07:14 – I told Barbara yesterday that I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of installing a propane stove, for a lot of reasons. I said that we could get one if she really, really wanted to, but no matter what I wanted to have at least a small wood stove. She understands my reasons for wanting a wood stove, and she agreed not to get the propane stove but a wood stove instead.
We decided on a Little John stove from Buck Stoves. It looks perfect for our needs: about 75,000 BTU/hr output, a 22″ 2.8 cubic foot firebox, non-catalytic so there’s nothing that needs replaced periodically, and it has a flat top that could be used in an emergency for cooking. It’s even EPA-exempt, although I’m not entirely sure what that means other than that there shouldn’t be any hassles getting it installed and using it. I’ll call the fire marshal and ask what permits or other stuff we need to get to be legal. I already asked our home insurance agent, and he said it wouldn’t be a problem.
It’ll go in the unfinished basement area, which already has two 6″ flues specifically installed for a wood stove. There’s a concrete floor and a concrete block wall. The outside door in the unfinished area opens onto a large concrete pad, and is covered by the deck, so we have a good place to put a woodpile under cover. The deck will keep not just rain but also snow off the wood pile, and it’d be a 20 foot walk from the woodpile to the stove, without any stairs.
Best of all, the stove is low-end price-wise, at around $650. It’ll cost more to get it delivered and installed, of course, but that shouldn’t be outrageous considering that there was a wood stove already there that the old owners hauled off. In fact, we may just run down and pick up one at the factory, which happens to be in the western NC mountains about 70 miles from our house.
If there’s one thing that Sparta, NC has, it’s trees, so I imagine that a cord or two of wood will be competitively priced. Wood will certainly be less expensive per therm than electricity, so we’ll probably keep the wood stove going at least intermittently all winter long.