** EDIT** EXTREME COLD!! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? NOW THATS ITS GONE HOW DID YOU DO?? WHAT WOULD YO

conibear said:

Some of you are surprised at this?
What did you expect sunny and 70?
It's the middle of January, one of if not the coldest month of the year, and you're bitching about it being cold?
Read a science book, because you sound like a bunch of ????????

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I seriously doubt that any of us ????????'s don't realize that it's January, or that January is typically one of the coldest months of the year (of course that depends on just where you live). What you seem to be oblivious to is the fact that a good portion of the country is experiencing record low temperatures well below the historically expected normals for this, or any other time of the year, perhaps lower temperatures than they've ever lived through before. When that happens, people feel it...big time. Out here in Oregon, I'm lucky to be experiencing unseasonably mild temperatures right now, but we've been below zero this season, and I'm sure we'll go back down there before it's over. In any case, when someone who lives in an area which is accustomed to January low temperatures in, say, the teens or single digits comes here posting about what it's like to be seeing -30 degrees, I, for one, would have to say that "bitching about the cold" is about the last phrase I'd use to describe their postings here. Welcome to the forums, conibear. Stay warm all, hope it's starting to warm back up for y'all. Rick

Jags said:

N of 60 - you can have your weather back now. I'm done with it. -33F at the house this morning. Closest airport at -36F. Running the cast iron beast full tilt.

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Ya know whats funny about this Jags. We are above freezing right now. 34f :lol: But yes I would trade this wet sloppy mess with ya in a minute.
Keep warm.

Had to reload the wood rack last night. So made 5 trips with the wheelbarrow last night out to the woodpile and back. 0*F with no wind. I have to say, it was cold, but invigorating. You definitely want to hustle, for sure. The Jotul did well with the cold weather. 70* and an eight hour burn last night.

well hellow all you that have managed to make it throu this cold snap... im staying warm with my heritage/// still waiting for my new mansfield exchange to show up///i guess im just hoping it will give me a little more sleep time between reloads..its been colder than a well diggers ????.hear and i think i wouldn't mind seening a few skeets.to remind me of thje hot weather to come... wow how about that globel warming.....have a crown and warm up...ZZZim

This is our third evening in a row that is too warm to bother with a fire. I keep reading this thread just to get a feel for real winter.

12 deg F here last night and we expect 7 deg tonight. That's considered 'fairly cold' for my area. Much worse just to the north of here. The wood stove is eating a little more fuel, but is holding up pretty well to the extra demand. I allowed the oil boiler to run when the downstairs unheated areas got down to 50 deg. Haven't used it much at all this season, up to now.

It's about 78 in the living room. It's 74 in the kitchen and dining room, and 70-72 in the bedrooms. The outside temperature is 10 right now. That's a 68 deg differential. My 1960 house is poor to fair in the insulation department. I've been slowly working on upgrading it. Still has a few single glaze windows. I'll get there eventually. Recent work has been devoted to beefing up the attic insulation.

My first full year of wood burning looks to be a complete success so far. Wood supply is holding up well. Definitely worth all the hard work. I've learned a lot in this forum- thanks for all the good info.

I will laugh at all the people I know who are bitching about he cold. it is 3 degrees outside right now. Was 19 last night when we left to go to the Gym. (We really know how to livie it up on a friday night). We got home almost 5 hours later (threw some shopping and dinner in there.) and the house was 64 degrees. was 62 by the time I loaded the stove and got the fire going....so I kicked on the furnace. Burned some natural gas. I figured an hour or less of the furnace running and the whole house is warm and then the stove doesn't have to struggle. IT was 71 in no time. I returned the thermostat to my previous program and the stove kept the place warm till abot 5:30 when it is programmed to kick in and raise the temp. I have it set for 62 at night and 66 in the morning. When I heard the furnace kick on (actually just hear the wind rushing thru the vents) I got up and loaded the stove up. We still have 2 cords of dry seasoned wood. I think that will get us thru February. If I gather and restack the the dregs from a couple other low piles I will probably be able to burn thru mid march.

So the short answer is I'll stay warm. Kick the furnace on when needed and keep a fire in the stove at all times.

As a side note....I saw a woman in Target with 2 of those oil filled radiator looking heaters in her cart. Even in the store she looked cold. You have to do what you have to do. IT's odd to me though. Virginia has had mild winters for the last couple years but before that we had some REALLY cold , icey winters. So it isn't at all unusual for us. Yet people act like they've never heard of winter.

This is what I'm doing. Keep the old Glenwood on Biscuits or better!

My stove didn't quite make it- The firewood I used could at best only generate a 500 F stove top temp max, just had a too big of buildup of coals and have too many heat sinks like multiple picture windows and A/C units in a house built as a summer cottage and I didn't feel up to making another meal cooked outdoors in a camp dutch oven with the excess coals.- so I had to use supplemental heating for about 12 hours.

I was fortunate there wasn't any snow cover-it would have been much colder.

They measured -15 or so at the Air Base in Chicopee........
We have been getting lows of -5 to -7, but guess what?

Almost no wind and lots of sun during the day. This is going to sound crazy, but it does not seem too cold outside! I've went for long treks in the woods with my snowshoes and was not cold at all. It's the wind that can kill. I think wind causes a lot of heat loss on the outside of homes also. We have a very efficient gas furnaces (90% +) and it has been coming on only rarely in the overnight hours....set at 62 or so.....it makes me glad for the stricter State energy codes we have (our house is only 5 years old).

JBinKC said:

My stove didn't quite make it- The firewood I used could at best only generate a 500 F stove top temp max, just had a too big of buildup of coals and have too many heat sinks like multiple picture windows and A/C units in a house built as a summer cottage and I didn't feel up to making another meal cooked outdoors in a camp dutch oven with the excess coals.- so I had to use supplemental heating for about 12 hours.

I was fortunate there wasn't any snow cover-it would have been much colder.

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For one thing let me say that the most severe ear infection I ever got was in the lake of the Ozarks. That place made me a believer in earplugs.

For another if you're in and about the house just throw a split or 2 on after you pull the coals forward. A stove top temp of about 500-600 will produce a lot of heat and burn those coals down in short order. Smaller splits may help too.

imo it makes no sense to load up the stove unless you're going to bed or leaving the house...cause for us that's always been a duration move rather than providing a hotter usable heat. I'm thinking you burn a lot of Shagbark hickory and Cherry...very good woods but packed tight in a loaded box they can't reach maximum heat output.

EPA stove is sposed to burn such & such & the 1st such is FILL THE STOVE.

I don't subscribe to that and I get good heat and no smoke...except for short durations when we reload.

There's is no perfect 'one way' to do anything manufacturers have to live in a world created by parasite lawyers....that means CYA. Also less is more since you may interpret something wrong.

scampea said:

This is our third evening in a row that is too warm to bother with a fire. I keep reading this thread just to get a feel for real winter.

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Hey at least I shake because it's cold, not because the ground is moving. :coolsmirk:

Savageactor -never had seen a black cherry tree here yet. I am still looking. This year I didn't have as much shagbark as I normally have and what I had was buried and the black oak which is usually the most plentiful tree available as there has been a major die off of it and I really like to use in this cold weather was gone and my mulberry was underseasoned. I used 7 month seasoned white ash and black walnut in this cold spell that was given to me by a friend that was originally cut 1-2 inches too long and was somewhat underwhelmed with its performance in the coldest cold spell I have experienced in this house since I purchased it (in 2000).

I loaded in a N/S configuration with a 4 hour burn cycle that wasn't packed very tight but the pieces generally were 4-6" in diameter.

I still think my problem is I get way too much heat loss in this house and it really shows in cold weather- I lose about 4 degrees per hour in the rooms furthest away from the stove when it is about 5 F and the stove is in the coaling stage about 300 F and I think the main culprit of heat loss is from my 2 metal A/C units seconded by the large number of picture windows. Another expense to modify or use the supplemental heat source.

My castine was doing a great job of heating the basement but I was dependant on oil to keep the upstairs at a comfortable temp. Then, wouldn't you know it, my furnace died yesterday morning when it was around 8* outside. I contemplated calling my oil company in order to get someone here immediately but decided to ride it out until tomorrow(Monday) morning when I wouldn't have to pay a off-hours "emergency" service call fee.

As a precaution I went out and bought a space heater and it has kept the upstairs at a livable temp and this morning I started a fire in the living room f/p for some additional warmth. G/f is downstairs sleeping on the sofa in the toasty 75* stove room and I'm taking a break from reading "John Adams" next to the fireplace at a somewhat chilly-er 55* upstairs.

Hopefully, the furnace just has a clogged nozzle and will be a cheap fix but it's good know that we can survive some pretty cold temps with just wood fires burning and don't have to worry about frozen pipes.

Three things I learned this past week.

1. I've learned a great deal on this site and there's nothing better than real experience we all gain here.

2. Seasoned hard wood has much more BTU output than unseasoned wood. I ran out of 18 month aged oak and now burning 7 month aged. I never anticipated purchasing a wood stove so I was some what unprepared this season. I'm aging 4 cords 12 months before next burn season.

3. When it's 0 out it's a lot harder to keep the house at 75 degrees than it is when it's 32 degrees out. I will do much better next year when I'm buring properly aged wood and have the stove pipe insulated (inside the chimney).

All lessons above were learned from the experience of others on this board. I would have been scratching my head for answers to my observations but luckily I found this site long before purchasing my stove.

I just finished snow blowing 8" of light fluffy snow. Now I'm sitting in front of TV and stove and nice and comfy.

We survived, although we did put the furnace on to heat the upstairs bedrooms.

Biggest lesson - leave the air open a touch and don't be afraid to run the stove above 600 on really cold nights. Now that I'm doing this, I easily got the house up to almost 80 today. This also helps with the excessive coaling.

Lesson 2 - when it's really cold out, "enough coals to restart the fire" does not equal "warm house". I have to re-evaluate the definitily of "all-night burn" when it's -15F.

Lesson 3 - when it's really, really cold out, it doesn't take much to get the stove above 600!! The chimney draws like a champion.

Lesson 4 - wait until the stove is up to temp before putting the fans on to move the heat. Otherwise, I'm just blowing cold air aound.

Lesson 5 - this house is WAY too drafty. Even burning free wood, additional insulation will pay for itself with our comfort and ease at keeping the house warm.

I'll be glad to have the pine a friend gave me. On these cold, cold nights, it's easy to build up a mighty thick bed of coals just trying to keep the house warm.

The past two night’s we’ve seen single digits. My “cold” room in the house, opposite end of the house, above the garage is 55 F. The living room that is home to the Mansfield sees 68 when I awake in the morning after 8 hours. My girlfriend and I decided to stay on the couch last night because our room at the top of the stairs dips to the mid 60’s (comfy by my standards, but not hers). It was at times warm for me on the couch, but a nice 71 when I awoke, 6 hours after filling the stove. Threw a couple more on, and back to the couch for a couple more hours. Was 79 by noon, but the outside temperature was closing in on 30. Still in love with the Mansfield. It’s been weeks now and my heater has not kicked on since the day of breaking the stove in.

It rose to +27 up here Saturday, so I went out and split up another big sledful and brought that in. But I can't have a fire when it is that hot out. No way! (I use off-peak to heat my slab.) So I wandered off into the woods--- looking for other victims for the gas-saw. Yeah, that's just an excuse. Wandering around out in the woods is my favorite pass-time. About 15" of snow. Plenty of fresh deer tracks on the trails. I was just thinking how very still it was, when I heard the whining and farting of snowmobiles. And of course, the next thing I see is deer fleeing through the woods, trying to get away from those damned things. When it was quiet again, I leaned against a tree and had few thoughts. Ale-influenced thoughts. These morons are out there driving their many-thousand dollar machines, seeing nothing... Sorry, I gotta go.

Yeah, now I'm back. Bought some books on eBay. So back to the diatribe against the use of snowmobiles for "recreational purposes".

If you want to go out in the winter, go afoot. You will see a lot more. Oh, yes, if you want to demonstrate how big a plume you can throw, the gas-powered engine is going to help your ego. But it won't make you bigger, ya Moron!

Cold snap, eah? The short answer is to just burn more fuel.

The correct answer is to have anticipated these events and, if you are concerned, plan on heating redundancy or back-up for the cold snaps.

I burn my main floor heater as winter usual, approx 50 lbs of wood per day. Then for "le coup de grace", I lite up the basement wood/coal stove. My furnace nevers fires. I am toasty 24/7.

That's it.

Aye,
Marty