Who am I and why am I talking about wood stoves?

Welcome!

I'm Michael Cox, chemical engineer by training, maths teacher by profession, born tinkerer and pyromanic and the person behind WoodstoveWizard.com.

For many years I've been consumed by a passion for burning things but, fortunately for the neighbours, also for doing it better. At university we studied chemical processes, how to optimise them, how to profit from them and how to make them as efficient as possible. One of the traits this instilled in me is an urge to take things apart mentally - figure out how they work - and try to improve on them.

I've spent many a long car journey, with my long suffering wife in the passenger seat, silent until my current plot is fully formed. Sometimes its for a better way of making biochar, crazy ideas for the veggie patch or a plot to turn the garden over to short cycle willow coppice (I got shouted down on that one but I'm sure it still has potential).

Building a website around my passion seemed to grow naturally from all those thoughts and WoodstoveWizard was born.

What I'm aiming to achieve here is to offer advice for individuals who are considering investing in a wood stove of any type, as well as perhaps offering some courage and support to those looking at some of the less mainstream biomass heating alternatives - anyone out there considering planting half an acre of willow coppice and installing a rocket stove heater let me know, I'll be there like a shot with my camera :D

If you want to ask a specific question, have some info to share or a story to tell do let me know!

Mike