Help with heat question.

[Bwhunter85]

I have a quick question. I have an add-on burner. Hotblast 1557m, and it heats our 1400 Sq. ft house Awesome. It get's up near 80 degrees + and we have to open a window. My question is, when it is in single digits, the unit has a hard time staying up to 70 degrees, especially when we have a strong cold west wind. Anything I can do to make the house heat up like it does normally?

 

[huffdawg]

I have a quick question. I have an add-on burner. Hotblast 1557m, and it heats our 1400 Sq. ft house Awesome. It get's up near 80 degrees + and we have to open a window. My question is, when it is in single digits, the unit has a hard time staying up to 70 degrees, especially when we have a strong cold west wind. Anything I can do to make the house heat up like it does normally?

Make sure your door sills have seals. You can get foam seals for all your exterior wall plug ins. You can add insulation in your attic and crawl space if accessible . Spray foam your door jams.

Also low e windows . Basically try and tighten your house up , don't let the cold in and the heat out.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

From my experience, the wind is the killer. My place is 'new-ish' and well insulated - though not super-insulated - but with a prominent W exposure windy nights in single digits or below are hell!!

If your furnace gets the house to 80 °F during a typical winter day, then I say just settle for 70 on a nasty night.

 

[jebatty]

Sometimes particular wind patterns and eddies along the roof, due to trees or other buildings, etc. can disrupt normal chimney draft, but I would think this would happen with the wind also unrelated to outside temperature, because normally draft improves with colder weather.

 

[willworkforwood]

Basically Huff has already answered your question, but I'll add in what I've seen in my own place. You may need more insulation, but if you notice it particularly in the wind, it's probably more infiltration than anything else. You can get air infiltration from lots of places, some obvious but others can really be obscure. A door blower test can find a lot of problems fast, but you can also find most of them by walking all the rooms very slowly, holding a candle - mainly the outside walls, but also around any fixtures, pipes, fans - anything that goes through the ceiling or wall. The candle needs to pass by every potential problem spot - high and low. I do a review of my place every year, and usually always find something new. On Tuesday at +2 outside and a big wind, I felt a small draft coming from an outside door hinge. I've passed my hand over that spot many times before, but I guess the wind this time was just right to blow into that area. It was a minor factory assembly error, but enough to feel cold air coming in. A tiny piece of felt completely eliminated that draft. All you need is a few of these to add up. But 1 big draft can take you from 80 to 70 in a hurry too