In renovating our 1907 house in East Cleveland, we have explored ways to be as self reliant and independent as possible, including heating our home with wood. One wood burner we found on Craig's list - a very nice 1980s cast iron Country Comfort, manufactured in Orrville, Ohio, and barely travelled 60 miles since - is sufficient to keep warm our living room and two story entry hall and the three bedrooms connected above... and we've largely been heating with scrap wood we've found around town, for free. Most fun, we cook on the stove, all day simmering and toasting food right in the living room, filling the house with great aromas and eliminating our costs to cook such long simmering foods "conventional" ways.

Now being hooked on pursuing the off-grid life, we are beginning to experiment with other stoves and even coal. We bought at auction an antique wood/coal burner for our library, and located another mid-1980s wood/coal burner, on Craig's list, we plan to put in the kitchen or basement, which should allow us to heat the entire house with lots of flexibility. We are also exploring whole house wood and coal heating systems. Over this winter, and in the future, we will learn much more, and we are educating others in the process.

My buddy Snag has been helping me move these stoves and he has been telling other friends in the neighborhood what we are doing and there is lots of interest by others in how to reduce energy costs by getting off the grid. In discussing this, Snag and I realized their is a need to help people do this, and that is the birth of Star Neighborhood Energy. Between installing and maintaining new home energy capabilities and distributing fuel, Neighborhood Energy offers many job opportunities as well as cost savings.

Much more to post on this here soon.