For the first time in three weeks, my stove is almost entirely empty and I can just about put my hand on the top! We got up to 50 degrees with sunny skies, and the kids were finally outside without being bundled from head to toe. Time to get back out and load cord #5 into the garage!
You are smoking thru the wood in that new stove, of course that's typical with a new toy or I mean stove.
Still haven’t turned on the main heat pump this season! I’ve been very happy with the performance of this thing, and getting a good gauge on how much wood I’ll need to hoard
Wow. Being in the wind tunnel must be a big reason why the loads are constant but who is going to deny you the benefits? Hope you got more warm weather coming so the hoarding can begin again!!
For sure...that and the poorly sealed window frames are huge factors. This house simply does not hold heat when it drops into the teens and below. In the project queue for this summer is to pull off the siding around the ground floor windows at least and spray in insulation/flash each one.
Wow. I'm hoping that 4 cord you mentioned is face cord and not full cord! To go through that much wood in that area has to be almost unheard of. Shoot, it is more than we go through in a winter!
‘Fraid so...just about through 4 of these bad boys so far. Big stove + 5,000 sq ft of drafty house, out on the windy plains of Jefferson County, and keeping the house up to 72* or thereabouts.
72 degrees inside!? Man, I can't heat a 3,000 sq ft house to 64 degrees most days. What am I doing wrong? Is your stove in the same room/area as your thermostat? If it's below about 15 degrees outside, my IS can't heat the house to keep the furnace off (64 degrees). Above 15 or so OAT, and it will just barely keep the house at 64, or 65 if I'm lucky. Basement/lower level install...
It’s a two-story house with a 1,600 sq ft basement, and a two-story entryway. I think that last detail really helps draw the heat to the upstairs bedrooms. The basement stays around 65 when I use the air handler to distribute the heat...the main return for the system is about 15 feet from the stove, which helps. I have the upstairs thermostat set to come on at 67, and that never happens unless it’s about 15 outside or colder. Between the two ceiling fans downstairs, the air handler, and the entryway, the heat gets spread around surprisingly evenly. I just wish the house would hold the heat longer.
Just loaded up the stove before bed while it’s still almost 60 outside...supposed to be 30 when we wake up, and snowing, with the temps dropping into the mid-20s by lunchtime. Wacky weather!
Do you have fans blowing onto the IS? I found that most of the heat was just radiating out the basement walls unless I put a couple floor fans blowing at my IS. Of course, a couple inches of foam board over the cement walls would probably make a big difference too.
