[Varn]

Glad that the water exchanger works for you. I would rather not have the construction and maintenance costs associated with a more complex system.

We have all the wood we want, our forest makes more than we can burn every year, so fuel cost is zero whether we burn 3 chords or 10. Except for perhaps a half gallon of pre-mix per chord. Making the heat last through the night is our problem.

We chose to put in a new high efficiency EPA wood stove. Haven't had that cold of weather yet but it seems like it will last through the night better. The stove pipe doesn't run nearly as hot as it did with our older stove. The heat is let into the room rather than going up the stack like it did with our old stove.

We were stoking the older cast iron stove about every 2 hours the last few years. Adding another heat exchanger would not be a good idea with this new stove, cooling the exhaust would make it lose draft.

If I can get to the point of retirement or start working from home, my fuel usage will drop dramatically. I won't leave my property more than once per week My cars will last nearly indefinitely.