How to burn stove in these temperatures

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Backwoods Savage

Backwoods Savage

Minister of Fire
Feb 14, 2007
27,811
Michigan
As most know, spring and fall are the worst times for heating with wood. It seems either you roast or let the fire die out and the house is colder than it was during the winter. Then we have weather that is cloudy or rainy so not much heat from the sunshine. So how to run the stove?

Most folks also know that to get a decent fire going one needs 3 pieces of wood. One piece or two pieces just don't burn real good. Also burning the stove on low can cause some creosote problems.

Enter the cat. stove. Case in point; yesterday we had 50's and cloudy with sprinkles. Overnight low of 50 with rain all night. Present temperature is 46 with NE wind 16-22 mph. Yesterday we decided to take some chill off so spread the ashes a bit and found a couple live coals. Three pieces of kindling got the flame in very little time. We then added only 2 small rounds. For controls, we left the draft full open and left it like that the rest of the day. Around 8:00 last night there were still red coals but the house was warm so I did not want to add much. So, I dug around and got a round that was about 6" diameter with a knot at one end. That is the only wood I put in the stove.

This morning the house is nice and warm and fully half of that round was still there. I rolled that round and added a small split to it. After about an hour my wife was looking at the stove and she turned the draft down to 1 and flipped the cat on. Note: the cat was not on all yesterday or last night and the draft was set at full open. Now with the cat on that will probably last the rest of the day.

In short, not much wood required.

Caution: Please do not try this at home.....unless you have good really dry wood. (Yes, this wood we are burning is about 6 years in the stack.)
 
Same weather around here Dennis. I still need to take the chill off in my cold basement even sometimes if the highs are in the 60's. A good pile of kindling on top of a couple small splits burned full open without cat engaged will heat my rock just enough to bring the basement back up over 70 and keep it there til the next evening. If I feel I need more heat I'll add a few more small splits and engage the cat and let that burn out til the next evening.

This month has been pretty warm and I haven't burned nearly as much wood as previous Aprils but next month could be colder than this month, you never know. I had fires in June last year.
 
i keep a pallet worth of "short round" splits i scrounge up. I find a
lot of tree removal companies like to cut very large tree trunks into 6-8 inch thick rounds so they can still move them. they burn nicely and relativly quickly. they split with just a threatening look. and, usually they are oak or maples. maybe someday a cat, though!
 
Perfect time of year to burn all of the junk out of the woodpile. We still do what we always do, load her up and let the thermostat do its thing.
 
With the mass of the T6 we can have a nice 3 log fire and not get cooked out. But I'm lazy. After a full days work outside I let the heat pump do the work when its in the 50's. If it's cold rainy and 45, I'll start the fire, just cuz it feels and looks good.
 
BeGreen said:
With the mass of the T6 we can have a nice 3 log fire and not get cooked out. But I'm lazy. After a full days work outside I let the heat pump do the work when its in the 50's. If it's cold rainy and 45, I'll start the fire, just cuz it feels and looks good.
Click to expand...
I have nothing for back up but I am thinking about it now that I am getting older so a little fire on these cool days and the house feel nice and cozy(begining to love Summit).
 
It seems we have to light up one fire every few days when it is cloudy and cool. I'm glad we don't have to roast ourselves to get a clean burn - not sure how much of that really is the stove or how much is just using dry wood and learning how to burn 'smart' though. Sure - having the stone to heat up and let it gradually release the heat does help quite a bit, but I'm not sure I'm really using the cat a whole lot on these burns as I'm just not feeding that much fuel into the fire.

Agreed though - it is a great time to get rid of the misc chunks and hard to stack pieces! Esp since this is when I'm out there re-stacking the pile. I even came across a few marginal punky pieces so I tossed them (dry as dust and about as light) aside to bring in to burn this week if we do a fire.
 
I'm down to just doing an evening fire . . . half loads in the firebox . . . using up junk wood when possible . . . typically I'll do a single re-load and not bother starting the fire in the morning as the warm day temps bring the house up to temp. Doing cold starts every evening can be a pain, but it's nice to not use a lot of wood.
 
I had it going pretty good last night with stack temps 475-500, 80 in the basement and the upstairs was 74.


zap
 
The Morso is really shining in the shoulder season. Just start it late afternoon or evening and it takes all of the chill out of the basement and keeps the upstairs perfect. Have only had 1 night without a fire so far.
 
Yeah Dennis, this kind of weather shows off some of the real benefits of a cat.

Being a non-cat stove kinda guy - I use what I refer to as a "flash" fire. Small fuel and a fire building technique that is intended to generate a hot, short lived fire. A fuel load that "just" gets the mass of the Isle royale to a clean burn temp and then starts heading south again on coals. The mass of the cast stove does a fine job of soft heat by using this method.

We had a temp of 50-55 deg. yesterday and using this method made for a very comfy temp in the house throughout the day.
 
One radiator heater upstairs and one downstairs have kept the chill off the house for the last few nights and mornings for less than two bucks a day with it overcast, chilly and raining. I may start another fire but it is real tempting not to fool with it.
 
BrotherBart said:
One radiator heater upstairs and one downstairs have kept the chill off the house for the last few nights and mornings for less than two bucks a day with it overcast, chilly and raining. I may start another fire but it is real tempting not to fool with it.
Click to expand...

Even easier/cheaper to throw on a sweater... or better yet, head out and split some wood :)

Yesterday I went out and did a bit of splitting - was ready to come in and put some shorts on after just a short while. Now I'm sitting here at work feeling a chill and wishing I could be back out there working the wood pile...
 
Slow1 said:
BrotherBart said:
One radiator heater upstairs and one downstairs have kept the chill off the house for the last few nights and mornings for less than two bucks a day with it overcast, chilly and raining. I may start another fire but it is real tempting not to fool with it.
Click to expand...

Even easier/cheaper to throw on a sweater... or better yet, head out and split some wood :)

Yesterday I went out and did a bit of splitting - was ready to come in and put some shorts on after just a short while. Now I'm sitting here at work feeling a chill and wishing I could be back out there working the wood pile...
Click to expand...

Think I will hold off on splitting wood till the it stops pouring down rain. I don't process wood in rain or snow. Or wear sweaters either wet or dry outside. If I could spend fifteen to twenty bucks a day for the generator gas for the four days we were buried in snow I can spend a couple of bucks a day for heaters.

I can still remember when burning wood was a passion with me. That was a while back.
 
BrotherBart said:
I can still remember when burning wood was a passion with me.
Click to expand...

I get the passion back sometime around the mid of Oct. and it passes by the end of Nov. :lol:
 
Slow1 said:
It seems we have to light up one fire every few days when it is cloudy and cool. I'm glad we don't have to roast ourselves to get a clean burn - not sure how much of that really is the stove or how much is just using dry wood and learning how to burn 'smart' though. Sure - having the stone to heat up and let it gradually release the heat does help quite a bit, but I'm not sure I'm really using the cat a whole lot on these burns as I'm just not feeding that much fuel into the fire.

Agreed though - it is a great time to get rid of the misc chunks and hard to stack pieces! Esp since this is when I'm out there re-stacking the pile. I even came across a few marginal punky pieces so I tossed them (dry as dust and about as light) aside to bring in to burn this week if we do a fire.
Click to expand...

Slow, one of the main points to this thread is the fact that we can burn only one piece of wood at a time if we wish. Two is better though. Usually if we have only one log, the cat stays off. Add another and the cat can then come on and everything burns nice and clean. And no, we have not had to clean the glass; it just does not get black.

No doubt your skills with wood burning have improved a lot. You will continue to improve too.
 
Although it's 61 outside now, it looks like we have an arctic front coming in for a few days starting tonight. If the temps start dropping dramatically, I'll probably start up a small hot fire and then let it coast to oblivion. The firebug in me is still alive and we have lots of wood left.
 
Nice thing about the big insert is that I can put half a load in, loosely stacked and let it go. At 35* it will get my family room up to 75 pretty quick. Longer burn times too.
 
I agree John. At 35 degree outside temperature it should not take very long at all to get the indoor temperature to 75. That is only a 40 degree difference. A totally different story though when the outdoor temperature is at 10! lol
 
It really depends on the stove, the area the stove is in and the house. Also depends on how much of a temperature change is involved. If large, it can take a while to heat up the mass of an area and its furnishings.

A stove in a good sized room, say 300 sq ft., with normal door openings can heat the room up quickly. The same stove in a wide open floor plan might be heating 1200 sq ft. In the later case, it will take a lot longer to heat up the room, especially if the temperature change required is great (say from 60 to 75). It also depends on the type of stove. Stoves with a lot of mass are going to heat up slower. Another factor that might affect warm up times could be how windy it is outside.
 
Man, all this shouldering talk is making me want to throw one last log in the box. But I'm done for the season. The heat pump keeps us comfortable now.
Already missing those nightly fires though. It's been nearly a month now.
 
Heh - I hear you Troutchaser. I lit up this week because it really was cold enough and I'm just stubborn about burning oil for heat. However, I kept it going again last night and this morning more because I realize it probably is my last chance until fall - forecast looks to be 70's at this point on and I seriously doubt I'll get another chance to burn this spring.

So.. those last few chunks and scrap from the bottom of the barrel bit the dust this morning and I suppose I'll have to carry an armload or two of splits out of the house in the next couple weeks...
 
crank it and open some windows.
 
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