Holy Cr*p alaskan! What a day is right. That would make me want to stay home all winter. Ok, I already wanted to stay home all winter anyway.

that *is* a pretty fireplace....

now WHERE is my blasted camera! (I will find it tomorrow!!!!!)

OMG, alaskan, what a day, poor babies and mother again to be! I would try and save those visit's if possible for better weather. But ya goota get out to your doctor, no matter what!

Muddy - Does your blower/heat exchanger work? That should be the grating above your firebox on the front. Also, I don't see any damper control.
If nothing else, take heart in the fact that down in your neck of the holler your fireplace is more for ambiance than survival. If it was me, after what research I did before replacing my stove, I'd recommend you research a wood pellet replacement insert for your hearth. Google it. Mine is made by Country Flame Technologies ( www.countryflame.com) in Mo. The hardwood pellet fuel makers are in your area, so feeding it would be even cheaper than my costs up here (trucking costs ).
I'd also have those glass doors closed and a fan where he's sitting to pull the radient heat off them. The open doors give you a negative heat ratio as opposed to a positive output, as you have already mentioned. Also, I have to wonder if you are creating a negative air pressure inside the house, thus pulling cold air into the house from outside caused by the draw of your chimney.
Another thing I'll mention; up here, home owner's insurance takes a big jump if you have a wood stove or fireplace due to the fire hazard. My pellet burner negated that as they are classified the same as a conventional gas or electric heating system.
My next research is going to be in finding one of the local ethanol plants that are crying because they can't get rid of their distiller grain biomass by-product fast enough that are making pelletized corn fuel ( as opposed to using whole kernal like I am), like the wood pellets.
I still think that's a damn nice looking mantle/wall.

Pogo - I saw your birdhouse gourd post. Now I know why you were asking about our gourds.....spend a little time on Ebay, do ya...?

You just had to bring up the electric bill, didn't ya! Maryland is going through hell here. My electric bill 2 years ago was 80 bucks at it's worst, for a 30 day period, now 200 bucks for the same amount of days, due to deregulgation(can't spell) of fuel prices in this state.

Gonna be alot of burned down homes, because alot of people can't pay the bill, and are using candles, AND they are too dumb to operate the wicks! Yep, pitiful!

Electric bill...? I must have missed something....

....ohhhhhhh, I get it......the electric heat reference.

found the camera (bribed the kids to look for me)

So here is my wood stove pic!


That white radiating up the sides is the heat damage.

Cool walls Alaskan! Just get some stove paint and paint the Stove. Course, you'll have to ventilate real good when you start it up. High heat paint, stove black. That's what the can says.

quote:

Pogo - I saw your birdhouse gourd post. Now I know why you were asking about our gourds.....spend a little time on Ebay, do ya...?

I'm always babbling on over there in crafts about my gourds, then I see you selling thousands of them!!! Good to see I'm not the only gourd grower here. I'm going to try and sell some on ebay but with my experience there I may as well give them away.

Alaskan,
Thirty years of having a wood stove tells me that you might/should consider replacing that section of pipe with the so called 'heat' damage.

Never saw 'heat' damage on a wood stove before.

Franeli! Hi Girl!

Post a pic of your wood stove when ya get a moment! Yep, that time of the year, when wood stoves rule! Unless, of course, You are lucky enough to live in florida!

ahemmmmm !!......I'm kinda disappointed in all the stove pics and none but mine has a heat reclaimer on the chimney pipe.....you guys are letting alot of energy get away.

Pogo - market we found was crafting them and then selling them to you local nursery or garden center. They then resell. Works for us. There are also crafting "retreats" in the south ( I forget exactly where ) that I've seen advertise to buy in bulk ( although I haven't looked at one of them for some time now ).

franeli, I just had the stove and pipes and all inspected. Passed with flying colors (well, except for my *external* stove pipe which needs a better support ).

The heat damage on the main body of the stove was from when I tossed in too much coal without proper air adjustments. But as I said, it has been inspected and is still fine. *shrug*

MHG,
the heat reclaimer thing....wouldn't it make the creosote buildup more problematic? I have thought of getting one of the fans you put on the stove top. But they are pretty expensive *and* need to be kept within a specific heat range.