I mildly stacked the fire last night, closed the damper, and let the air control 1/2 open. This morning, it was still 200 degrees and had SOME coals (not really a bed).
So I put some newspaper and kindling on it, and it fired right back up very nicely. This was around 10am.
Decided to see what I could do for the whole house. Got it up to 450-500 with a full load and was a little dissapointed, so I waited till that form a lot of coals (about 1 hour) and then loaded it up again.
Bam, within 20 minutes that thing was cracking along at 725 (stove top temp, rutland magnetic thermometer).
Blower was on high, ceiling fan overhead was on high, floor fan was blowing cold air towards the stove. It was still crackling!
Let me put it this way: I got hearth gloves (http://www.amazon.com/Landmann-1527...JH2W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288459168&sr=8-1) and when I adjusted the damper on top, the gloves were smoking from brushing against the stove top (doesn't bode well for the gloves).
So I choked the air control all the way, plus damper shut, and within 15 minutes it was down to 600 degrees.
Now I know a bit more about loading the fire up all the way. Heheh. That being said, the house is about 20 degrees warmer than ambient BUT it's 51 degrees out and the thermostat reads 66 degrees in the house (that's with the whole house fan on too).
Gonna need to figure out how to do better...
So I put some newspaper and kindling on it, and it fired right back up very nicely. This was around 10am.
Decided to see what I could do for the whole house. Got it up to 450-500 with a full load and was a little dissapointed, so I waited till that form a lot of coals (about 1 hour) and then loaded it up again.
Bam, within 20 minutes that thing was cracking along at 725 (stove top temp, rutland magnetic thermometer).
Blower was on high, ceiling fan overhead was on high, floor fan was blowing cold air towards the stove. It was still crackling!
Let me put it this way: I got hearth gloves (http://www.amazon.com/Landmann-1527...JH2W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288459168&sr=8-1) and when I adjusted the damper on top, the gloves were smoking from brushing against the stove top (doesn't bode well for the gloves).
So I choked the air control all the way, plus damper shut, and within 15 minutes it was down to 600 degrees.
Now I know a bit more about loading the fire up all the way. Heheh. That being said, the house is about 20 degrees warmer than ambient BUT it's 51 degrees out and the thermostat reads 66 degrees in the house (that's with the whole house fan on too).
Gonna need to figure out how to do better...