Hope those in the artic deep freeze are alright and coping.

[begreen]

We've been running the stove hard too. Yesterday morning for the first time I stuffed it to the gills. The stove got hot after about 30 minutes, hit about 790 for almost an hour even with the air control fully closed. The stove took it in it's stride. No creaks, groans, glowing or smells. Actually, we've no real issues to report other than dealing with the fact that we have some pine in with the firewood. Normally it's fine for our mild climate, but it is crap for burn times. Keeping the stove at 650 the longest burns I'm getting are around 6 hrs. By then the stove top is down to 400 and needs feeding again. This is even with hardwood and fir. I am starting to wonder if the EBT is sticking. Hard to check when the stove is going. Has anyone done this?

My main concern with this cold snap is the water system. Most local systems are not very deep. If this cold spell lasts a couple weeks or longer, the ground is going to freeze deeper than a lot of water system's piping. We have one high spot where it rises to what was the old meter connection. I'm going to put some 2" foam board over that area today.

 

[Jimbob]

I am starting to wonder if the EBT is sticking. Hard to check when the stove is going. Has anyone done this?

My main concern with this cold snap is the water system. Most local systems are not very deep. If this cold spell lasts a couple weeks or longer, the ground is going to freeze deeper than a lot of water system's piping. We have one high spot where it rises to what was the old meter connection. I'm going to put some 2" foam board over that area today.

On my new Summit (replaced under warranty), I can see the EBT flap covering the round hole on the underside of the EBT unit. On the old stove, the hole was covered on the outside by a piece of sheet metal, spaced ~ 1/4" away, so I couldn't see the flap.
On the few times I've pulled the ash drawer out while the stove was going, I've only seen the EBT opened once, and when I looked again a short time later it was closed.
Is the EBT visible on the T-6?
If your head is too big to fit under there, borrow the wife's make-up mirror. ;-)

BTW, how deep are the pipes buried around there? Out here they are ~ 6-8' down so they never freeze.

 

[RocketMan]

Mighty cold here too. Currently -23f with the windchill at -42f. The house a wonderfully toasty 78 degrees! I installed the fireplace on Thursday, and my lp furnace has not been used since! I can't believe that I'm heating my 1900 square foot house with just the fireplace burning birch and aspen. It sure feels good to be inside after spending the entire day digging my 1/2 mile driveway out of the 2 to 4 foot drifts!

 

[quinn]

So who is going to be the first to have a 100 degree temp difference? I want to see a post on it.... it better be with 100% wood heat.

I am loving putting our two stoves to work with these cold temps. We are set for -28C (-18.4F) tonight. Right now it is -12F outside and inside it is 33C or 91F inside. We have hit the 100 degree difference mark. Last spring I put in a second stove (Jotul 400) to boost the 600 in the living room on really cold nights. It is working beautifully. We live in a 2700 sq. ft. house built over a hundred years ago and retrofitted with insulation and windows and we are snug as bugs (and going through mounds of wood each day). Speaking of which, time to get more wood and get the stoves stuffed for the night.

 

['bert]

Not too bad here right now, but at 7:00 am yesterday (Sunday) when i got up to add some wood to the fireplace it was -40C. Decided it was too cold to take the nine year old to his hockey game almost 3 hours away.

that temp was the actual not windchill - sure helps for keeping the beer cold :coolsmile:

 

[myzamboni]

Not too bad here right now, but at 7:00 am yesterday (Sunday) when i got up to add some wood to the fireplace it was -40C. Decided it was too cold to take the nine year old to his hockey game almost 3 hours away.

that temp was the actual not windchill - sure helps for keeping the beer cold :coolsmile:

Ah, -40C (the crossover where it is also -40F).

 

[bridgerman]

So who is going to be the first to have a 100 degree temp difference? I want to see a post on it.... it better be with 100% wood heat.

I have attached a photo of our indoor-outdoor thermometer. It shows a 94 degree difference. Not quite a 100 but close enough for mid December. All wood heat, lodgepole pine in a Waterford stove. It's cold in Montana!

Cheers,
John

 

[jadm]

After being below zero for the past couple of days, today feels like a heat wave with temps. in the mid 30's. Much more to my liking. No way could I live in a colder climate - survive maybe but not live.

 

[northernwoodsman]

The arctic deep freeze has set in hard in Northern Minnesota. This is our first year heating with wood in our 100+ year old house. The heat is great down to 0. After that, the stove has a hard time keeping up. There is no insulation in the walls. My original thought was to add more heat instead of insulation. I am now thinking insulation is just as important as our natural gas furnace has been called on quite a few times the past few days. We've also found weak spots in the house with two frozen pipes! The joys of an old house in northern MN I'll work on a 100 degree difference, shouldn't be too hard if I try!

On the bright side, the freshly cut maple splits very nicely in -20 degrees.

 

[eightpilot]

I have an 8 year old house with R-19 in the walls and R-38 in the peak. It was -15 this morning and the Oslo had the whole house at 70 degrees. Wow, am I glad we went with the Oslo rather then the Castine. I loaded it up at 11pm with some birch and maple. Then at 5am I loaded it with three more decent sized splits of maple. That took us through about 9am. I am not getting really great burn times but I attribute some of that to the fact that its -15 outside. Either way the propane has been off since last winter and I am loving every minute of it. All I am using to heat the house is the Oslo, 2 ceiling fans in the great room, and one small metal continuous duty fan right above the stove. It takes awhile for all the rooms to heat up, but when they do its alot easier to maintain then I thought it would be... 8

 

[Rockey]

Bridgerman, 2jotultom, and Rocketman - you guys are my heroes. I may never get a chance to test my two stoves capability like you just did. I'd have to get it 110 deg inside to do what you did. Wood heat rocks!

 

[bridgerman]

Bridgerman, 2jotultom, and Rocketman - you guys are my heroes. I may never get a chance to test my two stoves capability like you just did. I'd have to get it 110 deg inside to do what you did. Wood heat rocks!

It is this kind of cold that caused my pipes to burst on my hot-water baseboard heat system. With my stove keepin' the house at 70, the water never circulated through the system. The pipes close to the wall froze and burst. I knew that there had to be a way to prevent this from happening. I searched and searched and couldn't find anything. I developed the ThermGuard to circulate water through pipes, no matter what temperature the thermostat thought it was in the house. Now I can stoke a fire in the morning, turn down the thermostat to 50 and leave for the day. I know no matter how cold it gets, my pipes won't freeze.

Don't forget the 10% discount and free shipping for Hearth.com members.

Bring it on! 7 cords stacked up and thermguard watching the pipes....wooohoooo

Stay warm all!
John

 

[snowtime]

Had our first true test of the T6. -35F and its doing great. Turns out all the info I got off Hearth,com enabled me to get the right stove. Its using less wood than the old smoke dragon and it is easier to regulate. 75 inside and -35F outside guess that makes your 100 difference +. I think we will go for 120 this winter. We do not always get -50F but one can hope. If outside temp is below -30F then I drive this sucker to 800+ on each load and reload at 450F. If its between -30F and 0F I will drive it to 800 but will not reload until it drops to 250F. Above 0F I let it get to 650F or 700F and let it almost die before reloading. For those who want more heat from the T6 I got to say if you get it above 800 shes pumping and the stove likes it no complaining no strange smells etc.

 

[Alan Gage]

1st year burning and so far have been very impressed with how well both the stove and house have been doing, and how little wood I've been going through, despite a cold December so far.

Then Sunday the temp plummeted during the day from a warm 37 at 8 AM to 7 by noon with 40MPH winds. Temps just kept dropping and wind kept blowing. -9 overnight and Monday never got above zero. Monday night -12 and today we just got above zero, thankfully the wind's stopped though.

Definitely a huge difference between burning in 10 degrees and calm and 0 degrees and howling wind. Found lots of air leaks in the house and even though I shut another room that I didn't need to heat I really had to keep the stove cranking to even get the temps up to the mid-60's in the house. Never used a fan before but finally set one up by the stove to get it circulated a little more in the living room. Made a big difference in the room temps. Sure am glad I carried a bunch of wood into the porch before the weather hit. I thought I had about 2 weeks stacked in there but at this rate it might be more like 1 week.

Good news though is that I still haven't turned on the gas furnace.

Bad news is that I woke up Monday morning to find my pipes frozen all the way back to the well pump.

Alan

 

[MontanaBob]

Haven't been above zero since last Thursday here in Winston, Montana. Englander 13 doing the job. Forecast is 20 by Thursday then back to -11 for Friday. Just installed the stove 10 days ago and couldn't be happier. (90 degree difference right now)

 

[eernest4]

This is the kind of weather where people will find out just how good their wood heaters will work out. I've heard lots of bragging on how houses are 80 degrees when it's only in the 20-30's outside. Big difference in heating with wood when it's below 0 and windy. I predict many looking to upgrade to larger stoves after this arctic blast.

I think that what you are going on about, Todd, is more a factor of how well your house is insulated rather than how good your stove is.

Or , maybe , the best insulated house with a small insides & a huge & highly efficient secondary burn or catalytic combustor stove.

In reality, we got what we got , & will cope with the cold accordingly.

All I did was to take inside some extra wood & stop burning the junk wood & move to the big well seasoned logs.

Using pine to get the maple started burning.

 

[eernest4]

We've been running the stove hard too. Yesterday morning for the first time I stuffed it to the gills. The stove got hot after about 30 minutes, hit about 790 for almost an hour even with the air control fully closed. The stove took it in it's stride. No creaks, groans, glowing or smells. Actually, we've no real issues to report other than dealing with the fact that we have some pine in with the firewood. Normally it's fine for our mild climate, but it is crap for burn times. Keeping the stove at 650 the longest burns I'm getting are around 6 hrs. By then the stove top is down to 400 and needs feeding again. This is even with hardwood and fir. I am starting to wonder if the EBT is sticking. Hard to check when the stove is going. Has anyone done this?

My main concern with this cold snap is the water system. Most local systems are not very deep. If this cold spell lasts a couple weeks or longer, the ground is going to freeze deeper than a lot of water system's piping. We have one high spot where it rises to what was the old meter connection. I'm going to put some 2" foam board over that area today.

You might want to consider a water pipe electric heating tape. 7 watts per foot, 120 volt ac thermostatically controlled , on at 38 * F & off at 45 * F, straight run of tape or may be coiled around the pipe but no overlap (heating tape cant touch heating tape, because of hot spot burn out) & tape must be in contact with pipe for the entire length of the heating tape.

comes in various lengths; 6 ft 9 ft,12 ft,18 ft 20 ft 30 ft ,40 ft 60 fy 80 ft

hardware & plumbing stores usually stock up to 30 ft---- but the 40 ft 60 ft & 80 ft lengths need to be ordered in.

After heating tape is taped to the water pipe with black electrical tape, 1/2 inch fiberglass insulation (pipe wrap insulation) is wrapped over the pipe & heating tape.

I have a unheated building with a 60 ft cold water supply pipe running through the building and down to 12 deg above zero outside so far & no problems with freeze ups with the electric water pipe heat tape. the two 30 ft heating tapes pull 200 watts each for a total of 400 watts which I supply with a 40 foot long, 18 gague lamp type extension cord, as there is no elect in the building. (gas & electic shut off)

 

[eernest4]

4:20am 12/17/08
west central CT
+25 deg F, so far Ct has dodged some nasty weather bullets. The big ice storm last week
that took out power to 950,000 customers in new england was rain in Ct & we retained electric service.

two big snow storms forcast by the weatherguessing channel, and we got 1/2 inch dusting both times. I have not even used a snow shovel yet.

Was susposed to be another snow storm today (yesterday actually) 4 to 6 inch and we got 1/4 in dusting that melted by 1pm

using way more wood than last year though because this yr it is 100% wood without oil burner backup.

Still have pellet stove back up but not using it either because pellets are 6.oo /bag

 

[bokehman]

I'm just North of the 49th but it's cold and windy here.

I'm just North of 38 and it's warm and sunny here. (We just have fires for recreation.)

 

[bridgerman]

Haven't been above zero since last Thursday here in Winston, Montana. Englander 13 doing the job. Forecast is 20 by Thursday then back to -11 for Friday. Just installed the stove 10 days ago and couldn't be happier. (90 degree difference right now)

Hey Montana Bob,

You aren't too far from me. I'm in Bozeman.

Cheers,
John

 

[d.n.f.]

Running a tap at a dribble can help delay the freezing process. Delay being the key word.
The cold is finally supposed to break here today. I don't miss Alberta cold....

 

[Alan Gage]

Running a tap at a dribble can help delay the freezing process. Delay being the key word.

I left mine on a dribble Sunday night and found it dribbled no more come Monday morning. Perhaps I should have opened it all the way to a trickle.

Alan

 

[MishMouse]

We are currently under a heat wave !!

It is only -9 outside.
Back to the single digits below zero.
By, Thursday they are talking about it actually being above zero and maybe Friday we may get into the double digits above 0, 18 forcasted for a high! Looks like I will need to break out the suntan lotion and the summer gear.

 

[d.n.f.]

Running a tap at a dribble can help delay the freezing process. Delay being the key word.

I left mine on a dribble Sunday night and found it dribbled no more come Monday morning. Perhaps I should have opened it all the way to a trickle.

Alan

Yes a flow meter is necessary to differentiate.

 

[begreen]

Astounding, we broke out above freezing today. It feels practically balmy.