burning season

Ill most likely will start my first fire sometime later october.

I like to start with some open door fires here in southern CT, sometime in October. May not always be needed, but by then I'm dying for a fire. The saltwater fishing is usually great in October, so its a lot colder on the water and nice to come home to the warm fire with some fresh fillets.

Huh!?! You mean you have a season when you don't have to burn?!?!? Oh wait you must mean the week of July fourth. :lol:

Seriously, this will be my first full season with a woodstove, but the heat usually needs to be turned on around mid-late Sept. and goes off in mid May, this year it went well into June though. We are on the coast in Southern Maine so it's usually cool here. I satisfy my summer burning need by heating the pool with a woodstove. Man, it hurt this year to be throwing BTU's into the pool, while still trying to get the winter wood set.

-Sheepdog

As weird as it is, Nov. 1st is always the first burn here. Granted, I only burn evenings and weekend, but 8 years now in this house and with either the old fireplace or the woodstove last year, Nov. 1st was the first burn (that wasn't a break-in burn to burn off the stink). Out last fire is usually early to mid-April.

Heck, we had several fires for evening heat a week or two ago (up in Munising). Wasn't _really_ necessary, but high 40's to mid 50's has been the night time norm, and the high some days is struggling to get to 65. In other words, great summer weather!

Usually a few take the chill off fires in Sep and early Oct using those left over odd ball sized left overs or crappy wood, then I go pretty much 24/7 with the good stuff by Nov through Apr.

I am hoping I don't have to strick a match intil Nov. and done by the first of April'

In the real world I will start in Octobuuurr and hopfully finished by the 1st of May.

DiscoInferno said:

Heck, we had several fires for evening heat a week or two ago (up in Munising). Wasn't _really_ necessary, but high 40's to mid 50's has been the night time norm, and the high some days is struggling to get to 65. In other words, great summer weather!

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I was up in your neck of the woods last summer and I don't know how you guys stay awake during the day with all that fresh air. ;-P

This will depend on your level of insulation and even the forms of alternative heating. We live in an old home with poor insulation and find that even in the summer we will be in the low 60s in the house every morning even when the previous day was into the upper 70s. Even in the summer, a poorly insulated house dumps too much heat at night. Of course this moderate puget sound climate puts us into the 50s every night. If I had a cheap source of thermostat heat like say a heat pump then I could easily warm up the house 5-10 degrees and put off my first fire until much later but as it is, I start burning mid September and don't stop until mid June. Seriously, 9 months of burning and that's why I went through 7 cords.

Of course, the fires aren't as frequent or intense when it is 50 out as they are when it is 30 but the stove stays warm.

well, I will lite my first fire end of September I would imagine usually. gonna try to hold out until mid October this year!

I dable in pyrotechnics in September and October, by middle of November the fire is going strong. The burn will continue until the end of March at least.

last year I was still beingingthe first week of May

I had a fire last night. I didn't really have to but it took the chill off. This summer has been a cold cloudy rainy one and today is one of the few sunny days we have had. It usually isn't like that though, this one is just a fluke. Global warming, what's that?

Sheepdog, I usually find that pieces of wood thrown into the swimming pool don't burn all that well.

I will start my first fires when the outside temp gets around 40 or so. Usually in Oct. Then its mostly just short night burns. Then usually done burning late April. Depends.

We have a few fires to take the chill off in September. Probably start burning regular nights in October, 24/7 in Nov through March, then back to nights until sometime in April.

EatenByLimestone said:

When the night temp gets to 40 or so I start. When it gets back above 40 I stop. Not only does the stove heat me out of the house at that temp, the chimney doesn't draft as well. I'm also not convinced that it's not cheaper to use gas when the temps are above 40 since the furnace is only on for a short burst and then sits off for the day.

Matt

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I`m thinking the same thing here with my old oil-fired boiler. With the aforementioned temps it only needs to run for about 30 minutes to warm the whole house. Wheras I need the insert burning for hours on end to accomplish the same thing. Guess that one of these days I`m gonna have to sit down and actually do the math on this one. :roll:

I'm sure this will sound crazy for CT, but I can usually make it until December 1 before turning on the heat for the first time. Granted, the house might get down into the upper 50's a couple times in late Nov., but I try to make it to 12/1 out of principle. I heard some complaining last year, so I might have to break down use a tiny amount of heat the last week or two of Nov. this year... damn skirts!


The ocean is still in mid 50's at the end of Nov. so it keeps the air temp warmer at night at our house. That big body of water tends to stabilize the air temp to a certain degree so we see smaller temperature swings and fluctuations. But, if you go inland even a mile, there's a very noticeable difference. We typically don't see any real snowfall until mid Jan. In fact, we don't see nearly as much snow as inland does, unless there's a rare coastal storm. The down side is the water temp is still only around 40* on April 1st, so it stays cooler at our house when the warmer weather starts rolling back in.