Rob,
I have heated our 1,530-square-foot rambler exclusively with wood since about 1978. I have a Fisher stove on the main floor and a Vermont Castings stove in our walkout basement. Heating with wood is not dirty, nor do we smell -- or smell of -- smoke. Both stoves are hooked to a 8" X 12" concrete block chimney with clay flu liner. We have a second flu of the same size for our oil-fired furnace, which now serves only as a part of our centeral air conditioner system. My wife and I love wood heat. The Fisher runs steady virtually all winter and we fire up the Vermon Castings for holiday gatherings in the basement rec room or when the temps drop to below zero and we want to take the chill out of the basement. When we built the house, we installed the chimney near the center of the house so heat from a wood stove would be distributed more efficiently. We have since installed a large ceiling fan in the dining room to help keep the heat closer to the floor. It works beautifully. We live in the country and have access to all the free wood we need. I have a '53 Jubilee and a '47 Farmall B, a two-wheel trailer, a Stihl chain saw, a homemade hydraulic wood splitter and a woodshed that holds about 12 cords of wood. The woodshed has a roof and three open sides, so the wood stays dry.Based on my years of experience, here's my thoughts. Don't start burning wood just to save money. It requires an amazing amount of work and unless you enjoy cutting, splitting, stacking, hauling and re-hauling and re-stacking, you'll take out the wood-burning device in a year or two. And while we don't have any smoke problems, you do have to vacuum around the woodbox after you fill it. You also have to be careful when you clean out the stove because the ash tends to drift off in air currents. Furthermore, if you have to buy the wood, you won't save much, if any, money. Also, if you don't have a good chimney, don't hook a wood stove to it or you'll eventually burn down the house. Speaking of chimneys, put a special thermometer on your smokestack so you know how hot it is. This is very important because keeping the needle in the yellow reduces the risk of developing creosote in the smokestack and chimney. As for heating devices, I prefer brand-name air-tight stoves. They can be spendy, but they produce the most heat from a given amount of wood. It's also nice to be able to move closer to the stove on cold, windy nights. Hope this helps. And good luck.
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