Or, I suppose, a fireplace insert. Question being, can you / how do you regulate the room temp so it doesn't fluctuate so much or is that just the nature of the beast? This is in the context of heating your house or a large portion of it anyway. I have only recently used a fireplace insert, Pacific Energy brand, at my brother's house. It works great, is quite impressive. But if you have central heat, you set the thermostat on 70 or whatever and it doesn't fluctuate but about a degree or two. Getting the room/house too warm with a stove or insert is a concern, is this avoidable? Sorry, inexperienced at this!
Experience with your wood stove will eventually learn you how much wood to put in. Outside temps are a variable and your burning behaviors will adjust. I find that when more heat is needed, I don't just load up the fire box. Small increments. If one split isn't enough add one more.. If the heat gets away from me, then I figure that's what windows are for, and I hope I've learned a bit more.
Some times you just have to use the manually actuated temp valves. Side note: someone else here came up with that, I just like it a lot.
The best way to regulate the stove and temperature is by the fuel you put in. In cool temperatures we simply don't put much wood in the stove. Sometimes when we add wood we'll even put in only one split or maybe two but 3 is a bit more normal. If temps are near 30 or above it just does not take much wood to heat the house. This does mean many times you will be starting a fire almost from scratch but that is better than opening a window or door. Something else to keep in mind is to have smaller split for those times when you don't need much heat. Also this is the time to be burning the "lesser" woods and even some that is turning punky.
Dennis nailed it. Simply add less wood on warmer days. Yes, it needs attended more frequently but it won’t put out so many btu’s and cause you to open a window.
My main issue is coming inside for a drink, restroom break ect. and being cold i toss on some wood. After a couple of trips in my wife looks like frosty the snowman in the summer. I should add that some fresh air is rather nice in the winter.
I live in a pretty moderate climate so maybe like Louisiana. It’s easy to regulate temperature within a comfortable range throughout my particular 1700 sf home. A little warmer in the stove room. 68-75 all winter.
Can't speak for the cat stoves, but with my tube stove I have a fine line between "low" and "smoldering" on the burn. Unless I am right there, it is really hard to keep it in the low burn and not smoldering range. So usually I do not try, I just shoot for a good clean burn, and like others have said, regulate temperature of the house by wood feed rate. I never have to open a window because of house overheating, and can keep the temperature within a couple of degrees of the target easily this way. When it is real cold outside, it is easier to regulate (with a higher burn) and it is usually within 1 degree of target.
Smaller, well insulated, homes are difficult to heat with most modern woodstoves because most of the designs have taken out the ability to run low outputs for a long time. It’s balls out to be clean! To hell with efficiency and comfort. So a small home’s temperature must cycle in response to these pulses. There are a couple of stove designs from companies that have embraced the long, low, even burns that are far better for keeping a house warm. If the cycles are unbearable then there are other ways to heat with wood like boilers with storage or pellet stoves. These heat sources can more closely replicate the fossil fuel burning experience. There are still a couple of companies that make actual free standing oil stoves. No power needed. Pretty cool really.
Highbeam, I must say, you are often full of good information. Kuma is one of those companies that offers a freestanding oil stove. I have considered them several times for the same reasons you’ve indicated. Lit the big fossil burner this afternoon and she’s cruising right along and about to burn me out of the house. OAT 30F IAT 72F and too hot, kitchen window open an inch. Stove at 265F and still on the way down. Pipe at 124F 12” up off the stove and still ever so slowly falling. Rear air inlet closed full, secondary’s open 1.5 turns and getting ready to close them on down. Stove is too big for my 1350sq.ft. but we make it work...barely. She throws a large amount of heat even at a very low idle. Actually need a smaller stove...even a smaller wood stove, but I don’t want the cycling. I’m not aware of any smaller stoves than your Princess that operate similarly with the record BK’s have. Of course there are some smaller WS’s that might work for me that are cat stoves, but no stat. A stat spoils a person. I’m not opposed to leaving a fossil stove and a smaller wood stove would certainly work better for me. Just haven’t decided which model and how much tending I want to do. Of course a smaller fossil stove would work just fine. I really like the coal. Really do, but my heart is still with burning wood. Something about the smell when you open the stove door. Brings back lots of good memories. Maybe a Princess might still work for me, just afraid it too is too big compared to a 30-95 or 254 Hitzer. Those Kuma oil stoves look decent, but I don’t even want to go there having an oil furnace. That would take all the fun out of having a stove.
Lots of good information here. I had to break myself of the old habit of loading the firebox to the gills every single time I lit the stove too. Now I actually enjoy having small fires with 1-3 splits at a time. It helps stretch my supply out and I'm not wasting so much wood cooking everyone out of the house on a 35 degree day. I've been in the habit recently of burning conifers during the day, which helps burn down the deep bed of coals from the previous night's burn. When temperatures drop again after dark I'll reload with more mixed hardwood to carry us through the night. Getting to really know your stove and fine tuning your burning habits goes a long way. Between what/how much you're burning, split size, air/damper control, and how frequently you load, there's enough there to keep you busy experimenting for a while.
Certainly with some stoves load size makes a huge difference. People forget they don’t have to load with that much wood every time. I get in that mind-set myself because I’m juggling thinking about wood stoves and coal stoves. My coal stove must be filled completely to slow the air velocity and the burn from running away. This tames the flame you might say and slows things down for long burns. Because of this when I am thinking about a wood stove I am still wanting to get, then I seem to forget about this. I don’t know why I forget because I had to do the same with the real old stove I removed because it too, on coals and three fresh splits, would drive you out of the house. I keep seeing the pictures on these forums thinking I have to completely fill the box.
You get the hang of it. We have a BIG stove in a 1400 sf farmhouse that was originally built in 1860 and has been added onto several times. It is drafty and doesn't hold heat very long, but it's comfy. We usually add a few splits at a time and that does it. In the cool season it's more like a fire a day, because that big stove holds heat forever. When the temps drop to zero or below, we add 4-7 splits based on how windy it is. The cool thing is how warm the house gets when it snows. As soon as the snow starts the house warms up. Not sure why.
Insulation...it insulates. Gotta love it though when the weather calls for more wood and you have room not for three, but 7 big pieces. You say to the snow and cold.
When my house gets too warm, I turn my insert's blower off or to the lowest setting. It's not the greatest solution, but it helps.
