Colder here. What's your temp? What ya burnin?

Don't look forward to walking down the 14 steps while I'm half asleep. A knee has been giving me trouble lately (appointment this morning) and that first step going down is a bit eye-opening!

I don't sleep well. Having to go downstairs 1/2 way through the night would make that situation worse.

I don't like to have the house overheated; over 72 IMO.

It has been working out well not firing up overnight.......that means there are no complaints from the other house member!

I used to fire up during the overnight hours but got spoiled with the OWB.

I fire up around 11:00 pm and then again when I get up.....which normally is anywhere from 6:00 am on. Being that the house is 12 years old, it can tolerate that amount of time....... 7-8 hours.

 

Exactly what Dennis said. Lots of coaling, in my opinion, is in no way a negative. That's chunks of BTU's doin' their thing. Just introduce lots more air and they will complete their task. The only thing I can think of is some want to reload now and not wait for the remaining btu's to be produced.


31/74 @ 7a today. Chestnut & red oaks and one round of mulberry went in the firebox. Big thick layer of ice on everything this morning.

 

31/73 when I left for work. Tossed white oak and BL on a nice glowing bed of coals when I got up at 4:30. Outside was iced up but a cold rain and warming temps helping get rid of it. Driveway is a freaking mess.

 

+26°F ambient at the house.
Winds from the east south east to 25 mph .
With stronger gusts
Added 1 round of fkws this morning.

 

The snow storm finally moved out. 31 heading down to the low teens by morning. Taking it easy right now with one piece of boxelder and a piece of spruce atop a bed of red and sugar maple coals.

 

We are out of the cold snap. 16 above and sunny. Life is good.

 

This is my issue. The BTUs made green the coals are but as much as the BTUs from flaming wood. I figure issue a FP insert to try to do nearly all of the heating duties in this house is part of the issue. Eventually I want to add a wood furnace in the basement, or a owb, and that will definitely help with this. Because the insert will be used less frequently.

We got all of 5" of fluffy white snow this morning. I got it all snowblowed before I left for work. It stopped snowing at 6:30 am. Just enough time to get it taken care of and get to work when I typically do.

20° out 73° in. Ash in the stove

 

About 11 here this evening. We received somewhere around 6-7”. I don’t know. Hard to tell with the way the wind blew while the snow was coming down. Very light stuff though.

Wood Gun is running on Pine and Spruce now. Maple, Ash, Beech for overnight burn. I’ll be loading that up about 9.

 

My son called me while I was at work today. Wanted to confirm which way the setting went to close air off to the wood burner. Said it was 80 in the house. I told him to open a window.

Currently 33/77, chestnut oak.

 

Have you been reading my mind? I’ve been dwelling on that same issue for the last few weeks. If the temps are high teens and up the Napoleon insert does well but when they get below that I’m feeding wood and burning down coals quite often. I’ve been tossing around the idea of a new catalytic insert or possibly seeing what stoves if any I could fit into the fireplace, I imagine they’d be quite small ones though.

We’re around 20 here with a inside temp about 72. Supposed to be teens with high winds this weekend. Brought up a rack of red maple I found while making room for my elm mess. It’s keeping us warm and making less coals than the oak I’ve been burning albeit I’m reloading a lot more.

 

Thanks for the tip, Dennis. A person can know quite a bit and still have a lot to learn!

 

low twenties again. Maple and walnut in the boiler. Well seasoned ash with the odd hickory for some crackle and pop in the fireplace.

Was in conference since Tuesday night, so I turned off the boiler and switched to furnaces so my wife would need to mess with it while I was gone.

Arrived home this afternoon, thinking I would need to restart the fire, but the boiler was up to temp, and plenty of wood content to smolder a few days. Added some fresh splits and back in business.

 

-2 here. 73 inside.

 

That deserves my favorite gif...

 

29 above F ambient.
15 mph breeze from the south east
1 , 9" diameter goes round 21" long and some wood that is mostly coaling. Stove is closed down pretty good and 67° f indoors. At least where the thermometer is in the kitchen. 63° in the bathroom.
Seems the house is easiest to run at about 10° F outside temp.
BUT, for our first winter in this house and with only burning wood for our heat source. I think we've done ok. Thank God !!!
YES, there are Lots of things I still have to do in the house ! But it's good to know that what I planned and built works.
And it's as nice not oweing any one for what I've built.

 

5/71
Cherry and hard maple

 

Just loaded a mix of small and medium Pine and Maple splits for some fast BTUs. The Wood Gun was completely empty after last nights load and with theses temps. And the big buffer tank is down to 155. Yikeys. Would not be long before the bubblin goo turned on. Can’t be havin that!