Today it was 65 degrees and hasn't been cold yet this year. Butttttttt . . if I'd said, "screw it" this summer and not installed the stoves it would have no doubt been record cold here since the middle of November. Lololol!
Hey brother, install a wood stove in your house! The quality of the heat a wood stove kicks out just cant be beat and there's nothing that can break either.
In the USA ( Va.) to get a fireplace insert they make you get a flue liner which doubles the cost. It’s a racket...
Do you have a cast iron teapot on it, to add moisture?
Always heard that was the crucial ingredient to perfect wood stove heating 😉
Visited Taormina some years back, and had grilled shrimp that completely ruined me until I can get back to have it again. That is Saying a lot for someone who lives on the Georgia/Florida coast 😶
Merry Christmas to All!
Tatt
Congratulations!
Your actions made it warm there this Winter!
Pat yourself on the back.
I have a similar story about ending a drought when I put in a rain collection system with a large tank so I could wash cars and irrigate plants. The skies promptly opened up, within 2-3 months all the reservoir lakes were full, water use restrictions ended.
Hey Rocco. I think your recommendation for a wood stove is a good one.
Another option is a wood pellet stove which we had when we lived in the Poconos a colder than average winter being in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Let me share the advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
1. Big savings if you buy a truckload of 40-lbs bags of pellets before the winter. If the season’s cost of electricity is $6,000, the cost of propane gas is $3,000. And a pellet stove is $1,500 in pellets.
2. Lugging the bags into your living room or wherever is your central heating point is good exercise and you can pre-stack a few bags in the room.
3. The stoves very hot — very satisfying heat on a very cold day.
Disadvantages:
1. Once a day you need to cool the unit down and clean out the inside of ashes. This keeps the combustion cleaner and more efficient.
2. Twice a year, do a deep cleaning, taking a bristle brush into the air chambers that tend to collect ash.
3. Figure $500 for a technician to come out once a year and fix something that broke in the stove.
4. The stove works on electricity — so you are out of luck if the electric power goes out. The fan unit will consume a fair amount of power in season, too.
5. You may not have a large basement to store the bags for the season. Typically we burned one bag a day and three bags on a super cold day.
6. Remember that the fan that supplies the air to burn the pellets is strong and will be pretty noisy.
7. Finally, the Mrs. may not like the idea of a stove because no matter how careful you are, some dust will spread around the room.
* * *
So there you go.
I installed a wood stove in my last house when my family was young. After a trip to the burn unit when a little one put his palm on the stove, I stopped using it until we left that house. Still miss it.
I miss northern Sicily, too! and the rest of southern Italy. Several trips there. Heaven on earth for foodies, history buffs, boating, island culture, art, music, artisan goods, antiquities, archaeology, etc... Buon Natale!