Are Your Stoves Keeping Up?

Loading her up for the night.

 

Sorry about the smoke getting in the way in the second picture. Hides some of the wood I put in. That's what happens when you load it whilst it has been running. Should wait till down to coals but it is almost bedtime, and it is getting cold here again. Going to drop quick tonight.

 

Doing fine so far! -11 right now with wind chills in the -35 range. Stove room thermometer near the stove is 81,(middle of room is probably mid 70's) furnace t-stat down the hall is 69/70 and my bedroom upstairs is 64/65. I do have my living room double doors closed so that knocks 280-300 sq' off the heat load. That room is a drafty mess so it's a big help closing it off in these temps. I haven't had to run the stove much harder than normal since that room is closed.

 

Old defiant. 76℉ in the livingroom, way too hot in the stove room, 65℉ upstairs, -11℉ air, -37℉ wind chill. Doing just fine!

 

Got mine loaded up for the night!

 

That's good. 3.0 is a good size.

 

Just brought a wheelbarrow load in that I loaded this morning. It had a chance to warm up for a few minutes.

 

There have been conversations about this before....maybe on the old forum. Does warm wood off-gas quicker than cold wood? Not trying to hijack the thread..that could be a benefit of really warm wood.

 

To go further into this, the attic insulation has made a massive difference. Sealing off the attic window above the stairs with R12.5 insulation board and insulation tape really tightened things up. I was hesitant to get too excited about this, but with the recent cold spell, which has been by FAR colder than anything we had last year, which was the first year with this stove lineup, it has been so much easier living in and heating this old home. We are currently getting gusts of 30 mph winds and we will have a low tonight of 1F. That puts us at a windchill of about -23F. Windy days was when my life would just suck during the winter as I would be chasing out the cold and reloading constantly. It's when I would curse having to run the three stove marathon.

This winter, I haven't even had to worry about coals building up since I can run the stoves longer without reloading.

Right now, the upstairs is 66 degrees. I wish it was higher, and I think with more work, it will be higher in the coming years. But, it sure as chit is a lot better than busting azz loading these stoves while the upstairs would never see anything above 60 and I would wake up to 50-55 degree temps after a night like tonight.

 

I love the look of the Isle. It's like having a VC Defiant, but without all the unpleasant maintenance. If my needs were different, I would love to own one as I like the double door, cast iron, top loading look of the stove.

 

Energy saving improvements will put tax free dollars in
your pocket , every day after they're done
& as long as you live there.

I did several , few years back.
Know the difference you're feeling.
A good feeling to know the effort was we'll worth it

 

Loaded east/west last night with beech and locust but opened the air up more for extra heat. -6 this morning and burnt through that load in 8 hrs. but the house is warm.

 

Need to revise my statement...the stove is no match for the temperatures and wind we had last night because of all the glass on the windward side of the house and the ridge we are on...going to have to move interior storms up on the priority list.

 

I lost last night too. We stayed around -10 from 6pm thru 6am this morning and I let the stove go out last night . Woke up to 60F upstairs and 67F downstairs and the furnace had just kicked on. Got the stove fired up first thing and we were back in business but surly no coasting when it's like this out. Still glad to know that even in the extremes my stove can heat the house if kept up!

 

Wind chills were steady between -20 and -30 last night too... Which def didn't help

 

My furnace woke me up at 5 am, went out to check things and found the stat set at 72 for some reason!

 

Below zero with wind above 20 is hard to keep up with for one stove in a big house .
Trying got keep the whole house in the 70° range is tough.
I go for 60 at night & 66 daytime. When the house gets over 70° I know the wind is slowing down.

Home energy efficient upgrades help a lot.

 

I bet your basement is super heated though. That's where I'd be wintertime.

 

Near 80° most of the time.
To warm to hang out there for long (for me). Wife likes it.

 

Last day of cold fellas. Up to 18 tomorrow and then up near or over 30 for several days. Whew! Glad to be back to normal.