Blowing through the wood

It f'ing blows.

 

I blew through 10-12 cord of hardwood last year during a mild winter.

This year up until three day ago, I was looking at 5 cord of pine and 4 cord of hardwood to make it through this winter. Which is a huge improvement. But now? I have at least 10 days of this crap. We will be about 20-30 degrees below what we should be at for this time of year.

 

I have to keep on my stove pretty hard when it's cold as well. Luckily we don't normally see -20* or colder too often. At those temps I have some trouble getting enough warm air to the back of the house. Front of the house will be 75ish, but back (bedrooms) will only be 65ish.
Seems colder though, like the cold creeps in everywhere.

 

Try a 100 watt bulb in a trouble light down beside the engine by the oil 4 or hours before starting.
(bulb gets hot, so not touch/close to plastic or rubber)
Sometime just a few degrees make the difference it they start or not.

OK
What / (how much) is a stove cord ?
I've never heard that one .

 

I think I have enough, but Im definitely not 3 years ahead. My buddy has seasoned firewood to sell if I get in a jam. Some hickory and other premium hardwoods to choose from. Don't think it will come to that though.

 

I'm about 1 - 2 large wheelbarrow loads a day. But, I'm feeding one stove only. Do you wheel yours right inside? I take it inside and park it overnight full. Wood has been more or less snow covered since December with no thawing.

 

I have a large rack that will hold 3 wheelbarrow loads. I also have smaller racks by each stove that I will use if I know an ice storm is coming.

 

Good thing you have a big stove, that would be almost 5 loads in a Keystone.....not much time to sleep or work.

 

For the first time since I have been in this house I feel like I am fighting a loosing battle. It was supposed to go down to 9 degrees here last night but it was 5 degrees at 8 pm and now I have -6 with nasty wind blowing hard. Not sure why but I loaded the stove the same as I always do and usually have no issues came downstairs to the living room temps at 65 degrees and the stove over half full of coals! I can't figure out why it didn't burn down? The joys of wood stoves I guess. Looks like it is going to be cold one here at our house today.

It really doesn't help that my basement is at 38 degrees right now and that's probably them temp of my floors on the first story since they are slate and wood and there is no insulation in the floor joists. My basement walls are poured concrete and exposed about four feet above ground with no insulation on the inside or outside. I literally have frost on the interior of my basement walls and that's a first for me to ever see that. I sure wish this weather would let up. Guess my T6 can't handle below zero for days on end with a 3,400 sq ft house. It seems like once my basement loses it heat the extra strain/ load on this place causes the stove to lose ground if every load doesn't burn down quickly and properly. As Nate stated this stove sure isn't puking rainbows and tulips right now

I would try to compare it to my old dutchwest stove but we have never had temps this cold hang around for this long. I do know that this stove doesn't struggle at all when its in the teens and the old dutchwest definitely did struggle then so overall it's not doing to bad with all thing considered. I really need to do something About the lack of insulation in my attic and my basement but I'm sure I will have forgot about in a week or two. Lol

 

Fr the first time I broke down and shoveled out some coals........ Didn't know what else to do the house was loosing temp fast trying to burn it down. Reloaded and the first floor is 69 and climbing again. Now I'm gonna be later to work than I wanted to be.

 

Not working today, but still had to shovel some coals out. Granted, they were small, but I couldn't wait anymore with the room getting to 60F and outside -2F.

 

I'm at pretty close to 4 chords used heating 2200SF up and 2200 SF basement. Limited oil use except maybe a total of four hours so far just to help take the chill off. My three year plan just went to two year plan.

 

I would be ready to winterize the house and move south for the winter. How do you have time to sleep?

 

This winter has hit my supply hard. This is the first winter in 20 years that my parents haven't gone to Florida. Between mom and dads house and my place we are going through some wood. I have some stacks that were sitting at 21-24% this fall. I might be dipping into those before winter is over.

I have seasoned white oak and ash for next year but I am going to cut some sassafras and popular for the shoulder season. I meant to use junk wood this year for the shoulder season and it didn't happen.

 

Well, right now is an extreme case since we are spending most of the 24 hour period in single digit temperatures. I insulated the attic and that has helped a lot. But, the house still has a lot of heat loss. Right now, from a good load of wood, I am getting about 5 hours of heat from the Defiant. 6 hours from the 30. 4-5 from the Encore. The 30 can still get the room to 80+ degrees, but that leads us back to the problem of too much heat all at once as oppose to a more controlled burn.

Still a lot better than previous years. But, still not the level of convenience I want to be at.

 

Once we crawl back to highs in the 20s and lows in the teens, chit changes a lot for me and my burn times stretch back out.

 

In this weather, I'm doing what amounts to 2 full loads/day. That's about 1/3 cord per week. It needs to warm up.

 

What are you running, an OWB?