Finally starting to turn real cold here in NH - when it's to single digits and minus degrees F, I start loading the stove 4 times per day just to keep the house at about 67-68 and it's a fight to do it (one big hot box in a big house). I have forced hot air for back-up downstairs, but forced hot water in the upstairs three bedrooms - had to turn on the upstairs thermostats for the first time a few minutes ago - I like saving fuel oil, but I don't like the thought of frozen pipes! I set the t-stat to 60 just to keep water moving through them on the coldest days/nights - will probably have them running for a least the next couple days - then hopefully off! The kids were complaining about the smell of the dust burning off the copper - ha! Cheers!
You gotta do what you gotta do. I've avoided it so far myself, as long as I'm around to keep loading the stove things are usually good. It's when I have to be away for most of the day that the house gets pretty cold.
I hate burst pipes. On the other hand, water heat is usually pretty darn efficient. Stay safe, and stay warm.
I've already got a third of a stove full of coals. Spent the last two to three hours trying to cook them off. Full blast air, raking them to the front. A half load of pine. I swear I could bare hand the ones in the back. dammed oak ! I wanna stuff this thing and go to bed.
Southwest - looks like -9F tomorrow - night - we'll get to the upper minus teens here for a stretch, but not much colder. Cheers!
Ha! Same here - burning oak and I start to burn down the coals as soon as the secondaries are done - around three hours of flame and three hours of burn down for the coals - and repeat. Cheers!
I'm in southeast NH and I was looking at the hourly forecast for overnight tonight on accuweather and it was showing -20s with the wind chill factor. I have a boiler as opposed to a stove but I've definitely noticed an increase usage in pellets. I'm probably pushing two bags a day during this cold.
No thermostat here because we use only the wood stove. I just looked at the thermometer and it is only 79 in here. May have to put some wood in the stove soon.
Nice and toasty in your house Dennis! Too much space to heat here with one stove - when things turn this cold, time for some extra BTU's! Cheers!
I wish that my house had an open floor plan to take advantage of a central wood stove. Our family room is on the other end of the house above our garage. It does provide some heat for the rooms near it. Even with plans to put either a pellet stove or a wood stove in the living room wood not satisfy the rest of the house. My cousin on the other hand has a beautiful wide open floor plan. A picture of a masonry stove/Russian stove was put on the FB page today. That is what I'd go with should we ever get the chance to build my dream house.
And I thought it was just me! I'm loading with more coals in during this bitterly cold days to keep the heat going. Prior to that I was letting the coals get pretty far down. And yeah with oak rather than the maple I had the coals last forever!
I turned on the heat January 1st just to make sure everything was working. Back on today after work as it is actually needed. Puny insert can't run more than 8 hours and certainly can't keep up with single digits.
Totally agree with that, I have alot of space to heat as well and one stove struggles when it's this cold and the wind makes an appearance. The thermostat is on if it's needed, fingers crossed its not.
I have my natural gas furnace set at 65 degrees. Wife and I work 4pm to 4am so I need some heat to be maintained until we get home. We work 2 on 2 off so for 2 days at atime it is not bad. Straight wood heat on days off.
There are thermostats out there that can be programed to turn on the heat on a set schedule for a set amount of time that are meant for people that heat with a wood stove primarily. Basically you can set it to run the heat for 30 seconds every hour or whatever you choose.
