24x7 or not?

Yep, pretty much 24/7 here. Even when shoveling ashes (today), the fire never goes out completely. The house won't hold the heat, so I try to not let the stove or the house get too cold. Temps have been back up into the 20's the last couple days, so I do leave the stove alone a little longer than I would when the temp. drops. Saves wood, and work.
I used too much wood during the shoulder season, and will try to adjust that in the spring to save wood. It's just that I really like to be comfortably warm. Robe, sweaters, and sweatshirts might be a partial answer to that.
If the weather stays in the 20's the rest of the winter, I should have at least a cord left to carry for next winter. Yeah, I know, dream on.... right?

caber said:

we only burn 24/7 for days in a row...

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Well... 24 means 24 hours a day and 7 means 7 days a week so that would then have to be "7 days in a row".

24/7 burners here for the most part.

While I agree it is a good idea to view wood as a resource and treat it as such vs. thinking of it as something you can just waste without any repercussions, I tend to run the wood right straight through . . .

1) It's cheaper to run than oil
2) It's better environmentally than oil
3) It prevents pipes from freezing . . . although I do have oil back-up I am trying to save money and be less dependent on foreign oil
4) It is much easier and comfortable to keep the heat going all the time and maintain a more or less "steady" temp (fluctuations down to 60 degrees) than it would be to have to constantly warm up the house from a lower temp
5) More importantly . . . my wife and I work different hours -- she works nights twice a week (and spends 1-2 days switching over from being awake during days) and I work days so it is easier to keep the woodstove running 24-7

PINEBURNER said:

Works great in a well insulated house! some people have to run 24/7 just to fight the draft of their house!. Decided to do a inspection on linner today, so let the stove die for 5 hours. 20 degrees out max temp, and house dropped from 82 to 79 degrees.

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The downstairs drops from around 75 to 50 if I let the fire go out that long. The downstairs is usually mid fifties to low sixties after running the stove on low for the overnight burn. We would freeze if we didn't run it 24/7 in the winter months.

Its all about local conditions of course but since wood is our only heat it goes 24/7 unless we get an unusual warm streak. That being the case we try to keep the main floor around 72 upstairs bedrooms are always 10 degrees lower. I hate a warm bedroom so when we built this house we made the floors tight,well insulated and the only heat up is what we allow up the stairs.

24/7 here since about beginning of December.
Lat couple days near 40 or so, burn 2 full loads a day at these temps, or 3 splits at a time.
Since getting the EBT functional, and not having it open full time now, my wood usage has dropped, and burn times extended noticeably.
I can let it go 12-14 hrs plus and still have plenty of coals to get her ripping fairly quick again.
I have been babying the temp to stay around 650 tops, sometimes it will spike to 700ish, but very rarely. Since the fix, I have much better control with the air lever, and can actually almost dial in a temp to hold it at.
The internal corner door opening crack repairs are holding well. I did notice the other night, the face cracks are back. Not as bad, but still came back.
At this point, I don't feel it adds air to cause overfire or diminish the control of the burns, and feel it is not a danger, just a aesthetic bummer. Can't see em with the door closed though.
At some point, I'll have my neighbor come repair them again and see what happens.
I know drilling an hole in cast helps keep cracks from growing. Does the same hold true for plate steel?
I can prolly work some furnace cement in there. At this point, I really feel its a none performance issue.
If things get worse, I may be looking for a new replacement from PE.
I still love this insert. And since getting the EBT correctly hooked up & functioning, I really had to relearn the insert yet again.
When the EBT was out of place unconnected, I could shut the air down at 350 or 500 and it would still go where it wanted to go.....HOT.
Now if I cut it back too soon, she will either hold temp at there, or drop some. With the wet summer, the wood is not as good as I would prefer, but not green either.
I am really impressed at the control I now have since getting things right. The cracks bother me, but like a new car. Once the first few scratches happen and bum me out, after a while it doesn't matter anymore.
I still am very pleased with PE and their support and warranty backing, and the stove now is even better than I liked it before, prior to getting everything squared away.
I hate shutting it down, but if we get near 50, its going to burn out and not be restarted till it gets below 40 again.

Fixin' to go 24/7 here over the next 5 or 6 days as we've some weather rolling in and doesn't look like the sun is gonna be out much.................

With two stove I am actually burning less. Obviously, not less wood, but less 24hour burn periods. The second stove prevents the rest of the house from getting extremely cold like it did last year, so it take less time to bring the house up to temp.

I am not burning as hard. Last year I had the keep the foot on the gas (in a manner of speaking) on the Vigilant to keep the room above 65 when we lost the furnace.

Wow- 2 stoves, sounds like some juggling going on there...............

WoodMann said:

Wow- 2 stoves, sounds like some juggling going on there...............

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And if you check my signature you can see I purchased a third stove. My floor plan does not allow for a single stove to provide whole house heat.

BrowningBAR said:

Last year I had the keep the foot on the gas (in a manner of speaking) on the Vigilant to keep the room above 65 when we lost the furnace.

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I'm "peddle to the metal" with my Vigilant all the time. That stove rocks IMHO! Keeps my whole house at a constant 72ºF 90% of the time (tonight it's 74º), but I need to run it hard to keep the thermal mass of my insulated basement and two-flue masonry chimney up to temp, which is the whole secret for me. Next year I want to get a tiny stove to put in the living room fireplace, that way I can back off on the Vig a bit and make it last forever. That Jotul F 100 looks ideal for the job.

My house is old as the hills have to burn 24/7 just to fight the draft. The furnace took a chit last year i took it to the shredders.

Battenkiller said:

BrowningBAR said:

Last year I had the keep the foot on the gas (in a manner of speaking) on the Vigilant to keep the room above 65 when we lost the furnace.

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I'm "peddle to the metal" with my Vigilant all the time. That stove rocks IMHO! Keeps my whole house at a constant 72ºF 90% of the time (tonight it's 74º), but I need to run it hard to keep the thermal mass of my insulated basement and two-flue masonry chimney up to temp, which is the whole secret for me. Next year I want to get a tiny stove to put in the living room fireplace, that way I can back off on the Vig a bit and make it last forever. That Jotul F 100 looks ideal for the job.

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Have you tried placing a fan behind the Vigilant? The difference when I use a fan is amazing. I can keep the room at 80-82 degrees without running it hard. I touched 90 in the room when I had the stove up to 650 degree. The outside temp was about 15 at the time.

If you can (money or size limitations), go with the next size up and get the Jøtul F 3 CB. It will give you a little more flexibility and you won't have to run it hard to get the heat you are looking for out of it. Trust me, the Intrepid is about the same size as the F100.

Am I ever glad I finished getting some more wood yesterday. Look what we got this morning......
I'm not too deep into the throttle on the stove and am very fortunate that the house was buildt in 1991 and is pretty tight.........

WoodMann said:

Am I ever glad I finished getting some more wood yesterday. Look what we got this morning......
I'm not too deep into the throttle on the stove and am very fortunate that the house was buildt in 1991 and is pretty tight.........

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Wow! You got a new truck this morning! Contrats - I bet you can haul a lot of wood in it next time you are after some

Nice snow too btw.

Naa- the truck is a 2001. The snow is new............... ;-)

BrowningBAR said:

And if you check my signature you can see I purchased a third stove. My floor plan does not allow for a single stove to provide whole house heat.

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How many fireplaces do you have again?

Back on 24x7 here. I really need more wood...................