I'm taking the plunge. It'll be around 3K for the whole setup/installation. I've looked around quite a bit for wood. Those guys that actually still have firewood, $175 seems to be the going rate. I hadn't ever thought of wood stoves as an option, but in talking to people I spoke to a few who never use their oil burners except to heat their water.

Anybody else have wood stoves?


I think I'll burn American wood instead of Mid East oil.

Check with your insurance company.  Some companies will not insure you if you have a wood burning stove/fireplace.

We just replaced our old wood stove last year with this onequadrafire.com/products/stoves/woodStoveDetail.asp?f=IsleRoyale
Our old stove was a "cat"(catalytic combuster)and was difficult to regulate so when it came time for a new one the Quadrafire seemed perfect and so far has been excellent.  We live in a 1700 sq. ft. log house here in Riverhead and with the stove going the oil burner never comes on and my wife calculates that we cut our oil comsumption last winter by 2/3's!!  Now wood is more work and someone needs to be monitoring the stove but I don't mind the extra work and nothing beats having a cozy house without the damn burner constantly running.

I'm in Valley stream and we installed a Vermont Casting dutchwest in the large size and its the best thing I've done to the house. Boiler gets set to 66 and never comes on except early in the morning's. Like Green said its a little more work but nothing beats a cozy fire in the winter. The dog loves it!! Check Prianti Farms on Deer Park Ave for firewood. They deliver but if you pick it up its a lot cheaper. Just picked up 1/2 cord for $84.00  

I highly recommend the Quadrafire stoves.  I had the medium size one in the basement my old house (a 1200 sf ranch with electric baseboard heat) and heated the whole house with it.  I would buy a truck load of log length wood and cut and split it in my backyard.  One truck load would keep me going for the whole season.  The good thing about wood heat is you get warm 3 times - when you cut and split  it, when you carry it in and when you burn it

Wow! The ~15-20 facecord of nicely seasoned maple, oak, beech  and hickory in my woodbarn sure has gone up in value  I'm lucky to have 12 acres of hardwoods on my back hillside. I have 2  fallen trees in my woods to block up, possibly this weekend.

I think a face cord of seasoned firewood is in the $65 range locally, but could be higher this year. I haven't really checked.

For what its worth...

I did some research last year on BTU ratings of hard wood by the cord. Oak then the maples give the best BTU ratings (30,000,000 for the oak and around 25,000,000 per cord). I saved almost $1000 last year. I put my stove in the basement near my forced air system. I installed an alternate intake so by leaving the blower on, the air-handler takes the 100 degree air and circulates through out the house. I can't beat the return on investment. The previous year my heating bills averaged $300-$400 per month, last year they averaged less then a hundred.

Mind you is it located on a concrete floor with drywall around it and two layer of drywall on the ceiling to make it more fire-resistant. Two layers of drywall gives you an approximate fire rating of 60 to 90 minutes.

In northern NJ, full cords are running $165 to $190. I'm lucky because I'm getting 4 cords for $500 from a tree service company that I've used in the past.

Just play it safe.

You just made it a YES for putting in a Fireplace.

I was going to do the traditional type cutting the wall new chimney. These Stoves look like a better deal and less loss of BTU's. I guess I still have to cut for the exhaust pipe, but it beats having to do a whole brick chimney
After what oil is going to cost I rather spend it on this and have if for years to come.

Just bout a quadrafire on the recommendation of a friend who has one and like everyone says, his oil burner is rarely on. Saves alot of money, I ll save even more as I cut split and then load it from my place upstate and unload it here on L.I. Total cost to me is the effort and gas for the chainsaw and splitter.
Total cost with installation from " the woodbox" is $4000
Im hoping to recoup that investment in 2 yrs.

Quoted: Just bout a quadrafire on the recommendation of a friend who has one and like everyone says, his oil burner is rarely on. Saves alot of money, I ll save even more as I cut split and then load it from my place upstate and unload it here on L.I. Total cost to me is the effort and gas for the chainsaw and splitter. Total cost with installation from " the woodbox" is $4000 Im hoping to recoup that investment in 2 yrs.

Is your wood seasoned or fresh cut? Got to season it for at least a year, no?
And my old man is switching to natural gas from oil. $5k conversion

I have a "wood processing " area at my weekend home, I have my tractor and backhoe to drag the trees out from the woods to the woodshed. The woodshed holds the wood for drying after it is all cut and split. The shed holds about 5 cord plus the log splitter. I have a large garage type structure that I store all cut logs that havent been cut to size ( 16 to 20 inches )  prior to being split and stored. When I need wood, I place large industrial wire baskets in front of the woodsheds double doors and load them with seasoned hardwood ( the baskets are 3 foot by 3 foot by 4 foot) I fill them and then use the backhoe to lift and load them on my trailer. I get 3 on my trailer which is just about a cord of wood.
I have alot of fallen timber that I just drag out of the woods and cut and split, then I have fresh trees that I cut to clear an area for my pond, its all stored and I know which is which and only take the seasoned logs for burining. The wood doesnt really dry out well until its split, I have logs ( ash) that have sat out in the hot sun for the whole summer. When I cut and split them , they were still holding a Load of water in them. I put a load of them in my SUV to take home and the next morning all the windows were dripping with condensation.