Coldest day of the winter

Best dogs in the world my to played outside for a couple of hours yesterday then snoozed all night by the stove. Going to be nasty tonight but inside it will be toasty.

Squirrel said:

Inside
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Outside
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-19f Yep, those are icicles.

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Wow. Insulation???

I've never seen anything like this before in my life!

EDITED: Whoops, sorry, I get it now! The sky was such a saturated, even shade of blue, I thought I was looking at your interior stove pipe and a support box on your (beautiful, blue) ceiling where the pipe transected the ceiling. I didn't realize I was looking at the sky. OUTDOORS. OUTDOORS.

7F last night when I put in a load of hornbeam at about 8:00 pm. Woke at 6:30 with -19F and the house at 65. Put in a load, got the stove to speed and left to help a friend load their moving van (could they have picked a worse day?!!). Got back to a house at 72 with the outside temp still at 6 degrees. Reloaded the stove, and am warming the toes with a fine IPA and the sounds of a snoring dog.

Life is good!

Good weekend to stay INSIDE! I do all my INSIDE work on the house in this kind of weather. Too bad i have to go out for materials.

-6 here with -20+ windchill. Right near the stove staying in the upper 70's rest of the room is low 60's. Upstairs is holding 65 with the help of the furnace. Stove has maple and oak right now.

I can't wait to get the leaky door replaced in the bacement and get some insulation up on the cinder block walls should help the stove heat so much better.

-13 outside 72 inside warmer by the stove can't work outside bringing Kids to there sports and work. I do wish I could split wood today so much easier when it cold out and you work faster to keep warm. That's why I love wood it warms you twice

-12F outside 76F inside, stay warm everyone

jetsam said:

Here we are... the coldest day of the winter, where I am anyway.

What are you burning? What's the temperature difference between inside and outside? What's in your glass? Split any wood today? Tell us a story about your fire!

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2 degrees here.



1. Went out this morning and cut down a fresh PINE tree
( I think it was on my property, it is very close to the line and with all this snow I wasn't too certain)

2. Had it bucked by noon. ( wished I was able to find my gloves) (and my chain saw)

3. Took an ICED TEA break. (extra ice)

4. . Got my hydraulic splitter out of the shed, rolled it through the 10 inches of snow to get it nearer to the house. (had my 5 year old daughter help me)
Opened the front door wide to help keep me warm. Used a fan to move the inside air out a little better. (wiped nose)

5. Got about a cord and a half split. Nice and sappy. Should burn fairly hot.

Will be burning it TONIGHT.











Crap , I forgot to close the front door...... be back in a minute.








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6 outside, 75 inside. Throwing a few splits in my NC13 every few hours. First year with the stove installed and didn't have any wood stacked. Found a guy with kiln dried 1/4 cords of red oak for $100. If I fully load it, burns a little hot with about 10% moisture.

It's 9 degrees here right now. Supposed to get down to -25 with the wind chills tonight and tomorrow and we have blowing snow until tomorrow morning. I have both stoves (Jotul F55 upstairs and Cawley Lemay 600 in the basement) going pretty good today. Burning 2 year seasoned red oak in big chunks. It is 65 in my basement and 72-75 upstairs. I love wood heat.

We're at -5 now, supposed to get to -15, would be the lowest ever at my house, I live on a hill so I don't radiate so when the valleys were -20 I would be -5. I loaded my rack with black birch for this cold spell, best btu wood I have. Not sure if the dog will want to go for her nightly walk tonight.

Funny how when the East is cold the West often isn't....and vice versa. Today/this week will be no exception..

It's warm here in the S.CO Rockies. I know we aren't done with "Winter" yet but we are on the downside of it all for sure....at least when it comes to lengthy cold snaps. On the flip side of all of that....is the fact that it's been 60F+ the last 3 days here @ 7000ft. Lows mid 20's. We still have snow on the ground but the ice on the creek is melting quickly and the snow is receding daily.

On the wood stove front...I let the Princess go completely out today for the first time since mid December. Will clean her out and fire up tonight but it may be one of those nights where doors get cracked open... OK..it will be one of those nights. 30F or so for a "low". (Summertime..LOL)

I haven't burned the Princess in the garage for a week or so now. Still hanging at 50-60F in there.

What's really impressive IMO..is how much wood is still left in the pile. I THOUGHT I may have to source wood for the latter part of the season from a second pile.... but nope....we've barely burned 1/2 of this one! Still a bunch of oak splits....cottonwood...and some 3+ year old pine/spruce showing through that the previous owner left. I have plans to attack a couple of slag piles this Summer that were left by the electric co. when they cleared out the the power line...but what I thought would possibly be a scramble to keep wood on the pile just doesn't appear like it's gonna be an issue. We'll stay ahead of the game but we aren't gonna be ruled by it with these BK's onsite.

Looks like another week+ here of warm weather......(no complaints!)

Enjoy that cold folks!!



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My digital thermometer is reading zero, winds are still blowing around 15 with higher gusts, i'm sitting in my living room in a pair of shorts, its 73 in the house, im loving it

jetsam said:

Here we are... the coldest day of the winter, where I am anyway.

What are you burning? What's the temperature difference between inside and outside? What's in your glass? Split any wood today? Tell us a story about your fire!

Click to expand...

At the moment the stove is full of oak and Iron Wood and my glass is full of applejack brandy. Both our insides are warm,

2 degrees outside when we got home from some shopping. Stove with some coals in it from the daytime.
House at 67.
Filled the lopi up, getting her back to cruising speed.

I got to say I'm pretty envious of you guys that all our sitting in the 70's with temps in the -10's to single digits above zero... Obviously all setups are different, however I felt good about my home being pretty tight and insulated well but boy i kept the 2400 fed good all day and cruising between 400--700) but couldnt get up anymore than 64 with outside temps -1 to -7...
However it was also fairly windy(20-30mph) and w/about 25ft chimney I have good draft, sometimes like today to much. I watch it pretty close and shut it down pretty quick but I still think that wind was pulling my heat up the stack.. Hell, now its -3 but no wind and Im at 68 and climbing...

Guys who are struggling... Get more insulation and seal the leaks. Its -2 outside here with winds gusting to 40...and a toasty 74 inside.... And this place was built in the 1700s. I only just now ran the gas heat for 20 min to help get the far rooms up to 70.


My insulation is poor by modern standards but I stuffed in as much as i could everywhere... And attacked every leak I could with spray foam. Made a world of difference.

Last night it was -18 F outside and 96 inside. The wind chill was another 20-35 degrees colder. We are burning oak and maple with the stove just idling along. This old farmhouse (1860) is drafty like a sieve!

Right smack in the middle of the coldest 24 hours of the year. Currently 4* outside with windchill of -20. It's in the upper 70s in my living room. I have a full load of black locust cooking. Very thankful for wood heat. We used to struggle to keep the house warm.

Outside it is 13.1 degrees. The room with the stove is a balmy 73 degrees. The rooms go down about 5 degrees as you get further away from the stove. The back bedrooms..60 degrees. Burning a mix of birch, maple, & oak. Drinking some lemonade...
Life's good.

jetsam said:

Here we are... the coldest day of the winter, where I am anyway.

What are you burning? What's the temperature difference between inside and outside? What's in your glass? Split any wood today? Tell us a story about your fire!

Click to expand...

Burning oak, hickory, walnut and locust. Temperature difference is 3F outside and 60F inside, but I just ended a cycle so its on the low side. My Morgan Select insert is pumping out heat at max in these frigid temperatures and I love every minute of it.

It's a warm n' toasty 9 degrees F/ -14 C here in sunny, tropical Indiana at the Michigan border.

Wood splits really easy by hand below freezing and easier the colder it gets.
I split tonight for two days worth and it took about ten minutes. All my wood is hacked up
and in rounds so it's split only. Makes for a fast final job. Running the potbelly half full and
it's a bit of a fight to keep warm in the wind advisory/ hwy truck ban. We're getting a whistle
with the damper fully shut and the inlet just open one turn. We left it on the kids all day and
they tossed on a few splits and closed the door. There they got a little coaled-up on the
hot end, but never lit. Gonna take more training. The kids are teen and pre teen and can
easily adapt. I ran it full open door and damper to get a roaring flame going up the chimney
then closed it down. Took almost two hours but the shanty (1,380 ft) came up nicely and the
fans just went on to send heat down the hall to the sleeping beauties.

The king shepard, shephoundlabweiler, and Black lab/mastiff are in their standard semi circle
around the hearth. Once they get hot it's off to the bedrooms. 100+lb pippies hold their heat
very well after coming in and hangin' out at the pig.

Enjoying a coffee and some Cheaply warm air.

Wood consumption almost is doubling in the wind and first real cold snap. NP, living in a forest
with many standing deads ready to be processed we're good a couple of years before "going green).
The greenage will be down this spring and summer to start seasoning it. (ash maple oak, some birch,
and the whole "decorative" row of 5-8" cedars from PO two acres long 6 feet apart.)

CheapMark

-13f right now.. Overnight load burned down and the central heat kicked in a couple times... Woke up to 71 stove room, 66 far rooms.


Ran the central for a while and have the stove cranking now to bring it back up and even things out. At these temps the stove can maintain, but not easy raise temps in here without help.