Adjusting the NC30

So, I thought to myself that tonight, New Years Eve, would be a nice arbitrary time to make another attempt at getting a little longer burn from the 30.
I already had a piece of foil tape over about 1/2 the 2ndary hole that I had peeled open, so I folded that back over the hole, then slightly covered one of the "doghouse" intake holes as well.
I have the primary completely closed and a very nice ghost flameage thing goin' on in the upper part of the box.
This isn't new, but it seems less "gates of heck-ish".
House temp is climbing again, with the outside temp at about 14, and a forecast low of 11.
STT is about 475 right now. I might as well stay awake for the ball drop, and keep an eye on the stove for a while.
Got the stove set like that at about 11.

 

OK...Time to get up and report on the stoves performance from last night...Happy new year....

 

This is probably about the first decent stretch of cold for you this winter? Since you've had the stove?

Speaking of that, how is the weather? Trying to decide which way to go home.

 

Ok, I'm up, I'm up!
Jeesh, you guys/gals are as bad as me.
The report is less than stellar. My fault.
For some reason, the forecast was off by almost 10 deg., which means it didn't get down to 11, and it was almost 20 when I went to bed as well as when I got up.
9 hours later, and the house is down to just above 65, which shouldn't have happened at that outside temp.
The stove temp was about normal @ 250, and the box was full of coals with the glass partially dark.....more so than normal.
I've been leaving the primary air open about 1/4" (by feel), but I left it completely closed all night.
The wood/coals didn't get enough air after gassing out.
I tried raking coals forward this morning, but that was almost futile due to the amount, so I stopped and just put in 7 medium to small splits of Oak.
Nice 2ndaries right now, and the stove is back up to almost 500. At these outside temps, I'll have no trouble getting the house back up to as warm as I want and keeping it there all day.
This fire will be done about 10-11, and I'll work on burning down the coals the rest of the day with a split at a time.

 

Jeff, we've had a couple overnights that were close to zero.
Temps have been up and down. I watched our outside thermometer rise all evening before bed, when it was supposed to be dropping. I didn't turn on the DV heater because of that.

 

My plans from the normal routine changed last night so I'm kinda with you as far as this mornings results go.
Since my wife and I were up later than we normally are last night I didn't reload until 11 pm, it's normally 9:30.
This morning I woke at 8am to find a firebox full of coals and a stove top temp of 300. Normally it would be about 250 after 10-11 hours. I added 3 small splits to get the temp up a little and start working the coals down.

1/4 on the IS air damper would be too hot, too fast for the overnights. We usually go to notch 2 or 3 depending on the outdoor temps and the wood we have in the stove.

 

That sounds very similar to the results I get if I close the 30 all the way down. The initial burn works well for an hour or two but it suffers on the back end. When I'm around for the entire load burn I find myself going back to open up the air a little at a time every few hours. If I'm not going to be around to do that I just leave it open a bit from the beginning, I think I loose a bit more heat up the flue in the beginning but the entire load burning better balances it out.

 

MISHMH, that was 1/4" out of over 4" of travel.
That seems to be close to the sweet spot, and it'll hold temp for close to 1.5-2 hours at that setting.
Part of the problem last night was that I wasn't able to get the house temp up before the last load. I was trying to burn off a bunch of coals.
If I load the stove with a decent load at 4-5 p.m., I'll still have too many coals for a good overnight load.
I need some more Maple.

I'm trying to find a spot to set the air initially, so I don't need to be up and down resetting the air too much, while not overheating the house and still get a decent burn.
I really want a cat stove, and I'm kicking myself for not getting one last March. For my house, it would be ideal.
I do find I can keep the stove temp under 500 if I want, so it's pretty controllable in that regard.
Once the house is up to temp, I can hold that with about 400 deg. STT or less if the outside temps aren't below about 15.

 

[QUOTE
I'm trying to find a spot to set the air initially, so I don't need to be up and down resetting the air too much, while not overheating the house and still get a decent burn.
I really want a cat stove, and I'm kicking myself for not getting one last March. For my house, it would be ideal.
I do find I can keep the stove temp under 500 if I want, so it's pretty controllable in that regard.
Once the house is up to temp, I can hold that with about 400 deg. STT or less if the outside temps aren't below about 15.[/QUOTE]

I have the same thoughts about a cat stove, then I look at the prices compared to a 30...maybe someday when I get the kids out of college.

 

I experience mostly the same results with my 30. This is my first season burning wood. I don't have any intake holes covered and would like to know more about that if it works. I've found that when loading on a good bed of coals, I can close the air down to about 1/4 open (end of spring handle about flush with front of ash lip) and I get good all night burns with plenty of coals to build on again in the morning.

With that being said, my stove is supplemental to pellets and corn and is in the non-living basement so I don't worry about actual temp come morning.

 

Another trial tonight, except it won't mean too much. I plan to turn on the DV heater before bed, so that'll skew the house temps somewhat by morning.
Forecast for 8 tonight.
I was right about the fire duration.....stove is down to about 300 right now at 10:30, and I opened the air completely about 10:15.
No more fire, just coals.
House temp is up about 6 degs. in the last 2.5 hours.

This will be a bit different depending on how far the handle has been "screwed" on. Fully out/open, the end of the spring handle is 2 7/8" from the front of the ash lip.
I'll give it a go, but I expect a very hot stove, and firewood burned up even faster.
All but a little of the crud on the glass is burned off.

 

'Splain please.

 

If I can convince Jeff to sell me his King before his sells his house I'll sell you the Princess.

 

One mod you can do on the 30 is add a Ceramic insulation blanket on top of the baffle board as other stoves from other manufacturers do the same thing.

 

Hmmm.

 

I just figured it out, the 30 goes to Jeff so the hearth still has something on it, the Princess to you and the King to me. Now we just have to convince Jeff this is a good idea. Amazing we worked all that out without Jeff knowing anything about it.

The other issue I have to work out is convincing the wife I need to run an 8" liner down my other chimney which will disable the fireplace in the living room.(living room and family room share a wall) I haven't had a fire in that thing for 3 or 4 years anyway!

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ceramic-Fib...oves-or-Inserts-By-the-Foot-x-1-/291336877362