Wood heat. SoCal ignore

[bikeman]

It's too quiet around here. My 340C (SE) hasn't left California yet so the big question of the day is who heats with wood? How big a stove do you use and how much and what kind of fuel do you use? We just installed one of these and bought eight face cords.

http://www.quadrafire.com/products/inserts/woodInsertDetail.asp?f=2700i

Unless it's a very mild winter, eight isn't going to get the job done.

David

[P Seastrand]

We use something similar to this:
http://www.quadrafire.com/products/stoves/pelletStoves.asp

I'm in the central California foothills, so we don't get that cold, but cold enough.

[Lou-the-dog]

That fireplace insert should work great. The popular thing here in the Midwest is corn burning stoves. They are essentially the same as the pellet stoves. I've been tempted to buy one that would connect into the central heating system of my house. Reportedly they have no odor or the creosote issues of wood. I've been tempted as being a farmer I have a ready supply of corn. The $2500 price tag is a bite tho.

Randy

[BriWit]

We do actually use heaters here ;) Even at the beach (warmer than the valleys and Inland Empire) it can dip into the 40's on occassion. I'm a MN transplant so I know that isn't "cold".

[curtis]

I was born and raised in SoCal....and I live near the beach. The 40's IS COLD for me. :)

[bikeman]

I lived in Tucson for a little over a year. When I moved there in January of 70, I had the top down on my convertible day and night. A light jacket at most. When I moved back to Syracuse in April of 71, I wore a winter jacket even when it was in the 40's. The sun and the warmth had turned me into a wuss.
This morning, as I look out my window, it's 32 degrees with some snow flurries. Can't decide whether to wear sandals or shoes on my bike commute to work. It's going to soar into the upper 30's today and the main snow squalls will remain 30 miles to the north, so sandals it is. Nothing like normalcy. :p

David

[curtis]

If I could, I'd wear sandals to work too! :D

[Mag_Neato]

Went to my son's football banquet at his school last night. Started at 7pm. weather was clear, no rain or snow....nothing. Left at 8:45pm to find I had to brush about an inch or two of snow off my car :mad:

Today the low temp is 25 and the high is 40, and it ain't even Thanksgiving yet!

[BGHD]

We do actually use heaters here ;) Even at the beach (warmer than the valleys and Inland Empire) it can dip into the 40's on occassion. I'm a MN transplant so I know that isn't "cold".
Agreed. But, I really think it's lame that people in SoCal place such a premium fireplaces. I've used it once in 6 years, and really only to make sure the gas worked. And, do others always find fireplaces in exactly the spot where you'd wanna place your big screen? Sorry, off-topic a bit.

[bikeman]

And, do others always find fireplaces in exactly the spot where you'd wanna place your big screen? Sorry, off-topic a bit.
Very much on topic for our forum. Our fireplace, which holds our wood stove, sits in the best place for a wide-screen, and of course the 340's would be ideal on either side of the W-S in this location as well.
The house was designed and built 90 years ago before there was central heating and the fireplace was situated where it would be most effective in providing heat as well as being the focal point of the main floor. The fireplace was the television in 1916.
I'd assume builders put fireplaces where they do in new construction to make an immediate statement. It draws the prospective buyer's eye to the most attactive piece in the living area. It's a very effective sales technique that most folks don't give any real consideration to until they've bought the house and then the W-S. If I were to buy new construction (not in this lifetime), the theatre/listening area would be my first consideration. The woodstove could find a home someplace else.

David

[BriWit]

Our last apt was the only one that had a fire place. It was built in the early '70's and they designed it so that the apt next door had its fireplace on the same wall. This design made the hearth more than twice as wide as it should be. There was plenty of room on the other wall for a wide screen, but you couldn't put your seating directly across from the TV without blocking the fire place. We had two choices when we moved. One duplex with a lot of shared wall space and a fire place, the other with only one shared wall at the opposite end of our unit from our living room and no fireplace. We chose the latter! This was six years ago and I was thinking, which place can I crank it up and not get complaints. The downside is that this place was built in the late '50's and still has the original single pane windows so it gets pretty chilly in the winter.

[curtis]

My ex-wife works for a home builder here in Manhattan Beach.

I have seen a few of the homes, and in every one, above the fireplace, there are provisions to hook up a plasma TV.

If I ever get to build a home, I would move the fireplace or get rid of it all together, and make that spot the center of the entertainment system.

ahhh.....to dream.... :)