It's the beginning of the end......

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
On day 3 in a row of 80+. Havent fired up the stove in over a month. Just picked up a 15,000 btu window shaker until I can bang some tin in the attic this fall....
 
63 in the house this morning. 41 outside.
tonight is supposed to be 37 outside. with gray days, so little solar gain.
tofu king cold to shut down just yet.
june 15th shut down gets borne out as a reasonable date more and more every year.
 
Haven't had a fire in nearly 2 weeks. Time to put the stove to bed.
 
Talking near 80 here in the state this weekend and snow on Monday:(
 
Started the St. Croix last night on thermostat - went thru over a bag thru the week (hopper ran out Wednesday morning because I was unused to having to fill it since I was only running it a short time in the mornings). This morning I got the Harman going too - it's about 50 in the basement. Very dark overcast day, high temp may reach 50. Tomorrow, however, should be able to turn off the stoves for the day anyway.
 
Hello, I have a question. Okay, my stove hasn't ran in at least 3 weeks. It's hot and humid here in south Jersey I'm running my AC. Anyway, I kept up with weekly cleaning of my Accentra 52i during the burning season. I must say... I have no regrets re: the purchase of my stove. My pellet stove heated my entire home once installed early in January, I turned my gas heater off.

I've read someone here on this site sprayed their stove with "Pam" and then I read someone stated they use "Damp Rid." What do I do for end of season storage? I know I need to call the dealership to come and pull the insert out and clean. I never included that in my weekly cleanings. I have 19 bags of pellets left over for next seasons burn. Thanks everyone and have a blessed summer!
 
Just put a bucket of damp rid inside the stove and cap the vent. Don't forget to remove the cap before lighting it again next fall
 
Just put a bucket of damp rid inside the stove and cap the vent. Don't forget to remove the cap before lighting it again next fall

Cap... what vent? I don't have an OAK installed. Is that what you meant in re: to capping vent?
 
Seal off the exhaust vent with a cap of some sort.
 
just lit helga for an early morning burn to take the edge off.
65 in the house with little hope for solar gain today.
i see 39 being called for for a low in a day or two.
my tv/computer room is being heated by the tv (which is also my monitor), pc, hard drives, and the audio amp.
toasty in here.
 
Last edited:
Yesterdays high was a whopping 37 with snow flurries and down to 34 this AM with the wind still blowing around 20 but we got the sun back. Looks like we will be chewing through another bucket of corn.
 
Last week it was perfect weather, in the 70's. This week not so good in the 40's and so windy that you can't hardly stand up outside.
Guess we will burn another bag or so of pellets because we enjoy that more than the heat pump which is much cheaper to operate.
 
We had snow on Monday and the ditch had ice on it when walking the dog on Tuesday AM. This week looks more promising temp wise...
 
Yesterday on may the 19th we saw the swifts for the first time this year. This should be a reliable sign of summer around here. These small migratory birds are amazing... they have made it up here all the way from South Africa and I'm sure it's the same family that left us last year in september. How do they navigate?
The stars, landscape, magnetism... who knows?
Do you have swifts on the American Continent?

Swift6271.jpg
 
Last edited:
Purple Martins and some couple varieties of Swifts and barn swallows. Bigger ? is how can they stay in flight for up to 200 days
 
Bigger ? is how can they stay in flight for up to 200 days

200 days, wow! This information is so amazing that it made me do a little research on these fantastic birds. It turns out that it was as late as 2011 that Felix Liechti and his colleagues at the Swiss Ornithological Institute attached electronic tags that log movement to six alpine swifts and it was discovered that the birds could stay aloft in the air for more than 200 days straight!
The alpine swifts don't migrate as far north as Denmark. Only the common swifts do. The alpine swift is much bigger than the common swift.
Wiki article on the alpine swift: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_swift#
Swallows ( and martins ) are not related to swifts. According to the Wiki article the common appearance between swallows and swifts should be due to convergent evolution . Actually swifts are closely related to humming birds...
Now I'm really looking forward to sit in our garden on the long summer evenings observing those beautiful and amazing birds.
In september when the cold weather returns and the swifts move back to Africa, it will be time to crank up ye olde Whitfield once again.
See ya in september. I wish you all a nice summer:)

Cheers
Bo
 
  • Like
Reactions: Harmanizer
Cut the field today with a light weight coat and gloves on. My neighbor was in his pool. I also had the pellet stove going... Somebody just isn't right...
 
I mowed for the first time this season on Tuesday. STill plenty chilly and nothing is in a hurry to start growing (except the Japanese Knotwood - which is not something that I need in my yard!)
 
We are still having some need for a spot fire every few days.

I have been letting the Quad handle it.

We have not had a fire in the little whit for about a week, and the big Whit has been idle for a month or better.

The auto run Quadrafire 1000 is great for these times. I only buy a few bags of pellets a year for the Quad, just enough to cover the odd times that we need either a third stove, or for these late shoulder season runs.

It ran once yesterday morning for a quicky.

The final countdown is coming :)
 
45 tonight and cloudy and 50's tomorrow.
the tv, pc, xbox and amp keep my den warm if i shut the door. but i anticipate running the stove a bit in the morning to take the edge off the rest of the house.
solar gain will be at a minimum tomorrow.
 
Stove officially put to bed. Do not disturb until the fall.
 
Stove officially put to bed. Do not disturb until the fall.

Funny, I started mine up again last night and it was going this morning. Was 48 at 2 pm yesterday and very dark and rainy so the house didn't get any solar help. 38 this morning and not going to warm up much, with the same dark, rainy skies. Was thinking about cleaning up and pulling the Hastings out to replace with the Harman I got a while ago (hey, I been busy pulling out stumps - by manual labor), but looks like it will wait for a bit.
 
Done with the St Croix Furnace for the season, The Quad still get's some use on the chilly mornings, Enough pellets in the hopper for a couple of mornings and then we will clean it up.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.