Howdy everyone!
Watch it Preacher!
Been running around doing stuff today. Just stuff, and not anything very productive. It just all had to be done.
The kids are back down with migraines, grrr! Here's hoping the new meds work and kick in soon! Cassie's new pain med seems to be working pretty good. She was hit during the night and now is up moving again. That's pretty good if it lasts. Chris is stuck as far as pain meds go, until he grows some more or gets older.
Gayla and Rob, ya'll have fun getting away from it all.
Sue, I grew up with wood stoves. How much of your house they will heat depends entirely on how your house is built and where in your house you put it. If you have a central location that all the rooms open into, you can probably heat a small/medium house with a wood stove.
Things you have to think about are:
where's the wood coming from and how much will it cost per load(around here a load of split wood is $65 for what will fit in the bed of a pickup and not heap up either. When I was a kid we owned land in the country and dad cut the wood we needed and my brother split it),
how long will a load last (if you are paying $65 a load and a load only lasts a week, are you really saving anything?)
who's carrying the ashes and where will they be disposed of, (ashes are heavy, messy, hot and a fire hazard until they are cold)
what will you do for heat at night because it's not safe to keep them burning while the family is asleep at night, (we slept cold but used electric blankets. Our cold is nowhere near your cold.)
who's getting up in the cold to start the days fire and,
how much will installation cost and how much will yearly chimney sweepings cost?
Another thing to think about is your breathing problems. Wood smoke is not usually beneficial to folks with breathing problems. There will be a certain amount of smoke every time you have to feed the fire.
55% is outrageous! The folks in your cooperative or state need to get together and complain big time. You state must not have an overseeing authority for public services like Alabama does. I don't think Alabama Power could get away with that big of a hike. The Alabama Public Service Commission has to approve all rate hikes. The most I've ever seen it go up was 7-8% and that even was a few years ago. We had a small increase last year, but no where near 55%.