I qualified for the Fairbanks wood stove replacement program, so I got a BK Ashford 30 installed (new install location) for $1800, with a ton of compressed logs as well. I lurked here for a long while and learned a ton, thanks everyone! You've got a wonderful resource here.
The house is 1800 square feet, with about 600 square feet in the basement, and pretty tight (2x8 construction, triple pane windows. Last year we used about 650 gallons of heating oil). The stove is installed in a large room on the main level of the house, one bedroom upstairs. I do have two doggie doors, through to an arctic entry and then to the outside, so I'm thinking that should give more than sufficient draft when it gets cold. Installers were able to go straight up through the roof, so there are no bends in the flue, and it's about 14 feet tall. Fan kit is on it's way. No OAK, yet (we'll wait and see how it does in the winter before deciding on that).
We moved into the house less than a year ago. I started on a wood pile this spring, and have about 3 cords of mostly cottonwood, with a little birch and black spruce mixed in. Since I wanted to burn this year, I took the time to go to smaller splits, about 3-4" max, and stacked in the sun all summer. It was all recently fallen or standing dead for the first couple of cords. The wood is mostly at about 14% now, tested on fresh splits. I've got about another 2 cords of green rounds and should have another few cords worth after I take down some cottonwoods that are leaning towards the house, which I'd like to get split and stacked before winter. Then at least I'll be a year ahead. This cottonwood dries super quickly, I was surprised. I can go from a cold stove to fully active in about 15-20 minutes
It's getting to about freezing at night, so we've had a few smaller fires to cure the paint and give us a bit of heat. I'm very impressed with the stove, we're going to love it.
I do have some questions about it though. First, the thermostat isn't quite calibrated right. On a cold stove, I can hear the flapper click closed at exactly 3 o'clock, so right in the middle of the "normal" on the dial. This seems to be quite a bit higher than on other peoples stoves. It also doesn't give me much room between the max setting and where it will always be shut. Should I try to recalibrate it, or just deal with it as a quirk on my stove?
Second, when I run it at anything less than 2.5, it will die out over night without burning all the wood, but if I go higher, it heats the house up too much and then dies in the middle of the night. I haven't been loading it all the way, because it's a bit too much for our weather now (no need to burn during the day with solar gain). Will this problem likely go away when it gets colder and I've got it loaded up fully?
Thanks again, and sorry for the long post,
Steve
The house is 1800 square feet, with about 600 square feet in the basement, and pretty tight (2x8 construction, triple pane windows. Last year we used about 650 gallons of heating oil). The stove is installed in a large room on the main level of the house, one bedroom upstairs. I do have two doggie doors, through to an arctic entry and then to the outside, so I'm thinking that should give more than sufficient draft when it gets cold. Installers were able to go straight up through the roof, so there are no bends in the flue, and it's about 14 feet tall. Fan kit is on it's way. No OAK, yet (we'll wait and see how it does in the winter before deciding on that).
We moved into the house less than a year ago. I started on a wood pile this spring, and have about 3 cords of mostly cottonwood, with a little birch and black spruce mixed in. Since I wanted to burn this year, I took the time to go to smaller splits, about 3-4" max, and stacked in the sun all summer. It was all recently fallen or standing dead for the first couple of cords. The wood is mostly at about 14% now, tested on fresh splits. I've got about another 2 cords of green rounds and should have another few cords worth after I take down some cottonwoods that are leaning towards the house, which I'd like to get split and stacked before winter. Then at least I'll be a year ahead. This cottonwood dries super quickly, I was surprised. I can go from a cold stove to fully active in about 15-20 minutes
It's getting to about freezing at night, so we've had a few smaller fires to cure the paint and give us a bit of heat. I'm very impressed with the stove, we're going to love it.
I do have some questions about it though. First, the thermostat isn't quite calibrated right. On a cold stove, I can hear the flapper click closed at exactly 3 o'clock, so right in the middle of the "normal" on the dial. This seems to be quite a bit higher than on other peoples stoves. It also doesn't give me much room between the max setting and where it will always be shut. Should I try to recalibrate it, or just deal with it as a quirk on my stove?
Second, when I run it at anything less than 2.5, it will die out over night without burning all the wood, but if I go higher, it heats the house up too much and then dies in the middle of the night. I haven't been loading it all the way, because it's a bit too much for our weather now (no need to burn during the day with solar gain). Will this problem likely go away when it gets colder and I've got it loaded up fully?
Thanks again, and sorry for the long post,
Steve
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