On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:18:04 -0700, Bill wrote:

The thing with woodstoves is you need to add them to your insurance policy
to be covered for fire...

Then the insurance company will want to come out and inspect the
installation. They will want to see a building permit which shows the
installation of the stove/chimney was inspected and passed.

We had that with out place when we bought it, only with a furnace rather
than stove - insurance places wouldn't touch it unless it was all UL
approved and the system inspected up to the eyeballs.

The stove in question was all 1/4" plate, totally home made. Big split
along one seam - probably been like that for years. Fun stuff :-)

I'm not sure what EPA approval is - is that the same as UL approval and
the terminology's just changed? Or does UL approval apply to furnaces
and EPA approval to stoves? UL was the thing all the insurance companies
up here were worried about.

With the wood furnace gone we're on propane and electric baseboard now,
but I'd quite like to get a wood furnace back in there too sometime. Might
go with an external one, though, which would also free up the half of the
basement that's currently full of wood (and I could brick off the wood
chute)

cheers

Jules