Hi All: My wife and I just became home owners of a nice 1920 3Br colonial 1450 Sq.ft. that has oil heat we want to put in a stove but are undecided on what type of fuel it will run on. Wood Pellet or coal. We live in Westchester county NY which is about 50 Min outside of NYC. Last winter we had 0 and low teen days. The house is not insulated and has 30 windows the with added single pane storm windows. We have looked at the Hearthstone Mansfield which is cast iron and soapstone (Would really love a Tulikivi masonry stove but way to costly all around install). Other stoves we looked at were the Harman TLC 2000 which can run on coal or wood. I have friends who heat with wood and pellet and I get mixed views some have had both, but all agree there is nothing like a real wood fire. But reality sets in I want to use the stove to heat my house. Any help out there would be great.

Speaking of burning pine, does pine creosote/ash have a stronger more acrid smell, here I mean in the house hours afer the fire is out will an old pine fire smell stronger/worse that a mixed hardwood fire? I have burned a bit of pine this year, maybe 30%, and we are having trouble with a bad odor when the fire has been out for a while (hours/days). I had used the fireplace and a stove in the basement over the past 20 years and it is only recently that the smell has become troublesome. Yes, I have had the chimney swept, about once per 2 cords, that may be two years total lapsed time. In the past I burned little or no pine. I have a lot of pine trees, but just composted the wood that came down, until this year.

We built a garage last summer that required the elimination of several rather large hardwoods (big maple and several smaller red oaks). We had it cut into to 16" rounds and picked away at the pile last fall/winter. We did OK, but we weren't really serious about dealing with the bounty as we were otherwise occupied with DIY finish work inside the garage. We were on vacation last week and we spent 5-6 mornings in the company of our splitter to get the rounds split and stacked before it rotted on the ground. It wasn't unpleasant work at all. We managed to get nearly 4 cord put up for the '09/'10 heating season and beyond (we have seasoned wood put up for the coming season). We have a few more small piles of rounds to address in the coming weeks, but it's pretty much under control. And we had a good time doing it, laughing and joking as we stacked and finding an easy rhythm for the teamwork of splitting. OK, I'll get to the point. We have just under 3 acres that were wooded when we built our home in '91. Our "first major appliance" was our Woodstock Soapstone stove. In the years hence we've never purchased wood. We've simply used what was taken down for the house, garage, or landscaping projects. And we've had plenty for our needs. We set the thermostats at the lowest setting and use wood to keep the house as cozy as we want or to simply "take the chill off" when it's raw outside. We have a splitter and honestly, the hardest part of the operation is just DECIDING that we're going to deal with wood. Once we make the decision the work is pretty easy and the feeling of accomplishment is terrific. I live in New England, too. And there have been a number of stories of pellet manufacturers being stretched beyond capacity by the volume of orders. I'm all for eliminating the middleman whenever possible.

I own a Vermont Castings Intrepid wood stove that is close to 17 years old and was put in by the homeowner before me. We're getting our family room remodeled and the support brackets used to keep the chimney interfere with the sunlights we are going to add to the house (it's pretty dark in this room). Regardless of what we decide in the questions below, we're getting our roof done at the same time. I have two questions: 1)Should I move the chimney flue in the attic and move the actual chimney flue outside so it doesn't obstruct the sunlights and so it can be properly stabilized (it's a very tall pipe -- maybe 10'?) OR 2)Should I replace the woodstove and consider buying a new one or a different heating device (besides my gas furnace) like perhaps a pellet or corn stove? I live near Washington DC so we don't need the woodstove ALL the time as you Northeasterners do. We burned probably 1 cord a year until we had kids and worried about their little hands getting burned. They're older now so we're not so worried. Any quick help you can provide would be great. I'm due to talk to the roofer in a few days! Thanks, Wendy