Posted: Sep 28, 2017 12:20 pm
crank wrote:The_Piper wrote:I'm not disputing the enjoyment of a camp fire, or the cozy heat of a stove or fireplace either. But my fire days are over, my lungs can't hack the smoke anymore (pun intended).
Neighbors burn wood (and trash, plastic, etc), and on days where there's not much wind, it can bother me at my house, and they're like 75 yards away.
Most folks have a chimney. Do you live in one of those wigwams where the smoke was supposed to diffuse out of the hides making up the walls? On a less moronic note, I've been really lucky in that all the fireplaces in places I've lived drew extremely well. it was really rare for smoke to get into the house. Usually the wind, or some fool didn't raise the damper. The big old house I used to live in had 4 fireplaces, 2 on top of 2 with their flews going up one big chimney, and a 5th in another room, all 5 of them drew very well. It helped that it was an extremely drafty house, which is why I was heating that bedroom with an open gas burner. The house and why I needed more heat. That is really really cold in these parts.
Cool house! (Literally and figuratively.
) Well I live at a lower elevation than them, at the bottom of 2 large hills. The smoke getting to my place happens most often in the still of the evening, presumably cooler sinking air brings it along. My wood stove drew good on some days, poor on others, and others, hardly at all. We have a lot of windy days in the fall, winter, and spring. Even on a clear sunny day there may be roaring winds. 
Sometimes that caused downdrafts that puff smoke into the kitchen. I now heat with a direct vent kerosene toyostove, that vents right out the wall through a 3 inch pipe. My house is small and well-insulated, but on the really cold nights, I need a space heater in the room on the other side of the house, or a jacket. Economical though.
If I lived in a warmer place, like Texas, this unit would be enough to keep a large house warm and toasty. ETA - That's cold (the thermometer) we usually have a few nights like that in October. By November it's an average low temp.