Winter is starting with a vengeance here. Setting new records for November, 13 degrees in Seattle this am. Normal would be around 39. We lost power early Tues. morning. But fortunately I had a good fire going and we managed to stay warm in spite of the dropping temps. My wife will never question getting a big stove again. The Alderlea has been a real champ and gotten quite a workout these past few days. I've learned a lot about this stove and it continues to impress me. Power came on around 3am today, but the stove will continue doing full time duty.
The past week I have had virtually every type of fire, from moderate to full blown candle melters. As the temps dropped, I ran our first of the season, stuffed to the gills, load of fir and alder. This wood is pretty dry as it was left over from the previous season. The fire grew quite strong, with an 850 °F stack and same temp stovetop before I turned the fan on. Once the blower was on, she settled down to 600 stack, 700 stovetop. That was a little exciting and certainly burned the dust off. Then, with the cold coming on, I brought out the hardwood. That is such a different experience from softwood burning. The first thing one notices is how much more air the fire needs to get going. Normally with a load of doug fir I can just about close off the air within 15-20 minutes. But with the cherry/locust blend I need to have the air control half open for at least 30-40 minutes before I can start closing it down and even then I would need to keep it open a bit more that for softwood. Stove temps differed too and that was a surprise. The hardwood fire would often run a bit cooler than my softwood fires. I could fill the beast up with hardwood and the stovetop will usually run about 600F blower off. If this was softwood, it would be 700+F. Softwood also produces less coals, so once it's done, it's pretty much over. Not so with hardwood, which produced some tremendous bellyfuls of hot coals that would take hours to burn down. This meant less heat, which when it's 20 outside is not what you want. But with some careful management and sometimes adding a stick on top, I could keep the heat coming.
I learned to use these characteristics to my advantage. For a quick temp rise after a coal burn down period I would to a softwood fire. That would give me a strong shot of heat, living room temp about 72 and not a lot of coals, so I could refuel faster. Then I'd follow that with a hardwood fire which would go for many hours at a more steady pace. This became my routine. Softwood first thing in the morning, to push up temps, then hardwood fires for the rest of the day. I also got a lot of practice with coals management. With softwood, you just want to burn the coals down quickly, because the heat output is less than with hardwood at that point. But with hardwood, the coals build up more and linger around for hours. This is not a bad thing, especially for overnight burns, but it requires more frequent adjustments of the coal bed and air control to maximize steady heat output. I should have kept closer track of stove and flue temps, but quite frankly the stove and I were in a groove and I went more by eye than anything. Lighting was dim unless I had the generator going and I was more concerned about heating so I went more by body temp. The stove has kept the core of the house warm, 68-72, though the outer rooms are running 5 degrees cooler with these cold temps.
The little Jotul has been getting a workout too. I've managed to keep the greenhouse above freezing with it. It'll take the greenhouse from 35 to 50 in about 30 minutes. Fires are short, but I don't mind the wider range of temps in there. As soon as the sun hits the greenhouse (which is not much at this time of year) it takes care of itself. Got up to 71 in there yesterday in spite of the cold 24F outside temps.
End of post for now. Have a good turkey day all and cherish the company of the ones you love.
The past week I have had virtually every type of fire, from moderate to full blown candle melters. As the temps dropped, I ran our first of the season, stuffed to the gills, load of fir and alder. This wood is pretty dry as it was left over from the previous season. The fire grew quite strong, with an 850 °F stack and same temp stovetop before I turned the fan on. Once the blower was on, she settled down to 600 stack, 700 stovetop. That was a little exciting and certainly burned the dust off. Then, with the cold coming on, I brought out the hardwood. That is such a different experience from softwood burning. The first thing one notices is how much more air the fire needs to get going. Normally with a load of doug fir I can just about close off the air within 15-20 minutes. But with the cherry/locust blend I need to have the air control half open for at least 30-40 minutes before I can start closing it down and even then I would need to keep it open a bit more that for softwood. Stove temps differed too and that was a surprise. The hardwood fire would often run a bit cooler than my softwood fires. I could fill the beast up with hardwood and the stovetop will usually run about 600F blower off. If this was softwood, it would be 700+F. Softwood also produces less coals, so once it's done, it's pretty much over. Not so with hardwood, which produced some tremendous bellyfuls of hot coals that would take hours to burn down. This meant less heat, which when it's 20 outside is not what you want. But with some careful management and sometimes adding a stick on top, I could keep the heat coming.
I learned to use these characteristics to my advantage. For a quick temp rise after a coal burn down period I would to a softwood fire. That would give me a strong shot of heat, living room temp about 72 and not a lot of coals, so I could refuel faster. Then I'd follow that with a hardwood fire which would go for many hours at a more steady pace. This became my routine. Softwood first thing in the morning, to push up temps, then hardwood fires for the rest of the day. I also got a lot of practice with coals management. With softwood, you just want to burn the coals down quickly, because the heat output is less than with hardwood at that point. But with hardwood, the coals build up more and linger around for hours. This is not a bad thing, especially for overnight burns, but it requires more frequent adjustments of the coal bed and air control to maximize steady heat output. I should have kept closer track of stove and flue temps, but quite frankly the stove and I were in a groove and I went more by eye than anything. Lighting was dim unless I had the generator going and I was more concerned about heating so I went more by body temp. The stove has kept the core of the house warm, 68-72, though the outer rooms are running 5 degrees cooler with these cold temps.
The little Jotul has been getting a workout too. I've managed to keep the greenhouse above freezing with it. It'll take the greenhouse from 35 to 50 in about 30 minutes. Fires are short, but I don't mind the wider range of temps in there. As soon as the sun hits the greenhouse (which is not much at this time of year) it takes care of itself. Got up to 71 in there yesterday in spite of the cold 24F outside temps.
End of post for now. Have a good turkey day all and cherish the company of the ones you love.
