Does your body temp adjust to wood heat?

[cjk]

We used to keep the house pretty cold, 62-66deg F, and it was just barely comfortable, when heating primarily with LP. Now that we have the house better insulated and heating with wood as much as we can 73 feels about right anywhere near the stove room. I think I am getting spoiled...

And I like it. :hmm3grin2orange: Think I might have to hug a tree tomorrow.:msp_ohmy:

Knotholes beware::msp_razz::smile2:

 

[Big_Al]

Pretty much the same, when using the natural gas furnace I kept the house at 65. With the woodstove going its usually mid 70's, I can get used to either one in a couple days. I prefer the heat from the stove over the furnace heat.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Warm is certainly subjective. I can be comfy in a t-shirt at 30 degrees in the middle of winter, but wearing a jacket at 50 in early fall. It's the same inside. When working in the kitchen (as far away from the wood stove as I can get,) 65 feels good. After working in the basement near the stove sharpening chains, 85 will start to feel cool after a while.

 

[Whitespider]

I was never able to adjust to “wood stove” heat.

I’ve been burning wood for heat since the late 70’s. Started with a barrel stove built from a kit, fabricated the next couple from scratch, used a couple different wood stoves, built one, and finally went to a wood-fired furnace tied into the forced air heating ducts. I don’t care for the wood stove (space heater) type of wood-fired appliance because of the temperature differences throughout the house. It’s flat uncomfortable to me when one room of the house is 80[sup]o[/sup] and the far bedroom is 60[sup]o[/sup]. I don’t like fans sitting around blowing heat through doorways, creating drafts and raising dust. When I’m in the house during heating season I like to strip down to the long-johns, or slip into a pair of sweats, and be comfortable barefoot anywhere I choose to be in the house… hence the wood-fired furnace in the basement, tied into the heading ducts, pulling air across a filter and distributing the heat evenly throughout the entire house.

I’m (or we’re) comfortable with the house a bit over 70[sup]o[/sup], and strive to keep it between 70[sup]o[/sup] and 72[sup]o[/sup] with the old manually regulated furnace. Of course it ain’t that simple or easy with overnights, changing outside temps and human error… Most of the time we can keep it right where we like it, but we don’t get too excited if an oops causes a 68[sup]o[/sup] morning or a 74[sup]o[/sup] evening. But at 67[sup]o[/sup] the family is pulling up blankets and I’m lookin’ for my slippers… And at 75[sup]o[/sup] we start strippin’ down to underwear.

We had to stop burning wood in the house for a few years because of some health issues with my daughter and we set the gas furnace to 71[sup]o[/sup] during that time… figured if I’m gonna’ pay I might as well be comfortable.

 

[1project2many]

I loooove heating with a wood stove.

One of the funny things about wood stove heat is no matter how hot the house is, seems like people want to spend a few minutes standing in front of the fire "warming up." And having the heat in one area just makes the family want to gather in that area instead of running off to separate corners never to be seen again. I have a single story ranch with good insulation so temp differences are maybe 8-10 deg max from front of house to back. My computer room is the only exception. The door's always closed and the attic access is in there so it drops below 50 sometimes but I'll stay there for an hour or so before going out to the stove to warm up fingers and toes.

 

[Richard Dupp]

We have fuel oil fired hydronic (hot-water) heat in the house that we used for about 15 years. Baseboard radiators, and 4 zones. When I first installed it (in place of heating with a double-door Alaska Kodiak wood stove) fuel was about $0.56 per gallon. A couple of years ago, when fuel hit $4.44 per gallon and we burned about 600 gallons that winter, we said enough is enough. It didn't hurt that we have a lot of easy access wood on our farm. One of the great things about the hydronic heat was that if we set the thermostat at 70, it was 70. The room did not fluctuate from 69 to 71, it was 70 and 70 and 70. Got used to that steady temp, but as fuel got higher and higher we set the thermostat lower and lower until we were at 65 daytime and 60 at night. With each drop in the 'stat, we acclimatized just fine. Now with the wood stove heating the house the temp fluctuates but we don't seem to feel uncomfortable. Maybe 70's in the day and drop down into the high 60's at night but that is our new norm. So I think we, as humans, are very adaptable to whatever environment we find ourselves in.

 

[OH_Varmntr]

My house is a constant 74-75 on the first floor. I have a wood fired furnace but no ductwork (electric baseboard) in my house so I blow the hot air into the basement and it works through the house via convection from there.

It's 36 outside right now, the furnace firebox temp was 116 when I woke up this morning and the house was at 71. A bit cool for me, but I think my body has adjusted to the warmer temps in the house. Last winter I would have killed for 71. We kept it barely 65 in here to stay away from $500+ electric bills. YIKES!

Now the breakers for my electric baseboard heaters are shut off.

 

[Rudedog]

I like it for the additional reason that when the dogs blast the back door open I don't lose any money and we heat back up almost instantaneously. I also appreciate the higher temps when I walk in after working outside in the cold to a really warm house and I can dry wet clothes quickly when the wood stove is rocking. The BEST secondary reason is when I am cooking up a pot of Dalmation90's "Stovetop Chili"!:hungry:

 

[kentuckydiesel]

We have had the opposite occur compared to most of what I just read.
When my wife and I lived in town and had natural gas heat, 68-72 was as low as I could get her to drop the thermostat. She was always cold, and I was always hot.

In our new (110+ year old) house, we actually removed the LP heater because it was taking up the chimney we needed for the wood stove. Now, aside from three space heaters which we never use, wood is it. SHE actually likes a 55-60 degree house now, and no higher for sleeping. I couldn't be happier!

-Phillip

 

[Chris-PA]

Our house varies a lot in temperature from one room to the next and over time. The house is two old (~175 year old) log and stone structures joined together with a frame section in the 1950s. The kids rooms in the one part are half-attic spaces. There is little insulation in some of the side side walls or any way to add it without destroying the place. The larger part is a bank house, and one stove is in that basement (living space). Our bedroom is in the top floor of the other part. While I use the blower from the old oil burner to circulate the heat, it's far from even. On a cold winter night after the stove burns down and the blower shuts off, it will be maybe 52 in our bedroom. On a cold winter night before the stove burns down it may be 94 in the basement. Other rooms are somewhere in between.

After several years all of this is perfectly normal to us. If you're uncomfortable, move to the room that better suits you, or put on a sweater. I never really understood the attraction of having an exactly constant temperature, and I doubt it's even healthy. Our bodies were made to compensate for changing temperatures.