On Nov 15, 6:44 am, HerHusband wrote:
... the air gets very dry when we use it.
Not necessarily, with a fairly airtight
woodstove in a fairly airtight house.

I couldn't explain the physics behind it, but I can attest to the dry air
when we use the woodstove.

We have a fairly airtight house (built in 2003/2004), but also have a fresh
air ventilation system as required by Washington state building codes. So
we always have fresh air entering the house.

The woodstove has it's own external air supply and doesn't take air from
our living space.

It's not too bad if the weather is rainy, but if it's a cool dry day, it
only takes a couple of hours before our noses start feeling dry, and we
start getting lots of static shocks.

Evaporating water takes heat energy, ie more firewood.

Our small woodstove puts off way more heat than we need to heat up the
house comfortably, so a little heat loss to evaporate the water is a minor
issue. I doubt blocking a small 6"x9" area on the top of the stove is going
to make much difference anyway, since a lot of heat seems to come from the
front and sides.

decrease the need for heating energy, ie firewood.

We only use our woodstove for supplimental heat. Mostly for the romantic
aspect and for power outages. A cord of wood can last us almost two years.
I'm not too worried about using a little extra firewood.

Anthony

Same here. A gallon of water/day (about my use) adds up to a _lot_ of
vapor. Here also, any loss of heat is not noticeable as the wife runs
it too warm anyhow.

Harry K