Monday 4 November 2013

The Wood Stove

I made it through my first weekend heating with my wood stove. I am happy to report that despite a rather smoky beginning the house made it through intact and I only suffered a small burn to one of my knuckled where it brushed the top of the stove. I could sum up the weekend as follows:

I LOVE MY WOOD STOVE.

A little too enthusiastic? Perhaps, but I very much want one in all of my future houses. I must admit that I approached this experiment a bit dubiously. The stove cranks up my insurance prices and I have memories of stacking wood as a child in the middle of november while freezing rain is coming down. But I decided to test it out and see what happened.

I've had a bit of a rocky start as a kid when it comes to fire and burns. Namely I once decided that the stove element looked lovely when it was all read an glowy, so I put my hand on it. It didn't go well and I developed a bit of an aversion to anything that was hot. Fortunately, I ended up in the Duke of Edinburgh program with my siblings and as a result went on a number of camping trips. Since I was disinclined to let them be better woodsmen than me I did learn how to start a proper fire and keep it going.

This weekend (despite the burn I sustained) I really enjoyed having the fire. Building on my camping skills was a bit of a challenge but lots of fun. For example initially I had no idea that the little leaver at the bottom controlled air flow, it's not like the camp fires I'd built had leavers associated. Fortunately I figured it out pretty fast (after calling my dad for help). Amazingly enough once the stove got going it kept my entire house at a balmy 21.7 degrees Celsius without the electric furnace. Not to mention the nice smell, the ambiance, the challenge of timing the logs that you add, and the fun of heating stuff up on top of the wood stove.

Like I said, I love my wood stove.

1 comment:

  1. Oh - I'd love a wood stove too! Just for the smells alone...

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