Yes, a lot of time. A great deal of number crunching goes into properly designing wood boiler systems. 8600btus/# of wood is part of it. Dont even get me started on system efficiency. But these are ussually intended to replace fossil fuel burners, not just supplement. And ideally while the boiler is already hot you want to load enough wood to top of your storage (temp sensors in tanks). Then you dont need to have a fire again for a while. I can go as long as 6-7 days between fires in the summer if we are just burning for DHW. Below zero nights this weekend the boiler will be burning for about 12 hours each day. I weighed every load my first year. I was burning soft maple and ash that first year until my harder woods were seasoned. It was nice when real world results fell right in line with calculations. After the first year was under my belt I had a good feel for it and dont bother weighing anymore. Okay. Enough of my preaching. Burn on with however many splits it takes!
However many splits I burn in a typical day it feels like X10 today! Wind chill below zero tonight and 50 mph gusts!
Went through about 30 or more today. Lost count with all the times I loaded the stove. Could have something to do with the sub Arctic temps we're having. First time running the stove this hard since I've had it, it's keeping up well but needs constant attention with this weather, I'm positive the furnace will be on by morning.
burning steady all day today and cleaning up some uglies. they keep us warm too. burning pellets also as this heats the basement up nicely and radiates up through the floor.the electric went out this am for a few hours so i had to fire up the generator . just glad to have it in times like this.
These last few days I have burned around 35-45 splits per 24 hour period. Normal day not so cold is around 25-30 per day burning 24/7. Have burned just under 5 cord so far this year.
Back in the sweet spot for this stove and my setup. Mid twenties here today and we're just cruising along keeping the house at a nice even 72-74. Burning less than half per day than I did the last two days. I felt like I was loading the stove non stop to keep up with the subzero temps, exhausting!! If wood was my only source of heat I would definitely be looking into a larger or second stove. On pace to go through about 12 splits today and they're a bit shorter(12-14inches), so that's pretty good.
One or two every morning about 5:45 AM, 5 gallons of coal, One or two in the evening when I get home sometime around 6 or ???????, then 5 gallons of coal, Splits are about the size of a softball and 11 inches long. I love burning wood Coal is king though. My house this weekend stayed 75 or better in single digits and, below zero temps. With high winds. Tonight, It's warmed up considerably into the 20's and I didn't adjust accordingly. My house sets at 84 right now with the front door open. It would be 95 had I not opened the exterior door and, raised the storm screen at 7 PM. House is 2400 square feet, double story. I have to keep the bedroom door shut to keep it nice and cool for sleeping. We do not run electric heat when it gets cold enough to burn 24 hours a day. My power bill last month was $61. It'd been cheaper if the first week of the month had been cold enough to burn 24/7. Like I said wood is great. Coal is king. God Bless men
I burn as many as are needed to keep the oil furnace off most of the time. Sometimes, I let the oil kick in at the end of an overnight burn just because oil is cheap these days and I want to make sure the oil furnace is working for backup.
That's old school and proud right there. My house which was my Grammy's was heated with coal, there was still coal in the bins in the cellar when I got it in 82.They heated it with coal for a century.
I can feed my Energy kING 480 EK 25-30 large splits a day when temps are below 20 or I can make it easier and load about a radio flyer wagon full a day of bit coal.
What type of leaf or bark does this "Coal" have ? I got trees, wish I had a nice coal vein running through my place, I'd be trading my saw's for shovels.
Got to do/use what you can! I`m not too much better with my furnace but it keeps all the mess in the basement. Maybe in a few years I`ll get a new Buck stove for the main floor.
Plus.... I'm going through what's now at best half solid pecan....not really punky, just "lite." The stove eats less BL by comparison. I did add a little efficiency to it by way of some secondary burn tube-
I will say that my splits are 2 to 3 times that big. You`re doing better than I am when I burn wood. You ever try coal in there? Nice tubes BTW.
