Bring out the big guns.

tsquini said:

with temps around -7* tonight and wind chill around -23* I brought out the big guns from the wood shed, big chunks of locust and oak. I will attempt keep the badly insulateted house around 70*. The the battle commence.

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I have oak and locust too but opted for osage orange for tonight. We're at about -6F with the wind. This is my first full load ever of osage orange and it is living up to its reputation.

Is your stove glowing yet Clyde? That's mean stuff. I broke out the hickory and red/ white oak and locust

Just keep feeding the beast. It likes its food very dry, and has an insatiable appetite.

3 year oak, and some 1 year cherry.

Brought in some pine incase I have to quickly burn down a chunky coal bed.

Looking at -6 - 10 F here in Icey Hollow.

Just got home from work about 15 min ago. Sadly the wife didn't keep up with the stove, nice bed of coals but the hickory pile in front of the stove is about where I left it and the furnace is running. I threw 2 splits in and hope to get the stove from 225 back where it should be until I fall asleep. Weatherbug app says its 6, real feel -9. Brrrr stay warm!

Oak, ash, and beech: re-loaded at 145 when the baby woke up, geothermal furnace still ran all night. Doing our best, need new windows downstairs! Wind chill is -23!

When temps get this cold, we run the furnace over night to avoid any chance of baseboards freezing

Full load of black locust at 11 PM in the NC 30.

Stove top was at 650 when I shut the air down and at 6 AM this morning it was just below 300 with a lot of fuel left in the firebox... Should have opened the air a bit more for this load

Nothing but 3 year old white oak tonight. All my osage is pretty new, or it would be in there.

Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:

3 year oak, and some 1 year cherry.

Brought in some pine incase I have to quickly burn down a chunky coal bed.

Looking at -6 - 10 F here in Icey Hollow.

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Picked through the splits for just seasoned hickory for us last night. Did the trick. No supplemental heat source needed. Brought in a bunch of seasoned sweetgum splits to cook off the chunky coal bed today. In-laws came over last evening for dinner specifically to enjoy the wood stove. It's like having a small Sun in the middle of our house. Love it! Turns Winter into a bit of a sport.

Hedge and white ash last 2 nights!

Negative teens overnight here. Bigger splits for the overnight, but find smaller diameter splits and more frequent loading work well in this weather during the day (less coals, less time spent in the tail of the burn cycle).

Beer Belly said:

When temps get this cold, we run the furnace over night to avoid any chance of baseboards freezing

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Same here, I bump up the t stat to 64 instead of 59

It's in the teens here. Had to run the heat pump in the addition last night. Got up twice to load the stove. Nothing left this morning but warm coal bed. Temp was in the low sixties in the room the stove is in. Is this normal? I changed both gaskets this year due to air leaks. I'm wondering if I got them all. We're burning red oak right now. Any suggestions

Got down to 14° last night, living room temp was 78°. I dozed off in my chair after supper. The SheWolf went to bed and the fire got low. Woke up around 4:00 AM, got it stoked up again.

Forecast is for temps in the low teens until Sunday. I rustled through the stacks this morning, loaded in plenty of red oak for the duration.

I shoulda had the li'l lady toss on a couple of hold-over splits...I just got back and it's 64 in here! This will not stand! No more Mr. Nice Guy. Just loaded 4 big splits; 2 White Oak, one Pignut and one BL. Flame On!!
Wait a minute, WTH?? I just looked at the forecast....near zero again Friday night! That's it, I'm putting the blower back on the stove today. That should be fun, on a hot stove.

Plow Boy said:

Nothing left this morning but warm coal bed

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Cooler outdoor temperatures lead to a stronger draft from your chimney. If you closed the air down the same way you would for a milder day, you'd actually be getting more draw and airflow through the stove than you would expect.

I find that on really cold nights like the one we just had, I can shut the air all the way down (as much as an EPA stove will go anyway), and still get a really strong burn with big secondaries, and I'll have nothing but a handful of coals in the morning.

Plow Boy said:

Got up twice to load the stove...We're burning red oak right now.

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With a 2 cu.ft. firebox and Red Oak, you should be able to get an overnight burn, or close, not reloading twice. Can you describe you SOP for reloading and cruising the stove?

David.Ervin said:

Cooler outdoor temperatures lead to a stronger draft from your chimney....I can shut the air all the way down

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Yessir. I've got the air closed all the way on a 16', rear-vented stack, and have had a 650 stove top for the last 2 hrs.

With a 2 cu.ft. firebox and Red Oak, you should be able to get an overnight burn, or close, not reloading twice. Can you describe you SOP for reloading and cruising the stove?

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I open the air supply,open the door and stack as much wood as I can get in the stove then I shut the door and close the air supply down

Oh yeah, it's game on here too.....bitter cold last night, have been pulling from the "kick-ass" pile of Hickory, Oak, Apple, Dogwood etc. If you ever get the chance to burn Dogwood do it-man it rocks

No damper, just primary air shut off. No cat stove

Last night was definitely a big gun night. Tapped into my private stash. I thought about all the animals outside though. My next door neighbor has about 60 barn cats. I'm guessing some didn't make it.
I took the dog with me to the horsebarn and she stopped about 3/4 of the way and laid down in the snow. She was holding a foot up. That is a first for her, she follows me everywhere when I snowshoe. Never acted as if the cold hurt her feet before.