Customer Reviews

The Woodburner's Companion: Practical Ways of Heating with Wood

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In an age of rapidly rising energy costs for the homeowner, fresh attention is being given to heating alternatives to electricity and natural gas. Foremost among them is the woodburning stove and/or fireplace. Dirk Thomas is a Vermont chimney sweep how drew upon his many years of experience and expertise to write The Woodburner's Companion, a definitive "how to" manual and guide on the proper ways to utilize wood and fireplace stoves, boilers, furnaces, masonry heaters, and more. Thomas comprehensively covers such pertinent issues as the fuel value of various woods, how to purchase firewood, getting the most heat from what you buy, the environmental impact of woodburning, and a variety of chimney and flue arrangements for best efficiency. Curry provides specific emphasis on the safety issues involved with burning wood for fuel and heat. "Must" reading for the novice wood burner, The Woodburner's Companion will also offer considerable value for experienced woodburners with detailed discussions of woodstove installation, and American and Canadian building and fire codes.

In his earlier, complementary book "The Harrowsmith Country Life Guide to Wood Heat" Dirk Thomas lays out burning wood for heat from A to Z. Everything is covered from felling and limbing trees, using block and tackle to move them on any kind of surface, rigging up trucks to remove trees on hillsides, bucking wood, to installing stoves and chimneys. "The Woodburner's Companion" is more for the less adventurous homeowner who gets his wood ready-to-go or who is building a new house with woodburning in mind.
As such the book is very useful. Heating values of wood, fuel, coal and the like are compared, stove installation and chimney maintenance are covered in some depth, and enlightening facts about clean burning and types of creosote are discussed. I especially value Thomas's remarks on the best way to keep a proper fire in a wood stove going, which is to neither frequently feed it all the time nor starve it down to embers.
He covers types of chimneys, pros and cons of various materials, chimney cleaning techniques, and how best to handle fireplaces and fireplace inserts, as well as wood stoves and wood furnaces.
This is a capable book whose information will get the novice off to a flying start and hone the woodburning skills of the veteran. It will enhance efficiency and safety in the home.

I found this book to have answered every question that can come to mind involving burning wood either as a primary source of heat or esthetic enjoyment. It is enjoyable reading as well as informative. I particularly enjoyed the pros and cons revealed about different methods of wood heat and also Dirk's subtle sense of humor in defending the burning of wood as an institution---as he so aptly states, it is defensible politically since no wars have been fought over wood (unlike oil), and if you have a wood spill, you're not looking at a major ecological catastrophe. It's not hard to see that Mr. Thomas likes his trade (chimney sweeping)and is the best choice to write a book of this nature. To all prospective readers: Enjoy!

If you operate a woodstove, you should have this book. It covers every topic the woodburner should read prior to purchasing, for installation and operation. The information on safety, cleaning and chimney problems is vital. The advice on buying wood will prevent a rip-off (very easily done in the cord wood biz). Woodstove manufacturers should ship this book with their stoves. Highly recommended.

I have burned wood in a woodstove for years, but there was a lot that I didn't know, especially regarding chimney safety. I will be having my chimney inspected for cracked flue tiles, since I know that there was once a chimney fire (before my time). I don't want to endanger my family to save a few bucks. Thank you, Dirk, for writing such a clear and sensible guide. I expect that more people will be using wood to heat their homes as fuel and electricity costs continue to rise. This book is well worth buying as a reference and guide to safely useing a woodstove or fireplace.

Good basics, but lots of stuff not covered if you own a wood stove.

Like how to build a top-down fire.

How to deal with cold-chimney syndrome if you have a wood-stove. (Solution is given for fireplaces, but not stoves).

I consider this book to be my "go to" reference for all things related to wood stoves and firewood. It's a well written, easy to read and understand book. It provides just about every nugget of knowledge needed to own and operate a wood stove without burning your house down. Although we've had our wood stove for 5 years, I keep this book handy and find myself looking things up every once in a while. The book always has the answer to my questions.

Like a wintertime camper huddled around an insufficient, wind-hampered campfire, desperately trying to warm up appendages aching with frostbite, I couldn't read this book fast enough. What would I find on the next page?, I anxiously kept asking myself. Would it be even more good information on how to build, say, a fire with, of all things, wood?

Loads of helpful information can be found in this publication, if all you're interested in is how wood, yes, burns.