Ideal Steel Season #2 Tips, Tricks, and Improvements.

They're in the attic. You two make good points. I never really considered heat loss through the ductwork. Although insulated well, I'm sure that's a factor. I'll keep trying throughout my first season and measure the temps in the further rooms with and without running the hvac fan and compare for my house. Will let you know.

 

Over the weekend temps dipped into the mid to lower 30s so I figured it would be a great time to play with the new stove. Looking back maybe a bit to early. I had Windows open. Doors open. Fans running. Farthest end of the house was 78. The stick on thermometer is stuck at 300 so I have been shooting the stove with an ir gun. Condar was ordered last night. No more guessing

 

On a side note, I sealed up all the slip joints with high temp silicone. After a second round of curing fumes the stove draws significantly better. Little to no smoke spillage. I'm a happy camper for sure

 

You may need to touch up those joints at some point this winter, but I'm glad that's working.
Very gooder.

 

It can't be any sooner than the furnace cement I tried last year

 

What do you generally use to seal the joints?

 

I really didn't like the way it looked when I did it, but it did help here too.

 

Same as you, but I haven't done it on the newer install of double wall.

 

It is rather un sightly but functioned well

 

Last night around 8 pm I put about 5 to 6 maple splits in on top of hot coals. Got it going and turned it down to around 1/4 air. The maple splits are small. 16 inch long and not big at all. Basically just a layer N/S. Wake up at 3, house still warm. Rake the coals and decide to throw some kindling in. Lit up in 2 minutes. Might as well throw another layer of maple in so the furnace doesn't come on at all. It's only a low of 40 last night but that's cold enough to kick the furnace on a few times an hour. Why pay the gas man when I spent all that time splitting wood right?

Warming up for the next few days so the stove will probably be lonely for a few of them. I'm really interested in seeing what this stove can do when we get colder.

 

If you have good insulation and windows, this stove will go far beyond your expectation. It only works better in colder weather. The issue we all had last year was heavy coal buildup. I suggest having some softwood available to burn in between loads to manage the coals better. I bombed it with locust one too many times and soon I only had half a firebox to fill.

 

I've got decent double pane windows and standard fiberglass batts with typical 2x4 construction. I'd say my house is about average in the insulation department. There's no gaping holes and it's not leaky but it's not a tight house either. Going forward I plan on sealing the joists in the basement and then insulating the attic a bit better. Plan is to redo the lighting and fan situation that I have going on (bought the house last year) and some stuff is wired weirdly. Also there's fans and no lights in some rooms and lights and no fans in others. So plan is to get all that how I want it and then air seal all the fixtures coming thru the ceiling. Then depending on my disposable income at the time probably have a layer of foam sprayed to air seal it all and then dome diy blown in insulation. I'm probably not going to go crazy because this is my first home and won't be here all my life and I have a natural gas furnace. I'm not like oil or propane guys who save money hand over fist by burning wood. Doing a bunch of insulating work probably won't return my money before I sell the place. Between the new stove, a dht 27 ton splitter, a 5 ton electric, 2 pro saws a, nice little 5 by 10 trailer and countless other little things that go into this I'll probably never save any money! Lol

Basically the house came with a small old stove and running it last year got me addicted. Now I'm set up well and definitely a firewood hoarder. Between this site, hearth, and arboristsite I'll probably go broke.

I seriously hate the cold more than you can imagine so looking forward to some cold days and nights is really a very foreign thing for me to say. Actually it's downright scary! Guess that's what burning does to a man.

 

I'm at the same point as you with my house. How much do you spend fixing up a first house. . Well I did all of the insulation and air sealing work, new windows, and completely insulated my basement. I put the Ideal Steel in shortly after. I have no regrets on the money I spent. More comfort, less wood, and lower air conditioning demand. It's still a 2x4 house so when it's really cold the fiberglass batts do little, but major overall gain.

 

This thread stalled like a low temperature cat.

I've got a question for everyone. When you have the option to cut your wood to size before you split what length is everyone cutting to? I've been cutting to 20 which is 2 inches short of the max length, but I've been thinking maybe to cut to 18 because I also load N/S and that max is 18. 18 would be good because you can load either way with one length. However you are giving up 4 inches when you load E/W. That's a decent amount of capacity.

I really don't want to be cutting to multiple lengths.

 

I cut for the IS all at 17.5 inches now. Used to do 18, but right at 18", some don't quite fit N-S. At 17.5, they always do. The little bit of space left, if loaded E-W with 17.5's, can be stuffed with small-meduim 17.5's.

 

20" and always load E/W. But if cutting to 20" for an IS, it really has to be held to that size 'cause 21" will not fit in the stove when it is nearly full.

I used to use 17" but as you mention, it leaves a LOT of empty space in the stove. 20" loaded E/W fills the stove better I find, and sliding the splits so they bridge the door opening really does help keep them off the glass as they burn.

Brian

 

I cut 17-20" . The odd balls get laid aside till I can use them. Cutting straight logs is one thing, but most trees I cut are full of crotches where you get odd lengths left over.

 

I've been fighting the smoke spillage issue again. I've tried many things to counteract it but the only solution I have found so far is to last a piece of sheet metal across the bottom portion of the opening. This seems to be the ticket for me. I have a few ideas.
1. Keep doing what I am doing or create a mechanism to do it better.
2. Install BDF'S draft inducer
3. Modify and or try wider andirons to reduce the opening.
4. Weld material to the door opening to make it smaller.

The opening is just way too big. I know others are dealing with this too. I imagine those with the perfect layout are fine, but most don't have that.

 

I'm all 20in with BDF. I don't even have my uniorn in my stove. The pieces stack up nice all the way up to top right against the interior door frame. Last year was 95% maple and this year I have a little more ash to go in the mix. East west loads with a trench down the middle to allow air flow threw to the back.

 

I must have really good draft because I have no smoke in the house at all. I leave the andirons out, don't know if that makes a difference. E-W mostly & some N-S.