I have lived with wood heat since 1959, when we moved to the interior of British Columbia. we now have a pellet stove in the basement and I wouldn't trade it for any of the other options we have used over the last 46 years.

No, it is not noisey, Yes I can (at my age) bring in the 40 lb bags of pellets, No, I don't have to go bush hopping to fall and buck up the trees, I just go to the local retailer and say 3 tonnes, please, and Yes it is easier to maintain and clean and service. We do have a double wall metal chimney (anything else is dumb) No, it is not all the way past the roof line, as with natural gas, zero clearnce fire places you need a lot less clearance. check with local fire marshals or fire restrictions, and/or building codes to be on the safe side.

I, personally don't care if the stove is cheaper to run or about the same, However it is cheaper, It's the comfort I feel with wood heat that is the blessing. There is no better or more comforting feeling than a good wood fire. We do, however pay about $1.75 cdn for a bag of pellets. And only use slightly more than one bag on the coldest of days. I gotta' tell you, I just Love my Enviro pellet stove.

I prefer my solid flue (concrete) over a metal liner. Adds structure to my masonary chimney and eliminates all air leaks.

BYTW, I prefer to burn wood.

Corn is also used to make ethanol, and one of my primary objections to that is it will mean that farmers will be plowing up marginal land to increase corn acreage, resulting in more water pollution from runoff from this land. In the midwest there are a lot of ethanol plants being built, and as far as I know they are designed to use only corn to produce the ethanol. This will help drive up the price of corn (that's why a lot of farmers are investing in the ethanol plants), and make food and corn for corn stoves more expensive in the long run.

A reflection on WisJims reasoning:

When the alternate uses of corn is heating houses and powering cars, we are back the competing uses of oil (or other fossil fuels) for heating houses and powering cars.

Except when it comes to corn there is another competing usage: Food. Poor peoples' food will have compete with rich peoples cars. Just like in former centuries when some people starved while the rich peoples' horses ate lots of oates.

nocar

Nocar~

Sadly, history likes to repeat itself.

I was over @ my brothers sitting in front of his pellet stove the other day. It really is an amazing device...and his can burn corn. I just fear that price rises in pellets will make owning only marginally cheaper then gas/oil.

In the long run we'll probably all have to switch to wood/biodiesel for are heating needs, or move south in the winter.

I just hope we use the relatively cheap energy we have now to do something useful. Like find trees that grow fast and make good firewood - importing them, if necessary.

Jared Diamond says that's one trait sustainable societies have. They are constantly looking for new plants, and new uses for them.

The "discovery" of the New World caused a population boom in the Old World, as new crops allowed people to farm marginal areas that wouldn't grow the native crops. Not that we need a population boom, but having a variety of crops would probably be a good thing anyway.

Of course, in the long run, insulation is cheaper than fuel. It is possible to build a house that is well enough weather proofed to require no central heat source even in northern climates. Our first home was super insulated and could easily be overheated by cooking a meal on the wood cook stove when it was 20 below outside. Body heat, appliances such as the rerigerator, all provide heat that can help keep the house warm. As insulation and weathertighness is increased, of course ventilation becomes more critical, but is easily dealt with.

Frank, I thought you were getting a wood stove? I just installed another one today in my G/F's octagon/study. The stove cost me $75...we built a nice little pine fire this afternoon to try it out--very nice...

What kind of stove did you get for $75? one of the castiron brick stoves? To me they look good, compact, sturdy and they are the cheapest fireplaces I have seen, at $75 from ebay new.

Dukat, sorry about your keyboard...

Here's a link to a photo of the used woodstove I was talking about above. It's a Fireview, very small...I bought it from an old retired woodcutter in the next town, who had a split in his nose from a chainsaw accident long ago...

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sueb1997/ ... pg&.src=ph

One reason to choose a wood-burning stove instead of corn or pellet:

http://www.gilroydispatch.com/lifestyle ... p?c=176473

You can grill in it!

Well, if you're worried about carcinogens, you don't have to grill meat.

Heck, if you're worried about your health, you wouldn't be eating meat, anyway.

I'd worry more about driving in a car then an overcooked steak...

Look @ the statistics of car related deaths vs. overcooked meat...