When to shut down your OWB?

[ash man]

Its April 2nd in Ohio and temps the next week look pretty good. Low to mid 30s at night and 50-mid 60 for highs. Might shut her down in a week or so. What you guys thinking?

 

[Cheesecutter]

Mine runs until we start seeing lows in the 50s.

 

[ash man]

Cheese I've got a buddy that already shut his down a week ago (ran out of wood and tired of cutting), and another friend that keeps his going into summer just to heat his domestic hot water. I'm personally thinking of shutting her down cause I'm sick of burning next years wood.

 

[jlromine76]

I am with you guys. I am ready to shut that thing down and start to finally getting a jump on next years supply. I have a 6x12 trailer parked next to it now with my last split cord on it and I would love to pull it into the barn and stack it but the temps here just wont let go. Couple of days in the 30s on the 10 day forecast so I doubt I will be shutting it down soon. I have a baby and a 3 year old to keep warm but if it was just me and the old lady we would be using the electric radiant heaters at night to get by. Dang this has been a long cold winter. Did have some 66 degree weather yesterday so I got out and started cleaning up the yard a little bit and burning up some sticks from the trees which felt pretty nice to get done.

 

[Cheesecutter]

I gotta keep the MIL happy. She hates running electric when the owb is sitting there.

 

[ash man]

For me its the wife and kids. Thermostat been set at 74° all winter, but at least I've been able to turn off the pump to the detached garage. Only running one pump and the warmer temps has made a huge difference on burn times.

 

[blakey]

Our temps are hovering around the freezing mark now, our owb is our only source of heat so I keep it going as long as we need heat. It doesn't use a ton of wood in this weather, it is nice to have a deep coal bed when I go to reload. I feel one of the selling points of an owb is that you can burn wood in the mild weather and not be cooked out of the house. If the house doesn't call for much heat I still have the benefit of domestic water heating.

 

[bowtechmadman]

I'm hoping by June!

 

[blackdogon57]

7/24/365 since November 2008. Gonna run it until it implodes. Pool season ( if winter ever ends) right around the corner.

 

[Butch(OH)]

Hate to admit it but as much as I anticipate firing up the OWB in the fall I cant wait to quit feeding it in the spring. Wife gets used to 130 hot water and wants it running year around. We usually hit compromise about May 1 but depends on the temps, wood supply etc. We have never shut it down and fired back up in the same heating season. Have lit one fire a year since we installed it.

 

[ash man]

blackdoggon. how much wood do you go through in a year?

 

[jrider]

I run mine until the house stays above 70 on its own. The thing hardly uses much wood this time of year anyway. The way I look at it, why be cold now to save a few sticks of wood when I was warm and toasty all winter?

 

[Tree Feller]

I run mine 24/7 until the temp as stated above gets to 70 then i build a fire every 3 days just to heat the hot water.

 

[ash man]

I'm starting to see it your guys way. Its been warmer the last couple days and I've only had to add a handful of logs to keep my temp up. I just hauled a 4 x 8 trailer load of definite shoulder wood over to old Betsy. Some punky stuff and bass wood that I need to get rid of.

 

[ghitch75]

mine will run all summer as it has for the last 7 years......burn rotten and crap wood......40 buc's less a month in electric......

 

[Poston5]

Can't wait to shut mine down and run the heat pump. I am tired of filling it and want to make sure everything that has been shut down since October still works.

 

[WVwoodsman]

I run mine until my wife tells me that she doesn't need the heat to come on which is set to about 70.

 

[cantoo]

I have a trailer load of slab wood to get rid of and if and when the snow melts a bunch of crap wood I want burned up and out of the way. I also burn construction wood just to get rid of it. I'm not planning on running it in the summer but everyone will sure miss the cheap hot water all summer. Mine is too close to the house to burn in the summer.

 

[blackdogon57]

blackdoggon. how much wood do you go through in a year?

I would guess around 15 cords. Burns very little in the summer unless the pool heater is going. 2-3 day burn times in summer. I burn mostly junk wood that is not pretty enough to sell.

 

[John R]

I shut mine down when it stays above 50° at night.