And as per my norm this evening and this morning, One stick of oak and two pine to get it going.
BBQ qas One stick of cedar to ignite oak and apricot to cook chick breasts.
One more stick of oak for the night and all set.
I think our storm damage will be providing us all winter. I have no idea the cordage on our 12 acres.
Locust doesn't pop much usually, but it does a bit sometimes, kinda depends on the log. Hedge is like a sparkler, but oh so hot, and locust can pop too if it gets a bunch of air so you kinda gotta be careful loading sometimes, a small price to pay. If I'm doing hedge or locust that wants to pop I usually turn the damper way down for a bit first, load for a bit until it's popping then close it up a bit again, and load in quick cycles stopping if it's popping. It takes a little bit more time but you don't fight the sparks nearly as much that way. Locust is a weed here so there's a surprising amount to get, and it's pretty easy to split by hand even. It dries fast I've noticed, which is a plus for me, and obviously it won't rot so long dead trees laying on the ground are still great wood. Even fairly green stuff won't hiss water, but it'll burn much hotter dry obviously, and be much easier to light, but you can get away with burning greenish stuff if you leave the door cracked until it's roaring and leave it on high until it's coaling up, usually a couple hours or so.
Slow to get going because it's so dense, but it just cranks out the heat. I got afterburner air on my insert, once you burn it off and really get it going you can dial it back a bit, but it needs more air than others so halfway is about as low as i usually like to go on straight locust since my insert is so tight, unless i have a good bed of coals from ash or something that tolerates less air. If you cofire with ash or another low air tolerating wood you can turn it all the way down and it'll run you out of the house it's so hot, the lighter wood and their coals keeping the heat up on the lower settings to keep burning off the locust. Earlier this year i did this on accident, dialed all the way down it was over 85 degrees in the front room, maybe 40 outside The coals will lightly glow, it'll look burned out but it's just pumping the heat out, the after burn pipes burning off co without a visible flame. Coals up beautifully, great to last all night since it doesn't burn up quickly, you can wake up to a cold stove and knock the bits around and you'll have a pile of glowing coals still, I've had them almost a day later, toss on some kindling and leave the door cracked and you'll have fire in a few. I've burned more locust than any other wood since i put the insert in, so I've been lucky because with my small stove the locust makes it work like a bigger stove. I think it's about the highest btu wood you can get, and it's easy going and forgiving characteristics make it really nice to deal with.
Here's two chunks with a bit of soft maple on a bed of locust and hedge coals, that's with the door closed for about 30 min, an hour or so after this i turned it to halfway. Lately I've been putting the logs on the coals with a bit of kindling for quicker lighting, and then some more kindling on top of it all to get the afterburner air going hot quicker, leaving the door cracked till its all going good, seems to get the locust going better since it can be a bit sluggish to light. I've also been doing 2 straight in and one skinner one on top turned 90 degrees like a lintel, the coals all piled in the middle, locust really seems to tolerate bigger air gaps well so i can do a smaller fire if I'm not needing as much heat from it, but still have enough pieces to use the shape of the logs to make it burn better by bouncing the heat to each other. No other wood I've tried even comes close to the burn time that locust gives me, which for a small insert is kinda my biggest problem.
I like that I can throw a big round in on a bed of coals and it will burn without having a log beside it. Have you burned any standing dead with the bark having fallen off?
I don't know much about wood stoves, but I grew up in a home that was built in 1650 and it had FIVE fireplaces in it. There were three on the ground floor and two upstairs in each bedroom. There was one particularly massive honeycomb fireplace for cooking in the center of the bottom three with the original wrought iron holder from so long ago. We used to go as a family to buy kiln dried wood and then keep all of the fireplaces stoked during the cold months. Not because we had to, but because we could. The fireplaces that weren't for cooking were extremely shallow in depth, allowing most of the heat to reflect off, back into the living space.
I've messed around with a few food stoves, but I'm certainly no expert. I find them to be cathartic, but like @lxskllr said, they can almost produce too much head. I wouldn't use one except for in a situation where normal means of heating would be impossible or unsustainable. I like the cold quite a lot, but I don't like to be cold in the cold. Similarly, I don't like to be too hot. Pretty basic stuff. The few times I did operate a wood stove, I pretty much would put a small amount of fuel at a time and mostly let the embers warm the cabin. I discovered the joy of keeping a well fueled stove combined wtih a slightly open window at some point and that's probably my happy medium. And this was in 15 degree F weather.
You all seem like wood stove aficionados for the most part, so I apologize if air mixing is a sacrilege!
Don't build your chimney with as many kinks as a corkscrew, simple as that. I have a straight flue, a single damper, no blower, no obstructions. I haven't had to clean the flue, ever. I get up and check a few times in the burn season, every other month or so, because we burn a lot of pine, but no creosote build up to note. Every couple of years, I lower a length of chain and rattle it around. The amount of crap that comes out is never worth the effort of hauling the chain up there.
This isn't my first stove to behave like that, it's the fifth. It really isn't rocket surgery. All the gunk is suspended in the smoke. Anywhere it slows, swirls, or sits, it will cool and crud up. Don't let it do that.
Also, not every damn inch of flue needs to be insulated! You paid for the heat in that chimney, use it! Single wall immediately above the stove, otherwise you've spent money to waste money.
If this post comes off a bit abrasive, TOO BAD! I've been hearing the same chimney fire story my whole life and it's bullshit.
Yup!
I can burn coniferous wood in my furnace, no problems, I just have to adjust the setting, so the blowers adds more air.
With enough air and heat, any wood will burn clean. ( Unless it is soaking wet, of course!)
I used to buy into the 'pines cause fires' story. It's what I heard, and I just accepted it without much thought. When you stop to think about it though, if that were an issue, you'd have houses constantly going up all over the north country. Just about all they have is conifers. It's not my preferred wood, but I'll burn it, especially if it came off my property. Waste not, want not.
I tell people what do you think people in conifer country burn. I get a little soot buildup but not the glazed on stuff I used to get with an oversized masonry chimney. Had a few chimney fires in that one. Scary stuff. Finally it was cracked and unsafe. Much as I tried to keep the temps up to optimum on the burn the chimney just cooled off too much. Put double wall up and no more problems. 2 double wall installations now. Pricey but worth it.
Don't build your chimney with as many kinks as a corkscrew, simple as that. I have a straight flue, a single damper, no blower, no obstructions. I haven't had to clean the flue, ever. I get up and check a few times in the burn season, every other month or so, because we burn a lot of pine, but no creosote build up to note. Every couple of years, I lower a length of chain and rattle it around. The amount of crap that comes out is never worth the effort of hauling the chain up there.
This isn't my first stove to behave like that, it's the fifth. It really isn't rocket surgery. All the gunk is suspended in the smoke. Anywhere it slows, swirls, or sits, it will cool and crud up. Don't let it do that.
Also, not every damn inch of flue needs to be insulated! You paid for the heat in that chimney, use it! Single wall immediately above the stove, otherwise you've spent money to waste money.
If this post comes off a bit abrasive, TOO BAD! I've been hearing the same chimney fire story my whole life and it's bullshit.
Softwood maybe for kindling wood in the stoves here , but safe heating equals hardwoods for me (though I understand it can be done w Conifers) chimney Fires are not safe , as per my experiences and the good advice from the Fire Department ... I try to harvest about a log truck load or so annual off my land , stay a year ahead for dry supply.
I'm always 4 years ahead ( When I don't go into chemo or fall down stairs!)
firewood is stacked 2 years outside and then two in the shed.
My wood is DRY when I use it.
I have central heating via a wood burning furnace.
Heats everything, even the hottub.
Then we have a woodstove because it is nice and cosy to sit in front of a fire.
So for an old farmhouse, 30 m3 is about par for the course.
Folks who only have a stove will typically use a third of that.
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The coals will lightly glow, it'll look burned out but it's just pumping the heat out, the after burn pipes burning off co without a visible flame. Coals up beautifully, great to last all night since it doesn't burn up quickly, you can wake up to a cold stove and knock the bits around and you'll have a pile of glowing coals still, I've had them almost a day later, toss on some kindling and leave the door cracked and you'll have fire in a few. I've burned more locust than any other wood since i put the insert in, so I've been lucky because with my small stove the locust makes it work like a bigger stove. I think it's about the highest btu wood you can get, and it's easy going and forgiving characteristics make it really nice to deal with. 
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