I have tomorrow off so I am waiting for some coals to burn down before I load it up. It normally would have been stuffed 1.5 hrs ago.
I wait until about 1/2 hour before bed to load, if I can. Gives the load just enough time to establish, get turned down, and left alone. The coal bed was still a little too much, so I emptied about 1/2, then loaded. All those splits are 18". A couple Oak, and the rest Maple. I think I waited too long, as the house temp dropped to 68, and it's still there. OAT is only about 8, so it may not catch up. Just checked and the STT was 590 with a real nice 2ndary burn going on.
OK, I'll play, 3 degrees out, 69 inside. Stove is full of douglas fir, on a heavy bed of coals. 400 STT. It is supposed to go below 0 tonight. Sorry for the poor photo.
Boy.... Oh Boy.... the NC30 are just smilin' ... as the digest all those full plates... Looking Good Guys!
I had a buttload of coals to burn down last night , got plenty of heat out of it though with the blower on stove room stayed at 79 Loaded ash, red oak and Shagbark
Mostly Hedge... with Mulberry & Honey Locust to fill in...another cold night expected ... Had too many coals, cleaned out for room...Can't keep up with these cold temperatures in my house with the prolonged cold snaps. So ran the stove once this morning to get the temperature in the house back up. All in all very impressed with the NC30... coming from the running of the NC13...
From earlier Mostly beech with some ironwood. There was a little space left over, but a lot of coals and I didn't want to lose much house temp with for coals to burn down. That gets freaking hot with all those coals. I'll re chooch in a little bit and try to jam it full.
House temps got away from me today so now we play catch up. It was cold last night and I didn't wake up early enough to burn down coals so I didn't get a full load in this morning. A pretty full load tonight, even used some filler pieces which I don't do very often.
The overnight load. Beech, and ironwood. The stove doesn't care about the snow on the logs. There are a lot of coals that didn't burn down as far as I wanted them to. Oh well, it's supposed to warm up this week. I can empty ashes as I try not to melt my tools in the forge.
Be careful with those top boards. The last 2 pics you posted they were off the burn tubes. You'll send more heat up the chimney with them separated and raised. Plus they break pretty easy after year 2 or 3. I have a 1/2" blanket on top of my 2 top boards. Better firebox insulating and ensures that there is no gaps on the sides or the middle of them.
Tonight's load. Should last all night. Plus it's really not that cold tonight. The one in the top center is a bit punky. Oh well, there won't be any evidence soon.