Burning while away

[Motor7]

burn 24/7. House is heated with nothing but wood

x2

We have a propane fireplace insert on the main floor but rarely run it, no other heat source(or A/C for that matter). We leave the house almost everyday with a fire going.....it's SOP for us. Like the Savage said, it's not just the stove that cools down...it's everything and this house is log, stove is in basement. So, the block in the basement gets cool, the logs and the main floor go cool so I have to play catch up big time if I let the stove go out for any length of time. Unless you are conserving wood(for whatever reason), burn it all the time!

 

[rwhite]

If I know I have the time to get the fire going and shut it down before I leave the house (which I try and time so I do) I burn while away all the time. I agree it does take some time to get comfortable with it. Once you get to know your stove you will have an idea of what the fire is going to do once you shut it down and you will know it's just as safe to leave the house as it is to climb in bed and go to sleep.

 

[mass_burner]

one size does not fit all. I have nests also. if we leave at 10 am and stay away, the nest goes into away mode, 58d. on the way home at 10 pm, I set the furnace to 66 via the app so we don't come home to a cold house. we we walk in the door its up to temp. so that's 45 min of furnace heating in a 12 hr period.

 

[red oak]

I heat with wood 24/7 and no longer think twice about leaving it burn during night or while I'm away. As others have said, just take time to learn your stove and the controls. I'll load mine up at night, in fact I'm getting ready to right now, and will have a good hot bed of coals in the morning. Load up again before work, and I'll have the same when I get home. If you want to heat exclusively with wood, which I do, there's not really another choice.

 

[mstoelton]

We use the insert as a supplemental heat source. Primary heat source is gas fired baseboard hot water. Just trying to reduce the gas bills.

 

[Kosmik]

I have crosswinds that act on the chimney. So I've been letting it die down before leaving it. But if your chimney is proper then you shouldn't have that problem. But I have many problems that make it unpredictable.

 

[ArsenalDon]

Who said the OP was paranoid?

Just because you are paranoid, does not mean they are not out to get you!

Seriously, once you are comfortable enough with how your stove works, how and when temps can spike, there should be no worries about leaving it alone IF you properly maintain it, cleaning it regularly.

 

[ArsenalDon]

is kind of a waste of wood to run the stove for extra 14 hours to enjoy the heat for 4-6 hrs. I have forced air heat and nest thermostat and warming up house with a furnace is not a big issue, but true for the money I spent on 100 or so gallons of oil a year I would have been able to buy extra two cords of wood and run the stove 24/7.

That is the main point...my wood costs me nothing except some gas to run the saw and some energy to CSS. I have saved thousands in fuel bills

 

[toddnic]

I run our stove 24/7. The only time I let it go out is during the shoulder season or when I'm cleaning it. If you keep you stove maintained and know how to operate it, there is no reason to let it go out during the day. It also costs a whole lot less to heat with wood than with other petroleum based fuels.

 

[logger]

I really didn't want to upset you, I was just trying to have a different view imparted to this current thread so that we can all learn from it, kind of like a discussion with one extreme to another.... By the way my wife is more paranoid then me, I see what my stove can an cannot do under normal operating circumstances....

You didn't upset me at all, I just thought that with such a serious topic, you asked a silly question. For many people, wood burning is their 24/7 heat come winter, myself included. Its important to know your stove and how it works throughout cycles before leaving it unattended. Not doing so could definately cause an overfire. I read and hear about people all the time who left the air control, damper, or stove door open too long causing an overfire. Or the person who simply put too much wood on an already very hot fire and got it up to very dangerous temps. When I was a kid, I remember my dad putting my two uncles (prob had a bit too much to drink) in our den to sleep. One of them got up in the night and loaded the stove and left the air open. I remember the old man was pissed as hell and had to buy a new stove because of the crack in ours from one of my uncle's misuse (I dont believe either one ever fessed up). I also have a buddy who went hunting for a few days and left his 19 yr old son home alone a few winters back. His son loaded the stove, must have left the air control open, and went out for the night. The father and son both got a call that their house had burned down (They've since built a beautiful log home on the property, but things were in shambles for a while). The stack got so hot that it cracked at the 90 degree elbow and sent flames up the wall. These are just a few things that can go wrong when you dont properly work your stove or understand what it will be doing while you are out.

 

[mass_burner]

we also work with what we have. my biggest insert is 1.5 cu ft. I couldn't get a proper overnight burn if I wanted one.

 

[izzyq]

We just got our stove late this fall but I also grew up with a wood stove as our only heat source in the house. We burn through the night, restart from coals in the am and then burn all day while we are away at work. By the time I get home after work some days I can start right up from coals other days it requires a little more to get it going but I love it that I come home and the house is never below 66 and I can get it back up to 73 in short time. Only time we ran our oil heat this winter is the week we were away for vacation and the temps were in the single digits.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I let my fire go out from time to time when I'm gone, but not because I'm afraid it will drink all my beer if I bank it up and leave it unattended

 

[David.Ervin]

I'm afraid it will drink all my beer if I bank it up and leave it unattended

Wait, you've kept your fire going long enough that it's old enough to legally drink?

 

[Warm_in_NH]

My girlfriend had a stove before I did. When we met I wouldn't let her leave the stove lit if we left the house with my animals in it (dog and cat, more concerned about the dog, cats are replaceable). She thought I was nuts as she had been burning for years. Being new to me and only knowing fireplaces in the past, I thought the idea was just nuts.

Fast forward two years. Her stove is going nearly 24/7 as is my new stove in my house. I load up before bed, before going out for the day, I even load it before going away for the weekend just to prolong the time before the propane kicks in.

As others said, once you're comfortable with it you'll know. Takes time, experience, etc.

I just got into a different section of my wood pile a couple weeks ago and didn't realize how crazy different it was going to burn. Different species, moisture content, etc, scared me pretty good at one point. It's these little things I think you need to see and experience first hand before you're going to really be confident leaving it unattended.

Stoves and their burn rates are affected by a lot a variables, wood, temp, air pressure, humidity, etc. Learn how your unit burns through these changes and the confidence will follow. (Sounds a little like Mr. Miyagi eh?)

 

[logger]

Fast forward two years. Her stove is going nearly 24/7 as is my new stove in my house.

Two years, eh? Might as well tie the knot and get both those stoves in the same house, lol.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

Two years, eh? Might as well tie the knot and get both those stoves in the same house, lol.

then fast forward two more years to when she gets both stoves in the divorce and you get to go out and choose a new one. Exciting times.

 

[johnpma]

New to burning but grew up as a child cutting wood with my dad and it was our sole source of heat. It was a weekly ritual to load wood for the week on Sunday into the cellar. We cut and dried wood, and we bought wood. We cleaned the chimney once a month, and did this for 30 years 24/7. The stove was a monster Shenandoah located in the basement and did an awesome job of heating the home.

Never once did we have an issue in 30 years. We burned good wood, had proper stove clearances, and kept the chimney clean. It would seem with ALL the concerns you read online that common sense would be the biggest factor in burning wood. I think the power of the web can be a great thing but also leads to some of the paranoia people experience.

An oil furnace that many have in their basement injects oil at 101.5 psi and is ignited at anywhere from 4,000-20,000 volts and burns at around 1900 degrees F. Your oil burner is vented into a chimney (without a liner in most cases) is extremely dirty to burn, and gives off co2

To me that seems a heck of a lot more scary then loading a firebox with good hardwood and enjoying the benefit of burning wood 24/7

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We use the insert as a supplemental heat source. Primary heat source is gas fired baseboard hot water. Just trying to reduce the gas bills.

Trying to reduce the gas bills is good for sure. But one more thing to think about is that if you are constantly starting new fires, the stove nor the chimney will be operating as it is capable. For sure you have to get that chimney heated up to create the proper draft and if you are doing this over and over, you could have bigger problems with the chimney. In addition, the new fire has no coal bed so it won't burn as well. Then we also find some folks who do this tend to "clean out the stove" a lot. That is, they clean out all the ashes when the stove is cold. Wrong! The stove needs some ash in the bottom but lots of folks are not aware of this.

Hope this helps. For sure some warmer weather would help all of us about now.

 

[prezes13]

Trying to reduce the gas bills is good for sure. But one more thing to think about is that if you are constantly starting new fires, the stove nor the chimney will be operating as it is capable. For sure you have to get that chimney heated up to create the proper draft and if you are doing this over and over, you could have bigger problems with the chimney. In addition, the new fire has no coal bed so it won't burn as well. Then we also find some folks who do this tend to "clean out the stove" a lot. That is, they clean out all the ashes when the stove is cold. Wrong! The stove needs some ash in the bottom but lots of folks are not aware of this.

Hope this helps. For sure some warmer weather would help all of us about now.

I agree with You 100% also have to admit I used to clean my stove spotless every time. Next year I will try to run my stove 24/7. Hopefully by then my wood will be seasoned properly and I will be able to get longer burns.