controlling heat

[nnhkevin]

I can usually get a good fire going, bought our log cabin Oct 2014, so kind of still finding my way. How do l control the amount of heat the stove is putting out. lts a radiant heat wood stove, half the time l am driving the family out of the room cause its too hot. My wife just found this site, got a feeling will be spending alot of time here. Take care

 

[bioman]

Less wood or Less air !

 

[prezes13]

Pretty much the amount of wood you put in. Controlling the air helps a bit too.

 

[TheRambler]

What make and model are your stove. If we can findnout the specific one you have we can give you better advice.

Very generally speaking i agree, less wood or less air. Are you closing the air down all thr way after the fire is burning good? How full is the firebox?

 

[nnhkevin]

l close the draft about half when the fire takes off its a smaller fire box so maybe 2 or 3 pieces of wood

 

[Nick Mystic]

What is the size of your cabin? It sounds like it is probably on the small side. If so, you are going to have to build smaller fires to keep the heat from overcooking your family! If you get a fire going with just a few small splits you can let them get burning for awhile and monitor the cabin's temperature. If it's too cold you can add another split. Once you get the cabin too hot all you can do is open windows and let it cool back down. Eventually, you'll get a good feel for what size fire to build depending on what the outside temperature is. Good Luck.

 

[firefighterjake]

As others have said . . . the heat level is controlled by the amount of wood you put in the firebox.

But there is a bit more to it as well than simply adding more or less wood.

Burning in cycles helps . . . adding wood too early in the coaling process often leads to excessive coaling and may overheat the home.

Moving the heat . . . having a fan in an adjoining room aimed towards the woodstove may help move the heat out of the room with the stove . . . and into the other parts of the home . . . evening out the heat a bit. The room with the stove will still be hotter than other areas, but you may notice the temp difference is not as bad.

Choosing the right wood . . . if possible on days when you don't need as much heat (and you'll learn this in time) . . . you may not only put in less wood, but go with wood that does not pack in nice and tight (think crooked wood, Y-shaped pieces, etc.) or wood that has lesser BTU value (think poplar, willow, pine, etc.)

Finally, on days when it seems as though it may not be especially cold later on you may want to do a single fire and then let it go out . . . or let the coals die down a lot before reloading. This can be a challenge since a) sometimes you will want to reload to keep the fire going when you really should wait and b) sometimes you may still feel as though the house is cool and want to reload without waiting -- and only later you realize that if you had just waited the stove would have been heated up and would have radiated heat to get you through most of the day without the reload.

Not sure if any of this helps . . .

By the way, welcome to hearth.com.

 

[bsruther]

Let the fire go cold. When the rest of the house members complain, build another fire, rinse and repeat.

 

[nnhkevin]

Thanks all, going to try all suggestions. My wife already opens windows and and cracks the sliding door on the deck, lol. The kids and grandkids coming up for the holiday, already told me "don't worry, we are all bring shorts"

 

[TimfromMA]

Get a pellet and you can control it via thermostat to within a couple of defrees.

 

[begreen]

A radiant stove is nice when bringing the cabin up to temperature, but overkill in a small area once it starts to get warm. Time it so that the fire dies down about when the place is getting warm and add a lot less wood on the refill, or let the fire go out.

 

[Woody Stover]

What make and model are your stove.

Yes, and how many sq.ft. is the cabin, what is the layout? Open floor plan, or separate rooms with a hallway?

 

[smelm0]

without specifics as others have indicated, its really hard to be exact. but in a general sense, you should always get a cold stove up and running full out as conveniently and quickly as possible. open whatever controls you have for air full out and pack the box with some paper, kindling and a few pieces of good hard wood. shouldn't really take more than 20 minutes for the unit to really cook. once there you should fill up the rest of the firebox with hard wood, let it all catch before you start the process of slowing down and cooling your burn. best of the simple controls and cheap is a flue damper.letting the air in still full but restricting its flow out works well. restricting air flow into the firebox is another method to slow burning. however, both methods have to b monitored and practiced so you avoid blowback, extinguishing your fire, etc. as you might b suffocating your fire overly. practice makes perfect kind of thing.