started sporadically to heat at night back around the first weekend of October. Now I start a fire every night when I get home, and load my insert (Dutchwest DW2500) before I go to bed and let it burn out as I don't have time to load it in the morning. I come home to 60-65 degrees every afternoon. When I am feeding it throughout the night, it will be in the mid 70's in the front half of the house (kitchen, bathroom, living room where the stove is) and in the mid to upper 60's in the back half (the bedrooms and my office) just the way I like it.
I'm at about 2/3 of a cord, mostly ash and some junk wood thrown in.
In a week or so, I may very well get up a little earlier to keep the fire going during the day while I'm at work.
I have a 1000ft ranch w/ a 1000ft finished basement. I'm gonna try to heat upstairs solely w/ wood, and only turn on the oil furnace for weekends away from home (set the 'stat for 50 to not freeze the pipes). The downstairs only really gets turned on for when I have the boys over to watch football and drink beer down in the mancave. I don't even need to heat the basement because of the washover heat from the oil furnace (for hot water) that cycles a few times a day.
As a single guy in his mid 20's, my neighbors find it fascinating that I heat my home w/ wood, as they are what most would consider the hoity toity type. They had no idea I did because I burn only seasoned wood at a controlled rate so there is never any smoke emitted from the chimney. They think it's funny and "hickish" that I have hedgerows of wood stacked around the perimeter of my back yard property. What's not "hickish" is the 3-4 grand I'll save. That money is already earmarked for a January vacation to Hawaii and a Mrch trip to Vegas!:chainsawguy:
