How many,

1 load per day down to about 20 degree lows. When it starts getting colder than that I go to 12 hour loads.

Tonight is going to get really cold (-10 plus wind) so I actually fired up both stoves.

I load 3 times a day.
We are sitting at -28C overnight, getting up to -13 during the day. Wood is our primary heat source and use only pine.
Load it in the morning before work, when I get home 10 hours later and once more before bed.

I'd say 3.

Forgot to mention, I also turn on the pellet stove for an hour when it is this cold. That is mainly to heat up the living room while the heat from the wood stove circulates around to there, then the electricity pig gets shut down.

I try to keep a small fire going all day long so I load frequently. The attempt is to keep one or two splits burning to keep the heat down somewhat (Maple and Beech). I load it up for the night, rake the coals forward in the morning and start all over again. I burn about 9 to 10 splits per day unless the temperature plummets. The amount of wood burned seems to be pretty consistent year to year, I try to keep track of when I start a new face chord.

I agree with BeGreen, 88 F is not healthy for anyone in the winter. Especially the dry winter air!

My magic number I aim for is 72 in my living room. 66 in the bed room (last night I closed the door to the bedroom which is at the top of the basement staircase..otherwise the bedroom turns into a pressure cooker).

I load 3 times a day: morning, late afternoon and then before bed time.

Andrew

You are correct. 88 is way to hot. Even the pups left the room. I refuse to turn on the electric furnace. It has been run once this year. Just to check it. I try to maintain a fire anytime it is below 50 outside just so the wife doesn't help the electric co-op members retirement plan. Therefore, I will burn wood

Smalltownwoodburner said:

I'll put another in when i get home from work at 3am.

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Bartender or stripper? :lol

We load 2 and 2/3 times a day on most days. 4 good sized splits is about a full load on the Northstar, so we load it all the way up in the morning, put in two or three pieces in the late afternoon (hence the 2/3), then load it up again before bed. During last year's polar vortex, it was more like 4 full loads per day. "Flames gettin' puny... MORE WOOD!"

Depends . . . on the temps inside the home, temp forecast for later that day/night, wood that I am currently burning, etc.

Right now with the temps being more on the cool side . . . I would guess we load it up 3-5 times a day . . . keeping it going 24/7 . . . since my wife is on a night schedule as a nurse she is often awake while I am asleep (even on her nights off) so together we keep the Oslo engine well fueled.

Depends on the weather, through Christmas it was quite warm outside so we basically did two loads a day and the house was toasty. The temp is well below freezing now though, so we are running 3 loads a day. If I am home all day then it'll be 3 loads and maybe a partial load in the afternoon to burn down the coals that have built up. If it's warm outside I just let the coals burn to ash as they generate more then enough heat to keep us warm.

Ian

Thislilfishy said:

Depends on the weather, through Christmas it was quite warm outside so we basically did two loads a day and the house was toasty. The temp is well below freezing now though, so we are running 3 loads a day. If I am home all day then it'll be 3 loads and maybe a partial load in the afternoon to burn down the coals that have built up. If it's warm outside I just let the coals burn to ash as they generate more then enough heat to keep us warm.

Ian

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Where in Canada do you live?

Swedishchef said:

Where in Canada do you live?

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There's not a lot of people up there. Don't you all know each other?

Warm_in_NH said:

There's not a lot of people up there. Don't you all know each other?

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Hah, not quite, but seems that way some days. We are in the northern parts of southwestern Ontario. It was -16 outside this morning. Definitely have a full load in the stove this morning...heard the furnace running when I got up and just let out a sigh. Looks like the warm weather is done for .

Ian

In my 1963 built single level home of 1700 SF I heat 100% with wood. All weather conditions can be handled with between one and two reloads of the 2.85 CF firebox using low btu pnw softwoods.

Yowzers, I went through an entire firebox of white cedar/juniper/cypress type stuff last night, 12 hours. Stiff north wind from canada and temps in the 20s. Mixing in some relatively high btu douglas fir now to try and catch up.

Warm_in_NH said:

There's not a lot of people up there. Don't you all know each other?

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Naw, it's even harder to know people other than the ones close to you. We have the same surface area as the US and 1/10th the population. My nearest neighbor is 114.6 KMs away from me. Do you think I'd walk over there for a beer? Pffft!!

Andrew

depends on a few things.. I actually very rarely stuff the stove. When it's above 20F out, we can go 12 hours between loads no problem, longer if it's a sunny day. When it drops below that, 3 loads a day generally, and single digits to negatives, we may go 6 hours. And load it pretty full.

Swedishchef said:

And according to my wife, I'd "better not put anymore wood in that stove tonight" because she'll "sleep on the deck in the snow" as it is getting a wee bit toasty inside. lol.

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Sounds like you all haven't experienced the joys of living with someone experiencing hot flashes.

One minute she's cold and shivering, next the covers are off and a bedside fan is on.

Maybe I'll suggest "sleeping on the deck in the snow" as an anecdote to her next hot flash.

On second thought, perhaps not. She'd probably suggest "sleeping in the garage by yourself" as an anecdote to my relationship stupidity.

My Jotul can burn a full rounded high wheelboro load per day.

I don't know how you guys get such long burn times. If I fill my stove full and let it burn for 12 hours, it would be out cold. It wouldn't be a reload, it would be a restart. Even with the air as closed as possible. I'd be starting a fire each time. I'm not sure if I should expect that or if my stove just has a lot of draft and it burns faster than others.

I feel the same way as bbqribman...I am getting about 4 loads a day. Typically about 5-6 hours per load. I would love to get down to the 2 loads a day. I burn on a heat n glo northstar.

There are a lot of variables.. how big is your firebox? How full do you fill it? Chimney design? Wood species? How dry? Outside temps? heck, inside temps? I could run through a full load of hickory in 4 hours.. but it would be +100F in the house today.

No two stoves run the same.

My first year here, there was another Homestead owner who I compared notes with a lot.. he hated his. Wouldn't heat a 1600 sqft house for him. Our installs were pretty comparable. He gave up, and went back to a non-epa stove. My 2100 sqft was warm. I was happy.

In the cats, I can go on 2 loads a day if it's not too cold. Always 2 loads in the Buck, since it's off-site. But sometimes I burn 3 partials a day here, even if it's mild, just for the heck of it.

bbqribman said:

I don't know how you guys get such long burn times. If I fill my stove full and let it burn for 12 hours, it would be out cold

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With a 2.1 cu.ft. non-cat, that might not be too far out of line, but I've only burned cats so I can't say. Does it seem to burn with slow, lazy flame when you have the air cut all the way, or are the flames more vigorous, and coming off the wood? How tall is your chimney?

Woody Stover said:

In the cats, I can go on 2 loads a day if it's not too cold. Always 2 loads in the Buck, since it's off-site. But sometimes I burn 3 partials a day here, even if it's mild, just for the heck of it. With a 2.1 cu.ft. non-cat, that might not be too far out of line, but I've only burned cats so I can't say. Does it seem to burn with slow, lazy flame when you have the air cut all the way, or are the flames more vigorous, and coming off the wood? How tall is your chimney?

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The chimney is pretty tall, probably about 24 feet. I have two 90s in it though, as it routes outside then up. Its in a basement and then runs up past the second story of the house. I don't usually get the slow lazy flames. I usually have some more vigorous flames off the front of the wood and a pretty strong secondary going. Its possible I'm reloading on too hot a coal bed as well, but I'm trying to not be the guy smoking up the neighborhood. I try to have it burning without smoke within 5-10 minutes. If I let the coal bed go pretty low, it takes a bit more time to heat up and get secondaries going and without smoke. I still have roughly the same burn time though.