oneoldbanjo
Addicted to ArboristSite
Normally I will just add enough wood to my OWB in the morning to last all day - then at night I add more - and only enough to last until morning. I try and build as small of a fire as possible and hope to only have coals when the next loading time comes around. I believe this helps to keep wood consumption down, keep the smoke down, and it makes the coal bed easier to rake and keep the hot coals on top.
We were leaving for the Thanksgiving weekend so on Thursday morning I got up early and cranked up the heat in the house to 74 and cranked up the heat in the garage to 60 (we normally heep the house at 68 and the garage at 50). After the house came up to temperature I loaded up the Woodmaster 4400 with as many logs as I could fit. The wood was about 8-12 inches in diameter and 36" long and I filled it to the top - and then I threw in as much small stuff as I could fit around the big pieces. I then turned the house thermostat down to 60 and turned the garage heat off, and turned the sidearm on the water heater off. Our house and garage are made out of SIPS panels - which are styrofoam panels with OSB plywood on each side and they are both very well insulated.
When we returned last night after being gone 3.5 days the house was down to 60 degrees and the garage was not yet down to 50, and the hot water from the water heater was down to lukewarm. We had about a 12 inch thick bed of large coals and about 1/4th of the wood still left in the OWB - I guess it would have gone about 4 days without being tended. I don't know for sure what the outdoor temperature was while we were gone - but I would guess it was down to the low 30's at night and high 40's to low 50's in the daytime. I cranked the heat back up to 68 degrees and it took about 2 hours for the temperature in our house to get back up to 68, and this morning I added a couple of small logs and stirred the coals around. This evening I will probably just stir the coals again around 5:30 and then add some wood before turning in for the night.
On the 300 mile trip from the Youngstown area to Northern Kentucky I saw lots of wood smoke coming from rural houses. I am not sure if more people are burning wood these days....or maybe I just notice it more now that I am burning wood.
We were leaving for the Thanksgiving weekend so on Thursday morning I got up early and cranked up the heat in the house to 74 and cranked up the heat in the garage to 60 (we normally heep the house at 68 and the garage at 50). After the house came up to temperature I loaded up the Woodmaster 4400 with as many logs as I could fit. The wood was about 8-12 inches in diameter and 36" long and I filled it to the top - and then I threw in as much small stuff as I could fit around the big pieces. I then turned the house thermostat down to 60 and turned the garage heat off, and turned the sidearm on the water heater off. Our house and garage are made out of SIPS panels - which are styrofoam panels with OSB plywood on each side and they are both very well insulated.
When we returned last night after being gone 3.5 days the house was down to 60 degrees and the garage was not yet down to 50, and the hot water from the water heater was down to lukewarm. We had about a 12 inch thick bed of large coals and about 1/4th of the wood still left in the OWB - I guess it would have gone about 4 days without being tended. I don't know for sure what the outdoor temperature was while we were gone - but I would guess it was down to the low 30's at night and high 40's to low 50's in the daytime. I cranked the heat back up to 68 degrees and it took about 2 hours for the temperature in our house to get back up to 68, and this morning I added a couple of small logs and stirred the coals around. This evening I will probably just stir the coals again around 5:30 and then add some wood before turning in for the night.
On the 300 mile trip from the Youngstown area to Northern Kentucky I saw lots of wood smoke coming from rural houses. I am not sure if more people are burning wood these days....or maybe I just notice it more now that I am burning wood.
Last edited: