howdy folks, It's been a while since I've been around and hopefully this post finds you rockin. Temperatures during the night were forecast to drop into the low 30's so I did a test burn. The stove will be served a diet of 3-year old red oak and when that is gone, I have 6 cords of 1-year old white ash. The ash is reading 12-15% on the outside so hopefully it will drop a bit by the time the red oak runs out. In any event, the Ideal Steel did its usual thing, merrily cruising along with a dark firebox and gorgeous, even heat being produced. The long term forecast for the northeast US is cold and snowy (wow, what geniuses, cold and snowy in winter, who would have thought?) Let the game begin!
Yeah, I sparked up some cardboard boxes lying around night before last. First fire this year, such as it was, but enough to raise the temp. inside from 68 to 70 and not overheat the place. No cord wood yet but it was 63 F in the house this AM (no heat of any kind in use) so today was the first time the boiler circulators have been used this year. I know, sacrilege on a wood burning forum but it was just easier and I did not have to walk outside and get dressed (maybe not in that order) to grab some splits. No wood in the trailer on the porch yet this year but it is time- probably tomorrow with at least a half- load of splits. Brian
Mine usually gets fired up about Halloween here in Wi. Running the NG furnace for the time being. Still haven't got all my wood moved to the house here from my parents place... Average of 2+" of rain per week since July here hasn't exactly been wood moving friendly as I have to drive on both yards to load and unload the trailer. My grass is still as green as green can be and not very many leaves even turning with all the rain
I've had 2 fires in the past few weeks. It's been in the low 60s during the day and low 30s at night here. Last night could have been the last night for a fire but I didn't make one. Its forecasted to be 70 today and 80 Monday and Tuesday. Back to the low 50s by weeks end so the stove will get fed again at that time. Got to love the roller coaster of temps this time of year....
My house with its SW placement depends more on sunshine then OAT in shoulder seasons... Solar gain is nice..
Same here. I have to be wary of how much I put in the stove on a cool sunny day, or the doors will be open.
I'll say one thing about the forecast.If this winter has as much moisture in the air that we had last winter here and it gets cold we could receive snow like we've never seen before.
For sure I'd be burning the ash and saving the oak for those long winter nights. Also, there is no point in checking the moisture on the outside. Split it first then check the inside.
Yesterday it was 65 in the house..and she said she was chilly. I wasn't exactly warm either, so I got to work. I brushed the chimney down through the tee, brushed the face of the cat and blew it out manually (no interam gasket to replace,) vacuumed out the inside top of the stove (a few stink bugs were found and liberated.) Opened the bypass slightly to clean the gasket of any ash, then cleaned the glass. I also checked the gaskets. Hard to believe that after eight years, the gaskets are still holding a dollar bill well. That's the bypass, ash door, and load door. I did adjust the load door latch slightly. The gasket where the cat seats had a section loose, but it just lies in a groove and if I'm careful not to dislodge it when placing the cat into position, it stays in place and does the job. I have a set of gaskets coming but I'm in no rush to install them. This time I vacuumed the outside of the stove well, and there was hardly any dust smell to speak of. My wife enjoyed the 72 degrees we soon had in the living room, on a couple splits of Red Elm. 65 is cold, after we were used to 90 outside last week. I found 90 to be pretty nice, with lower-than-usual humidity, like 40%.
