My oil furnace just kicked on!

Yikes!!

 

Ya, we have a a pretty efficient oil boiler so it’s warm in the house. Mama is doing a lot for the family right now so I can’t be upset. Tho I do think a second stove upstairs may be in our future. Can you get 2 liners in a 8x12 flue? One for the upstairs main heat and one for the wood beast in the basement when it gets ugly?

 

It would be tight!

 

Yes that’s what I’m thinking. Really shouldn’t need heat in the basement unless the power goes out. I guess that’s what the generator is for.

 

I had 10 degrees this a.m. @ 8. Got home this evening from work and the upstairs was 68, which is where the oil is set. I got to work feeding my stove. Chewed through 2 firebox fulls and now we're at 74. Mucho betterer!! I'm barely keeping up but now that the winds died down, should be able to win the fight.

 

Did my morning wake up stumble to the throne room about 5 am and threw a couple splits on top of everything left in the stove, then turned up the t-stat and went back to bed.
One way or another, the house will be warm.
We're due for 4 tonight.

 

What a difference a few hours makes. The wind died back down and the snow is coming straight down. I've been burning the coals down for 3.5 hours and the house has been 68 the whole time. The dungeon stove room is still 80* and the stove is down to 250.
This morning the house wouldn't go over 67 and the stove was 700*. It was in the high teens outside.
Darn wind!

 

I have 2 returns from the living room into the stove room. I've been thinking about 2 more

 

I turned on my Therm Guard so that the FHW will run 3x per day / 8 minutes each time. With the wind and high temps less than 25, it is insurance against freezing pipes since some of them run thru my unheated garage. My pellet stoves keep it nice and warm inside.

 

Just floor vents and they let a lot of air back down. I have a 6"duct fan in one pulling air down. Not sure if it is worth using, it's 160cfm

 

I’ve heard that a 3/8” hole in the ash pan door helps burn down the coals in the Ideal Steel. I have no idea where I might have heard such a preposterous idea ... but I wonder if it might help?

I’m visiting a friend in Albany NY this weekend, and I convinced him to buy an Ideal Steel in March 2015. We’re seriously discussing this pernicious rumor and it’s possible/theoretical application on his stove...

 

Gave up fighting with it a few years ago TD. Minus 15c and lower gets kinda hard to keep house warm so finally gave in and now just grab 2 half scoops with this and start newish.

Leather gloves on when it happens though!

 

I've threatened to do that but really dont want to carry hot coals through the house.

 

Buddy tripped me up once and that made for a fun time.

 

I'd prolly goto an HVAC shop or search craigslist to see if you can scab a blower off an old furnace and get hooked up to the furthest duct from the stove with some of that flex duct ( IIRC it's about $30 for 25'). Let the stairwell act as a return . Wire a plug to the blower and just plug it in when those circumstances present themselves.

 

I've been looking at squirrel cage blowers to blow a little more return air back to the basement.
All in all, my system works well blowing heat up the stair well and returning through 2 large vents in the floor, but when its windy or down into the low teens I struggle to get a couple more degrees on the main level

 

Got an electric leaf blower?
You could take the grid off the duct and just drop it through the top . Let'er rip