Unreasonable expectations during this sub zero weather

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Jearley35purdue

Jearley35purdue

New Member
Nov 8, 2014
64
Clinton, Ohio
Hi All! My number one reason for getting a wood stove this season was due to last sub zero January and February where my heat pump with electric back up ran non stop causing ridiculous electric bills. I was pumped when finally this weather hit excited to not be awaken by the furnace kicking on or staying on all night. Boy was I wrong. Furnace still hasn't shut off while set at 60 these last few days/nights. Stove is sized appropriately for my home that's reasonably sealed and has a descent open layout. Have wood sitting at 17-20% and getting good burns. Was I being unreasonable to think that the furnace should not be running like it is in this type of cold snap with the stove? I can't tell you how bummed I am, but perhaps my expectations were unreasonable....
 
The weather is really stretching our stove capabilities here. We are burning constantly, and in the drafty room (with the Oslo) it is down to 60 degrees- it usually is hi 60s with the stove at work. That is with NO furnace (we are only running it an hour a day, early in the morning, so we can get out of bed and get the kids on their way before starting the fires.) I'm sure as a new burner, like me, you are still learning the ropes of burning technique. Your wood could be a little drier (we went through all our dry stuff and accidentally burned a few barely seasoned pieces, and the heat output was MUCH lower). All the other posters here on other threads are talking about their stoves being maxed out with this weather. Maybe your furnace isn't working quite as hard with the stove, or maybe it would be running at max speed, and it would only be 55 in your house without the stove in this weather. You know you did the right thing with getting the stove in this weather. Post your next electric bill, compared to last year's, ok? We'll celebrate (or commiserate) with you.
 
What kind of stove do you have? I presume it is the one in your avatar?

Personally I can't say my stove is causing issues. It's -9F outside at the moment. My basement (where my stove is located) is 78 and upstairs is 70. I am at the coal stage and about to reload. Do you load your stove at night?

It is cold, that's certain. Not all setups can handle these snaps. My 3.2 cu ft firebox is keeping up so far. But I don't let the fire go out: once the room cools down, including all the objects (every item has a heat capacity and absorbs heat from the stove, removing it from the room per say), it takes a long time to get that heat back.

But yup, it is cold. My car doesn't appreciate the torture at 6:45 AM! :)

Andrew
 
newatthis said:
The weather is really stretching our stove capabilities here. We are burning constantly, and in the drafty room (with the Oslo) it is down to 60 degrees- it usually is hi 60s with the stove at work. That is with NO furnace (we are only running it an hour a day, early in the morning, so we can get out of bed and get the kids on their way before starting the fires.) I'm sure as a new burner, like me, you are still learning the ropes of burning technique. Your wood could be a little drier (we went through all our dry stuff and accidentally burned a few barely seasoned pieces, and the heat output was MUCH lower). All the other posters here on other threads are talking about their stoves being maxed out with this weather. Maybe your furnace isn't working quite as hard with the stove, or maybe it would be running at max speed, and it would only be 55 in your house without the stove in this weather. You know you did the right thing with getting the stove in this weather. Post your next electric bill, compared to last year's, ok? We'll celebrate (or commiserate) with you.
Click to expand...


Thanks for some reassurance! I have already been thinking how I can do a correlation of my electric cost at these temps versus what they were last year. It's not apples to apples unless I can do some statistical extrapolation and make it match. House was built in 95 and could probably use new windows which would help seal things up a little but we have a ton of them and the expense chokes me up every time I think about getting it done!!!!
 
Swedishchef said:
What kind of stove do you have? I presume it is the one in your avatar?

Personally I can't say my stove is causing issues. It's -9F outside at the moment. My basement (where my stove is located) is 78 and upstairs is 70. I am at the coal stage and about to reload. Do you load your stove at night?

It is cold, that's certain. Not all setups can handle these snaps. My 3.2 cu ft firebox is keeping up so far. But I don't let the fire go out: once the room cools down, including all the objects (every item has a heat capacity and absorbs heat from the stove, removing it from the room per say), it takes a long time to get that heat back.

But yup, it is cold. My car doesn't appreciate the torture at 6:45 AM! :)

Andrew
Click to expand...


Andrew, yes it's the Napoleon 1402 in the pic. I can get my living area to a comfortable temp but my thermostat is in a funky spot that's not easy to get the heat too with fans, etc. I might have to move it in the near future. I hear you on the time it takes to bring everything back up to temp. I do reload to the top at night let the secondaries fire up and shut things down. I wake at 6 with plenty of hot coals to restock. I'm definitely letting the fire run it's full cycle and not keeping a flaming fire going. In fact I don't reload until 250-300 ish which is probably my problem as everything around me keeps cooling down and then I have to heat it all back up with time. Maybe I'll shorten my burn cycles and try and run some hotter fires with more frequent reloads.
 
Jearley35purdue said:
Maybe I'll shorten my burn cycles and try and run some hotter fires with more frequent reloads.
Click to expand...
Just started a thread in large coal beds from doing more loads before the coals burn down.
 
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Jearley, I have the same model/ situation except with a heat pump. If I load the stove around 11 it stops putting out heat around 4 or 5. I programmed my thermostat to come on around 6 so Im able to get out of bed in the morning. Other than that its wood all day (yeah baby) I found that the heat pumps return is sucking up all the hot air, re heating the hot air, and then spitting it back out....its just wasting $. Try using just the stove and see if that helps.
 
Last night it was about -20 with windchill here. Definitely stretches my stove. My normally 70-75F living room was only getting up to the 65F mark. When I woke up, the furnace was on and probably had been for a few hours. It's probably only the fourth or fifth time it has been on this winter.
I look at it like, anything that can keep the furnace off and the house comfortable for the majority of the winter is amazing.
Good luck with staying warm! Sounds like moving the thermostat might be a good idea. Are your drafty windows sealed for the winter?
 
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For once I'm happy to have low expectations. I've only been able to get my house a degree or two above where the furnace would kick on, but that's enough so I'm fine with that. My downstairs where the stove is is 74 and the upstairs is 64. I know my stove is not large enough for my entire house, so I'll take what I can get. The cat sure is happy. Hope she didn't burst into flames while I was at work.
 
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Depending on the size of the house, the stove may be properly sized for normal winter temps, but not cutting it for the deep freeze temps. This is why I always suggest going large.
The extra horsepower is there when needed. I said it before, and I'll say it again.....you can burn smaller fires when needed in a large stove, and have the added firepower when needed, but can only get so many BTUs out of a smaller stove.
 
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Totally agree with Hogwildz there is no replacement for displaysment. If I fed my stove every 5-6 hours I belive I would have been able to keep up or even be gaining. My house was built in 1994 and its relatively well insulated. I am heating roughly 1200 sf with 2.2cf fire box. Would not mind to have 3 or more cf in the weather like this.
 
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Small home, small stove, and she really has to work when the temps are super low (-30 f or lower). I can keep half the mobile home warm, but there's no way to keep the water lines inside a little chase on the floor from freezing without running the furnace overnight.
 
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saskwoodburner said:
Small home, small stove, and she really has to work when the temps are super low (-30 f or lower). I can keep half the mobile home warm, but there's no way to keep the water lines inside a little chase on the floor from freezing without running the furnace overnight.
Click to expand...
I knew i wasn't alone...lol... I have plenty of stove for my 1500 SF Manufactured home. Same problem, pipes in the floor keep freezing :(
 
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Insulation, insulation, insulation...

Insulation is one of the few things that will pay you back in your house. I paid $1,600.00 to go from 2x6 to 2x8 walls in my house. It was less than 2k to put 4" of foam around the foundation. Rim joists are all insulated. In the spring I'm going to up the attic insulation from R39 to R47. That'll pay back in a few years.

I realize that you are limited in what you can do with an existing house. My only point is, last Wednesday night it was -15 with 20 mph winds. I last loaded the stove at 5 PM. It was winding down at 9:00. By morning I had lost 6 degrees in the 1st floor and 8 degrees in the basement.
 
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My problem is that our Insert is too small to really fight off the temps to the Wifes liking.....she likes 70+*F in the bedroom (furthest room from the stove).....the stove can do it, but it takes a lot of stokin' and reloading every few hours (and I do mean "few"), no overnight burns here. Just need to know the stove has limitations, and as always, dry hardwood is needed.
 
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I have a High Valley 2500 in my 1800sqft raised ranch with 1200sqft being heated by the stove. The bedrooms are at the far end of the house and with -3ºF at night its been keeping the bedrooms at 68-70ºF. The floor is ICE cold though because the bedrooms are over an uninsulated exterior wall garage with holes in the ceiling drywall. The room with the stove will sit at 73-75 while the stove is really cooking... in the coal stage it will drop to 70 with the bedrooms at 65 and hold for hours. I have been doing overnight burns and keeping it burning while I'm at work for 9-10 hours and the stove temps might drop to 150-200 Cat at 400-600 with fan on medium/high. Burning sugar maple that's been split and stacked for 3 years.
 
I have been pushing the stove hard and it is keeping the house at a reasonable temp but not quite enough. Plan on pushing it a little harder tonight after I clean the chimney today. Going to position a fan to try and move more air as well. Issue seems to be the cooler air upstairs is not getting pulled down nearly as much with this cold weather.
 
Jearley35purdue said:
Thanks for some reassurance! I have already been thinking how I can do a correlation of my electric cost at these temps versus what they were last year. It's not apples to apples unless I can do some statistical extrapolation and make it match. House was built in 95 and could probably use new windows which would help seal things up a little but we have a ton of them and the expense chokes me up every time I think about getting it done!!!!
Click to expand...

I tend to suspect bottom and top of houses rather than windows. Crawl spaces, rim joists, around chimneys in attic, attic insulation. At least that was the case in my situation, and my windows are 60 years old.
 
X as many as mentioned above. Insulation is your only defense for extreme cold temps. Especially when wind is involved. Wind on a 20 degree day makes it harder for my 30 to keep up than a calm day at zero. I have plans for more insulation but not the budget - Darn it!!
 
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Last winter I learned the lesson that my 2.3 cu ft could not keep up when it's super cold. I spent the year searching for a replacement and the difference is staggering - both in $$ and in heat output. $$ buys happiness.
 
If my stove runs all day its keeping the house in the low 70's when its 10 degrees outside. Its working but we are burning lots of wood. Have blower on full blast then we have the door jam fan that pushes the warm air into our bedroom.
 
Beer Belly said:
My problem is that our Insert is too small to really fight off the temps to the Wifes liking.....she likes 70+*F in the bedroom (furthest room from the stove).....the stove can do it, but it takes a lot of stokin' and reloading every few hours (and I do mean "few"), no overnight burns here. Just need to know the stove has limitations, and as always, dry hardwood is needed.
Click to expand...
Move the bed into the stove room...
 
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I upsized this year to the Progress Hybrid and most of the time it takes care of the whole house. What I also did was put a small electric heater in the room my wife spends most of her time since that room gets the least heat from the stove. I'd rather run that a couple hours here and there than the whole furnace. The below zero night my furnace kicked on a couple times but I'll take that compared to how much it used to run.
 
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