The things folks do to pinch pennies...

Had some family over yesterday and we began to talk about what we put our furnaces at in the winter. One said.."
66F during the day and 60F at night".........Another chimed in and said" 64F" and it stays there all winter no matter what!

Well they could see all the wood on my property and asked..."Well...what about you?"....I smiled and asked them "What is a furnace?..Haha"........During the winter Living room is at least 74-76F and I walk around in shorts and laugh when I get the $40 National Fuel bill each month from Dec-Feb..Lol

 

Used to own a house built in 1903 that only had insulation between the second floor and attic. Exterior walls were cedar shake on lathe so the wind blew in one side of the house, through the floor joists, and out the other. Oil furnace only. I kept it at 56-58.

Whole different world having a well insulated house and a good stove!

 

When we ran our oil burner furnace, I kept at 68° during the day, and 55° at night.

Still cost us a lot to heat the house over the winter.


Now with the wood stove, the furnace barely ever runs.

 

Our propane furnace burns one week in the winter when we go away for Christmas. The rest of the time its my Buck insert; -5° out, 76° inside.

That reminds me, I gotta brush the chimney real soon...won't be long.

 

Amen! I sure don’t work my rear end off the rest of the year to sit in a 60 degree house in the cold of winter! When I heated solely with propane I had to be chinse but not so with wood. We can use as much wood as we want to stay comfortable and not think twice about it. Come winter time I want to enjoy the fruits of my labor. It doesn’t have to be tropical but comfortably warm is the whole point.

 

Yep, we put in our stove and haven't turned on the electric furnace in 4 yrs.

 

As has been stated, I bust my butt making firewood, drying it & I'm darn sure gonna be comfy in my shop & house. Sav likes it a bit warmer than I do & that's the whole point. Comfort & $ savings. Pretty good exercise plan too.

 

We try n keep our home around 70-72*....bedroom we like cool.....64*..so we shut the door to the bedroom.
We used about 65 gallon of fuel oil in a year n 3 months n most of that was used when we moved in since we didn't install our wood stove until july of 17....really expect to use maybe 20-30 gallons this winter...

 

Its still cold with a wood furnace?!

 

Thought the same thing.

Rather than bundling up, shoulda brought some extra wood and show them what it's like to be comfortable.

Although I'm adjusting to 80° in the winter (inside) I still prefer it on the cold side in the bedroom.

 

Our first house, now a rental, was gas heat with old school cast iron radiators. Thermostat stayed at 58, and while we weren't especially warm, it was alright. Floors stayed warm from the apartments downstairs, so it felt warmer than it was.

With the owb here we started at 62 and had a hard time keeping the boiler running the first year splitting and burning soaking wet wood the same week. As our wood quality improved and the little one came, we ran 64 and found it pretty comfortable.

We're putting in an IS this year - I'm a little worried about getting cooked out of the house. In fact, part of what made us choose it is all the user testimony online regarding its ability to run low and slow. We've tried running in the 70s with the owb, and it's just too warm for us. I expect that to change as we "season." ☺

 

Well, I'm no authority at all, since I still am getting used to our IS.
However, without opening up the upstairs, I couldn't keep it much lower than 80°F in the living room where the stove is, but I am adjusting.

I will have better wood this year, and hopefully that will entail better control of burn and temps.

We'll get it figured out, till then I'll just adjust to wearing shorts inside, while the snow is outside.
It could be WAY worse.

 

Please help edumacate a country boy, what is an IS?

 

Woodstock Soapstone Ideal Steel

This is ours.
My brothers daughter drew up the Fleur-de-lis design

 

Thanks. Sounds like a great stove.

 

they really are. especially for the price

 

Where did you purchase yours?

 

WS has no dealers. you order direct from them and they dropship.

Woodstock Soapstone captures the Wood Stove Decathlon Grand Prize

 

Some of the people I meet look at me strangely when I say that I heat my house with wood even though I live in a major city. It's not about the money with me. Nothing takes the chill out of your bones like sitting in front of a screaming hot stove. Few things are more relaxing to me either. The fact that I'm saving hundreds of dollars in gas bills over the winter is just a bonus. I get to keep the house at whatever temperature I want, and sometimes (they usually shudder at this) I have to throw open a window or the patio doors in the middle of a -30 cold snap to let some of the excess heat out.