Cold outside. Thank god for wood heat

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I've got an old Big Buck and it's eating wood like an aardvark at an ant convention, but it's keeping the house toasty.

Another couple nights and we'll be sitting on the patio, sipping whiskey and the Buck will be back to it's regular diet of White Ash.
 
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7 degrees last night, wind chill -10, the QF 4100 insert will not heat the entire 1700 sq ft house, 2 levels without the help of the oil. I can possibly get most of the house to 63-64, but the back part of the house will stay in the 50's. Oil burner is off most of the time but kicks on once in a while.
 
Moisture from inside on the exterior walls is what you are talking about right? That would most likely be from warm air escaping through holes in your walls, right? Would keeping your house in the upper 60's instead of the mid-70's make a ton if difference? Over time, ok, yes, but on a rare really cold day, I have a hard time believing that a 68 degree temperature differential would behave a whole lot different than a 74 degree temperature differential with this respect (mold).

Now how do you keep your hot air from escaping through your walls... hmm... I guess you'd need to turn your house into a vacuum somehow (so cold dry air comes in instead if cold moist air forcing out through those holes in your walls). Hmm... What would work well to make a house a vacuum? I know! A good old fashioned fireplace with no outdoor air intake! :)

Toast that fire!

(The colder it is outside, the hotter I like the fire room. It makes those rare trips outside bearable, and seems to kill any cabin fever from staying inside.)

Did I get this post right?

I'm no expert so I shouldn't have posted in the first place but speaking of negative pressure in a house, when I had a energy audit done two years ago they did the blower door test and from the results of it they said that my house was too air tight and that I needed a air to air heat exchanger or a bathroom fan installed downstairs with a timer on it set to run 15 minutes on and 15 minutes off.
 
What wood
I've got an old Big Buck and it's eating wood like an aardvark at an ant convention, but it's keeping the house toasty.

Another couple nights and we'll be sitting on the patio, sipping whiskey and the Buck will be back to it's regular diet of White Ash.
do you normally use when its real cold????
 
What wood

do you normally use when its real cold????
Yes, it kept our 1000sf house at 74 to 76F, even when the outside temps were below 0F.
I had to adjust the air flow very often which was a challenge, but worth it.
Last night was a little scary. Stuffed it to the gills with oak and osage and it took off like a rocket. STT hit 830F and the door fronts were 750F.
I think the mortar in my stone is now cured.

The stove will be retired soon, but it's been a reliable, wood chompin' workhorse.
 
Well, for sure central PA does have sub-freezing temperatures a lot. Perhaps you meant below zero readings?

You bet that wood heat feels great. It is very easy to get hooked on it and I'd really hate to be without it. And we keep it around 80 all winter. A friend was complaining a couple days about the cold and said it was -7 degrees when he got up. I told him to come on over as it was 76 when we got up and was 80 right then. He called me a smart-??? ;lol


EDIT: As for the glass, we've cleaned ours once so far this year. There is a very light haze in a couple spots from some fly as but that is it.
You are correct. I meant sub-zero. Thank you : )
 
We survived the so called Polar Vortex. With school cancelled on Tuesday, the entire family was home. Even with feeding both stoves all day, temperatures in most of the house didn't reach mid 70's. This morning's indoor temps were the lowest that we've seen since we started burning wood but it didn't take long to warm up the house. No fear of frozen pipes or malfunctioning furnace. We did have ice on several windows from condensation. Our official low was -8.

8 below.jpg
 
-12 here Saturday morning. Woke up at 5am to a big bang from a pipe. Found two burst pipes in basement, each over a drafty window. Stove kept house nice and warm though. But had to spend a whack of Saturday repairing pipe and draining/refilling a boiler system I dont use. Pipes now wrapped. Hopefully I don't have that happen again.
 
I have the 2000 and I'm impressed with it. Almost went with the 2400, but decided against it, figured it'd be overkill for 1400 sq ft, even though I have an old log cabin which does not have the best draft free situation. I would like a deeper (depth) firebox for ashes though.
 
Holy cow just checked out the website and I couldn't believe how cheap the prices are!! Wish I had someplace around my stove to put some:mad::mad::mad:

$10 minimum order....You could put them anywhere, not just a stove....;). I might take one off of each side, 6 might be too much....
 
I have the 2000 and I'm impressed with it. Almost went with the 2400, but decided against it, figured it'd be overkill for 1400 sq ft, even though I have an old log cabin which does not have the best draft free situation. I would like a deeper (depth) firebox for ashes though.

You have to be lying about the Osburn. Every two years we have somebody come through and swear that an EPA stove can't keep their house warm like their old Nashua did. ;lol
 
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It's -20°F here and the house is at 80°. The lopi is running from 800-300 on a full cycle. It was 90° in here a while ago, but we started sweating and had to let the coals burn for a while.
 
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PBS News Hour said that the cold snap has ended for the most part but I still have -22F here but it looks like it'll be warm enough to change the oil on my car in a few days.image.jpg
 
You have top be lying about the Osburn. Every two years we have somebody come through and swear that an EPA stove can't keep their house warm like their old Nashua did. ;lol

Me lie.....::-). The Nashua was a heck of a stove for sure in it's day for a free standing stove, built like a tank, never used the blower.
My Osburn is an insert ( no other choice in this house) but it works great....long turn around times, glass stays clean, doesn't glow though....;em
 
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Just glad to have one member not go on and on and on for years about how the Nashua was God's gift to wood burning and how their new stove sucks.

Congrats on making the swap and knowing how to run it.
 
Just glad to have one member not go on and on and on for years about how the Nashua was God's gift to wood burning and how their new stove sucks.

Congrats on making the swap and knowing how to run it.

The Nashua was in a different house in another state. I can't get the new one to glow though....
 
;lol;lol;lol
 
It was fun reading everyones "Polar Vortex" survival stories. I have to be honest, I was outside for a while today with a high of 2 degrees and it felt like a heat wave. Only to scurry home to another low of -12.

Anyone else feel like there will be a repeat in a couple weeks? We have the rest of January and February to weather. The pick of the litter in my wood shed are getting depleted!
 
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