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

15 this am, and house was 68. Loaded 5 small Oak splits, and we're up at 72.
OAT is now about 23 and rising, so should be an easy day to keep the house warm.
Looks like the front stack of Oak will get me through January.
Starting to think I may get back into the Maple much sooner than I thought, at least during the day and warmer nights.

 

28 early 32 now. About an inch of snow pellets in the last 12 hours.
Burned down the coal load with a couple oak lumber cutoffs. Scraped the grates clean and reloaded with mostly coal and a few oak cutoffs just to keep the coal going. A bigger load of coal shines in these temps as the thermostat only gives the furnace air as it calls for heat. Otherwise the coal just sits there and makes residual heat .We have enough settled and frozen snow on my outside pile that this may be the first year EVER that I don't refill the wood room from it. Theres enough in the attached shed that at "midway" ,,,,I'm comfortable burning out of the shed. This has been an awesome winter in the belt.

 

Low 20's here today but it is windy! Makes it feel colder than it is, ya know? Gotta love wind chill!

 

wind can change the complexion of an otherwise warm day. not much wind here now but temps are dropping so will burn some more of my hoard. good evening fellas.

 

After all day with wind and 20's temps, we had a warm front come through and the temp now is actually above freezing! Getting a bit of drizzle to accompany it also.
Go figure.

 

27. Straight Ash this morning.

 

Currently 7°F burning all ash 95% with a piece of hickory every now and then. Keeps house at 70.

 

The drizzle from last evening turned into some heavy snow. Gonna have my hands full this morning.

Low 20's again.

 

We had 22 this morning, Beech, Red & Sugar Maple in the Liberty.

 

23 now
Party mix in the furnace
About another inch of snow overnite.
Almost acts like Lake Erie is froze over.Dont think it is but I'll have to look.

 

30 here going up to 35, 72 in the house burning black cherry and American elm.

Have been experimenting with my key damper last couple days (28 foot SS chimney). Loaded 5 white oak splits at 5:30 pm (73) with 1.25 air setting with key damper about 15 degrees above horizontal; low was 22 with 15 mph winds, reloaded this morning 250 STT at 6:10 am (70) with plenty of coals for quick flame up. Hard to quantify the impact of key damper, but it certainly slows down the flames and allows me to run at a higher air setting; seems to reduce both flue and STT (my assumption is more heat in fire box with reduced cat, STT and flue temps). Getting a 12.5 hour nightly burn out of this tiny fancy blue rock is a real luxury compared to my prior stove.

 

I installed one on the kicker stove down in the basement also. It needed help only because the draft was too strong. About 35' of masonry chimney through the center of the house. Significant difference.

 

How does your stove behave differently? I'm still trying to understand the impact. Clearly for my install I can run at a higher air setting and the flames are darker and slower when damper at 15 degrees or less to horizontal. I don't know if this has simply slowed the stove down or if in the process it is slowing and allowing more heat to never go up the chimney.

 

Instead of having a very strong draft ( which shortens burn time) I can slow the draft down (thus creating a longer burn time).

 

I think a couple of things happen. The air flows through the stove more slowly, so the smoke does, so the cat has more time to burn the smoke and generates more heat in the stove, less unburned smoke lost up the chimney. Because there is less air flow, there is less oxygen hitting the wood at any given time, and the wood combusts more slowly, so the stove holds a fire longer. Because combustion is slower, less hot air is generated to go up the chimney, so less heat is lost up the chimney, for this reason as well as improved cat performance.

I have also found a very significant difference in the amount of ash pulled into the airway. My cat needs cleaning much less frequently. When I am about to reload the stove I always disengage the cat before opening the damper, so I don't get ash pulled through the cat.

I have a very strong draft, and always completely close the damper as soon as the stove reaches temp to engage the cat. ICC has it's initials cut through the damper flap, so the air through that is all that goes up my chimney. I still get very high flue temps, but not as high as before I installed the damper. I probably need two dampers.....wouldn't that be fun.

 

I should also add that it is a non cat stove. It has the stainless secondary burn capability.

 

Been quite warm here, 42 a couple days ago and highs above freezing till Tuesday. Then back to normal average temps (low to mid 20s and mid teens at night). Still burning red oak and keeping it 72-74ish upstairs!

 

32-ish. Light snow for a while earlier this afternoon and off and on tonight. Straight Ash burning.

 

34 tonight with some Cherry,Beech, Soft & Hard Maple in the Liberty.