Probably a dumb question but,..how do people in warmer climates use a wood stove to heat???

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Wyld Bill

New Member
Feb 5, 2011
99
Maine
I was just thinking about this as I see people that live in Maryland & such talking about heating with wood. I mean when it gets up to 30 to 40 degrees up here in Maine I let the wood stove go out & just run the boiler baseboard heat (very little). If I ran the wood stove it would be 85 degrees & the chimney would be getting filled with creosote. Are you all jsut running tiny stoves that don't put out as much heat for the milder weather? Is a Defiant ot Vigilant a rare stove below the middle part of the US?
 
A 30-NC is the only heat in this joint. Other than oil filled radiators for backup. Yep, it is a challenge. The easiest is when it is five degrees outside with three feet of snow. The rest of the time you get really, really good at managing a wood stove.

My target all winter is 72-74 degrees in this 2,500 sq. ft. barn around the clock. Usually do it. It has gotten a little easier since I retired and am home most of the time but my wife is at home and can't feed the stove any more. But we have done it for 26 years here.

That is why I kinda chuckle at the "But it ain't cold where you live." remarks here. At zero I am loving life. Load the sucker and let it eat.
 
Watching the weather over this past winter, it seems to me the southern states were just as cold as up here for a good spell. Also, the heat would be relative- I think a 30 degree day is a heatwave- whereas down south 30 degrees probably feels like the arctic. IMHO
 
Well the last couple days it has been getting in the mid 30s during the day and ~10* at night. I am just making 1 fire at night and even still I have had to leave the window by the stove open cause it's 85* in the house.

Once it gets a bit warmer to where it's only down to the 30s at night I won't even bother heating the house. The sun and warmth from the day is plenty to keep the house warm through the night.
 
Here in central PA we get a few single digit nights, mostly in the 20's, if its in the teens at night its a on the colder side. So like right now its 30's at night and 40's during the day, I light a fire when I get home from work, heat through the night, add some wood in the morning and let it burn out till I get home from work again, now this time of year I am burning a softer maple, puts out some great heat just not for a long period of time, so I can go to bed with it 76+ degrees in the house wake up with it around 68-70, and when I get home with the mild temps the house is still around 72. I'm not a big fan of making a fire every day, but it keeps the HP off and all I have to do is look at that $100 electric bill for an all electric house and then making a fire is a bit easier.

I can't imagine how a winter is in Maine or New Hampshire! Hats off to you guys.
 
Oh hi,

I am in the Santa Cruz Mtns in the SF Bay Area, CA. We get the most inconsistent temperatures through fall, winter and spring. We can have wide variances as well as very little variance. Tomorrow, for example, is forecast for a high of 70F and a low of 45F. We get down to 30F in rare cases. A few weeks ago were in the 30s for both high and lows. The humidity can also very greatly. This year I am only using wood to heat the house. My observation so far...nearly impossible to have a consistent inside temp. Right now the house is too hot...over 70, but because it is poorly insulated, I am stoking the fire for the night burn. In morning I will start another burn and let it go out. On the days where we reach our lowest temperatures (notice I didn't say cold as I know what those living in real cold would say) the house will only get to 65 and we wear sweaters because the humidity can make it feel colder. Occasionally we use an electric room heater, no propane!

Summary:
-careful fire management depending on the weather to keep the heat at a reasonable level
-very hard to keep the house a consistent level
-heat from the fireplace is a wonderful feeling


-Glen
 
ya its really hard to keep it under 80f here. i usually dont even bother heating with wood i its above 20F
 
When I sold my VC Aspen last fall, it was going to Florida in the back of a truck. The people were up for the Fall and were heading back. They said they get nights in the 40's and occassionally 30's. Didn't think of asking them how they get the wood seasoned. Nice people though.
 
A lot of houses build in in the more temperate regions of the states are not insulated/built like the Northern homes. We build mostly colonials/new englanders which are easier to heat. We also insulate more often and to a higher degree. At 45-50 degrees just the appliances/body heat/solar will do a more than adequate job of heating my 4300sqft house. I think in the warmer climates solar gain is more of a problem than a blessing.

You don't need a reason to heat with wood. Its in your DNA.
 
Two reasons:

- as noted above, different home layouts (flat roofs, lots of windows) and less insulation in warmer areas;

- people dress differently. Folks in colder climates dress for cold weather. I'd see people outside in Houston in 20 degree weather, wearing t-shirts and shorts, running around flapping their arms, saying "cheez, it's cold out!" I wore thermal underwear in Colorado all winter long and would often walk outside without a jacket. That meant I didn't need to keep the house as warm, either.
 
When it starts to get warmer, a fast hot fire in the morning, and one in the evening to take the dampness/cool out of the air.
 
I have read that some Floridians heat with wood and it amazes me too.. My in-laws who live in central Florida once had a stove and it was a smoke dragon which would probably burn OK with a weak draft seeing how hot their flue gasses tend to get but an epa stove is another story.. On occasion they do get in the teens there and an epa woodstove would work well then but in warmer weather I would imagine it difficult to get a decent draft.. I would like to hear how the folks with a warmer climate deal with wood burning to see how they tackle the draft issue..

Ray
 
Central florida got down in the 20s several times this winter(overnight) and the 30s on a regular basis so its cold there too.
I can get good reburn performance and enough draft all the way up to 55Deg outside temp with a harman TL-300. With the primary air all the way down your only getting abouit 10000 BTUS Hour(estimate) So it dont overheat the house either. Any warmer than that outside you dont need a woodstove just a sweater.
 
Insulated liner, cat stove that can be used wist a slow burn that creates a nice draft when temps in the 40's. House is not insulated like the houses farther north. Inside temps about 73-74 when its in the 40's outside.
 
My brother in TX goes through almost as much wood as I do. His house is 3700sqft, practically uninsulated. His wife likes it hot.. He, like all of us in our family, burned wood whenever he could, and finally realized he could actually get HEAT from it with an insert... and for him, his insert is 3 years old, and paid for itself this winter. Our wood stove will take about 4 1/2 years to pay for itself. (our heat pump is cheaper to run than his)
 
Wyld Bill said:
I was just thinking about this as I see people that live in Maryland & such talking about heating with wood. I mean when it gets up to 30 to 40 degrees up here in Maine I let the wood stove go out & just run the boiler baseboard heat (very little). If I ran the wood stove it would be 85 degrees & the chimney would be getting filled with creosote. Are you all jsut running tiny stoves that don't put out as much heat for the milder weather? Is a Defiant ot Vigilant a rare stove below the middle part of the US?

You are asking about "shoulder season" burning. In essence, burn less frequently and decrease the fuel load to create a small, but still hot, fire. Don't choke the fire down by decreasing intake air. Run air through. Realize there's a difference between a hot fire and a hot stove.

Still to warm? Stop burning and don a sweater and hat.

At 40* F in NW Michigan, we dress in shorts and have the windows open.

Aye,
Marty
 
My home holds the heat very nicely, so when it's warmer outside and the inside of the house gets down into the 60's, I fire up the stove and bring the temp back up into the low 70's, then wait a day or two till the house cools down again. It's also a nice time to get rid of a lot of the junk wood that we've ignored through the winter.
 
raybonz said:
I have read that some Floridians heat with wood and it amazes me too.. My in-laws who live in central Florida once had a stove and it was a smoke dragon which would probably burn OK with a weak draft seeing how hot their flue gasses tend to get but an epa stove is another story.. On occasion they do get in the teens there and an epa woodstove would work well then but in warmer weather I would imagine it difficult to get a decent draft.. I would like to hear how the folks with a warmer climate deal with wood burning to see how they tackle the draft issue..Ray

You need to realize there is 500 miles difference north to south in Florida. Those in central Fl are still 250 miles south of me. I have pretty much sized my house to my stove by insulating and air sealing but most older homes were built to stay cool not warm. I now burn mostly when temps are under 50 but if cool and cloudy I still need to light a fire since my house is designed to limit solar gain. I have no draft issues at all....can fire off at 60 degrees if I want to (insulated liner in interior chimney). We dry our wood the same as anyone else....just quicker :coolsmile:
 
If I burned wood in the stove when it was under 50* I would be burning all but maybe a month out of the year!

I made a fire last night around 8PM, window by the stove has been open a few inches all night. Just got home and it's 82* in the house and stove is still going. 22* outside and pretty windy. Getting to a point where a fire every other day will suffice.
 
My stove is 1/16 th the size of that BlazeKing!
 
NATE379 said:
If I burned wood in the stove when it was under 50* I would be burning all but maybe a month out of the year!

That would be us in the wet side of WA. I burn 9 months of the year with the huge majority of that being shoulder season style burning. I don't care how hot it is outside, I am concerned with inside temps. When they fall into the 60s I light a fire. Burn the fire and aim to hit a peak temp of 80. Then let the house cool and repeat. Sometimes that is twice a day, sometimes just once. I burn from mid September through mid June.
 
My target temp is 72-75, anything over that is too hot for me. I have yet to hit 80 with the stove running (maxed out @ 79). I start to get chilly under 67 degrees.
 
Im in North East Texas, 125 miles East of Dallas , this winter we had snow2 times up to 8 inches and some ice, it dang near closed everything except the grocery and liquor stores, cause I could ride my 4 wheeler to those. I have abundant supply of oak, hack berry for my fire place, and (seasoned pine for my wood stove) When it gets to 45 its fire time according to my wife cause she does not cut,split , stack or move any fire wood so she will burn all she can. We may go thru 1 cord in a 4 month period if it gets REAL cold. If its below 50 I wear my insulated stuff to work, sometimes we have to break the ice so cows can drink from trough or creek, now thats cold here. when it got to 15 this January I had some beer on my back porch and it froze I had to put it in ref to warm it up. and the water in my truck windshield wiper jug froze and burst, thats a first for me. We have some natural gas wells and send some gas up North to ya'll, been getting nice checks so ya'll keep using it. c ya later, it getting up to 74 today so we may go water sking.
 
This winter in South Carolina we saw overnight lows in the teens for a lot of January.

The cold season starts later, and ends earlier, but it still gets cold.

As mentioned, we tend to build our houses to keep the heat out in the summer, more than to keep it in in the winter.

In the beginning of the season, and on warmer days, I built a lot of fires using 1" to 2" rounds -- basically sticks.

As far as the question regarding draft, I don't know if I'm lucky or what, but it hasn't been a problem. 6 feet of black pipe into maybe 10" of chimney.

I don't worry about creosote -- I just clean the chimney a few times. Seasoning wood is more difficult here. Where I live it rains about an inch a week. About the same as Seattle, except ours is pretty much equally distributed through the year. If you don't cover a pile of wood it will rot.
 
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