How do you handle shoulder season?

Looking at what I have left this year, looks like I'll be wearing a sweatshirt to deal with shoulder season.

 

Burn more coal on the warmer days. Thermostat controlled forced draft makes coal shine in the 25-45 temps.

 

Box Elder is good shoulder wood... burns hot, but not as long.... you can take the chill off without cooking the room. Cedar works well too but I try to spit that small for kindling

 

I'm surprised to hear that...would have thought coal is too hot for what is fairly warm weather.

 

Looks like we will start on shoulder wood this week! Supposed to be warm the next few days. For me, i usually just re-light. No more a hassle than re-loading the stove full on cold days.

 

I hear you. It does require quite a bit more oversight to burn the "non coaling" species.

 

Today it warmed up to almost 50F. It was a good opportunity to let my Vapor Fire 100 go out and do a good cleaning of the ashes.

Tonight I started a fire in the fireplace to take the chill off. Nice little blend of ash and persimmion to enjoy while watching the Olympics.

I will put a load in the furnace before heading to bed since it will get down to 20F tonight. My furnace does an excellent job during warmer weather. I just set it to low and the house stays at a nice even temperature.

 

I don't really have a shoulder season. With an OWB, I have to burn 24/7 to maintain domestic hot water. Heat is secondary. So during times when the weather is warmer and there is less demand for heat, we simply put less wood in the OWB firebox. I do tend to put more "softwood" (by my definition - pine, poplar, butternut & basswood) into the OWB during warmer periods, and top it off with a few sticks of good hardwood (this year it's locust, ash, beech and white oak) to keep a few good coals until the next loading. I load it twice a day - usually 7 am and 5 pm weekdays, and whenever I get around to it on weekends. My boiler has been running continuously since 04 January 2017, no breaks.

 

I can't wait for shoulder season, but I have at least a full month of 24/7 burning left, and I'm getting close to burning next years wood! I have burned way to much wood this year with the record cold temps!

Like others said burning just at nights and early mornings and less BTU species. Box Elder is my go to, I have way to much of it around and it burns fast.

 

It's bituminous, not anthracite .
It burns real low unless air is put to it. Thermostat controlled forced draft makes it work well.

 

Ah. Thanks for explaining

 

I just put less wood in my OWB.

 

My first fire in the morning will be pine.
It burns hot and fast. The stove resumes pumping out heat quick but it's about done in two hours.
Then in two hours:
if it's gonna be warm and sunny and we get some solar gain then I'll have no more fire or another pine fire for two hours and see where we stand then.
if it's not going to warm up much or raining then we might put a load of oak in for a 4 or 5 hour burn.

Usually around 4 or 5 PM we'll repeat the morning routine and adjust depending on the weather-guessers odds on the expected overnite low

I'm finding I use pine more and more because it can be convenient, I just wish I had cut and split more of it a year or two ago.