Oh my! @johnpark makes it seem so difficult to safely a wood stove.
@osito. I don’t think it is as hard as @johnpark makes it seem. Poor little old me (single female 50s) heats her house almost exclusively with her wood stove. You can retrofit your house, even a modern house. Financially you may need to do it in steps. I put in my Vermont Castings (with a 25’+ chimney pipe etc for under $10k, the piping and it’s installation was the most expensive). You might do a smaller stove for much less and maybe do in phases with a smaller stove for much less.
The bigger issue is the wood. Depending upon your wood sources, you can also have wood delivered. Before I moved to UpState NY, I lived outside Philadelphia PA and had wood delivered annually for my wood fireplace. My fireplace was sufficient to keep the living room and a few surrounding rooms heated very nicely. If the SHTF, I could easily have survived one winter.
Not sure why @johnpark thinks you need a shed to store your wood as no one in my area stores their wood in a shed. I would like to know the reasoning. I season and store my wood in covered stacks. My extended family has done the same for generations. Chainsaw safety isn’t that big a deal. Now climbing a tree etc that is a little more tricky.
Ok I am really flummoxed about @johnpark needing over 7 cords to heat his house! Oh my! I have to wonder how big his house is to need that much wood. Utilizing my wood stove, I heat my house 90% of the fall/winter/spring using less than 3 cords for the entire year! I also live in Up State NY where it gets really cold. I would suggest that @johnpark check his insulation. For any house, your insulation is an easy fix to help save on energy.
Good luck with your project. Keep us updated 🙂