Adding a Morso Wood Stove to My Cabin

by braddock

Monday, April 12, 2010 at 07:14 AM EDT

I recently decided my little cabin in the woods needed some help in the heating department. Self sufficiency and reliability have become my mantra lately, so I needed a dependable heat source that my own two hands could supply the fuel for. Wood heat seemed perfect.

My cabin is situated in the deep woods of North Mississippi where heat is really only a concern for 4 months out of the year. When it does get cold we can see temperatures in the teens for several days though. I suffered through a weekend like that just a few weeks ago and decided it was time to act. Kerosene heaters and down blankets can only do so much.

Knowing nothing about modern wood heat, and with a desire to be as efficient in it's use as possible, I started Googling. I found a great forum on the topic of wood heating, heating in general really. Hearth.com was a wealth of information and had me leaning toward an EPA certified wood burning stove.

There are many brands and types of wood stoves to choose from. I knew I wanted proven quality and cast iron, so I went with the Danish stove maker Morso. There's a bit of a debate on which company is the oldest wood stove maker in the world. Depending on who you talk to the title goes to either Morso of Jotul, both from Denmark.

My cabin is only 900 square feet, and from what I've read some of these big wood burners could have you opening a window long before they were up to operational temperature and burning efficiently. I needed a really small stove with a good reputation and decided on the Morso 1410, or the Squirrel as it's also known.

The Morso Squirrel has arrived and I'm in the process of constructing a hearth. I hope to have the old girl fired up within the week. I'll have a little review soon. I included lots of pictures in the post because pics of the Squirrel on the net are hard to come by. She's elusive like that.