How's your stove holding up to the frigid temps?

We are burning up the last of the very ashy, clinker-producing batch of Hamer's. Timing is a bit awkward because it looks like we'll finish up this hopper of Hamer's sometime around midnight, maybe a little after midnight. I want to pull the stove down and vacuum out the exhaust pathways before we start on the newer pellets. I guess we'll have to use the furnace overnight and for tomorrow morning- right in the middle of the latest cold spell, but OK.

We are burning right around 2 lbs./hour, give or take a couple of tenths of pounds. Can somebody show me again how to do the BTU's per pound per hour calculation?

It's 30'F outside right now, 71.5'F in the stove room, 66'F in the rest of the house.

Right now is when I wish I knew then what I know now re: purchasing/sizing a stove for this house. OK, so we typically keep the HVAC t-stat on 65'F, so the house is a degree warmer than we'd be willing to pay for furnace heat- but if I'm going to put in the effort for a wood burning device, I'D LIKE IT TO BE BALMY AND TROPICAL IN HERE.

Then again, the furnace has run 4 times since last winter. Two of those times were during HVAC check ups. Two times the furnace came on "by accident" and we ran to cut it off immediately. In all four times, the furnace was on for mere moments and was turned off ASAP. We now keep the HVAC turned off entirely, and the furnace hasn't run at all since the HVAC guy was here to check for back drafting in the water heater vent last week.

So, I suppose I shouldn't complain- but we are a cautionary tale, I think, about the optimistic "will heat up to 100,000 sq ft!" ratings for all of these space heating appliances.

EDITED: On the other hand, I've been pressure canning and water bath canning for the better part of the day. While I've been dumping extra heat into the house, I've also been running the exhaust fan over the stove to pull steam out of the house. I'm sure I've been pulling stove-generated BTU's out of the house as well. Also, The Hubs pulled out the caulk gun this evening and hit a couple more places around the back door through which we could feel leaks.

The temp in the house has risen by a degree in just the few minutes since we've turned off the exhaust fan.

Nice and toasty warm. Got down to -11 and turn the stove to 2 at night then bounce between 2 and 3 for the day time. Living room where stove is runs about 77ish far end of house is 72, using a bit less than a bag a day right now.

MountainSean said:

Nice and toasty warm. Got down to -11 and turn the stove to 2 at night then bounce between 2 and 3 for the day time. Living room where stove is runs about 77ish far end of house is 72, using a bit less than a bag a day right now.

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Got your magnet on our fridge! You are our favorite source for stove parts!

The old integra is doing well as usual.burning about 1.5 bags now stove room temp 73 upstairs 70. Just looked at the outside temp 0. Going to be a cool one tonight

My Enviro Maxx stove has just been feed a few bags of Somerset’s today! I been burning timber heat until this cold weather started. Stove is on 2 out of 5 and house is 72 upstairs. It is 13 outside right now. My Maxx was a great buy would buy again, Or maybe a P68 next time. bring on the cold

Struggling a bit. My stove is a bit undersized for my house, but does fine in all but the worst weather. Once the windchills drop below 0 it starts to struggle, and it's been cold and windy here. The lower side of my OAK has a nice little coating of ice.

Woke up and it was a bit chilly (67), burning firesides on heat range 3

4 degrees outside, 72 inside. Working well using about 1 bag per day and no "backup" fuel

-17 C or 1.4 F outside and 72 F inside

Keeping the house very comfortable at about 70 day / 64 night with temps 16-18 night, high 20s day. Over 3000 SF with two stoves burning 1.73 bags/day total and almost no use of heat pump. Came on two days when setting changed to much higher target temp, for 30/45 min only (runs 12 - 16 hours otherwise, and never really comfortable). Just got ducts partially sealed so will be experimenting with heat distribution over next few days using HVAC fan. Now need to install OAK on older Quest... Fixing my stupidity there...

Madcodger said:

Keeping the house very comfortable at about 70 day / 64 night with temps 16-18 night, high 20s day. Over 3000 SF with two stoves burning 1.73 bags/day total and almost no use of heat pump. Came on two days when setting changed to much higher target temp, for 30/45 min only (runs 12 - 16 hours otherwise, and never really comfortable). Just got ducts partially sealed so will be experimenting with heat distribution over next few days using HVAC fan. Now need to install OAK on older Quest... Fixing my stupidity there...

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Better late than never.

Bioburner said:

Better late than never.

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I'll even take eventually... I still can't believe I allowed it. Was out of town on install day and getting info relayed to me, but still... Just stupid.

Just around freezing for almost a week, and were comfortable. My wife started it at 0400 yesterday, and I shut it down at 0930.
Last night it ran through the night, and we were quite comfortable sleeping.

Bill

P.S. Dinosaur burning monster thermostat is set to 50 degrees just in case.

- 22C yesterday. Was pretty chilly. Cold and windy today, going to stay like that for a week or so it seems. Stove chugging along on setting #2 24/7. No thermostat. Approx 2 bags of cubex a day. Very comfortable in the house. 2200 sqft side split. Stove in the basement, toasty down there.

Stay warm
H.

Minus 3 deg F here no wind, setting no 4 of 5, about a bag and one half per day now. Furnace comes on periodically at night, not during the day. Cosy upstairs, 65 deg F downstairs where I work. The stove is setup to blow the air directly up the stairway, works great.

David Holmes said:

Minus 3 deg F here no wind, setting no 4 of 5, about a bag and one half per day now. Furnace comes on periodically at night, not during the day. Cosy upstairs, 65 deg F downstairs where I work. The stove is setup to blow the air directly up the stairway, works great.

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I hear from family you guys had some good Aurora Borealis showings the other night. Wish we got more down here. -3F just doesn't sound as cold as -19.

H.

I got up about 2:30 AM to drain the rad and noticed them, sort of phasing out. Back in 1996 we had a spectacular display that filled the whole sky, too big to take a picture, just couldn't get it all in. I see you have a Drolet 65, my daughter just bought a used one from a friend so must go out and check it out, clean it etc.

Quad holding up well.... Very long extended cold spell and things are going well. Had my first "clinker" with the somersets and it was a beauty! Knew right away when I saw that lazy slow flame. It actually re-ignited a few times after I shut off the stove feed. Unusual for the somerset. Every stove is different and I have found that by setting the fan speed on low, auger speed on medium, then 30 min or so after moving fan to high and getting lower level into the 70's, turning ceiling fan on to push warm air upstairs and then running fan and auger on low 24/7 keeps my 2400 sq ft bi-level a steady comfortable 68'-70'..... just started on my second ton.

Honestly, not good. it's struggling to keep the house at 62. I've had to run the oil pig a few times to help it out.
This is with the barefoots in too and running on setting 4/5. setting 5 just doesn't work.... it goes sooty and lazy within a half hour.

If I decide to stay here in this house, which I'm not planning to do, i'm going to get a 2nd stove for my family room on the other end of the house and down 6 open stairs. a big free stander like a p61.

Its been dipping down into the high teens and low 20s here. Going through a bag to bag and a half a day, set to 4/9 auger and 6/9 fan. The downstairs ranges from 74 to 68 depending on where you are, but the upstairs oil heat zone kicks on a handful of times a night, set at 65. Still, for every bag I dump in, I know that's 2.5 gallons of oil I'm saving.

TOASTY, 72 with our humidifier running, heat level 4, pellet feed 3 for early AM then 3/3 for the day....beats the 68/69F when we were on oil all the time! Bill

I had to bump it up to setting 5 of 6 last night.

Went below 18 degrees.

10 degrees last night and have tapped the Barefoots. Keeping it around 75 indoors. Need to move the low on my thermostat up from 65 to 68. Burning close to a bag a day at these temps. Stacked enough bags of Barefoots for the weekend mess.
Going down to 13 tonight and looking at 6-10" of the whiteness, beginning around noon tomorrow. Coldest I have every experienced was in Madison WI, straight temp - 45 and the windchill that night was -72. Hell, when it gets below zero, I can't tell the difference. Around here, single digits to -5 is about as cold as it gets. Should see some of this later this winter if the Farmer's Almanac is right.

It's been in the mid teens at night for a few days. Day temps in the mid 20's. My CPM is eating 2 bags a day on heat level 8 at night and 6 during the day. Nice and toasty 70 degrees.