heat lost to cold stove

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Black Jaque Janaviac

Black Jaque Janaviac

Feeling the Heat
Dec 17, 2009
451
Ouisconsin
How much heat is lost warming up a stove?

My Montpelier, although, it still has live coals in the morning is no longer giving off heat by morning. I'm wondering if I might actually use less wood if I got up and stoked it once during the night. I do this in my hunting tent - just set my watch alarm to go off every 2.5 hours and load it up. The brief interruptions in sleep do not trouble me, although I don't hunt all winter. I'm thinking with the Montpelier I could get away with loading it up once in the night.

Or would this just be a waste of good sleep time?
 
Good question...I would theorize that you would go through more wood constantly stoking it + I like to sleep. So i vote stay asleep. I do get up and stoke my stove at night sometimes when it is really cold out, but generally avoid it.
 
If the house is too cold and you need the heat, add the wood. A few nights a year I'll add wood in the night or just go down and open up the draft to make sure the coals are fully burned down by morning. However, if you are maintaining a good temperature, don't waste the wood. The only time you waste (lose heat unnecessarily) is when you have your house hotter than necessary / desired.

You are not "losing" any heat to a cool stove w/ coals. When it's cooler, it just doesn't have that much radiant heat energy to share. Sure, if you let is cool, you have to warm the bricks and metal up again but the reason you have to do that is because it gave up it's heat to your home.

The most efficient way to burn is to burn in cycles. A full load allowed to do it's job will waste less unburnt gasses up your chimney compared to throwing on a log every hour or so.

pen
 
It will definitely help.. if you can make yourself get up out of that nice warm comfortable bed while your curled up in the fetal position and visions of sugar plums dance in your head. I used to do it. I wouldnt get out of of bed now if the house was on fire. I'd even fight a fireman or two if they got near me, they can have the wife just let me sleep. After I learned how to pack the stove with seasoned oak and wake up to 71 degrees , life is good.
 
Most people will probably vote for sleep, but I rarely sleep through the night as it is and have no problem getting up to throw another log or two on the fire. I'd rather wake to a warm house.
 
Only one way to find out. Measure the wood for a day like you burn now. Then do the same for a night when you get up and feed it. Personally that is why I have a stove that you could park a Buick in. I prefer sleeping under a sheet, and sleeping all night, and I do not like waking up to a cold house. It has worked down to 11 degrees so far this year and 9 degrees last year.

Fortunately so far even though I am old I don't have to get up to water the porcelain at night so why get up to load a stove.
 
BrotherBart said:
Only one way to find out. Measure the wood for a day like you burn now. Then do the same for a night when you get up and feed it. Personally that is why I have a stove that you could park a Buick in. I prefer sleeping under a sheet, and sleeping all night, and I do not like waking up to a cold house. It has worked down to 11 degrees so far this year and 9 degrees last year.

Fortunately so far even though I am old I don't have to get up to water the porcelain at night so why get up to load a stove.
Click to expand...

You need to move to a warmer climate like Vermont!
 
BrotherBart said:
Personally that is why I have a stove that you could park a Buick in.
Click to expand...

+1 to that !!!!
 
Well maybe someday I'll get a big ol' freestander in the basement. Then I can load 'er up and forget it. I sure miss that 4300 step-top in the old house.

As it is the Monte is undersized for this house and can't keep it warm through the night. Well, I'm afraid to let it get that cold. I have hot water baseboard with pipes running through the outside walls to heat the second floor. So I keep the thermostat set at 67 degrees and the boiler kicks in during the night.
 
Black Jaque Janaviac said:
Well maybe someday I'll get a big ol' freestander in the basement. Then I can load 'er up and forget it. I sure miss that 4300 step-top in the old house.

As it is the Monte is undersized for this house and can't keep it warm through the night. Well, I'm afraid to let it get that cold. I have hot water baseboard with pipes running through the outside walls to heat the second floor. So I keep the thermostat set at 67 degrees and the boiler kicks in during the night.
Click to expand...

No shame in that, I keep my boiler on as well. Better to let her sip a bit and kick on when you need it. I look at it this way, every BTU my stove puts out is one less my boiler puts out and one less BTU I am paying the oil guy for.
 
BrotherBart said:
Only one way to find out. Measure the wood for a day like you burn now. Then do the same for a night when you get up and feed it. Personally that is why I have a stove that you could park a Buick in. I prefer sleeping under a sheet, and sleeping all night, and I do not like waking up to a cold house. It has worked down to 11 degrees so far this year and 9 degrees last year.

Fortunately so far even though I am old I don't have to get up to water the porcelain at night so why get up to load a stove.
Click to expand...
BB, you are lucky. I used to wake up to my stove at about 200 degrees and not putting out much heat, but now that I am older, well, I'm up anyway, might as well put wood on the stove. And I don't care how much wood I use. I also have a job that lets me come home for lunch, so I don't have a just "warm" stove anymore. Good thing too, the getting older thing has made me cold blooded, so I like it hot! I guess that's one thing about getting older that has been a plus. :)
 
I drink a big glass of water or a beer before bed and then a 4 hours later, well I'm up. Part of routine load stove then unload. STAY HYDRATED during the winter!
 
I drink a big glass of water or a beer before bed and then a 4 hours later, well I’m up. Part of routine load stove then unload. STAY HYDRATED during the winter!
Click to expand...

I think I understand why the old timers always give the advice to drink lots of water. That way you'll be up to relieve yourself, and well, as long as you're up you might as well stoke the stove thus you stay warmer. And so do the old timers who didn't drink that much and stay cozy warm in their bunks.
 
I'm with Shari - I've been setting my phone alarm to wake up at 4am, but only to rake the coals forward and open the primary air all the way. I like to get the coals burned down before loading the stove between 6 and 7am. Cheers!
 
I typically wake up early anyways . . . so I usually stay in bed and load the stove in the morning since there are still plenty of coals and even with this latest round of cool weather the temps generally don't fall below 62 or 64 degrees . . . I like sleeping . . . a lot.

That said . . . in the past I have woke up in middle of the night to go to the bathroom and have reloaded the stove . . . it's nice to wake up to an even warmer house, but it's a pain to stay awake for 15-30 minutes or so to get the stove back up to temp and then back down the air and get it to "cruising speed." Sometimes I wake up, think about doing so . . . and then figure I would rather go back to bed and deal with it in the morning.
 
For most of you, just wait a few years and you will have no problem with getting up during the night. Mother Nature will make sure of that!

I many times will add some wood to the stove during the night. With our dry wood, 10 minutes is the maximum amount of time to get the fire going and the draft set at the right level. When I go back to bed, sleep usually comes quickly. By morning though then there is a huge bed of coals. No problem. I just add a couple odd shaped splits and we get good heat while burning down the coals.
 
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