Old pot belly stove?

Question

Im trying to convince my wife, to let me get an old pot belly stove in the lounge room, we have ducted gas heating in the house, would it be cheaper to use a wood stove, or ducted heating?????

Answer 1

From your wording I gather the lounge has no heat as of now.

A pot belly stove has a certain kind of charm and will effectively warm a room. There will be concerns about fire safety and of course the chimney must be a very good one or you can burn the whole house down.

My insurance company would not cover the stove until they had inspected the whole installation. If you don't tell them you have a wood stove and there is a fire you may find you aren't covered because of the risk they couldn't assess. I had to pay about $25 extra per year to cover the stove but it saved me far more than that on heating.

I would want the vented heat for those times when I wasn't there to heat the stove in addition. You didn't mention how far north/south you live so it is hard to assess how much good you will get from the stove, but with the cost of gas rising you could cool the whole house and spend most of your evenings close to the stove to save money.

I wish you luck whichever way you choose.

Answer 2

I am not an authority on this but I remember being told that old pot belly stoves or franklin fireplaces were not efficient when it came to heating a room.

Answer 3

A couple of things to think about before you install the pot belly WBS. #1, check with your homeowners insurance provider, some will cancel your policy if installed. others will only cover if installed only by a professional in the business. #2, do you have a readily available supply of cured wood(thats a min. of two months of open air drying)? #3, have a place to stack your wood out of the weather and dry yet close enough to the house to be easily gotten? #4, have the time to cut and split your wood and stack it? Will it be installed in a location for prime heat distribution and distant from any combustible material? #5, "DO YOU HAVE SMALL CHILDREN"!!! And it goes on and on. Clean up, ash disposal, down time while stove comes up to temp. Overnight heating while unattended. If I were you, read up on the issue and see if the initial investment to do it right is worth the effort.

Answer 4

definitely cheaper to use the wood stove than any other source of heat. your fuel grows on trees. its not a maintenance free thing. youll have to swab out the chimney pipe every spring, and you'll have to chop wood for it. also youll have to be smart when it comes to fire making and not set your house on fire.