Feature: Living Efficiently in Northern Ontario

The simple things in life are emphasized by the stories shared with us by wood stove owners and Ecofan enthusiasts. Marko Koskenoja's story is no exception. We're always thrilled to better understand our customers and share the way Ecofan underscores comfort in the lives they've carved out for themselves. 

Tell us about yourself. Why’d you choose your lifestyle? Why is it important to live a life that includes heating with wood? 

We live in the mountains of the Algoma District of Northern Ontario Canada in a chalet style house a few kilometers down the road from the Searchmont Resort Ski Hill. It’s an idyllic setting with our 16 acres of maple and mixed forest surrounded by thousands of acres of Crown lands. We enjoy the outdoors and the peacefulness of rural living. Now that we are both retired, we enjoy our daily hiking, backcountry skiing and snowshoeing with our dogs and dogs we foster through Northern Critters In Need.

Tell us about your wood stove. How long have you had it and how often do you use it? 

We heat our house with a US made Hearthstone soapstone wood stove along with porcelain ceramic tile heated floors and baseboard heaters. We have had the woodstove in place for 15 years and use it daily in late fall to early spring.
For 15 years I harvested dead trees on our property for firewood using my tractor and logging winch. Now we buy our logs from local providers but still buck, split and stack our firewood.

How did you learn about Ecofan? Which Ecofan model do you have? How’s it working out for you? 

Efficiency is important to us in everything we do so we were delighted to discover the huge benefits that having an Ecofan brought to heating our home. We have an overhead ceiling fan that helps circulate the air up or down (depending upon the season) from the loft area of our house so it stands to reason that moving the air laterally would also help to distribute the warm air from our woodstove more evenly throughout the house.

We have 2 ECOFAN AIRMAX with BLACK BLADEs that match our woodstove perfectly but more importantly one Ecofan pushes warm air towards our kitchen and the back of the house while the other sends warm air across the large expanse of glass in the front of our house. They make a HUGE difference in eliminating cold air pockets and areas in our house.

Looking ahead, what's next for you?

We are in the process of bucking and splitting some trees we took down over and along our driveway. In August, we are heading West to Alberta to visit family and then on to the Yukon where we visit Whitehorse and then hiking in Kluane National Park for a week. On our way back we are staying at the rustic and remote Shadow Lake Lodge in Banff National Park.

Follow Marko and his adventures on Instagram and Facebook.