it in case of an emergency.

We have an Elmira woodstove with a glass door. This baby will heat the whole house, 3 levels, if we turn on the heat-pump fan to distribute the warm air. We save so much money and I really like having a toasty place to sit by or get dressed next to in the morning, or after a shower at night. We have a lot of trees on our property and we always have fallen ones that need to be cut up, so we do that and have free wood to burn. The hurricane that hit Houston also knocked over about 50 of our trees, so we're set for years, once we get it all cut up.

We put a St. Croix pellet stove insert into our fireplace this year and we love it. I didn't want to have to try to make a fire and as we get older we thought the pellets would be easier than cutting and stacking firewood. So we went down the pellet road, it is great. I can handle the 40# bags, even if I have to do it in 2 20# trips! It does a great job, fill the hopper, turn it on and in a few minutes the fire is blazing and then the heat kicks in.

The fireplace police descended on the Bay Area on Wednesday.

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For the first time ever, residential fires are illegal under a new law, passed in July, that bans home burning on winter season Spare the Air days.

The first such ban took effect at noon. Seventy inspectors from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District planned to spend the day and evening patrolling residential neighborhoods, looking for telltale chimney wisps.

Violators will get warnings by mail. Repeat offenders face fines of as much as $2,000.

The fireplace police say they are determined to keep law and order in the living room.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fireplace police on patrol

I lived in homes with wood stoves all my life until Dokk and I bought our home three years ago. I don't miss the mess and all the work, but do miss the warmth and the aroma. Dokk used to tease me at the old place when I'd back up to the stove and get nearly hot enough to ignite!

I would've replied earlier today but, was out cutting wood all day. About 90% of our heat comes from wood. The other 10% is propane. The woodstove is in the basement, also where my desk and computer are located. It's always cozy warm down here. I'd be lost without the woodstove.

Ron

We had a Country C-45 airtight insert in out other home. Our home was 2500 Sq.Ft and it heated the entire home. Wow do I miss it every time I pay the electric bill here. KAthy

We have an old Fisher wood stove, I didn't use it last year and my electric bill was terribly high, back to it this year...it is more work, but love the $ saved. We had about 2 acres of trees cut down last year, so we have lots of free heating now. I agree that it is more work and more mess...but I too love the smell and the warmth!

Oh how I miss my Vermont Castings wood stove, that has got to be the best heat source of all.Warms you through and through. I had to give it up because it was too much for me to handle by myself now. Sure do miss it though!!

No..and I never will.
I've been in a couple of burning buildings...and when I walk into a house with a wood burning stove - to me it smells like a burning house. It makes me uncomfortable.

Susan I'm glad to hear you can use your wood stove again. We have 2 at our mountain place plus a gas stove in the bedroom there as well. I love the smell of a fireplace especially when you're outside and you catch a wift of that aroma in the crisp cold air.

Unfortunately here at home we don't have a wood burner but we do have a beautiful cream colored Jotul gas stove which we use all the time. Especially since it has a remote control so you don't even have to get up to turn the heat down.

Stay warm and keep your wood pile stocked.

I had a Franklin cast iron wood burning stove, for years, and loved it. Then DH built a firebox around it, and filled with pebbles.

That was when I was married, and had free firewood from DH's family country home in the woods.

We would add coal to it at nite, before heading to bed, and cover the coal with ashes.

Evening times, we poked the coal embers to make the ashes drop, and add wood to restart the fire.

Loved it.

But after divorce, wood was expensive too buy.
We had a blizzard in 93, got sick of the wood and the mess.
Sold it for a good price, and had standing Vermont cast iron gas logs heater put in.

Now where I live, I have a fireplace, but only use it for Christmas, as it cuts off my thermostat and the back rooms get really cold.

My son loves it when I have a fire, cause he grew up with awood burning fireplace stove.
I use those environmental fire logs when I do have a fire.

I'm the same as Monica. I witnessed a burning home when I was a kid and will never get over the smell.

Our next door neighbors are from Indiana and Nebraska and the winter after they moved in I panicked one night when I smelled smoke coming from their house. I ran over feeling all the hero, to let them know their house was probably on fire (I mean hey, it's Southern California for heaven sake, who uses their fireplace?). When the front door opened, I was hit by a blast of heat and that burning wood smell. They just laughed at me.

They still use their fireplace each winter and I still panic but no longer make a fool of myself. They've lived next door 22 years. LOL

Jodi-

Hi jodi,

I wouldn't call being helpful to your friends making a fool of yourself ... and I can understand their laughter at your message.

There's a wood stove here, in the "front room" - rec room, den.

There's wood in the basement, ready to go.

The problem is ... there's stuff piled in the rec roon, including on the stove, so firing it up in current circumstances would not be a wise choice!

ole joyful

We had a Pacific Energy insert (woodstove) installed in our fireplace in early September. Since the size of the unit was determined by the dimensions of our firebox, we had to get the small unit (the Vista). Even though it's small it sure is mighty! Our house is just under 1500 sq. ft., and it keeps the house nice and toasty. Granted, when the temps dip below 20 degrees, it won't keep the house as warm as when the temps are in the 30's, but I would say that it definitely provides 70-80% of our heating. The rest is supplemented by our oil furnace. Both DH and I heated with wood in our 'previous' lives LOL. To us, there's nothing like a wood fire. The heat is so enveloping and comforting. It's a lot of work, but with 7 acres of wooded bliss we're pretty much set.
Enjoy!

Even with our woodstove going strong, the only time it smells like burning wood in the house is after we've opened a door to let a dog in or out and smoke from outside enters in. A properly functioning woodstove shouldn't be letting any smoke into the house.

We had a house catch on fire while this house was being built (electrical malfuntion in a rental house). The acrid, bitter, plastic-y smell from that house burning was nothing at all like the smell of hardwood from a wood stove. I was really nervous at first about having something burning inside the house, after that house fire, but in 20 years of careful heating and chimney upkeep and cleaning, I realize that it's safe and so comfy.