[AT] OT Heating with wood

[Dave Rotigel]

Hi "farmer"--GET A NEW INSURANCE COMPANY! The one you have is not worth 
$hiting on!
         Dave

At 06:44 PM 9/29/2005, you wrote:
>         There will be an awful lot of people that will jump in and
>burn wood this year that have no experience with it. One
>thing that many will learn the hard way is that it is
>imperative that they check with their insurance company
>first. Many insurance companies will not even tolerate a
>wood stove being installed let alone not pay if it is not
>to code. Some policies go void the minute you carry it into
>the house. My insurance company does a little better than
>that. They just want to know if you have one and that it is
>a UL approved unit. There is no "code" on such things here
>other than new construction but many towns have codes.
>         I retired a large stove some years ago, that I had built,
>due to the UL requirement. It worked great for a good
>number of years but was uninsurable. It was made of an old
>275 gal. furnace oil tank I acquired and was surprised how
>heavy it was empty I got to checking it and instead of the
>normal stuff it was made with about 1/8" step plate with
>the grid on the inside. I had a concrete block stove room
>with a concrete floor and a metal ceiling to put it in. I
>mounted it on very short legs and put a stove pipe outlet
>in the center of the top. I cut a 4 1/2" hole in the top of
>each end a couple of inches down from the top. I slid a
>piece of 4" steel pipe through the top and welded it in
>place. The pipe was a couple of feet longer than the 5'
>tank. I cut a door in the side (not the end) that was 2'
>tall and 42" wide. I welded a frame around the top and
>sides of the opening made of 2" angle iron with the flat of
>the angle facing out for a door to mate against. At the
>bottom of the door opening I turned the angle iron so that
>it made a 2" ledge to sit a door on. The door itself was
>the piece of steel I had cut from the opening and it had an
>angle iron frame around it. At the bottom of the door I
>made two pieces of 5/8" rod sticking down about 6" but
>curved. Those fit into two slightly oversized holes in the
>angle iron ledge at the bottom of the opening. The door
>could be just leaned out to check the fire or opened down
>like an oven door. It could also be lifted completely off
>and sat aside. The door was held shut by two iron levers
>that worked like oversized turn-buttons and were spring
>loaded so that they worked well hot or cold and held the
>door tight. There were three air intake holes in the lower
>front. One below the door and one on each side of the door
>down low. They just had pivoting flap doors held with a
>bolt and spring.
>         I could get wood as long as 4' in there if I jockeyed it a
>bit. I could open the door down and set a log on the door
>that was 3' long and as large as almost 2' in diameter and
>roll it into the stove (OK, I was younger then)   :-)    By
>putting a big piece in first and filling in around it I
>could build a fire that would hold (hold, not big heat) for
>36 hours. Since the pipe was so close to the top all of the
>heat and flame that went out the stove pipe opening passed
>around that 4" steel pipe. On one end I mounted a 4"
>squirrel cage blower that blew very hot air out around the
>room in addition to all of that surface area of that big
>tank.
>         It was a great stove but I must admit that this pellet
>stove with the glass door does look better. Of course the
>big stove was hidden by a wall which is now opened up to
>just a couple of 5"x5" rough sawn wood post in an 8' wide
>by 7' tall opening which is framed with the same stuff.
>
>
>--
>"farmer"
>Hewick Midwest
>
>Try my "Cheap Computer" email list at:
>
>cheapcomputer-subscribe at yahoogroups.com
>
>Francis Robinson
>Central Indiana USA
>robinson at svs.net
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