I’ll burn when I am away from home. It’s not a must here in the Mid East or “south” as some call it and I do have a new stove but for all intensive purposes, there is a fire in my basement right? My chimney is 40 years old and is clay lined. It has a witches bend and the clay doesn’t look at good as it should but I have a well built and huge chimney. Still, for me, it’s always on my mind. So with all that, I decided to try to use some modern technology to help me keep an eye on things while at the office. I’m literally 90 seconds from work and can get here fast but I still wanted to keep an eye on things. Years ago, I installed 6 1080p cameras. They are nice and I can see everything from work on an iPad that’s on the wall beside my computer. It’s real time and clear as a bell. So as far as my stove, I felt “green” running it this year. It’s finicky and sometimes the temps jump all over the place. I am better at it now though. I purchased an auber instruments pipe temp gauge and slave unit to go with it. The main unit is in the basement mounted to my chimney and has a temp wire hooked to the pipe. The slave is upstairs in the bedroom and reads the same temp and the main unit. I even have the app on my phone so I can check it anywhere. IE: last night at a high school ball game. So all I did was take one of the 2 cameras in my basement and pointed it towards the main unit at the chimney. Now I can see in real time what my pipe temps are and when it’s time to come home and re load. I work for myself so I am lucky that I can leave the office when I need to. Here’s a few snaps of the setup. Call me paranoid and I may be but it does ease my mind while gone.
Nothing wrong with it but it does seem a bit strange to us folks who have burned wood for many moons. In our case, for longer perhaps than you've been on this earth. Yes, there is a fire in your basement...the same as there would be if a furnace were kicking out heat. Yet, it seems most folks worry not about a furnace in their home but do about wood. As for me and my house, we'll continue to heat as normal with no fears. Not only that, but we don't even have a backup for heat so we depend upon that wood heat 100%. However, we do have some fire alarms in the house.
Nice! I have the Ecobee thermostats so I read what temp it is in each zone (one in the wood stove room) as well as Arlo security cameras that would alert me if the smoke detectors went off.
I’ve liked and wanted to try this but since I leave home most often when I have burned more in the morning and not just loaded up and leave. One small fire helps keep the house at a good temp until I get back but then again it’s not been getting cold after our break.
I’m 70-80 yards from my OWB, but have an internal temp gauge to show what temp water is getting to house, and I can tell from this when a trip to the furnace is needed
Man I know that gnawing feeling- had that when I was running a hotblast furnace- never trusted that thing. Automatic overfire damper and all.
That is really very slick IMO! And by using consumer technology already available and relatively inexpensive, you are getting temperature monitoring via the 'Net, cameras and smartphones (or Ipads, whatever the monitoring device(s) are). A really great idea I think- kudos! Brian
Thanks a lot. Once I get some burn time in and know more of how it works and reacts to certain woods, how much wood etc, ill be a little less nervous.
By the time the water gets to the house it is usually 160-175 degree range, really regardless of outside temp since its under the frost line in insulated pipes. If it gets below 150 I know the furnace is losing the battle and will need more wood within a couple hours. It will run at least 8 hours with a full load, so I don't have to check it often. Mainly just fill it AM before work, top off when I get home from work, and then fill before bed. Sometimes only tricky part is running into a big pile of lesser btu wood in the shed, since I burn whatever is next and don't sort by species.
