Is your stove keeping up?

[spike60]

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?

 

[rev_2004]

I have a CB 5036 and it is keeping up fine. -7 here in Central Indiana. I will load mine in a few minutes before work @ about 6:40 in the morning and then again @ 4:30 in the afternoon. I normally have a 4"-6" bed of hot coals and a couple "burnt" logs left in it each time I load it @ the minimum. Heat on boiler never drops below the 185 deg. set point (+or- 10 deg.) and this all the while keeping house @ 74-75 deg. and heating hot water. This is why I love my outdoor boiler.
Edit: This is also on a well insulated 8yr. old house which makes a difference.

 

[ponyexpress976]

Lopi Freedom insert here. Yeah, we're running her pretty hard and I'm up about 30% on what I shove into it. Since I'm heating a bi-level with it, the back bedrooms get a little chilly once the fire dies down to just coals. Unless the global warming dust is falling from the sky, this is my slow season so I'm around to keep it fed.

 

[jrider]

P&M 250 gasification OWB unit is keeping up just fine. Couldn't be happier about free heat this winter!

 

[Jredsjeep]

i am falling behind some with my woodstove, got an Englander NC30. have an old poorly insulated ranch house with new windows. i load it up around 7 am and get home around 4, i am usually in the high 60's when i get home unless its one of those high of 4 deg days with wind. then it can get down to the 64-65 range. stoke the stove and i am back up in an hour or so. but yes i have noticed i probably use almost 50% more wood when the temps drop the single digits and below.

 

[Butch(OH)]

-5 this AM in north central Ohio. 4400 Woodmaster keeps up with my 1945 cape cod house, workshop and domestic HW without working too hard at these temps as long as the wind isn't howling. We are throwing in about 2/3 of a load twice day but are burning some pretty lousy firewood right now, mostly Sycamore and a bit of box elder. Last time it was this cold we were burning 2 year old Oak, quite a difference in usage! No shortage of firewood at my place but with it staying cold the part timers will be lighting fires and soon my phone will ring with outa wood sob stories,,,, Grrrr!

 

[Mad Professor]

Old Warner wood beast with a blower (if needed for quick heat). Takes 26" splits

Has been not been over 10o F and to -15oF low outside. Heats the whole house at > 60oF when left alone for 10-12 hours. I do use some fans for circulation. House is 1300 sq ft. Backup oil has not been on since I worked on the boiler before Christmas.

If I tend it the whole house can be > 80oF.

Burning 3 year old dry, split and covered ash, hard/sugar maple, and a bit of black cherry and black birch. Don't see ANY water pissing out the ends at all when the splits are put in the hot stove on a bed of coals.

 

[Whitespider]

Since I'm using the third appliance in as many years to heat my home I don't have much to gauge it on... other than how much I feed it on those rare days this year when temps are closer to "normal". So going on that... yeah, I'd guess I'm using 30-50% more this year than if it was a "normal" year. You know what though?? I look at what they say is a "normal" year... and... well... when was the last time we had one of those??
*

 

[stltreedr]

I usually add wood 2x per day in my OWB- been 3x daily when it gets really cold. The high yesterday was 14 degrees. My house is newer, but draughty with tall cathedral ceilings. The propane kicks on a few times a day for a few minutes to get it back up to 70 degrees. The OWB is set at 74 and when it's that cold it never kicks off.

 

[autoimage]

lucky enough to work from home so im loading my epa cat stove every 3 hours to keep it at max temp to keep the heat buildup

 

[mainewoods]

This old girl does a pretty decent job of heating my 100+ year old farm house. On a really cold night the oil fired boiler kicks on once, sometimes. It ain't new and it isn't as efficient as others, but we can cook all our meals on it and do all our baking in it. Bacon,eggs from the coop,home fries from the garden and homemade biscuits make it all worth the effort, to me.

 

[stltreedr]

This old girl does a pretty decent job of heating my 100+ year old farm house. On a really cold night the oil fired boiler kicks on once, sometimes. It ain't new and it isn't as efficient as others, but we can cook all our meals on it and do all our baking in it. Bacon,eggs from the coop,home fries from the garden and homemade biscuits make it all worth the effort, to me. View attachment 329765

That thing is arwork. Beautiful.

 

[ford tech]

My hardy h2 is maxed out at these temps, but, I have to much on it. I bought a cb 6048 this week so next heating season should go better .

 

[Butch(OH)]

This old girl does a pretty decent job
View attachment 329765

I am like totally and entirely JEALOUS of your cook stove.
Been to a few sales where one like that was sold but $$$$$ WOW! They also sell them new at Lehman's but they are even more $$$$

 

[Chris-PA]

Well, I screwed up last night and stopped the stove down too much. I was also tired and lazy and didn't wait to reload the little stove. So... poor choices on a cold night. Things were pretty cold this morning. I got some cranking fires going before I left for work!

Otherwise it is keeping up, although we're not as cold as some places it's been pretty frosty lately. When I'm home during the day things are nice an toasty, but my wife sometimes doesn't keep up with it all that well.

Using more wood than I like and it will be close this year if it doesn't warm up. I have more wood but it's out in the weather and not as well seasoned as I would want, but I'll move it in the snow if I must and we won't freeze. I dropped, split and stacked a standing dead ash a few months ago, and found another that the power company had dropped last year that I bucked and quartered. Those will be my first targets if needed.

 

[Pelorus]

Even feeding it every couple of hours (dry hardwood), house temp is shy of 70F.
Wife is annoyed.
Can't fault the stove or the wood.

 

[sunfish]

Jotul 118CB keeping up just fine. Burning 25% more wood this year. Coldest winter here in 25 years.

 

[Marshy]

Definitely burning through the pile pretty good this year. Probably have to buy a cord or two at this rate. Have to add wood every 4-5 hours as apposed to every 7-8 hours. Keeps my house 70-75 on these cold days in the single and negative digits. House is 1800 sqft ranch with a walkout full basement and about 18 yrs old. Stove is down stairs and just use a box fan on low to move some of the heat. I'd probably do a lot better if I didnt have a garage door in the basement letting all my heat out but it sure does make it easy to bring wood in...

 

[740jsmayle]

I have no complaints about my add-on .This is year 1 heating with wood . I'm like spider don't have much to go on. I have gone thru more wood than I planned.

 

[Vibes]

Same story here. I will be cutting it short on wood this year. I have about 2 chord of mixed oak that I was hoping to save for next year but its lookin like its gonna be gone. My house is an old depression era house built by farmers and not carpenters so its drafty. On the really windy days, I really notice the gas furnace kicking on a good bit more.

I haven't had to buy coal this year yet but I'll be driving north to pick up a ton probably next week. My friend drove up to the mine early this week and the guys there couldn't get there loader running. Wasted $35 in gas. He's a retired guy, and that's a big hit for him, especially in this cold winter.