My furnace is too small

[Whitespider]

Wasn't trying to start a fight, just pointing out that seems to be an extremely high heat demand even at those temps. Assuming 2 arm loads of wood would be about 1/30th of a cord you were probably throwing out over 400K btu per hour in that time frame. Going to go through a lot of wood at that rate.

I didn't think you were trying to pick a fight... and I wasn't trying to have one either.
Yeah, I would go through a lot of wood at that rate, but it ain't like I burn at that rate all the time... in fact, that was the first time this winter I've burned wood at anything close to that rate. It was sort of an extreme morning, after two extreme days... I ain't seeing an issue I guess.
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[zogger]

10:00pm last night - House was at 70°, loaded fireplace with 4 splits and closed down the air intake for the night
3:00am - got up to pee, house was at 68°, loaded fireplace with 3 splits
6:00am - got up for work, house was at 67°, threw a few more splits in to get temps up to target of 70°

Is my fireplace special? No.

Do I wish we had more of a whole-house wood burning appliance? Sometimes.

The point of all this? Even with a less-than-awesome wood burning appliance, the house remained somewhere near our comfort zone even with the temps waaayyyy below zero last night. Reading about the struggles some others are having keeping temps up I can only attribute our results to being fortunate to have a house that is well insulated and with high efficiency windows.

Makes all the diff in the world. The first generation superinsulated retrofit I worked on, during the first test week in January, single digits outside, barely any extra heat required inside the house. A small wood heater (plumbed for outside air), a split or two, once in awhile. Once it got into the teens, no heat was necessary, just the lightbulbs, cooking, etc kept the place tolerable.

People will just slap not believe it. Payback or ROI can be quite fast as well, compared to just choosing between burning this or that fuel in this or that appliance.

 

[cre10]

Makes all the diff in the world. The first generation superinsulated retrofit I worked on, during the first test week in January, single digits outside, barely any extra heat required inside the house. A small wood heater (plumbed for outside air), a split or two, once in awhile. Once it got into the teens, no heat was necessary, just the lightbulbs, cooking, etc kept the place tolerable.

People will just slap not believe it. Payback or ROI can be quite fast as well, compared to just choosing between burning this or that fuel in this or that appliance.

I have spray foam insulation in my house. Sometimes it gets too hot so I leave the door open for a few minutes while the dog goes outside before I head to bed.

 

[Coldfront]

I will admit my old farm house is not well insulated, its normally is not a problem keeping the house warm. In fact sometimes it is nice having it a little drafty so it doesn't get too hot inside and I don't have to open windows. I like a little fresh air in the house, that is why I didn't caulk it all up good and put plastic over the windows. But this good old fashioned winter is kicking my azz.

 

[Coldfront]

My wife also think I should be able to keep the house at 78* all the time in winter. But yet in summer with the air conditioner on full blast she can't get it cold enough, 65* isn't cool enough for her. Can't win.

 

[Chris-PA]

The easiest thing to change is your own perception (BTW - since you brought it up in the other thread, that is the real purpose of magic as traditionally practiced in almost every society). Our bedroom is at the opposite end of the collection of structures that make up our house. When the stove cools down during the night and the blower kicks off, it cools off fast. It is common for it to be 52 in the bedroom when I get up. Other rooms vary with distance from the stove and over time. This is perfectly fine.

It sounds like your system's performance was excellent given the temperatures.

 

[Whitespider]

I can only attribute our results to being fortunate to have a house that is well insulated and with high efficiency windows.

20 year old 2700 sq.ft. two storey on an open hilltop. ... House is very comfy.

Nice.
But I live in a 100+ year old farm house that is not well insulated, does not have high efficiency windows, and rather than a fireplace or wood stove, I have a whole-home, wood-fired, smoke-dragon furnace added into an 100+ year old heating system originally designed around a coal-fired furnace. It has lath and plaster inside, wooden lap-siding outside... and filling the walls with blown-in insulation ain't an option without first removing the siding, sheeting the exterior walls, adding the moisture barrier, replacing the windows, residing the outside, and upgrading the wiring first. Of course... if I'm gonna have the walls opened up, I might just as well go with something better than blown-in insulation. The "attic" was originally intended to eventually be a second story area, and has a hardwood floor... can't just toss some insulation up there either.

Old Marv (that was the farmer's name) built the house himself in the early 20th century (completed in 1910) with help from neighbors, mostly from lumber he and the neighbors milled themselves. Marv's dad laid the brick chimney as the house was built around it.
So, it-is-what-it-is...
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[farmer steve]

loaded my old non-epa stove in the shop last nite at 5:30 w/2 rounds and 2 splits of hickory and locust..30x40 cinderblock,9 3'x5' single pane windows,12 ft.ceilings w/10" blown insulation.at 2 am down to 55*and reloaded about the same.12* overnite.72* now.

 

[Whitespider]

Oh... and while I'm on the subject...
The original plan was to build a new house on the site while we lived in this one.
But the wife keeps bringing home new kids from the hospital
I keep tellin' her those kids ain't cheap to have around... she just ain't listening.
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[greenskeeper]

61F is 86 degrees warmer than outside. You're doing the best you can with the extreme cold. No designed "traditional" heating system would do much better.

 

[cantoo]

Maybe your wife needs to talk to Uncle Moustache, she seems to have the children thing under control.

 

[Woody912]

Tell the womens they can start helping with cutting and carrying firewood in.

yep, I always pointed toward the woodpile whenever the ex said she was cold. 68 suits me better than 78

 

[flotek]

I don't know what the thickness of your attic insulation is but I'd guess it's way off and poor r value at best based on what you've said about your place. . You won't take good advise but I'll give it to you anyways. Because your poor wife and kid have to live with a stubborn old mule such as yourself . You need to blow cellulose insulation into your attic the deeper the better it takes one Saturday and the best 300$ you'll spend and it will increase the value of your home too . It pays you back every year it will hold the heat and the cold over a longer. Period of time your sending btu right through your ceiling and you don't even realize it yes windows are a big one too but dollar for dollar your best bang for the buck is blow in 30 bags of insulation very fast very simple and starts paying for itself right away . Everyone reading this needs to check your insulation and compare what it should be and you may be shocked . You could shave a cord of wood off a year and be more comfortable for a couple hundred investment . No brainer

Edit :
Okay I just read your post earlier .. I don't know what your going to do in this situation aside from better windows. I'll leave that other info up for somebody having a similar problem it might help

 

[olyman]

Who needs that?? A three-finger whiskey eye-opener warms me faster than any wood stove ever could.
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peta people,,and epa phoners....

 

[Whitespider]

@flotek ,
I just explained... I don't have an attic.
It's really a second floor type thing, with a hardwood floor on top of the joists, open ceiling to the rafters, accessed by a stairway in the dining room (there is a door at the bottom of the steps). It's a hip roof with dorm windows at each end, so the ceiling, when finished, would slope down all the the way to the floor on two sides... like an A-Frame house. It (the second floor) was just never finished... there ain't anywhere to blow the insulation into. We have plans to make it into a bedroom for the boy, covering the floor with insulation would end those plans, eliminate the storage area it provides now, and allow insulation to roll down the steps into the dining room.
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[stihly dan]

How many BTU's is the gas furnace? With your arctic temps, coupled with all that wind and next to nothing insulation. That furnace must be at least 250 K. Good thing you got rid of the stove when you did. Did you forget to load the stove last night oops.

 

[Whitespider]

Okay I just read your post earlier .. I don't know what your going to do in this situation aside from better windows. I'll leave that other info up for somebody having a similar problem it might help

Well, I will tell you one thing I've considered...
Nailing foam insulation on the outside, covering it with vinyl siding, new windows at the same time, and spraying the foundation with foam insulation... not a perfect solution, but something.
Problem is... as always... finding the dollars for insulation, siding and windows all at the same time (pretty much haf'ta do it at the same time), and raising kids (the daughter goes to collage next year) it ain't been so easy. We get some cash put back and something always seems to suck it dry... last year was my oldest son's wedding. I suppose I could go to the bank for a loan... but man, that just rubs me wrong. I really hate the idea of making payments on anything... I'm a cash-in-fist sort'a guy.
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[Whitespider]

How many BTU's is the gas furnace?

I believe it's a 60,000 BTU, maybe 65,000... I'd haf'ta look again.
I can tell you it did struggle on rare occasions to keep up... like running near continuous.
The plumbing and heating guys promised me it would be more than enough after doing their heat loss calculations... they were wrong.
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[stihly dan]

It would be interesting to know your heat loss. I would do it for ya, but to damn lazy.

 

[Bushmans]

My biggest heat saver is the plastic I put over the windows. On some windows I just leave it up year around like in the spare rooms.
One room is so bad that the curtains actually move from the cold air pouring in. I want to do new vinyl and windows but I too have limited funds with one kid in college and the other heading there in August.
Being a new house I don't really want to do a home equity because it just hasn't gained enough equity and I don't need more payments. Just gonna have to tough it out for a few years.
Plastic is cheap! I picked up a couple boxes of the 3M brand at the goodwill store for a buck each! Did almost the whole house.
Last night before I went to bed at 9pm I loaded only 3 splits in the dragon because it was 75 in the house.
I was just trying to get some morning coals basically. This morning I awoke at 4:30am and the thermostat still read 75 degrees. Nice bed of coals so I added 3 more splits before leaving for work at 5:15.
I arrived home at 5:15 after running a few errands and the house had only dropped to 67. The blower had shut off and there were only a few tid bits of red in the ashes. Not enough to re-light but after a high temp of 17 today I was tickled pink! Did a complete reload of 6 pieces and fried it up. Already feel the temp rising in the house considerably an hour later. I think I am blessed this winter to have a pretty good wood burner, plastic on the windows, a good way to move warm air around the house and also living in a bi-level to help keep my family warm.
I never would have believed how much the addition of the baffle ultimately has affected my wood burning. Night and Day! Next winter I'm shooting for a tad more blown insulation in the attic.