Day vs Night burning... Shoulder season

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Slow1

Minister of Fire
Nov 26, 2008
2,677
Eastern MA
Discussion in another thread got me thinking on this and I am interested in hearing comments from other folks here..

My question is this - during the time of year that you only need one fire / 24 hrs, do you light up in the morning or at night? and more interestingly, why?

Last year I would light a fire at night on the "keep the house from cooling down" theory.

This year I'm lighting a fire in the morning and letting it burn during the day simply because we like to feel the heat from the stove and enjoy looking at it.

Result is that the house is cooler at night and in the morning when we wake up and considerably warmer during the day. Overall nobody is complaining in the house - we all sleep well enough under cover and perhaps appreciate the stove heat even more when it is cooler in the house as it fires up.

So - what are your thoughts and ideas? I'm sure there are lots of different views out there...
 
I fire it up in morning, even in the winter we do not always have a fire over night, house drops to 60 degrees some times but good sleeping temp, with the new EPA stove I have no idea what I will be doing when it gets cold.
 
Slow1 said:
Discussion in another thread got me thinking on this and I am interested in hearing comments from other folks here..

My question is this - during the time of year that you only need one fire / 24 hrs, do you light up in the morning or at night? and more interestingly, why?

Last year I would light a fire at night on the "keep the house from cooling down" theory.

This year I'm lighting a fire in the morning and letting it burn during the day simply because we like to feel the heat from the stove and enjoy looking at it.

Result is that the house is cooler at night and in the morning when we wake up and considerably warmer during the day. Overall nobody is complaining in the house - we all sleep well enough under cover and perhaps appreciate the stove heat even more when it is cooler in the house as it fires up.

So - what are your thoughts and ideas? I'm sure there are lots of different views out there...

We burn in the morning and build up the heat, then start a fire at nine (at night) and load the stove again before hitting the sack. Woke up this morning and the bedroom was 71 with the temps just below freezing outside.

We have our woodstove in the basement.


zap
 
I've been lighting a fire late at night around 9-10. Then one small reload after initial startup. I have small children who always kick the covers off. This way at 2-6am when the outside temp drops the house stays warm. Myself and family stay active enough during the day that 68* house or cooler is no biggie. The house hasn't really been colder than 65* yet. That's my theshold temp. If I can start heating At 65* it's much easier to get the far rooms warmer. That's what I feel works for our house. If I wait to long, then it requires a lot more heat and wood to get the same job done.

During the prime heating season I plan the last load to go in around 11:30pm that way by 12:15am I'm in bed and can restart again from coals around 6:30am. I have odd sleep patterns from my job so an afternoon quick 45min nap is needed. Plus with 3 kids now the youngest being 2, and one more coming next month, I don't get any real sleep anyway, and won't for atleast three more years. Lol
 
currently I'm doing a fire at night after the sun goes down and it starts to cool off. I load it enough to get close to an overnight burn and its still warm come morning. At this time of the year the sun heats up the house during the day enough so that its not cold during the day. When I start buring 24-7 I'll be doing the same a CKarotka... 11:30-Midnight last load... 6AM restart. 6:30 (hopefully) cat light off...
 
We burn nights in the shoulder season. Light a fire, watch the tube or read, reload for the night and hit the hay. House is nice and warm for morning showers. Another few weeks and we will be burning 24-7 til March/April.
 
I fire mine up in the early AM every second day and run it as low as it goes after reaching 500f stove top. Keeps the house above 20c between restarts.
 
My first year heating with wood so I'm still learning. I've cold started it 3-4 times early morning to take the chill out when the outside temp was in low 40s. My 5 yo son is up early for school so I want to make sure it's not below 68 when he's up. Evening has been quite warm for us here in NC so we don't need any fire so far, except when I want to play :)
 
Mostly evening fires for me, I like to wake up to a warm house and if it's not warm enough I have some coals in the stove to get her going again. I also don't like to sleep with a lot of covers, a sheet or light blanket is better for me.
 
This is my first season with my new stove, but so far when the house is chilly we have been lighting a fire in the evening and letting it burn over night. We let it go out in the morning. Nobody is home during the day so we don't care if the house is cool all day, we really haven't had any cool days yet. We seem to enjoy the fire and heat in the evening.
 
I use to start a fire first thing in the morning but this year I've been doing it late at night and it seems to keep the house temp more stable. I've only done three real fires this year but the results were very similar with each. Example - I load the stove with three to four small splits at 10 - 10:30 pm, house temp at 72 °F. wake up at 7:30 am, house temp at 72 or 73 °F. overnight temps were in the mid 40s.
 
i do both at night when i get home from work and let it just burn out over night but on sun morns i light a early fire to warm up.
 
I haven't lit the stoves yet, but I am ready for Spring to get here. >:-(
 
I like to baby the stove up to temperature, not rush it. Mornings are way too hectic rushing off to work and school to get the stove going and enjoy it.
 
Light the fire when I get home from work at around 5PM. The house is lower 60s at that time. Then go to sleep with house temp just under 80 and then in the morning it is high 60s. I don't want to jack around getting a fire going in the morning, need to get loaded and leave for work. We like to watch the fire at night, it's like a TV. Plus I would much rather be home than leave a fire unattended.
 
We get a lot of solar gain so I reload in the evening and turn the stove down before we leave for work in the morning.
 
Lately it's been both a 5am fire and a 5pm fire, but I prefer doing the pm fire as a rule. Watching the fire before bed, perhaps after cooking dinner on it, is nice. The am fire is nice, too, but it's usually too-little/too-late as far as waking up to a cozy house goes. The overnight burn means the kitchen, dining room and bathroom are all comfy in the am, and there's no fighting over the chair closest to the stove.
 
Weather in the 50's during the day and 30's at night I'll have a small night fire and a small morning fire.(3 or 4 medium sized splits) If I over heat the joint in the morning I'm leaving for work anyway and if I over heat it at night I'm getting ready for bed which is upstairs and on the opposite side of the house from the stove.
 
Big firebox. So I guess both. Load it at night..... Load it in the am with just a few huge splits..... Let her run on low..... And the load it again at bed time. I guess that is 24/7 but not 24/7 like I burn in winter....
 
If it gets below 50 after dinner I light one up and let her go til the next morning, it wil last til about 9-10 then it warms up outside, if its a cold day, say 50's I throw some more splits in the morning and keep it going.
 
We typically light a fire when the house gets cold. More than likely, the first fires of the fall will be started in the late afternoons but sometimes in the morning. Part of that will depend upon the amount of sunshine. If it is a sunny day, then the house will usually be warm in afternoon and evening but if cloudy, it might get kind of cool.

It really does not take long in the fall when we get to the point of lighting a small fire at night and then relight (from coals) another small one in the morning. We are now to the point of having the stove going pretty much 24 hours a day.....but small fires. It will be some time yet before we burn a full load....hopefully.
 
Right now we only light at night, one medium fire because it gets chilly at night in the poconos...
 
Slow1 said:
My question is this - during the time of year that you only need one fire / 24 hrs, do you light up in the morning or at night? and more interestingly, why?

Last year I would light a fire at night on the "keep the house from cooling down" theory.

This year I'm lighting a fire in the morning and letting it burn during the day simply because we like to feel the heat from the stove and enjoy looking at it.

What happened to that all-day-long soapstone heat? ;-P
 
I have two kids under the age of two so I can often light a fire sometime in the early morning if one of them gets up. Say 3am or so. And that is perfect. I lay it all out before we go to bed then its just a matter of walking by the stove and tossing a match in. Then go deal with kids and when I am ready to go back to bed 10-15 minutes later I close the air a bit and turn on the blower.

But I have often thought about making a timer that would light it up at a certain time. like a simple 9 volt and steel wool lighter attached to a simple clock. I think it would work, but regarding my before mention of two young kids, I have no time to dink around with an experiment. It seems if I ever get time to put something like that together, I could better use my resources by taking a nap.


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