Wood stove costing me hours at work.

yupp I pretty much do the same thing. We have a new born and she wakes up @ midnight 3 and 6 on the dot so i get up make her a bottle throw a couple logs on the fire and we sit and watch the fire for a while

Yes, I also factor in stove time in the morning and in the evening. I get less sleep in the winter, although I may upgrade to a mansfield next year and may have some more room for error next season after I figure everything out. Nice to be mesmerized by the stove, though.

The thing I hate about the 4a.m. reloads is you fight to stay awake until it chars and you can cut the air down. Then you stare at the ceiling for half an hour trying to get back to sleep.

I know what you mean. This is my first year with a stove and its pretty hard to get out of bed at 4a.m. to check the fire. I also get up half an hour earlier now to get it going good before work. The house sometimes gets down to about 65 when I work 12x8 because my wife wont go into the basement alone if Im not there.But so far this is the best thing I've ever done because the gas furnace has not come close to coming on yet.

Ja, I find myself cutting it so close that I often walk into my office without a minute to spare.

No late night feedings though. Stoke it up just before midnight and coals wait for me to wake at 6:00 AM to resurrect the fire. I don't have to hang around and fiddle with air controls either. My stove has a bi-metal thermostatic control. Just set the cruise control and walk away.

I have had the same issue, and I work night shift! I have always been to work about a half hour to 45 mins before it's time to start. Gave me time to put the uniform on, the belt, yak with dayshift for a bit, and be available early if we got a call before it was time.

Now, I'm walking in, running into the locker room, throwing everything on and getting on the radio just in time.


Now, ANOTHER problem. I work nights, and the girlfriend works dayshift. I live in the city I patrol. So I get to come home and check on the stove while she sleeps. It's an older stove, 1990's model, and it LOVES to eat wood. I can only get about a 6 hour burn time out of it. My house has NO blinds, old crappy windows, and crappy insulation. When the fire goes out, the temp plumits, quick.

Anyway, at about 0230 I come home and load the stove. This sucks, in uniform sometimes, especially if I have to walk to the shed and get wood. I have messed up many of clean, pressed uniforms doing this. Last week I screwed up my longsleve shirt, bumped the open stove door..*DOH!*


The stove makes me nervous, I can't just load it up, close the air and walk away. I HAVE to have a good burn going, and know that it wont run away when I leave. So I end up standing infront of the stove for 20 mins until everything gets where I like it. The only problem is, sometimes we end up getting a hot call "no pun intended" right in the middle of that. A call where I have to go NOW. Run to the car, hit the lights, and get there. The entire time on the call i'm worried that i'm smoking out my neighboor with a smoldering fire, or the stove is melting down.


When I get a good fire, and close it down, I still drive by on occasion and spotlight the chimney, just to make sure I have a clean burn. You guys at Hearth.com really BROKE me. I used to not care if it was a smoking beast, and didn't worry about it running away. But, now i'm a much happier, nervous, OCD woodburner!

The colder it gets the harder it is to get away from the stove...sure we tell ourselves that the stove needs attention, but it's more than that.

I work outside myself and I get up at 4am every day.I like going down to my man cave getting the stove going laying on the couch in the dark,watching it get going,turning on the morning news with my coffee.It starts my day off with a nice relaxed feeling.
Rusty

NAh - I just get up earlier. I don't dread getting out of bed - just head down to the warm stove and get her going again and enjoy a half hour of peace and tranquility.

bigdog said:

The house sometimes gets down to about 65 when I work 12x8 because my wife wont go into the basement alone if Im not there.

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How old is your wife???

Hey - at least your actual stove is costing you hours and not just a stove related website. This time of year I'm in the office getting next year's contracts ready and crossing all the Ts from the year's paperwork. I end up stuck in the office for an extra hour a day because I inevitably stumble on to some link I can't pry myself away from.

"...ok, now I'll get the contracts wrapped up....wait...this guy built a homemade cookstove and is using it to heat domestic hot water...ok after this link I'll get the contracts done."

Wow, I was wondering about this before I decided on a coal stove as opposed to a wood stove.
The coal stove I shake, empty the ash, and fill the hopper at about 10pm & at 7am I only shake & fill ..... my first year burning...
I decided on a coal stove just for the reasons listed her. But you can watch the stove after filling to insure you didn't choke it out. With a coal stove you have to wait about 30 -60 minutes before you are certain that any setting changes actually do anything.

I'm sure once I get the hang of it, It'll be second nature

I work from home and experience the exact opposite effect. I get up a little earlier to get the stove cranking before the kids are up and I usually end up starting my work day about an hour or two earlier than normal. Then again, a small price to pay to enjoy the stove ALL day. :coolsmile:

One of the benefits of only burning nights and weekends. The oil burner kicks to 65 on for the wifey at 5:00 so she can catch her train, turns back to 50 about 6:00. The house is still warm when I am up feeding the baby at 6:30, and just starts to get chilly as we head out the door at 730ish.

Eight months old, no more night feedings but lots of smashed veggies in the fridge.

The oil burner starts back to 65 at 5:00 about the same time I get home to start up the woodstove. By 5:30 the stove has usually got the house started towards the 70s.

bfunk13 said:

Anyone else do this? Maybe i just need to sleep in the living room. 8-/

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My DH has been sleeping in the living room since he started burning our new stove in October.
(sorry, can't figure out how to delete my post just above)

weedlady said:

...(sorry, can't figure out how to delete my post just above)

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I can. Rick

for me its no big deal i just figure on a good half hour to be sure the fire is going strong enough to damper and close it down safely before I go

Winter routine:

- Wake up to alarm clock blaring at 5:15.
- Snooze once.
- Stumble downstairs, note that stove still has visible coals left from last night's 11:00 feeding.
- Open primary air control to let the coals start going again and move any smoke out of the box.
- Turn on coffee pot. It has a timer, but the display is half gone so I can't use it accurately anymore.
- Toss in a few ultra dry pine splits for that quick heat.
- Check outside. If it snowed I'll need to accomdate my schedule for plowing and sanding on my way out the door.
- Pour first cup of coffee.
- Stove is getting up to temperature by now. Hit the circulating fans to get teh heat moving around the house.
- Hit the shower.
- Get dressed.
- Head to work for 7am.

No time for sitting in front of the stove.

Wet1 said:

bigdog said:

The house sometimes gets down to about 65 when I work 12x8 because my wife wont go into the basement alone if Im not there.

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How old is your wife???

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She is 36. But the guy who lived here before us died in the basement. We are getting an English Mastiff for christmas so maybe he will keep her company to go throw a couple of logs on.

I just got me a job that allows me to work from May till November...then I have plenty of time to watch the fire all winter long. :roll: