Quest for Fire....

I know the title of this post is a rip-off of the early 1980s movie with the same name. The biggest difference is my post won't win any awards (the movie won an academy award for Best Make-Up) but since I am choosing to tell my story in a language most people understand, I think it is, at the very least, more interesting. For those not familiar with the movie, it had no spoken lines, just grunts and hand gestures. Much like the movie, our quest for fire is driven by the need to find a new source of fire to replace the fire that is no longer present in our primitive social structure. Back when we moved into the house in August, fire was the furthest thing in our minds. Fast forward to December and the idea of a roaring fire takes on a whole new dimension, especially since there are still some openings in the exterior walls and it was 28 degrees the other morning.
This first picture is what was here when we got the place. Like I said earlier, fire was the last thing on our minds back then, so I barely even paid attention to this lovely unit here. It is actually a pretty good pellet stove for its era, which my guess is the late 1980s. The bin under the lid you see on the back half of the unit was even full of pellets. That should have been the first clue this thing might have some operational issues. Most folks would time the last fill of pellets with the end of the heating season so when the next cold season rolled around, a fresh bag of pellets could be dumped in. Long story short, the first time it got really cold here, I decided to try and fire this puppy up to put some much needed heat into the house and that's when things started going downhill. I won't bore everyone with the details of what didn't work and what diagnostics were used to try and determine which component was not working, but suffice to say, my OCD and ADHD brain burned an enormous amount of calories trying to solve the problem. At some point, sanity was experienced for at least a couple of seconds and I realized trying to fix a 20 plus year old pellet stove was not the best idea. Especially since there is an acre of almond trees just outside waiting, wait, make that begging to be transformed into split firewood.

That fact led to a great deal of research and the grand decision was made that a fireplace insert would be the best solution. The biggest reason for choosing an insert rather than a free standing unit similar to the pellet stove already here was to reclaim some floor space. The existing pellet stove sat on a hearth pad that sticks out four feet from the face of the fireplace. This means you have a pretty significant obstacle to walk around when hanging out on that side of the family room. With the insert, about 21 inches should be able to be cut back and reclaimed. That might not sound like a great deal of space but think about this, that is just about half the width of a normal hallway. Being able to add that much of a corridor in a family room that will have the usual array of bizarre furniture arrangements is pretty close to priceless. The biggest buzz-kill to the utilization of a family room is having it so space constricted that everyone has to follow a traffic flow diagram to get around.

This picture of the opening in the fireplace after the pellet stove was removed really serves no purpose other than to show the progression to what will eventually provide heat for our home. The new insert will sit partially into the cavity of the fireplace so the exhaust will have a very straight pathway up through the existing masonry chimney. Almost a foot of the new stove will stick out into the room and sit on the existing hearth. That part will radiate heat into the house AND provide us with a cook top surface to keep a kettle of water hot for coffee and tea. That's what really sold me on this whole concept. Who can resist not being able to have a constant source of hot water all winter long for beverages that warm you from the inside out?

This last picture is the actual stove insert that we ordered. The photo is a stock one but we'll try to get an actual one of our installation up in the near future. The new wood stove insert is the same brand as the pellet stove being replaced. One reason for this is that I admired the heavy duty construction of the frame of the old pellet stove. I did expend more than a few cuss words while I was troubleshooting the electrical components in the failed attempt to keep the old pellet stove operating, but looking back, whatever part failed on this machine probably gave a very long service life and I was just the unlucky person that came along and needed fire just after this part had given its best.
All in all, I would say we are happy with the decision to buy a wood burning stove insert for many reasons. First and foremost is what was mentioned before; when you have an acre of firewood sitting out the side door, it's a no-brainer. Equally as important is the fact that Lynda and I very much like being able to manage our heating needs outside of a blood contract with a utility company or fuel dealer. I'm not saying I don't think they have our best interest in mind every time they pursue a strategic marketing initiative, I'm just saying that as long as we can cut and stack firewood, we don't really care. Our quest for fire is over.