Wood Burning Stove vs Fireplace Insert

[ladyhk13]

I say wood stove especially if you live in a place where you need heat part of the year, don't buy a cheap one, it will just fill your home with smoke, a good stove might run near $ 2500-3000, and most you could cook on top of......we bought this almost 4 years ago, I don't use my heater in the winter at all, people give away firewood most of the year ( they tend to sell it in the fall ) stock up in the summer and you are ready to go in the late fall, nothing like free heat.
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What brand is this one and what sq/ft are you heating with it? How often do you have to add wood thoughout the day in the winter - do you have to get up at night to add wood? I see you are in FL so your winters are mild compared to many of us.

[rentprop1]

this is a Jotul , IIRC it was just about $ 3000 for everything , I'm not a handy man at all, and the installation was a breeze, ranch style home, normally we shut off the furthest bedrooms which means we are heating about 1100 +/- sq feet.
how much wood you burn will depend on the type you burn, how seasoned ( dry ) it is and how large the logs are, I burn oak mostly, usually split 3 ways quarter, half and full log, up to 6 inch diameter, the larger logs you can load up the stove before bedtime and throttle down the air intake, and there are always coals in the am to all smaller stuff to if you want to get it going again. the average fire it up after work 5 pm to run all night about 2 arm loads of wood . To run all day maybe 4 arm loads or a wheelbarrow full.
I'm near Ocala FL, it does freeze here, many nights in the 30's Dec thru Feb, I don't run the electric heat and save a bundle on the light bill, the stove has paid or itself in about 4 years, if you live in a colder climate, probably pay for itself in about an year and a half ....... don't think you can get away with a $ 300 box wood stove, those are made for sheds and barns, if you buy a cheap stove everything in your home will smell like smoke and you will live in a white haze, when its 20 degrees out it really sucks to have to open the windows and clear everything out.........buy a good stove ....trust me

[ladyhk13]

I agree about buying cheap. I just found a floorplan for a house that calls for a woodstove kind of in the middle of the house between the kitchen and the living room (there is sort of a sitting area between the two rooms that the stove in in but no walls). It is 2 story so I'm wondering if we can find one to heat the whole house and maybe one that I could learn to cook on...don't know what I would cook on it but I'm sure I could find stuff, our members are very innovative here. I don't know if a fan would be needed or if the heat that radiates is enough? The thing must get really hot though so being careful not to get close to it for safety reasons should be a consideration especially with pets?

[Kodiak]

As it turns out, the fireplace that the builder put in our home cannot support a wood burning insert so we'll either have to build a new brick or stone fireplace from the ground up, or remodel our living room by ripping out the angled wall in the corner of the room and put a wood stove there. Either way its going to take some work and $$$, so for now we're just gonna keep our cheap pre-fab fireplace insert. Who knows if we'll even be around after this year anyways lol.