heat with a wood stove

[jack_90125]

I was just curious for those that heat their house with an indoor woodstove.how much wood do you burn through in the winter and how large is your house?
I have probably gone thru 4 cords in a 2500 sq ft house and winter has not even started yet.
going to have to get the saw and splitter out this week.
thanks

 

[chipsoflyin]

2200 sq ft home, 1 1/2 cords so far, 3 1/2 seasoned and ready to go. 4 1/2 sounds like alot so far for your location. what type of stove do you have.

 

[panhead9]

Sounds pretty inefficient of a stove to me or mabye just a leaky home
It really does not matter if you get your wood for free as my house is 1600 sq ft and i burn about 9 cords but leaks like a sive but wood is free so i dont care

 

[gink595]

I heat soley with a free standing wood stove in a 1200 sq. ft house that is plenty drafty. I have used about 1 1/2 cord already. Last year I believe I used about 5 cord total.

 

[huskystihl]

2200 sq ft, bout cord and half and haven't even used the furnace once yet. My house is tight though, new windows , doors and well insulated

 

[jack_90125]

I have no idea,came with the house has night watch on the doors and is probaly 30 yrs old or older. house not too leaky.
just seems like alot of wood.yea I get it free and have a bunch of seasoned that needs to be cut and split,but is dry.
thanks for the replys.

 

[turnkey4099]

Also about a 1200 sq ft house that is "insulated" but leaks badly. About 1 1 /2 cord so far and expect to do at least 4 more cords. That wood, however is Willow and goes fast. Temp today is hovering around the 10 degree mark with a 15 mph breeze going. Can't decide if I am beign kept warm from the stove or the excercise packign in 4 or 5 sticks constantly.

Harry K

 

[gink595]

Do the doors leak air? You might have to put new gasket rope on them. A friends old stove was leaking air badley and would run away with stove temps, he replaces the door seals and it was much more effiecent he could control the amount of air it was recieving through the draft

 

[Tesen]

I would be looking at a new stove; sure if your wood is free is no money down to buy it, but how much is your free time worth? I enjoy cutting wood, but at the sametime I do not live to do that, what else could I be doing that I enjoy more if I used less wood?

I've used just about 2 cords of wood, heating since Mid/End Oct. My house leaks badly, I know if I sealed her up more I'd be saving more wood and probably get a head (it is on the list).

Tes

 

[Richard_]

1/4-1/2 cord so far been burning since October , has some pretty drafty single pane windows , hope to replace in 09

 

[maplemeister]

I've gone through just under 2 cords at this point. Started burning back in September, just a couple of hrs per night to take the chill off but have been burning round the clock since mid November. Heating a 1300 sq ft. ranch that is fairly well insulated but with old windows. Nothing fancy for a stove, it's a 30 yr. old downdrafter model but it does a good job for us. If it turns out to be a normal winter I expect to go through between five and six cords of well seasoned dry wood. I always stay one year ahead in the wood department and so far "knock on wood", have not had any chimeny fires.

Maplemeister:

 

[A. Stanton]

Burn only part time, 2,100, about 3 cord so far, and 140 gallons of oil for heat and hot water since May. Witout stove, would have used about 500 gallon of oil, my guess.

 

[nitro]

i got a 1977 vermont castings vigilant heating an 1800sf 2 story old farm house , i ve been burning since 89 almost solely with wood about 4 to 5 cords a season . wife likes it to be between 85 to 90 in the house when i'm not home . we have oil forced hot air and the only time it turns on is when we go away. it saves us about 2 to 3 thousand a year .

free heat always feels warmer....i have to stop now i'm gettin all teary eyed

 

[cjcocn]

No more than 1 1/4 cord so far heating 1800 sq feet.

I won't burn more than 6 cords this year the way I figure it, but have a few spare cords in case I need it.

 

[danrclem]

I've got a 1300 sq. ft. ranch with a finished walkout basement. The woodstove is in the basement. I've got a brick wall behind the woodstove which helps to retain the heat very well. The house has 6" walls double pane windows and 12" of insulation in the attic. I have one door upstairs that is pretty leaky. I've gone through about 3/4 cord so far but I haven't used any other type of heat.

 

[volks-man]

60 year old house about 1400 sq feet. with no insulation in all but a few spots.
englander stove 'heats up to 1000 sq feet' model from lowes.
burning sporadically from mid october then full time since 1st week november.
except for 4 days we were not home the electric baseboard heat has not been used.
burned 3/4 coard so far. mixed hardwood mostly cherry and maple

 

[Techstuf]

Less Money, More Heat, More Efficiency....

For those that are relatively new to the Woodstove scene....I just wanted to share an idea I had several years ago. It was borne of necessity and has proven quite effective:

Let me start off by riskily re-stating the obvious: The volume of air coming out your chimney must be replaced from somewhere. (One might be amazed at the number of woodstove users, new & old, I’ve known that never truly consider that fact!)

Study closely for a moment, the sheer volume of gases emanating from one’s chimney. Such is a good visual indicator that one’s woodstove is, in effect, a voracious vacuum looking to suck any and all frigid air it can get from any crack or crevice in your home’s exterior. I know of more than a handful of families who become dismayed at the lower temperatures in several rooms in the home after installing a wood stove. I have installed a Combustion Air Duct to feed my stove fresh oxygen from outside the home, no more virtual vacuum cleaner sucking all the cold air it can get right on through the rooms that need heat the most! Of course, it helps immensely to have proper home insulation and seal up any leaks in the home’s exterior. Also, I have a wide ‘Draft Curtain Generator’ at the end of the Combustion Air Duct, directly above my woodstove’s door such that when I open it to put wood in, a “draft curtain”, generated by the influx of fresh oxygen to feed combustion, prevents the smoke from coming into the room as it passes down and into the stove. The smoke just comes to the door and then rolls down and back into the stove along with fresh air! The duct makes use of the clothes dryer vent on the basement's outside wall.

Works great! Of course, one would need to tweak the width and gap size in order to get the flow rate and shape desired for one’s particular setup.

Here’s to a warm winter for you and yours!

 

[willsaw4beer]

I personally like small efficient stoves. We have a Jotul #3 that, while small is a definite wood miser. It burns constantly, and on occasion we fire up the old Jotul potbelly stove in the basement- it really kicks out some heat but it goes through wood like crazy.

 

[Techstuf]

Efficiency

I can heat nearly 3000 sq. feet with my $200 firebrick lined, double barreled vogelazang setup due to increased blackbody radiation output and much increased thermal lag time. I burn hot to get a better secondary combustion, allowing me to burn out completely....much like the on/off cycles of conventional gas furnaces. My house slowly cycles in temperature swings between a low of near 70 to a high of about 80 degrees. I can load the stove, go to bed at 80, the stove will burn out 4 completely 4hrs later, and then gives me 4 additional hours before the house temperature hits 70 degrees, at which time it's morning and time to start a fire.

The increased 'off' time, allows for more time between efficient burns. I burn between 4 1/2 & 5 1/2 cords a season. My burn efficiency slightly edges some of the $6,000 outdoor wood boilers and many expensive indoor units as well!


TS

 

[Signoflife]

I was just curious for those that heat their house with an indoor woodstove.how much wood do you burn through in the winter and how large is your house?
I have probably gone thru 4 cords in a 2500 sq ft house and winter has not even started yet.
going to have to get the saw and splitter out this week.
thanks

Hi Jack, when you state 4 cords are you talking a cord (otherwise known as bush or full cord) at 4 ft x 4ft x 8 ft pile x 4 piles?

Or are you meaning 4 face cords / ricks at 4 ft x stove lenght x 8ft pile each?

I have a wood insert with a fan centrally located in the basement and I have burnt about 1 1/2 full cords of cured mixed hard maple, elm, beech, ironwood and ash, since the first of November. My house is pretty big, too big in fact, it is a bungalow (one storey plus a fully finished walk out basement) 3200 sf per floor. I have large south facing insulated windows that pick up alot of solar energy during the day as well.

If I keep the insert burning well and the outside temp stays above -4C to -6C during the night the gas furnace does not come on depending on wind conditions and how low I let the fire get in the morning. During the day it can go down to around -10C without the furnace needing to come on (it is set to +22C), once again depending on the wind. Then when it does come on it is only sporadic. Past -18C the furnace will come on quite regular even with the insert pumping away.