With these crazy cold temps stoves naturally have to work a little harder to keep the house toasty. And we all have to feed them a little more frequently to keep them cranking out the heat. So, is your stove able to keep up with the cold and how much extra wood are you going through? Obviously things like how old/insulated the house is also affect whether the stove can handle the bitter cold.
My stove, (quadrafire 3100), can handle it fine, just so long as I'm here to feed it. (my weak point I'll address in a minute). Wood consumption is probably up 30% to 50% cause it's opened up more than usual. And when I've got it cranking, burn times are somewhat shorter. Buddy with an OWB said he's gone from loading in twice a day to 3 times, so again, 50% more wood. I've got tons of wood, so increased wood use is no problem. For many people it may mean they don;t have enough for the season.
So, back to my weak point. I can load it at 8:00 in the morning,and crank it down but I don't get home til between 5 and 6. And as the fire burns down on these single digit days, the point at which it's not throwing enough heat to maintain indoor temp arrives a little sooner. I figure that sometime between 2 and 3 in the afternoon the oil burner kicks on. Don't like to burn the oil, but without it, the house would be in the 50's when I get home and then I'm playing catch up. Sometimes I shoot home for lunch and give a mid day loading, and there's no need for the oil burner. And of course on the weekends I keep loading it and just let her rip.
So when it gets this cold I imagine we all have a slightly differnt routine. How's everybody getting along?