Living off the grid, homesteading and embracing a simpler life is wonderful, most of the time. Sometimes however you are faced with dilemmas that really are a bit disappointing.
One of the challenges I am facing is having a severe reaction to wood smoke. When you heat exclusively with wood, this is a rather large problem. I noticed the issue when we had a camp-fire outside a while back but figured It was a combination of things and not just the smoke.
This past week we've started burning wood indoors to heat the house. Even with windows open, fans going and no tell-tale smokiness I cannot endure another moment of it. My lungs are on fire, infection is setting in, I am coughing and wheezing, my head aches and not having a lot of fun.
This is quite frustrating and worrisome because not being able to breathe and not being able to relieve the symptoms because the problem is the air itself makes for a bad few days. It is not as though the house if filled with smoke, this is a good stove, we are burning good wood, the chimney is clean - everything that we know of is optimal.
I just adore sitting in front of a warm fire in the evening so it is disappointing on so many levels. I also like to heat water, cook, warm things ... I am really missing the warmth of it's flames already.
We are fortunate that we have a back up - we also have an outdoor wood furnace to heat the cabin with. This was part of the original design of the cabin. We invested in this wood stove so that during the shoulder months we would be able to take the edge off the cold without having to load up that big furnace. It uses more wood and we don't need 24x7 heat. Sometimes just a few hours of heat and the house is warm enough for the whole day. This furnace takes hours to warm up so you really might as well keep it running.
I suppose knowing we have this indoor stove for emergencies is reassuring but at the same time, we could have invested in so many other things had we known it was going to be a problem.
I've been around fireplaces for years and not had this problem so it does make me wonder if it's the design of the house or something that I am overlooking.
I don't even know what the point of this post is other than to share that sometimes things don't happen as planned, things change or we learn from experience that we can't do certain things that we wanted to, on the homestead. Having been an avid camper and spending so much time around fires, I never even imagined that wood smoke and a fireplace would be a problem, but it is. My health comes first, so we'll have to figure something out and adapt.
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oh man! i can't believe this!! what a bummer... i'm so glad you have that back up, but this must be severely disappointing. it's so hard when simple (seemingly) and enjoyable things cause us distress. <3
I am really terribly disappointed and it really cramps our style so much - I am hoping to come up with some kind of solution because it really limits us in a variety of ways. I feel a bit like I am letting us down but at the same time, I have no control.
Oh noooo. I never thought if this but with all my allergies I probably would be, too! It might depend on the type of wood; have you ever been allergy tested so you know what trees you're allergic to? Also, I have bought a "java log" - a wood fireplace log like a duraflame but instead of who knows what, it's made if coffee! Maybe you could try those?
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Wood and heat is worth considering forsure if you have allergies! I am an allergic person and probably I should have foreseen this. Allergies and intolerances seem to change over time but I know the signs immediately. We've got 5 cords of wood and don't really see those kinds of alternatives in our future but I think that is really cool - logs made of coffee!
I too was thinking along the lines of the type of wood or if there was any mold or anything like that on the wood or inside the stove itself. What a shame! I feel really bad that this happened to you.
@mtnmeadowmomma this is the story of my life I'm afraid .. I was dolled out the wrong pair of lungs when I was born.
Is this a brand new stove? As in, not seriously heated up previous to this season? If so, could it be off gassing?
And speaking of off gassing, are there newly finished things immediately adjacent to it? I had a friend who had serious issues with off gassing for a long time....
This is so interesting @goldenoakfarm - perhaps the kitchen cupboards are playing a role. I'll look into this (not that there's much I can do to change things). Thanks for this insight, I would never have thought of it.
If you haven't been allergic to wood smoke before, maybe the problem is the stove itself. New woodstoves give off fumes from paints and oils if the haven't been cured. If that's the problem, it should resolve after a few fires - if you can survive it.
Thanks - and you are right. When we first fired it up I could not be in the house - it was horrid. I think we are past that and this is something else (unfortunately). That said, maybe there still are some residual fumes coming off. We'll try again perhaps once my lungs are happy again.
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This is such a neat idea - thanks so much for sharing @squirrelbait!!
You are very welcome. I hope it proves useful.