Load it and leave it! This is my first full year of burning with the insert, I'm more green than a live standing maple tree, I know that. But I'm catching on - lol.
I started thinking that it seems like when I'm home for the weekend (3 days), I'm loading a few splits in every 2 hours or so. But yet every night when I go to bed I load her up, shut down the damper & blower and wake to a 70 degree house 7 or 8 hours later. And a nice bed of coals to boot. This current way uses probably a half dozen more splits a day than the proposed way. Over a season that would really add up.
So why can't I do that during the weekends when I'm home all day? I dunno (shrug). I guess I just like to fidget with stuff too much. If the temp drops a half a degree I put another split or 2 on and get more heat. I guess maybe impatience is part of my problem.
So I'm doing a little experiment this weekend and see if it saves any wood. I've also toyed with the idea of turning the blower completely off. It appears initially the temp drops within the first hour or so but then holds and even climbs a bit. I know they have blowers for a reason but why run it if the house stays warm without it?
It's kind of surprising how well this house holds heat for a 35 year old log home. It's not very efficient and I've seen what's in the ceiling for insulation, R-20 at best and this thing is/was drafty. But I have made tremendous improvements in sealing it up. I think what helps it is it's a very open concept. Almost totally open up stairs so this little 1101 is just about the right size. It's 6 sided with 16' ceiling in the middle and the FP in the middle of the room. There's only 1 bathroom and 1 bedroom upstairs, the rest is all basically one room.
So hopefully after this weekend I'll be a little wiser.
I started thinking that it seems like when I'm home for the weekend (3 days), I'm loading a few splits in every 2 hours or so. But yet every night when I go to bed I load her up, shut down the damper & blower and wake to a 70 degree house 7 or 8 hours later. And a nice bed of coals to boot. This current way uses probably a half dozen more splits a day than the proposed way. Over a season that would really add up.
So why can't I do that during the weekends when I'm home all day? I dunno (shrug). I guess I just like to fidget with stuff too much. If the temp drops a half a degree I put another split or 2 on and get more heat. I guess maybe impatience is part of my problem.
So I'm doing a little experiment this weekend and see if it saves any wood. I've also toyed with the idea of turning the blower completely off. It appears initially the temp drops within the first hour or so but then holds and even climbs a bit. I know they have blowers for a reason but why run it if the house stays warm without it?
It's kind of surprising how well this house holds heat for a 35 year old log home. It's not very efficient and I've seen what's in the ceiling for insulation, R-20 at best and this thing is/was drafty. But I have made tremendous improvements in sealing it up. I think what helps it is it's a very open concept. Almost totally open up stairs so this little 1101 is just about the right size. It's 6 sided with 16' ceiling in the middle and the FP in the middle of the room. There's only 1 bathroom and 1 bedroom upstairs, the rest is all basically one room.
So hopefully after this weekend I'll be a little wiser.