Only burned two nights this month. Previously I have burned a cord or more by November. Some of it is due to the weather, more of it is due to burning habits. A few things are different in regards to burning habits: Wife and i realize we get real tired of feeding stoves come March. We both agreed to have a cooler house in October to prolong our tolerance to loading stoves. When we do use a stove it is the Encore in the kitchen. This heats the kitchen and the master bedroom upstairs while taking the chill out of the dining room, gallery and den. insulation has improved. This helps the upstairs maintain a comfortable temp. And no new stoves to play with. Which really chews into your wood stack at the beginning of a season. Hopefully we have a seasonally average winter so I can see if my wood consumption really is dropping.
Reportedly very common that folks new to wood-heating or getting used to a new stove burn around 30% less wood in subsequent years. I'm having fun getting familiar with a new stove, so I can understand that. Even after 13 seasons with the previous stove, and maybe 25 prior. The stoves just keep getting better.
BB, nice work on some critical thinking. I agree with you that come March I have opened up the stove door way too much and don't want to handle another split. And to go along with a great October, I have only had 4 fires so far. I have not really used hardly any shoulder wood so far and this will help the running total overall. And as you talk about your Encore in the kitchen, I feel the same way about my IS in the dining room. This is our main stove and the exciting part will be getting consistent 12 hr burns and loading 2x a day vs. 3x and sometimes 4x in the older Oslo. Looking forward to cutting back on wood usage and overall efficiency.
Yep, I'm way down for October this year as well. Partly due to weather, partly to a little more efficiency in a new set up, partly due to new windows all around, and partly due to a little more experience and understanding the heating cycle of my stove a bit better. I was playing around with multiple set ups last October, which skewed things a bit for sure. Nice to be sipping the wood so far this year. Here's hoping it stays that way. From what I can tell so far, I think putting in new windows this summer is going to have the largest effect out of all those factors on how fast I go through the stacks.
Yeah, new stove chew up a lot more wood the first year for a variety of reasons. Also, swapping stoves from one location to the other also chews up more wood since I tend to get anxious wanting to see what the difference will be. This year I am swapping the location of the Defiant and the 30NC. But, I have intentionally put it off so I don't have the urge to burn in the new set up. I love playing with new stoves. If things progress, the two VC stoves will be out of here as soon as possible. Just not sure when that will be. But, it will definitely be sooner than later. I love Morso stoves. I've always wanted to give them a try. Especially their larger models. Just doesn't work for me in my setup. Cool looking stoves, though.
Man, by March of last year I was ready to move to Florida. And I HATE living in Florida. Since we put money into insulation and a new front door (which will also help with cutting down on draft), this meant no new stoves this winter. So, I knew that if we had another chitty winter, I would be spending a lot of time tending to stoves. We decided to change up a few things and how we went about heating the house. So far, it's working pretty well considering we closing in on November. I was happy to hear you finally parted ways with the Oslo (which is the same size as the Encore). I remember thinking you would have really benefited from a larger stove several winters ago. You will enjoy the hell out of the larger firebox, plus it being a cat stove and it will be an amazing difference. Your entire burning season will be easily and more enjoyable. Shoulder season will be easier since you can burn low and the coldest parts of winter will be easier since you won't be staying up later trying to pack it as full as possible, or waking up early to fit off the cold.
Yup, they are attractive, with really high quality foundry-work. My latest happens to be much more than a pretty face. Very clean-burning, to the extent I can tell. Not at all eager to disappear much wood, and really cranks out the BTUs. I'm told that's a European thing- not a lot of wood available, unlike here. Not cheap, but my bet is that it'll earn its keep, and let me continue to avoid any temptation to use my POS gas furnace.
I wood (get it?) take full credit for it if I were you! Typo or not its quite fitting with the thinking that was involved in your post LOL delete your last post
Great to hear things are looking better for you this year BB, I remember your posts of the past years battling those wood eaters. This fall weather has been great to many peoples stacks, just enough to enjoy the view and break the chill now an then. I hate them stupid auto corrects !
Glad It is going better for you. I totally agree that this October has been much more mild. I have barely had a few overnight fires at this point in the burn season. I also blew in around 100 bags of insulation in my attic and am hoping to see a huge difference in the house holding heat this winter.
Right there with ya BB. I used to hear a fair amount of growling at our farm, cause I wouldn't start the heating process until Nov 1 and then stop it after a light April shoulder season. Wood and coal. 6 months was enough.
Browning, I too have noticed that the burning this Oct is less than last year. As compared to last year, I started the OWB on the 13th and never looked back; the year before-the 8th.
We've burned four small fires this month, but now, we're suffering through a few days with highs in the 80s. Evening temps in the 70s on Saturday made for a less-than-ideal community bonfire at our place.
I'm with you, BBAR. Granted this has been a very mild October, I usually have almost a cord burnt up by mid-November firing both stoves but I haven't even had to fire the 1900 in the kitchen at all yet.......the NZ3000 gas done a great job of keeping the whole house warm and even that has only been needed off and on. The insulation makes a world of difference! Only burned around a half face cord so far which us unheard of for me.....
Has it been milder? By us, seasonal daily highs and lows have been about what we have been getting. To put that in perspective, two of the last three Octobers we have had a decent snow storm. This is my second winter of burning pine during the shoulder season. I'm pretty sure I burned more than a cord last October. Only two days of burning this October is a huge difference.
