Late evening at 39° north with a low predicted of ~0° . A bit over a week ago we had a low of -8° and it got me to thinking. How low or much of a temp differential could I keep the house comfortable? I know from experience that 75°∆ is doable for me and I think I could do so at 85°∆. Beyond that we might have to put a sweater on. What do you think you could do? Temps in F...
We've done 100* before. It was -38* outside and 80* inside We didn't (and still don't have a furnace), 2 woodstoves only that winter. Seems like all I did that whole winter was stoke those two pre-epa's in between taking care of a toddler.
That IS an impressive differential. At this time our furnace is our only main heat. It works so well I am lazy about it. Working towards a record amount of wood consumption in this 12 year old build for this winter.
Since that crazy cold winter we've added a big pellet stove, and I've been buying wood since we moved here in 2013, I can't help with wood cutting anymore and husband's plate is way too full, fingers crossed we're moving into town next year and I'll have a NG furnace What is your "12 year old build"?
This reminds me of our first year in our first house. We moved to the mountains in August. Our first son was born in November. It started snowing in September and didn't finish until June. The old wood stove leaked so bad we went through a dozen cord of wood most of which we had to buy and none of it was really dry. We learned a lot that first year.
Yes, previous home of 21 years had propane boiler, even with burning a lot of wood (another pre epa stove) it was expensive! Sorry if this is a repeat but my husand was born and raised south of you, Stockton. Most of the wood we bought that winter needed split, super duper seasoned but in rounds, you'd shocked as he was (me too though I'm from Colo) the sound the split makes when the maul hits wood, makes at -20* and below too. Sounds familiar, the winter of that record cold we blew though 6 cords and I had to buy more in March, which was also wet, granted the stove and chimney were ancient and not well cared for I added not dry wood and was getting creosote flashes when I opened the drop down door to stoke. How did your old wood stove "leak"?
I have 109, was -27 and back wall of stove room, 18 feet away was 82. IIRC was burning sugar maple and trying to keep STT about 650* using lumber cut offs to burn down coals to reload. Wife dryer got nylon over pipe and direct vented into basement as much for moisture as heat
Our stove is on the small side. I've covered 60⁰ between outside/inside. Currently, 50⁰ differential - 16⁰/66⁰ wood stove still coming back up to temps. We're good with sweaters.
It's a 2300² ft. Hardwood house I built with Woodmizer mill. Spray foamed over a poured uninsulated basement that I heat too. I have unlimited amounts of wood and I stay 4 years ahead.
When it gets down to 0f or so we only can pull +40 to +55 Kitchen was 38f stove room was 44f upstairs was 50f this AM on reload
I could EASILY do 100+ if I set my system to "kill" and it got cold enough outside....and only have to load the boiler twice in 24 hours. Last night it was -2, all the pumps are on low speed, and only 3 of the 5 zones were even calling for heat (73) and the boiler was idling when I got up. The system wasn't even trying hard....yes I know it is overkill. If the wind was really cranking I could could still do 100+ but it would have to work harder.
Yous tougher than me! My kitchen this morning before reload was about 64 and stove room was 70. Outside temp was about 5.
Don't get me wrong I wish my house was 70 But, it builds character in the wife and kids. It ain't that bad
Insulation/air sealing need beefing up? Sometimes big gains can be made pretty quickly and for low $. Pays you back in comfort 24/7/365 too..
Ive had 113 a few times -40 ambient outside 73 f inside. I dont have to tell you guys how satisfying it is filling the stove those days.
We spent around 60k last year on the house (about half was insurance from storm damage) We did do some insulating/ sheathing to combat wind and it helped a lot. Our main loss now is trough our big 105yr old single pane windows that Mrs just has to have. We gotta recover for a few years before any more big$ on house
With no power and just the wood stove, at 0ºF we'd have to close off rooms at the other end of the house (all the bedrooms) and sleep in the living room . Colder than that we can also close off the living room and live in the kitchen and family room. Below zero is fairly rare for this part of the state. It happens, just nit very often. Power outages are rare as well, usually caused by a car accident and don't last very long.
