Providence protects children and idiots. I know because I've been both. -Mark Twain-
My wife enjoys being warm in the winter. Make that Africa hot, she's happiest when the house is above 75 and pushing 80. She's easy on the thermostat during the summer, so the least I can do is make her happy during our brief winter here in Texas.
The selection of pellet stoves in Texas is not what you have up North, to say the least. So after much research I found a model that worked for us from Tractor Supply, it was delivered to the front door back in September and sat collecting dust waiting for a free weekend to be installed.
As luck would have it FreezePocalypse 2016 found the daytime high on the Snow Compound at 77 followed by a nighttime high of 24. 53 degree drop in a matter of hours. The house came with a heater in the master bath and a very small propane fireplace that is great for knocking the chill off of 45 degree nights, but can't keep up when it's in the teens or 20's outside.
As with most of my projects this one was motivated by sheer panic. To quote Twain again, "If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done." Fueled by the impending Freezemageddon, I started measuring once and cutting twice. Through sheer luck of the height of the pallet and floor protector, the hole for the 3 inch pipe ended up in the only section of the wall that it could have gone through, again it's better to be lucky than good.
It's going to be in the teens tonight, and the pellet stove, while rated to heat 2200 square feet is doing a fair job of keeping the house relatively toasty. There's no way the propane stove would have the main living area at 76 degrees.
The project was pretty straight forward, order the insulated pipe, high temperature silicone, and for the first time in my life I had every tool needed in my possession and didn't have to go into town. I finally feel like an adult.
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