Allergic to wood smoke (Caribou, Allagash: to buy, live in, price)

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

Well I hope the new stove works, PM. Don't worry about the pushback, the FFCA guy deserved it lol.
And to answer another post, YES having a wood stove in the basement can work. I have seen old homes here that did it, most had a big, ornate floor grate right above the wood stove so that the heat could rise right up into the living area. I've often wondered why this went so out of style.

You get more heat by having the stove in the room with you. The wood stove in the basement does warm the floors, but unless the basement walls are insulated, you will notice that there won't be any snow right around the house.

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

Well I hope the new stove works, PM. Don't worry about the pushback, the FFCA guy deserved it lol.
And to answer another post, YES having a wood stove in the basement can work. I have seen old homes here that did it, most had a big, ornate floor grate right above the wood stove so that the heat could rise right up into the living area. I've often wondered why this went so out of style.

There are also combination wood/oil furnaces that go in the cellar where you would normally find the furnace, and they hook up to the regular FHA ducting. They are designed such that if the wood fire goes out, the oil burner will take over automatically. I know a guy that has one of these.

The main problem with these and the outdoor boiler is that in addition to the cost of the unit, the installation costs are higher. In the case of the outdoor boiler it can be even more expensive if you don't already have an FHW system. Installation for P-Mom's new P68 will be a simple matter of an adapter to run 3" PV pipe into the place where the old stovepipe went into the flue, and boring a small hole for the Outside Air Kit.

Congrats on the new P68 P-Mom, I think you will be much happier with that instead of the leaky woodstove.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

Well I hope the new stove works, PM. Don't worry about the pushback, the FFCA guy deserved it lol.
And to answer another post, YES having a wood stove in the basement can work. I have seen old homes here that did it, most had a big, ornate floor grate right above the wood stove so that the heat could rise right up into the living area. I've often wondered why this went so out of style.

Yes and I had the pattern of one of those floor grates singed into my bare feet as a child!!!

[bangorme]

Originally Posted by PenguinMom

Kracer, I am allergic to trees (yes, all trees), many types of molds, several types of grasses, rodents, cats, and ragweed. Since wood stove smoke contains allergens from trees and from several of the molds to which I am allergic, I am highly reactive to it. I currently take allergy shots every other week and am on as many prescription antihistimines as a person can legally be on.

Being in a room with a "normal" woodstove I'll feel a little stuffy, and have a small headache. Being in the house we just purchased, if the stove is running, I feel like I've been punched in the face. The sinuses in my nose and eyes swell, I feel like I can't breath. I get a pounding headache, become irritable and dizzy. I eventually pass out.

My husband ordered the P68 Harmon. I'll let everyone know how it works when it gets here. I have no idea why he chose that over the outside wood boiler, I was out cold after taking sudafed and benadryl at the same time.

Well, I'm sorry about your allergy. I wasn't aware that there was such a thing as a true allergy to smoke.

I've owned pellet stoves (including a Harmon), and sometimes they do smoke. Not often, but occasionally. Plus, even though they are tight, they aren't perfectly tight; neither is the flue, stovepipe etc. I'm thinking that the smoke from a pellet stove would contain much less of the organic compounds you are allergic to. Pellet stoves burn very very hot. This is completely different from a wood stove that you have damped down to burn efficiently. I couldn’t even see the smoke from my pellet stoves coming out of the chimney.

Your only other option is to burn outside, but that means something like water or steam heat, which would significantly increase the cost and complexity of heating.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

Well I hope the new stove works, PM. Don't worry about the pushback, the FFCA guy deserved it lol.
And to answer another post, YES having a wood stove in the basement can work. I have seen old homes here that did it, most had a big, ornate floor grate right above the wood stove so that the heat could rise right up into the living area. I've often wondered why this went so out of style.

In the 1970s when we had two oil crises and people were looking for alternative ways to heat their homes, my brother had a small coal burning stove installed in the finished basement of his one story home.

As I recall, he had to put in one or two small floor vents (neither of which was directly above the stove) to more evenly distribute the heat from the stove to the first floor.

The arrangement worked great.

A few years after the oil crisis ended, he was still using the coal stove, but then bought a larger house where he returned to heating with oil, leaving the coal stove to the new owners of his old house.

The little coal stove worked great, BTW. You poured a bucket of coal in the top, and every so often pulled on a handle to shake more coal form the top storage area into the burning coal below.

And I think once a day you had to empty the ash tray at the bottom of the stove--this he would do by sliding the tray out and placing a cover over the tray to prevent any ash from blowing out while he carried it outside to empty.

It was a little bit of work but nothing like the basement coal furnaces in the house where I was born, which were much larger and not as covenient to operate.

Burning coal might be something to try for someone alergic to wood smoke, but first you'd have to seee if you can get and burn coal in Maine, and also check if your allergic to coal smoke too.

(I like the smell of coal smoke, crazy as it sounds--because it brings back memories; when I was a kid, my whole neighborhood heated with coal, including my elementary school. Wood smoke smells by far nicer though.)

[maineguy8888]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

In the 1970s when we had two oil crises and people were looking for alternative ways to heat their homes, my brother had a small coal burning stove installed in the finished basement of his one story home.

As I recall, he had to put in one or two small floor vents (neither of which was directly above the stove) to more evenly distribute the heat from the stove to the first floor.

The arrangement worked great.

A few years after the oil crisis ended, he was still using the coal stove, but then bought a larger house where he returned to heating with oil, leaving the coal stove to the new owners of his old house.

The little coal stove worked great, BTW. You poured a bucket of coal in the top, and every so often pulled on a handle to shake more coal form the top storage area into the burning coal below.

And I think once a day you had to empty the ash tray at the bottom of the stove--this he would do by sliding the tray out and placing a cover over the tray to prevent any ash from blowing out while he carried it outside to empty.

It was a little bit of work but nothing like the basement coal furnaces in the house where I was born, which were much larger and not as covenient to operate.

Burning coal might be something to try for someone alergic to wood smoke, but first you'd have to seee if you can get and burn coal in Maine, and also check if your allergic to coal smoke too.

(I like the smell of coal smoke, crazy as it sounds--because it brings back memories; when I was a kid, my whole neighborhood heated with coal, including my elementary school. Wood smoke smells by far nicer though.)

Yes you can buy coal, there are at least two dealers of coal and coal furnaces up here. The coal today is often MUCH cleaner burning. I have a big coal furnace in the basement that was unhooked before we bought the house. It's probably only 30 years old or so. I hope to find a good use for it someday.
Maineah, never thought of the hot grates!! Guess slippers would be a MUST for those homes.

[Submariner]

We have a small coal stove at one end of our house, a woodstove at the other end.

We bought the coal stove brand new last February. No problem finding coal around here. We got it hoping to be better able to hold a fire going over the night.

We were burning coal and peat when we owned a home in Scotland. Open hearth fireplaces with very small grates seemed to burn coal just fine there. [though I think it was soft coal].

This coal stove has become a difficult learning curve for us, trying to get it to light a full load of hard coal, and again trying to get the fire to accept fresh coal in the morning.

[bangorme]

One additional option is the burning of corn in your pellet stove. I've never done it, but I know the Harmon I owned in Caribou was supposedly able to burn it. I priced it out at the time and wood pellets were cheaper.

Funny about the floor grills. About 30 years ago I rented a large old house in Houlton that had a double barrel stove in the cellar. Above it was a huge floor grill. Because the house had a back stairway, I was able to heat the whole house using the thermals. I can remember that stove getting so hot I thought I could see through it. I'm sure it was a little.... unsafe.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by bangorme

... Funny about the floor grills. About 30 years ago I rented a large old house in Houlton that had a double barrel stove in the cellar. Above it was a huge floor grill. Because the house had a back stairway, I was able to heat the whole house using the thermals. I can remember that stove getting so hot I thought I could see through it. I'm sure it was a little.... unsafe.

Our double-barrel heats up real good, and at times it will glow red too.

In theory the thin walls will burn-through quickly giving it a short life-span. This will be our fifth year with it. We have replacement barrels ready to go should it ever burn-through.

Since this is in their design, I am not so certain that it really is 'unsafe'.

They are certainly an inexpensive stove.

[bangorme]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Our double-barrel heats up real good, and at times it will glow red too.

In theory the thin walls will burn-through quickly giving it a short life-span. This will be our fifth year with it. We have replacement barrels ready to go should it ever burn-through.

Since this is in their design, I am not so certain that it really is 'unsafe'.

They are certainly an inexpensive stove.

WOW!!!! Didn't even know they still sold them. I'm sure they are pretty safe if you know what you are doing. I can tell you one thing, there wasn't a bit of creosote in that chimney. The one I used wasn't close to being air tight and stuffed with tinder dry softwood, she produced some heat.