Thanks !!
When the house was being designed I organized an impromtu "design committee" including, among other people, a family friend who was also my real-estate agent.
"The committee decided" that the house would also have a conventional furnace. I went with propane for convenience -- it's more expensive per BTU than oil but the masonry heater will carry much of the heating load. Also, it seems that insurance companies strongly prefer wood heat to be secondary, not primary.
If I go away for more than a few days I have someone stop by periodically and make sure the furnace is still running. If I ever get time off to take a real vacation I'll give you a call
>>I guess cleaning the creosote from the flue channels could present some challenges, especially if it were an elaborate configuration with all the options
Exactly. Burning it out seems to be the only practical option, and even a masonry heater has a tough time surviving a creosote fire undamaged. When you need to run a heater on uncured wood, the most common solution seems to be the "Russian Heater" approach, where the smoke channels are horizontal and easy to access. Normally Russian Heaters are built entirely from brick, so the mason just leaves one or two unmortared bricks at the end of each channel. When it comes time to clean out the heater, you just pull out the loose bricks and "presto" you have a cleanout. If you want to be fancy you can use cleanout doors
