Shoulder season,how to, not over heat the house ?

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HDRock

Minister of Fire
Oct 25, 2012
2,239
Grand Blanc, Mi
I never actually burned during the Shoulder season before, so last week,when I started, I was cooking my butt.
I'm getting a little better now, with smaller fires,but I need info on how to keep a hot fire and flue temp without ! over heating the house .
Fire box is about 6 cub ft, EDIT: (9.5 cb ft) if it matters.
Stove is a smoke dragon, so I'm not sure if this is the right place on the forum for this.
 
Ya wait till the house is getting a little below where you want the temp to be then let it burn down. Restarts in shoulder seasons are a regular routine here. Heat the joint up in the morning and let it go out. Live off of the residual heat and then restart at sundown.

Try to keep smoldering small fires going and you just crap up the chimney and waste wood.
 
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Your stove is meant to be a hot heater when it's cold out.
A small fire is pretty much your only solution.
Cold weather is a coming! lol
 
Get a CAT stove. YOu can throttle that baby back to nothing and turn the blower way down. I am pretty much running 12 hours on a half a load of pine.
 
Wow. So, how big is that house? Is it drafty? That's a big box.

Yeah, the stove is big, was here when I bought the house, It's round, 36'' long, 24'' front to back, and then a blower on the back.
House is1300 sq ft., it is not a tight house.
Been looking at new and used stoves, not really in the budget,maybe next year.
Don't think I have enough knowledge, just yet to pick a used one off CL
 
Yeah, the stove is big, was here when I bought the house, It's round, 36'' long, 24'' front to back, and then a blower on the back.
House is1300 sq ft., it is not a tight house.
Been looking at new and used stoves, not really in the budget,maybe next year.
Don't think I have enough knowledge, just yet to pick a used one off CL

I can relate on many levels.

When the temps do get very cold does it still overheat the house?
 
When the temps do get very cold does it still overheat the house?

Well ! it will if I let it, but it's not so much overheating the rest of house, as it is the living room,(stove room) the rest of the house is not open, it is very cut up, if you know what I mean.
I have been experimenting, with some ideas I learned on here, blowing cold air out of other end of house
 
Oh well heck. That is just known at heating with wood.
 
Well ! it will if I let it, but it's not so much overheating the rest of house, as it is the living room,(stove room) the rest of the house is not open, it is very cut up, if you know what I mean.
I have been experimenting, with some ideas I learned on here, blowing cold air out of other end of house
Again, I can relate as you can see from my signature.

When you upgrade, unless you do a lot of insulating, you will have to over-size your next stove to provide adequate heating for your house. What size pipe does that stove use?
 
I will try this:Live off of the residual heat and then restart.
Heat the joint up in the morning and let it go out.
Good info, Restarts in shoulder seasons are a regular routine here

Trying to keep smoldering small fires going and you just crap up the chimney and waste wood, is exactly what I want to avoid
Oh well heck. That is just known at heating with wood.
Yeah I know, but It's worse this time of year
 
When you upgrade, unless you do a lot of insulating, you will have to over-size your next stove to provide adequate heating for your house. What size pipe does that stove use?

My pipe/chimney is 8'' straight up about 15ft from top of stove, to top of chimney, low pitch roof,and the hearth is built,1 ft off the floor, I get a good draft
 
What stove do ya have?
 
I will try this:Live off of the residual heat and then restart.
Heat the joint up in the morning and let it go out.
Good info, Restarts in shoulder seasons are a regular routine here

Trying to keep smoldering small fires going and you just crap up the chimney and waste wood, is exactly what I want to avoid

Yeah I know, but It's worse this time of year

That statement above is not necessarily true at all! If you have good fuel, you can do it and get away with it but you need good dry wood. The wood we burn is usually at least 3 years in the stack after it has been split. We have no problems with crapping up the chimney nor do we waste wood.
 
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Yeah, but he is using an old Non-EPA smoke dragon stove. If you try to have a low temp fire in a Non-EPA, your chimney is gonna have a bad time. Small and hot is his best solution with the old stove that he has, unless I'm missing something.
 
Not true in a non-epa. We burned all non-epa stoves before the Fireview. Only had creosote problems with one stove. All others did very nicely.
 
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Not true in a non-epa. We burned all non-epa stoves before the Fireview. Only had creosote problems with one stove. All others did very nicely.
I'm not quite sure what you are trying so say.

I don't have creosote problems cuz I burn a good hot fire, cleaned the chimney a couple of week ago, and there wasn't' much to clean.
Like I said I never burned in the shoulder season before and it is quite different.
On top of that I rarely have the best wood, most of which I buy.
I'm kind of a part time burner,and I thought I knew what I was doing, Ah ! Well I kinda do but, I have more to learn, and more planing ahead would probably help cuz, I have used good dry wood, not so dry and wood that was foaming as it burned
 
I'm interested in hearing how you burn at low temps in a Non-EPA stove without smoke, as well.
 
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I never actually burned during the Shoulder season before, so last week,when I started, I was cooking my butt.
I'm getting a little better now, with smaller fires,but I need info on how to keep a hot fire and flue temp without ! over heating the house .
Fire box is about 6 cub ft, if it matters.
Stove is a smoke dragon, so I'm not sure if this is the right place on the forum for this.
I just wanted to clarify, I did the math wrong, my stove is 9.5 cubic ft
 
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I'll be happy to send you some cold temps. 5* tonight, wouldn't be surprised to see negative temps in the next week or two.
 
I'll be happy to send you some cold temps. 5* tonight, wouldn't be surprised to see negative temps in the next week or two.

;lol Thanks for the offer, even though it would be easier to run the stove, I will pass.
Still have work to do outside, once it gets down to 20 above, I don’t like to go outside;lol
 
Gunna have to get a smaller stove. For now, do what you've been doing- just burn the condensate out by getting the temp up before shutdown.
 
That statement above is not necessarily true at all! If you have good fuel, you can do it and get away with it but you need good dry wood. The wood we burn is usually at least 3 years in the stack after it has been split. We have no problems with crapping up the chimney nor do we waste wood.
I agree.
Our stove idles all day this time of year and I have no issues with a gunked up chimney, etc.
I did accidentally get the house to 76 last night though which is way too hot.
 
I did accidentally get the house to 76 last night though which is way too hot
Way to hot ! That depends, on how a person likes it.


One thing I have done , I stopped turning on the blower so it keeps the stove hotter with a small fire.
 
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