I want to put in a wood burning stove to help
heat my single story 1900 sf house.
what are your experiences and suggestions with wood burners?
I would like an old black and chrome antique. But I know
that takes room air for combustion. How much more efficient are the
new ones that pull in outside air for combustion? And what are some
of the top brands as far as good construction, reliability, and parts
availability?

We have a small "Patriot" model woodstove made by Lopi woodstoves to heat
our 1456 sq/ft house. We use it mostly in the evenings for supplemental
heat, to provide that "romantic atmosphere", and to provide heat during
power outages. We've had it about four years now and have been very happy
with it.

Our stove is centrally located and can easily heat the entire house
within an hour or two. We do have a fairly open floor plan with 12-14'
vaulted ceilings, and a ceiling fan to help circulate the air, but even
so our master bedroom in the back corner stays a little cooler than the
rest of the house. That's actually a nice advantage when it comes time to
sleep. Though most of the time I don't bother turning on the ceiling fan,
and the heat seems to circulate just fine.

I installed the woodstove myself, and here in Washington state you have
to get a woodstove permit. It's only about $40 or so, and all they really
do is come out and look at the owners manual (or stamp on the back of the
stove) to make sure you have all the proper clearances recommended by the
manufacturer, and that it's a rated stove. I allowed an extra inch or so
to the side and back clearances and had no problems passing the
inspection. By the way, your home insurance company will want a copy of
the woodstove permit to prove it's installed properly. Mine also sent a
guy out to take a photo of the installation. If you don't get a permit,
you risk losing your insurance or they might not pay out if a fire should
occur. Otherwise, the woodstove made no difference in our insurance
rates.

Our Patriot woodstove seems to be very clean burning. Other than a little
smoke when starting the fire, there's very little smoke coming from the
chimney. I clean our chimney every summer, and there's usually less than
a 1/4 cup of soot and creosote built up inside the chimney (about 18'
tall).

Because houses are built so tight now, we were required to supply an
external source of air for the woodstove. Basically, I just cut a hole
into the crawlspace, covered it with a wire mesh to keep out critters,
and the woodstove has a metal boot that extends to the floor over the
hole (optional equipment of course). It pulls fresh air in through the
foundation vents, instead of using the air from the living space. It
seems to work quite well. However, if I turn on the kitchen stove fan
before I have a fire going to get a good draft, it will pull a little
smoke into the room where the chimney sits on the woodstove (it's not an
air tight connection). Once the fire is going, it's no longer an issue.

We wanted the all-black look of the Patriot model, as it fit best with
the rustic nature of our house. But, my sister-in-law cleans houses for a
living and has said many of the woodstoves with chrome trim have the trim
come loose after a while. I can't confirm that, but it's something to
think about.

Don't apply the "bigger is better" mentality to a woodstove. Even our
little Patriot model can overheat the house rather quickly if I get the
fire too hot. Hot fires burn cleaner (the door glass stays cleaner), but
it usually gets too hot in the house if I don't close the damper down.
Even so, I never start a fire unless it's under 50 degrees outside. It
just gets too hot.

Other than cleaning the chimney, there's virtually no maintenance other
than cleaning the door glass and dumping ashes occasionally (usually once
2-3 times each season for me).

The only downside to the woodstove is it dries out the air. Makes your
nose a little dry inside, and we get a lot more static shocks. We've been
meaning to get a "steamer" to go on top of the stove which is supposed to
help counteract the drying effect, but that hasn't happened yet.

Anthony