Not a bad set-up at all.. Looks like you live in a nice private area, but.. that could just be the picture. Yea, I know you have to be careful when using pine cones, but they really are excellent fire starters. I take four or 5 cones, light one on fire and put the rest on top.. followed by some twigs from one of my kindling sacks and throw on one piece of dry wood.. the cones take off like gasoline in a few seconds and I have a fire in no time. I still plan on being careful.. and like I said, I only use 4-5 a day, and thats if my embers from the night before are completely out.
The pipe from my wood stove feeds into a bricked up chimney that's been retrofitted for a stove set-up, complete with a square rock pad for the stove to sit on. My main concerns right now is the bricks on top of my chimney need to be re-mortared and have a nice chimney cap put on. When I first moved into this place, I had to take the loose bricks off, and even clear about 3 that had fallen down into the chimney over the years. On the plus side, the chimney does have a steel casing all the way through. Not bad for a house built in 1962.
Though I'm unsure how I would go about it, I would eventually like to have a fireplace/stove for my upstairs.
It's damn near impossible to keep any heat up there when the temperature drops. It would either mean cutting into the old chimney and retrofitting it, or.. running a new stack possibly out the side. I would probably do the latter so s not to fuck up the preexisting structure. I have a lot of future build-ons in mind for my old place, so if I want to save myself from constantly redoing work.. I'll need to pick a place that isn't going to b disturbed for the long haul.
You got a good link for how you go about making your charcoal? That's something I'd definitely be interested in.. sounds very efficient.
And I know what you mean about wood stove versatility. The electric goes out here frequently in the winter time, sometimes for weeks on end. While I did manage to pick up a cheap efficient generator over the years, we've cooked many meals on cast iron skillets to save on fuel.. and.. I really like doing it that way anyways. I own the "logwood" wood stove.. it holds up to a 27" log I believe.. Let me see if I can find a picture..
There were better images to be found on google, but this one shows the cook top.. Its supposed to heat 1,600 sq ft, but you know how they often exaggerate on those things.. then again, it heats my downstairs pretty efficiently and entirely and its aprox. 1000sq ft. Of course the rooms further from the stove stay about 5-10 degrees cooler, but still warm by all standards.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/US-Stove-Logwood-1-600-sq-ft-Wood-Burning-Stove-2421/202398322 Yea, it is a 27 inch log.. Most of my cuts are about 20"-24" though.. I've gotten it red a few times when I first got it, try not to do that now. On those real cold nights, I have a few 5-gallon buckets of coal if I really want to crank out the heat. I dont use much (dont want to melt it down).. but around here you can get a 5-gallon bucket for $2.. really cant beat that. There used to be a small stockpile on this property when first moved here, and was told there would be some more hidden around here.. just haven't made the effort to find it.
