Is your stove keeping up?

[Holtby]

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?

I've been keeping up pretty good, but I have a pretty good range of tolerable at nite and re-fire up in the morning. I'd rather have my sleep than worry about how warm it is when I'm not up??? Only really have used more when down near zero and use my biggest chunks then. Cut a big dead Elm down during the last big warm up, "Just in case, if I needed a little extra?".

 

[benp]

It is definitely an unreal machine, never seen anything like it!

For someone that had an indoor stove and a lot, a lot, a lot, of money they are bored with, it's absolutely insane.

You could be 5 years ahead in a few months. HOWEVER, it's a 6 figure investment for the 160 if you already do not have a big enough skidsteer to operate it.

For boiler guys, it would be more viable if they made one that cut 30". The designer told my my neighbor he has heard that over and over and over about having that size as an option.

It there was a 30 incher, one would be permanently here.

 

[Steve NW WI]

The one day reprieve really really tweaks me. I would have zero issue with Monday having a high of -18 if the weekend was decent. High of 4 and 1 to me is not decent for Saturday and Sunday.

I wound up taking tonight off work. I had to get my tractor back to the land of the living, and while I was at it, fix some other stuff outside. A bit breezy and cool for almost 30, but better than it has been or is rumored to be again any time soon. I think more than anything, this winter's pushing me over the edge of building a nice warm shop to work in.

Got everything tidied up after dark, so tomorrow's gonna be at least part of a cold day on top of the tractor moving snow that keeps piling up every time it warms up a little, and going up to my oak pile for some more strategic reserves. Right now, I've just got pine and elm in the house. I like that spot because it's pretty out-of-sight, out-of-mind, but a steep hill with a 90° turn in the middle of it makes it a poor choice to get wood from in the winter. Going back to stacking out in the pasture across from the house for easy access from here on out.

 

[Whitespider]

The one day reprieve really really tweaks me.

No kidding (actually we got two days reprieve here).
Guess what I just got done doing?? In the friggin' dark?? I just got off the tower next to my house.
Yeah... the family was freaking-out because the satellite TV quit working
We're like hanging close to the freezing mark, snow and freezing rain falling... and the damn dish got coated over‼ (never would happen in cold weather)
So just to shut them up, and even though I'm half full of beer... I climbed the damn thing in the dark, in a friggin' 20 MPH wind, and cleaned it off for 'em.
Lordy... you'd think the world ended the way they went on... and on... and on...

and on...

and on...

and...

 

[hamish]

With the 20 below plus winds, it's a struggle all the way. The bottleneck with the 200,000 BTU OWB as it is converted water to air is in limited extraction. I have a 135,000 exchanger and the fan doesn't draw it off fast enough. I put a box fan on the grate for the cold air return and supercharge the flow to give it a boost. Insulation is bad for the health. Ventilation and exercise is what keep you and your off spring hard as a rock. Gives you a good appetite to work it especially when it is cold. You want a bunch of slob? Give 'em a thermostat and a big fat recliner. You want survivors? Give 'em an axe and some standing dead hardwood. Earn them farm eggs boy. That's what my Dad said.

Obviously your not like your father.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Burning more wood than last winter for sure. But still only loading twice a day and keeping the house at 70 degrees. Just loading the stove with more wood to get the 12 hr burn time. Also burning the good stuff when it's really cold. Also cheating a little with some Bit coal mixed in once in a while so I can stretch out this years woodpile. Got a good deal on some really good coal so I did not pass on the deal.

 

[Deleted member 116684]

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

yep. I'm sooooo jealous

 

[kybaseball]

OWB is working hard with these crazy winds but she is hanging right in there. Just get putting the wood in and heat keeps rolling out!!! Have family over tonight for supper and the youngest ones birthday so got to make them jealous of the heat the OWB is giving us. When I was on propane I would have had do move by now it has saved us that much money!!!

 

[zogger]

Woke up to 0F outside this morning!

Basement was down to 58F, which is cold for my basement. The wood stove is hungry when it gets this cold out. Glad I installed a second stove (pellet) upstairs this fall.

My next home I want to build around a blaze king stove. Rumor has it they get a full 24hr burn no problem.

If I was going to "build around", I would very seriously consider the Russian masonry stove instead of any iron and steel stove. Huge thermal mass, zero moving parts or parts that would wear out, no electricity required, long lasting even heat.

 

[alleyyooper]

So happy my old wood burner developed a crack last winter so I replaced it. the new 29-3500 England isn't only keeping the coldest room in the house a cosy 76F but is burning less wood than the old unit. I have changed the fill times from when the temps were near the normal 28F temps for this time of year. With the normal temps I'd fill it at 6:30PM for the night and then fill it at 8:00 AM. With this cold I am filling it at 11:00 PM for the night and again at 5:00 AM then topping the morning fill off at around noon. With the old wood furnace when It got this cold I would have a fire in the dinning room Ashley To help out with the UP stairs heat.

My house was built in 1979 2000 sq. ft. upstairs and same plus root cellar in the basement. The dining room living room and my bed room has huge picture windows on the north side of the house.

Al

 

[ponyexpress976]

How long of a burn are you getting out of your Freedom Bay wide open? I got one last year and finally got some wood dried enough to get it heating properly but still using a lot of wood. Only getting about 2 hours of good heat wide open but we have some huge single pane windows in the living room. At these temperatures I can get the living room in the 70's but the back bedrooms barely 60, fine by me though.
I only have about 3 weeks worth of dry wood left, bit the bullet and called the oil man today. Really haven't felt like going out to split wood in this weather although I have a ton of it.

I gotta feed it some wood every 2-3 hours or so when it's running wide open. I have to feed it a lot of air to keep the coals from building up and to keep the box hot. It might stay in the ideal burn zone but at the lower end, it can't keep up.

 

[Dirtboy]

Sadly, I hear the oil furnace start kicking on at about 3am with the temps we been having. Geez, I wish the wife would get up and throw some wood on...

 

[Lignator]

Sadly, I hear the oil furnace start kicking on at about 3am with the temps we been having. Geez, I wish the wife would get up and throw some wood on...

 

[cantoo]

We have the Hotblast running in the basement of our house and the owb running our other house and both houses hot water. The owb is great and has no problem keeping up. I have it hooked up to both houses but am trying to use the Hotblast to use up a basement full of wood. Wood usage is less than I expected so I'm sure I'll have no problem heating the shop next year too. We're in the middle of a 3 day storm, all roads are closed and we are having high winds. Lots of computer time.

 

[colson04]

I tested my wood consumption during the last cold spell we had and burned 0.41 cord over 7 days. Not horrible considering the temps stayed single digit or less for most of that week. We're keeping the house at 72* and also heating our DHW so I'm a happy camper right now. Currently loading morning/night and burning about the same with the hellacious wind we're having. Overall, probably burned 3-4 cord since end of October when I fired the OWB up. Based on that consumption rate, I've got 3 months of wood ready to burn and plenty more available if needed. I am gonna have to get cracking on next years stash though. With the snow pack we have this year, I'm falling behind on cutting for next year already. Thank goodness there's plenty of standing dead ash available to cut n haul when I get a chance.

 

[Vermonster]

No EAB here,....yet. So, no standing dead ash to rely on. A few standing dead American Elm but haven't had to go there. Supposedly in Feb., the jet stream is going to shift in a more favorable direction and ease the temps back up to more seasonable conditions. This winter has been tough on the deer, moose and turkeys up here in the north country.

I tested my wood consumption during the last cold spell we had and burned 0.41 cord over 7 days. Not horrible considering the temps stayed single digit or less for most of that week. Currently loading morning/night and burning about the same with the hellacious wind we're having. Overall, probably burned 3-4 cord since end of October when I fired the OWB up. Based on that consumption rate, I've got 3 months of wood ready to burn and plenty more available if needed. I am gonna have to get cracking on next years stash though. With the snow pack we have this year, I'm falling behind on cutting for next year already. Thank goodness there's plenty of standing dead ash available to cut n haul when I get a chance.

 

[Tim Carroll]

I am very glad that I had the wood stove this past weekend. Most of my friends and family in west-central Wisconsin received a phone call at 1:30 in the morning from Excell Energy to all their natural gas customers that we needed to set out thermostats at 60 and use gas appliances sparingly or they would not have enough pressure for distribution due to a pipeline rupture. As usual it is no problem keeping the house warm over the weekend without using our natural gas furnace. It is nice to have a plan B when modern conveniences fail, especially given the weather over the weekend. I am sure that if the gas went out that people would be fighting over the last electric space heater at the local big box store while I sat in the warm glow of my wood stove.

 

[Greg Perryman]

Just picked up a u.s. Stove wonder wood. The house a staying 70 degrees, not using as much wood since the farm house is done on the remodel. But a 1200 sqft house isn't huge, next year I'm installing an outside furnace.