I read how a lot ot people burn their fireplace/stove 24/7. I was just curious, do some of ya'll burn your unit even when you're not home or are those of ya'll running your unit 24/7 there at your residence all the time. May be a stupid question, i was just wondering!?
burning 24/7
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I wake up at 6AM to go the GYM, there tends to be some hot coals in the Castine...I load it up. My wife leaves at 8, she adjusts the fire accordingly...she comes home at 3:30ish to mostly small pieces of coals, but is able to add some kindling and blow to get it going. So yes, we do keep it going when we're not at home. This can be a pain in the butt since sometimes I won't leave a house for 30-60 minutes because I'm waiting for the fire to cruise at a specific temperature before leaving. One time I was running outside instead of the gym, I came home and the temps were up to 800 and the wife was still in bed and didnt notice....you gotta be careful.
BrowningBAR
Minister of Fire
Normally the stove has a fire or hot coals, ready for more wood, around the clock. We are both retired so we keep it going. This is a funny weather year with January daytime temps closer to 50 than to the normal 40. So I have had many days without a fire - let it go out in the morning and then rebuild in late afternoon. Just got back from a short 2 day trip and it's almost 53 and sunny out. So I broke down and confess that I turned on the oil furnace for about 15 minutes. I'll start the stove later this afternoon. Maybe I'd build more daytime fires if it was a steel box - but we have a soapstone and I don't need the heat it will put out - even with a small fire. On the bright side - I have more wood ready for next year when we might have a real winter. :coolsmile:
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
wtxfire said:
wtxfire, some of us have no choice! For us, we do not have a backup. I sold the furnace 30 years ago and wood is our only source of heat.
For future reference, all stupid questions still get answered. lol No, I do not think this was a stupid question at all and glad you asked.
Hurricane
Minister of Fire
Home or not it is going.
It is nice to come home to a nice warm house knowing the furnace did not come on.
It is nice to come home to a nice warm house knowing the furnace did not come on.
fire_man
Minister of Fire
wtxfire said:
We go 24/7 all the time. Its tuff cause schedules are erratic, but normally it gets loaded at 4am,8am,3pm and 8pm. The short burns at 4am and 3pm are "stretch fires" so that we can fully load it for an overnight burn and for when nobody is home during the day. I wish I could get the dog to reload it - she is always around!
Slow1
Minister of Fire
Not a bad question at all. I wondered the same before getting the stove. Now I get asked the question by my friends/family quite often.
The answer is I burn when I need heat - which is pretty much all the time during the winter. I often will stoke the fire shortly before leaving the house so that the house won't cool down while I'm away (weekends). During the week when the wife and I are both at work the sitter will feed the fire when she can. So we keep the fire going as much as possible and don't give it a second thought other than trying to time the loads the best we can so we don't come home to a cool house.
The implied reason behind the question seems to be "do you have to watch the stove to keep it safe?" and the answer really is a resounding no. I know that I can trust my stove to do it's job. It has been installed to standards that meet or exceed all code and mfgr requirements for clearances etc. I expect that each of those requirements has a buffer built in for safety so I feel quite confident that even if I were to make a mistake and leave the door open a crack or something else like that and the stove were to burn up a load in an hour it may well seriously damage the stove (an expensive and annoying event) but it is highly unlikely to cause my house to burn down.
The answer is I burn when I need heat - which is pretty much all the time during the winter. I often will stoke the fire shortly before leaving the house so that the house won't cool down while I'm away (weekends). During the week when the wife and I are both at work the sitter will feed the fire when she can. So we keep the fire going as much as possible and don't give it a second thought other than trying to time the loads the best we can so we don't come home to a cool house.
The implied reason behind the question seems to be "do you have to watch the stove to keep it safe?" and the answer really is a resounding no. I know that I can trust my stove to do it's job. It has been installed to standards that meet or exceed all code and mfgr requirements for clearances etc. I expect that each of those requirements has a buffer built in for safety so I feel quite confident that even if I were to make a mistake and leave the door open a crack or something else like that and the stove were to burn up a load in an hour it may well seriously damage the stove (an expensive and annoying event) but it is highly unlikely to cause my house to burn down.
although cliche, the only stupid question is the one not asked. We are all here for the reasons, to lower our heating bill and to not continue sending our hard earned money to countries who hate our great land. I burn my both my wood stove and pellet stove 23x7, i turn the pellet stove off one hour a day to clean it.
Todd
Minister of Fire
My stove has only been stone cold out 1 time since mid Nov to sweep chimney. You need to figure out a reload schedule that fits your schedule and heating needs. Right now I'm filling the stove about every 8 hours or 3 times per day, give or take an hour here and there. When it warms up I change that to 12 hours or two feeding per day.
RonB
Feeling the Heat
Burn it whether I am at home during day or not. I even put a nice big load in prior to leaving for a couple of days--knowing the furnace won't kick on until probably 18-24 hrs later. Curious what motivates you to ask this question. Are you tentative about leaving a fire going when you are gone?
We are both retired so we burn 24/7 even if we are not at home. I want to burn as little oil as possible only for domestic hot water. We feel the stove is safe when we are not home.
burntime
New Member
As a potenial stove buyer I would like to hear some opposing viewpoints. Does anybody not burn 24/7 and why??? This is a good question that was raised and is my primary concern about a new purchase....
SolarAndWood
Minister of Fire
Burning 24/7 is a real chore without the right stove and fuel unless you are always around the house anyway.
hareball
Member
First year going 24/7
Started the first fire in November.
If I'm going out for more than 3 hours I load it and adjust it as if it were an overnight burn. If gone just a few hours I make sure there is enough to keep it producing heat and add a split or 2 if required.
Started the first fire in November.
If I'm going out for more than 3 hours I load it and adjust it as if it were an overnight burn. If gone just a few hours I make sure there is enough to keep it producing heat and add a split or 2 if required.
Slow1
Minister of Fire
Why not burn all the time?
I couldn't burn 24/7 with my first stove as I was unable to get burns long enough to fill the gaps between when I was home and not.
Then there was the issue of shoulder season when if I had managed to keep that stove burning all the time it would have run us out of the house with too much heat. Running my current stove (with the cat) I can run it long with a low heat output during the shoulder season and thus still burn 24/7 and not overheat the place. Alternate of course is to just burn one or two fires a day and let it burn out during that time - and eventually I do that even with the slow burn, but I like not having to relight the fire from scratch as it saves time (both at the stove and in making kindling etc). As much as I like playing with fire, having to light a fire 2x a day gets old pretty fast so it is much easier to just keep the stove running all the time and just add more wood to the coals.
I couldn't burn 24/7 with my first stove as I was unable to get burns long enough to fill the gaps between when I was home and not.
Then there was the issue of shoulder season when if I had managed to keep that stove burning all the time it would have run us out of the house with too much heat. Running my current stove (with the cat) I can run it long with a low heat output during the shoulder season and thus still burn 24/7 and not overheat the place. Alternate of course is to just burn one or two fires a day and let it burn out during that time - and eventually I do that even with the slow burn, but I like not having to relight the fire from scratch as it saves time (both at the stove and in making kindling etc). As much as I like playing with fire, having to light a fire 2x a day gets old pretty fast so it is much easier to just keep the stove running all the time and just add more wood to the coals.
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Slow1 said:
+1 . . . couldn't answer this question any better.
Not a foolish question.
I burn 24/7 regardless of whether I, or my wife, are home . . . although we do have the oil boiler set to kick on if the thermostats in the house reach 60 degrees . . . which means if we're gone for an extended period of time, away on vacation or in the morning occasionally if the outside weather is sub-zero and especially windy. Due to our schedules my wife is often home during the day . . . or is switching over to working her night schedule . . . so she is often home to reload the stove . . . but even when she is not home we pretty much burn 24/7 with no issues.
As Slow1 said . . . the question unasked perhaps is whether this is safe or not . . . or if we worry. I think most folks would say they might have been a bit concerned at first . . . just like most of us are a bit anxious on that first overnight fire (you know . . . the one where you sleep on the couch and keep waking up every hour to make sure the fire hasn't burned down your house.) As Slow1 also said . . . I don't worry . . . the stove and chimney were installed safely per code (actually we opted to go above the code and manufacturer's specs), we have a well planned method of reloading/starting the fire so by keeping a regimen we avoid accidentally leaving the air control all the way open for example) and we burn well seasoned wood, check and clean the chimneys regularly and dispose of the ash in a safe manner.
Ironically enough . . . true story . . . when I go away on a vacation I worry more about my oil boiler breaking down or having a problem . . . since I must confess I was cheap and didn't have it serviced this year!
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Heatpump Hater said:
Possible arguments to not burn 24/7
-- Some folks may not feel comfortable doing so . . . which is fine
-- Lack of wood
-- Some folks may prefer to only burn when they're home when they can really use/see/feel the heat (perhaps this would be more relevant if the wood supply is low)
-- It's the shoulder season and/or the person is in an area where 24/7 burns are not necessary
If a person burns wood they should burn it in the manner they are comfortable with. If it is around the clock, only in the evenings, only during the day or just on weekends or any combination. One of the moderators here that isn't very active on the Forum anymore doesn't burn overnight because of safety concerns.
Burn when ya wanna burn and don't when you don't wanna. We have to because we don't have another heat source. But there are many times I would just dearly love to turn up a thermostat and not mess with it for a day, or a week, or the rest of my life.
Burn when ya wanna burn and don't when you don't wanna. We have to because we don't have another heat source. But there are many times I would just dearly love to turn up a thermostat and not mess with it for a day, or a week, or the rest of my life.
firefighterjake said:
I guess I inherited my mothers fear of fire so 24/7 burns might take me awhile to work up to. Lost power last week when temp was 15F. House got down to 45F in 4 hrs.... The Oslo I was looking at sure woulda felt good....
Pretty mild winters around hear so wouldnt need to burn 24/7 very often. Just during extended cold. I have no shortage of free firewood that my MS361 is dying to get its teeth into.
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