Strike a Match

After 4 years of talking about it and hemming and hawing we finally got a wood stove! Our house heats with propane and if any of you have purchased propane recently you know, like gasoline, it’s not cheap.

A friend who converted to wood a year ago did some math (he’s an engineer…go figure ) and calculated that the “break even” point between wood (figuring in cutting/hauling/stacking on your own or purchasing by the cord) and propane is around $2.00/gal. Well we use about 100 gal/month during the heating months (Oct – Apr) and while it starts out okay the price really spikes in January/February. Nothing like getting a $300 plus dollar heating bill every month. Yikes!

So between the choke factor there and the fact I’m not drawing an income this year enough was enough!

We purchased the stove itself back in September. Kevin was going to do the install himself but we soon realized that although he has the know-how, he does not have the time to do it in one fail swoop. Plus, we had an existing propane fireplace insert and faux mantle they needed to come out too. We figured a contractor who does this all the time, has all the tools, and can whip it out fast might actually be cost effective.

After getting a handful of bids from several guys we went with Plew’s Home Heating and Air Conditioning. They were professional, competent, and friendly….the price they offered was fair too.

Here’s the photographic rundown on how it went.

BEFORE:

Okay, so I didn’t take an “Official” before photo and you would not believe how often I don’t take photos of the living room.   So, this is a picture from when we first moved in. We added a mantle piece and nice large DU print over the years, but pretty much this is what it looked like.

 

DURING:

 

 

 

 

 

AFTER:

Though I think it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other in actuality, I feel like we have a little more room now. The plan is to, at some future point, upgrade to a flat screen TV to save even more space.

As you can see the wall paint doesn’t exactly match. However, I’m not hung up on it and I think we did a pretty good job picking since we didn’t know what color/brand the original paint was. Most of the time you don’t even notice, but in direct sunlight (or in this case, a flash) you can see it.

The stove itself lives up to its “Heatilator” name. We use maybe four or five pieces of wood each day and the main part of the house stays right around 70 degrees. It took us a few days to figure out how much wood we needed. There was one evening where we got a little carried away and I was ready to dig out shorts and a tank top….

The bedrooms are a little cooler (probably around 63/64) but that’s fine. I don’t know about you, but we like sleeping “cool” anyway; and if it really bugs you there are these great inventions called blankets.

The only thing left to do is see how burning wood effects the propane bill. I’m actually kind of looking forward to when it arrives in January.