What temps are considered shoulder season, and is this normal?

[fabsroman]

I finally installed my new wood burning furnace and have been using it for a little over a week now. Temps have been mid 40's during the day and mid 30's at night.

Went with a full load of wood the first time I fired it up and the house hit 80 degrees. Stayed at 80 almost the entire day. Not really that much fun.

Have the thermostat set at 74 degrees and only have to burn a half load once or twice at night and the house remains in the 70's during the day. For instance, last night I put 4 logs in to get it started and another 3 when I went to bed at 3:00 in the morning. Woke up to a house that was 75 degrees at 10:30 in the morning. It is 5 in the evening and the outside temp is 45 degrees and the thermostat is reading at 74 degrees. Did I just happen to buy an extremely well insulated house, or are these types of burns normal? How cold does it have to be outside for me to have to run this furnace 24/7 with wood?

 

[laynes69]

Shoulder season is whenever heat is needed, but not full time burning yet. We haven't needed a full load yet at night, and we burn small loads during the day as needed. The wind kills us with heat loss, but our home does okay. I would say if you don't have a large heating demand, just build small fires as needed. Trying to keep it going will just waste wood and gum up the chimney. I know for us, getting a different furnace has made the shoulder season much easier.

 

[Gator eye]

Yeap, this time of year small fires once or twice a day will do it. I can't tell you how many times I ve woke up in the middle of the night to open windows and doors to cool the house off. Furnaces are alot easier to control once the outside temp stays down below 30 all day.

 

[fabsroman]

Yeap, this time of year small fires once or twice a day will do it. I can't tell you how many times I ve woke up in the middle of the night to open windows and doors to cool the house off. Furnaces are alot easier to control once the outside temp stays down below 30 all day.

Yeah, thing is that it isn't below 30 degrees very much here in Maryland. Probably screwed myself with that statement and temps will be in the teens all December and January. Tonight will be the coldest night so far at 27 degrees. Average high temps in December, January, and February are around 40 degrees and the average lows are in the mid 20's for those months. It is going to take some serious experimenting with this furnace.