I live in northern MN. Winters can be brutal. My house uses gas for heat. I am thinking about installing a wood burning stove. Lead times on these are not bad right now - it seems not many are looking toward heating when it's 90+ degrees.
Are any of you moving in this direction as part of your prep? Thoughts?
Passive house. But that is more of a new construction thing.
Anyway, the woodstove might save you money even if the grid stays up. Natural gas can and does go out, often at the worst possible time. Don't know if that also happens up north, like it did in Texas in 2021.
We do all of our heating with a woodstove and a pellet stove. If you can afford it, I HIGHLY recommend Jotul woodstoves or inserts. The one we have puts out a lot more heat than the old Englander we had and is very efficient. Also, if you live near a national forest, you can get a permit and cut your own wood. But, as someone said below, make sure you can get firewood before buying.
When I bought our two stoves several years ago, everybody was switching from pellets and wood to gas stoves because the price of gas had gone down. They tried to talk me into going with gas. I said no way, gas (and propane) will go back up. Pellets are a bit less work but are more expensive and they depend on having electricity. Either stove heats the entire two-floor house by itself. I should say wheezy, 100+ year old frame house where you can feel the cold air coming through the walls and up through the stone cellar.
We have no fireplace so ours are standalone. Inserts are quite a bit cheaper, I think. And of course you don't have to worry about installing a chimney. We have two chimneys but no fireplace - one from when a coal stove was used a long time ago and one installed for the old woodstove.
If you only have an acre, I don't think you'll be able to get all your wood from your lot. Check your local Craig's list and you should be able to find people who will cut and deliver firewood. Make sure you get it soon, both to ensure supply and in case it's not well seasoned.
The national forest permits aren't expensive and I think are good for a ton. Looked it up - $20 for a year and you can collect six cords. Dead wood only but there's plenty. They may vary from forest to forest.
We have a lot of power outages out here. That's why we have two different kinds of stoves. If SHTF, the woodstove doesn't use any electricity. I have a stovetop fan that runs on the heat produced by the stove. That stove kicks out so much heat, we don't really need the fan.
And we can cook on the woodstove in a pinch. I just love our Jotul. Load it up before bed, and it doesn't hold that much wood at a time, and in the morning, the wood has burned down to coals but the cast iron stove is still keeping the house warm as toast. The Englander was cast iron too but didn't hold the heat. The Jotul has a special system that burns more efficiently but cleaner too so less creosote in the chimney.
The pellet stove has to have electricity to run the auger than feeds the pellets and the fan. But we fill the hopper once a day and that's all we need to do other than cleaning. It runs on a thermostat so shuts itself off and on as needed. Our old pellet stove was either on or off, no thermostat, so it used a lot more pellets. You can set up a system where pellets are delivered into a massive bin in, say, your basement and then auto fed into the pellet stove on the floor above.
Where I'm from - Alaska - having at least one backup heat source is pretty common. We also have natural gas and a fireplace with a gas starter and a fan, but we are moving a wood stove from our downstairs to the attached garage. That gives us an alternate heat source that can be transferred to the house with a fan. We've added a lean-to greenhouse to the south side of our home so we can transfer heat either into it from a window or from it to the house. Just think redundant systems - you can find numerous creative ways to accomplish this.
Yes just done exactly this.
It would be a very smart investment.
Right now, during summer, they are readily available and cheap.
If SHTF during winter... wood stoves won't be available.
I got one when O was in office. Shortly after there were rumors that wood stoves were to be banned in my state so, so far I have it set as a decorative with all parts stored nearby. I constantly collect wood.
My plan was 3 means of heat.... wood burning, propane heaters with proper ventilation, and in my camper battery powered heat.
I have the Vogelzang Ponderosa TR007, it's in my basement and heats the whole house comfortably down to the single digits, it gets to 30 below in NE Vermont, on those days, I have to use portable oil filled radiators, and of course use plastic on the NW windows, and at night cover them with quilted blankets.Fortunately those terrible snaps are not the norm, but 0 nights and single digits can last for a month. If the power goes out, I can cook on it, and I always have a back up of water for that. I've been thinking about putting a small stove in upstairs for those 30 below nights. I keep our home warm with 4 cords of wood a year, with 5 cords, I have some for the next winter. I don't care where you live, a woodstove is invaluable for survival.
I would do that for sure if I lived their. If you live were their is a lot of logging,you can buy a truckload of culls that are to short for the mill to take very cheap. You can also buy truck loads of slabs,if you have a saw mill in your area.
Find out what wood is avalible before you buy.
I've been stewing on this myself, live @ 4400~ Oregon/Idaho border. Get's a little chilly. Electric furnace make's me nervous.