Independence Homestead

Home Heating Solution

Last summer we were researching alternate home heating solutions, well we settled on an option! We decided to go with a Jotul Wood Burning Cast-Iron Stove. We were able to pick up a floor model from a company that recently changed locations for a steep discount. We hooked it up through our existing fireplace and obtained a fire/heat resistant floor mat to place in front of the stove to keep our floor from melting.

Using firewood that we can obtain for free through websites like craigslist we have been able to use the stove to reduce our home heating costs. Unfortunately modern homes are not usually designed to be heated using stoves so the air movement is less than ideal, especially in a town-house. The result is that we still use our HVAC fan to circulate air, which does use electricity, though still much better than having to pay for heating gas.

One lesson we have learned since using the stove is that it goes through a lot of wood to heat a house. Our initial wood pile was estimated to be about 1/2 to 3/4 a cord, it was not enough for even two months of using the stove. Since installing the stove we have greatly expanded our wood storage capacity. We now have 3 large wood piles in our yard set up in series for optimal seasoning (more on the wood piles in another post).

The second lesson we have learned is that if you plan on having a wood burning stove, try to have a setup where you can close the flu behind it somehow or have the flue vent have minimal distance before it goes vertical and out of the house. We have experienced a problem where if we let the stove go cold for a few days that a back draft of cold air builds up and pushes into our house. This makes the room colder than normal when no fire is on and makes starting the fire without getting a lot of smoke in the room difficult. We have seemed to master the smoke issue by starting out with very small hot burning fire. We accomplish this by making  a small “log cabin” style fire with lots of news paper and kindling in the middle. As it burns quickly the high heat pushes the cold air back with minimal smoke. As the air flow is reversed to how it should be, up and out, we add more wood and avoid smoke back-draft!

Stove In Action

We really are very happy with the stove addition. It is wonderful to sit near it on a cold dreary day and have that glowing heat surround you. We have also mastered the air distribution by adjusting the HVAC vent settings in our house so that the temperature is kept even in all levels without having to use the conventional heating system. The pot on the stove is filled with rain water from our rain barrels, it keeps up the humidity in the house. We are also ready to brave out any storm or period of energy loss from the grid as we have a stock pile of fire wood that should keep us going for a long time, and can be easily replenished.