Question: When should i reload ?

The temp is at about 360 now. The air intake is closed the damper is open.
The logs are almost gone. The flames pop up intermittently. Shall i wait until it's all ember or shall i put more logs on. Last night load can be around 23:00 or so, it's 20:13 now.

 

Usually I’d have a nice bed of coals, fill it up, getting it going pretty good, then turn the air down and let it burn. Wake up at 6am and repeat if needed.


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What ^^^^ said. Might be a bit warmish for that kind of fire though.
What's your inside temp right now, and how warm do you like the house?

 

You are right i probably shouldn't even be burning yet but i just had to try it out. It's 47 outside supposed to go to 39 and 73 inside. 70 would be quite enough. I think if it would go out it would probably not be very cold in the morning. The fire burns still pretty good even though the intake is shut all the way. The stove temp fell to 325. i just put a couple half rounds of smallish oak on and closed it back up after it got started well. Temps crept back up to 360.
How low do i dare go to avoid creosote? By the way my woods moisture content is between 12 and 15.

 

I'll set my alarm and get up early to check it.

 

I shoot for a reload around bedtime. At 3hr out and mild temps I would likely throw a few sticks in, and then load 20 minutes or so from lights-out. The few sticks will give some heat, but also ensure a good coal bed for a quicker load-to-cruise time.

Tonight was mild here, and I only did a half load after work. Turns out I undershot (temp was at 300 as I loaded for the overnight), but since it is so mild (47 outside), it wasn’t a big deal.

 

(Read your post above after posting mine - sound like you have a good handle on this.)

 

With that low of moisture content, you don't need to worry about creosote.

I haven't had a fire in several days. It's 39 now, and going to go to 34° tonight. 3 splits of balsam fir and the stove is choochin' with the air all the way shut.

Keep it lit, if it gets too warm inside, then turn the house hvac fan on, or crack a window, or open the door to the garage.

 

I guess with all the horror stories and chimney fire pictures and not having any experience i'm a bit overly worried.
It's a bit basic out here no central hvac. Left one of the storm doors open earlier. I rarely close the actual house doors because the dogs have doggy doors in the storm doors and love running in and out.

 

The stove crept back up to 440. I closed the damper some hoping to slow it a little more.

 

You're doing fine.
I cut the air back pretty far for the overnight fire and don't have issues with creo. I don't think my firewood MC is quite that low either.
If you get too concerned, go up top and check the pipe.
I cleaned mine from last year just a few days ago and all I got was a couple cups of fine, light brown ash. Didn't even do my usual mid-winter (not to be confused with Midwinter ) cleaning.

When it starts getting cold, that's about a mid-hot fire. Mine usually runs about 500-600, sometimes a bit more.

 

Thanks papadave. I'm just nervous and excited. First ever fire in a wood stove of my own. Grew up with it but that was a very long time ago and after that only had an open fire place.

 

Yeah, give it a little time and you'll be a pro (the way you're going, that'll be tomorrow at noon). I had plenty of concerns when I first began burning, and that only started when we moved here back in Sept. '06.

 

I learned from the best. Have been hanging out on the forum since before we bought the stove. Try to be a good student still working on my 3 year wood supply got ways to go.

 

I've got a blaze king princess model stove, i don't load it up at night. I'm in the PNW and even when the temps drop into the teen's i still don't load it up. I'm a on again, off again sleep type person, so needless to say, i'm up at least 2 times each night, some times 3 times. I wake up at the slightest sound. So, that being said, when i wake up, if its starting too cool off a little in the house i've almost always got fire starting material close at hand, little pitch, kindling , and a split piece or 2 of wood ready to go. Within 10 min max, i can start feeling the stove warming up pretty good. If i have a free standing fan close by, i'll put it on the lowest setting, and it seems within 15 min the house in the living room is pretty comfortable. I don't like to load up my stove unless i'm home, and around the house, i don't like loud noises, flashing lights, and people running through my house dressed up like firemen. lol And, i'm retired so, that's a real plus.

 

I see your point. I didn't really load it either because it isn't really cold here yet. What i can't understand is why it keeps burning like crazy even though i turned the air supply down as far as i could. I tried to totally close the damper as well. It had little effect on the fire but smoke started to come into the house so i opened it back to half way. The stove is at 500 and if it keeps this up it will go through loads of wood just to heat the outdoors.

 

Once winter sets in I usually can go on 12 hour cycles. I load the stove at 7ish, get it going then damper down to where I want it.

I'm usually up at 5:00 7 days a week. First thing I do is open the damper fully, then open up the stove and spread out the coals. I'll usually leave the door cracked to speed up the burn down, then reload at 6:30ish.

If its REALLY cold then I'll run 8ish hour burn cycles.

 

Even though you turned the air down all the way, there's still air that will get into the stove due to some EPA regulations. It's still going like crazy because your wood is really dry and you probably tried cutting it back while the wood was still off-gassing heavily (early in the burn cycle).

500 is nothing for a steel stove. I wouldn't be concerned, let alone worried, until you get north of 750. Not saying you should get that hot on the regular, but there's no need to worry about the stove at that temperature (I've had mine up to 900+ a few times with no damage).

Flue temperatures have more impact on creosote than stove top temperatures. Until you get used to running the stove you may want to consider adding a flue thermometer. But since you have an EPA stove burning dry wood I think your chances of developing a creosote problem is very slim. I would recommend taking a look down the pipe after your first month of full time burning just to see what's going on and get yourself some peace of mind.

Burning a stove in this weather is hard...draft is usually bad, too easy to overheat the house, lots of restarts.

 

^^^^